Patience is a Virtue - Waiting in Noumea

Patience is a Virtue if you are not the one waiting!! We are parked in Noumea, New Caledonia, trying to cope with not speaking or understanding French in a very French speaking country. Luckily many do speak at least a little English and pointing and smiling gets you through most other things, although sometimes you are just stumped and don't get very far. Speaking of getting very far, our little tootsies are worn out from walking and walking and walking. Not having a car you get to do that when you are parked in a sizeable town/city.

Noumea is like a mini-version of a European city, but with a Pacific flavor. Of course, there are many natives (the Kanak people) around but they have been beat up and squashed so many times over the last hundred and fifty years by the French they are understandably not terribly friendly to white people. That is a generalization of course, but true nonetheless. Having come from Vanuatu and Fiji with their friendly outgoing people, it is a stark contrast here. It is friendlier than in French Polynesia here though and the anglo speaking people like us are tolerated and welcomed mostly. There are some distinct advantages to the French side of things here though. The daily baguette is going to be hard to leave, as is the town market with all its fresh vegetables and fruit just a block away is great. The strong smell of sewage in the harbor takes some getting used to (we haven't yet) but it doesn't smell all the time, just sometimes.

The town has some fantastic museums, even one dedicated to the main French antagonist, Tjibaou, who was assassinated by the French, or French supporters, in 1989. He was a peaceful person, an ex-priest, who dedicated his live to improving the status and well-being of the Kanak people vis-a-vis the French. In 1984 he survived a previous assassination attempt that killed 10 people, including two of his brothers. The parties who did this, white French men, were tried and found not-guilty in a rigged trial in 1986 or so. But they did name and dedicate the new Tjibaou Cultural Center after him, and it is a wonderful blend of history and art museum set at an idyllic site on a beautiful ocean bay outside the city center. Noumea is built and spread out on numerous bays, islands and peninsulas. Much of the land has been reclaimed from the ocean, including that next to our marina, which is nice and clean and well-run, if too expensive.

One of the reasons the French have wanted to keep hold of Caledonia is the large reserves of minerals in the land here, especially nickel. One of the world's richest nickel mines is here and it has brought much money and development here. Another reason is the pure beauty of the big island (Grande Terre) and the surrounding other islands, including the famous Ile de Pines and the Loyalty chain just north and east of the big island. There are many different clans (tribes or tribu) of natives here with many different languages and they never developed a unifying language like the ni-Vanuatu have with Bislama. French is therefore the common lingua franca so to speak. The town is buzzing with cars, trucks, motorcycles, buses, etc. all the time, with a mix of third-world and world-class stores. The grocery stores are big and clean with excellent deli sections well-stocked with the finest cheeses and French wines. There are some very tony clothing stores and the women around town, even the Kanaks, dress nicer here and wear perfume and makeup more than any place we have been since the US or the nicer cities in Mexico. However, like the French in France, there is too many people smoking with only lip-service paid to non-smoking areas. It is truly very smoky here.

We do have Wifi at the dock here so that is my (expensive) entertainment here. It is $10/hour, or $30/8 hrs, or $70/month-unlimited. After buying two 8 hour cards having stayed longer than we thought, I bought the month card this morning so we can download weather files to our heart's content. Speaking of weather we also finally broke down and hired Commander's Weather which is a US company that many yachts use out here for weather forecasts and routing advice. We actually wanted to leave today after looking at the weather files, but they recommended not, but cannot give when the next time will be. They will update it on the 11th or 12th when the next High pressure system has come off of Australia and will (may be) give us the winds we need from the right direction without monster seas. If we had left today we would have been bashed by a monster High system building and moving off the southern Tasman Sea on the 8th and 9th. Other boats are patiently waiting here with us so there will be a mad exodus when it is time. And we will be ready.

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