Updates to New Caledonia -

After a glorious four months in Vanuatu, we took the tiny leap to New Caledonia. They are French here, in fact very French. They even speak in this funny language, and spell words with letters you don't even pronounce!

It was a good crossing, with wind in the low 20's to the mid 30's. We now have our main at a permanent triple reef, and run the Jenny at 100%. By sailing like this we do go a little slower, but there is no need to reef, even in the squalls. And the best part is the mainsail does not jump off its track! (We are going to need to get that fixed one of these days).

We did catch a big yellow fin tuna, and the children played for hours bouncing/jumping when the waves would lift the bows out of the water, then crash landing as the boat falls from under them. This was followed by squeals of laughter, and discussions about who did the highest jump, and the craziest falls. And for the really big waves there would be re-enactments of how they flew through the air.

The motorcycle got launched quickly, and after a couple of hours of buzzing around town, had a pretty good feel for the land.
This is a beautiful country, and the whales are here, so we will probably be heading out for a month or so once we find Cassidy!

Courage

New Caledonia

We made it to New Caledonia. Upwind, but we moved along nicely and arrived this morning. All checked in and tied up to an end tie at the visitor's dock. 2 sets of kid boats down the dock, so we've been playing all day. Just still getting used to the fact that it appears that everyone here gets up in the morning, gets dressed, and combs their hair. Whole new standard than we've become accustomed to.

Birthday Celebration

Two princesses to celebrate 

Innocence's upcoming birthday.

Malekula

A local girl decided to do my hair while I was sitting working on John Eddy's toe.  I got many braids!  We saw a traditional dance and took pictures with them.  These were our first nambas to see.   

-Shannon

Epi Water Tanks

Water tank delivery in Brisbane on the island of Epi

Shopping and Errands

This is Innocence at the fruit/veggie market getting ready to go out to the islands and Vitality going to do errands with Courage on the motorcycle.

Shannon 

Good Times on Epi Island -

So on Aug. 10th we had a wonderful time visiting with the various people. Then in the evening Nina our good friend made us a wonderful 6 course meal! It was a terrific feast!

Walking through the Gardens of Epi Island

Fun Times on Epi

What an Adventure! -

We are having a super great time here. We found a wonderful village that is so remote many of the people haven't ever seen a white child. The houses are mostly traditional with bamboo walls, and thatch roofs. There are puppies, and baby chickens everywhere!  Both Vitality and Innocence have set up home with a litter of six puppies.  Fortunately the dogs are eaten here, so they are well fed, and there are not many. The cats taste so good though that we were only able to find 2 of them.

This is a very special part of the island.  You can really only come here when the wind blows from the wrong direction, so very few people come here. The village where we are now migrated here on August 8th 1960 when the nearby volcanic island that they were living on started erupting!  And it is still erupting to this day.  Tomorrow they have a festival celebrating/remembering when they came here! 

Great times!

Courage

Playing on the bridge -

Or maybe walking the plank -

Independence Celebration -

So yesterday was Vanuatu's 30th year of Independence!  Everyone gathered at the large park. There were about 5 groups of troops, one was a marching band, one had guns, one had white pants, and the other looked like suits!

It was a windy day, with occasional showers. There was this huge red arrow staked out on the ground where the French were going to parachute in. Finally the plane flew overhead and four jumpers jumped and started parachuting down. All went well for the first 3 parachutes but the forth managed to land in the crowd.

Later in the evening they had fire dancing, which was one of the best fire dancer shows that I have seen. In one part of the fire dance they take some jelled gasoline soaked into a rag that they spin as fast as they can. As it spins faster little globs of napalm shoot off it in a beautiful arc! And to make it even more spectacular they let it hit the ground as it is spinning, making even a greater arc.

The only issue that I saw was that one of the dancers hair caught on fire for a short while from some flying gasoline! He got it out quickly and continued as if that was quite normal.

Courage