It is now time for us to wrap up another sailing season in the islands. We have been to 3 island nations and each one as different as night and day. It was a great summer for us and so now back to New Zealand. I thought I would write this time about our clearing out and start of the journey back to our home for the winter.
It is Friday the 23rd and the day before we head out. I start the day by going to an informal captains meeting to discuss weather and routing to New Zealand. This is a time when everyone only thinks about the weather and if it is a good time to make the crossing. From Nuomea to NZ it is about 900 miles of Open Ocean. The weather systems start down off the east coast of Australia and move eastward through the Tasman Sea to NZ. They seem to appear about every 4-5 days. It is prudent to miss these systems because the weather in them can be quite nasty. Whoever I run into today will want to know what I think of the weather and when I am leaving. You don't take the weather lightly but once you leave port it is anyone's guess as what it will be. If you are very lucky the weather will be as predicted for the first 3 days and then anything could happen.
The weather briefing didn't change my mind Destiny would leave early the next day. The next order of business is clearing out of New Caledonia. This is about the same in every country and is a labor in patience. I start out by walking about 2 miles to the customs office. I hand in a couple of forms to the customs officer and they are checked and rechecked then photo copied. What they do with all this paper is a mystery. The customs official then fills out another form for me to take to the immigration officer which is in the next building down the block. I am lucky because in this port the offices are close by each other. It is not uncommon for these offices to be on opposite ends of the town. I get to immigration and hand in the forms from customs and give him our passports. He makes copies to keep for his files and fills out more paper for me to take to the Port Captain, my next stop. The Port Captain is about a half mile walk and on a hill overlooking the harbor. Very logical place for this office most countries we visit are not that strategic with their Port Captain. He usually occupies an office that is nowhere near the port or the water. OK, the port Captain takes the paper work from the first 2 offices and then fills out another form which is the most important form because it allows me to enter New Zealand and it says that I have officially checked out of New Caledonia. Without that piece of paper Destiny would have to wander the ocean never to put into a port. I am sure you get the picture, and I am now done and this only took about 2 hrs.
I walk back to the Marina and pick up some last minute groceries and then go to the boat. Barbara sometimes goes through the checking out process with me but she was on the boat getting things stowed. We spend the rest of the day cleaning and securing things on the boat. We pretty much have this down to an art form. Barbara works below deck and I get things put away topside. While we go about the job of readying the boat to leave some of our sailing friends stop by to ask us about the weather and are we leaving and how we are going to go , etc,. It is really all anyone can talk about. It is as if this were their first passage. I personally don't have a lot of patience for the same questions over and over so I will hide out on the boat for a while.
At 5 we head in to happy hour to sit at a big table with our sailing friends and, you guessed it, talk about what the weather is going to do and what will our track be. It goes on and on. Last year before the passage to New Zealand we had meetings every day about the weather. Not as bad this year but still pretty tiring. We don't last long at happy hour, we wish everyone safe journey and head to the boat for dinner a movie and a good night's rest. Destiny stand
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