Baie de Pam

We are now at lat. 20 degrees 14.149' S long. 164 degrees 18.258' E anchored in a delightful anchorage which so much reminds us of NZ. We motorsailed 25 miles today mostly against a headwind and had a number of tortuous channels to negotiate. But the eyeballs along with the chartplotter did the business. All in all a most relaxing trip on a beautiful day. We are very lucky. We came into Baie de Pam about 1330 and anchored. We had noticed that our watermaker had stopped working again so once more it was a matter of taking the galley to pieces yet again to check the oil which again was low and adjust the drive belt. All of this only had a minimal effect but we are still in business making water albeit at only about 50% of normal output.
After all that palaver we went ashore to try to find the ruins of an old copper mine that was mentioned in the cruising guide. There were no obvious ruins but we did find a well organised shack which had been built on what looked like the old concrete floor. There was no-one there but there were a couple of large plastic containers about 1 metre square which made us wonder whether it was an illicit still in this remote place!! We then had a walk on a formed road up the hill and spied "Giselle" heading into the bay so we spoke to them on the handheld VHF and then walked back down. We thought we'd found a drinking coconut but it turned out to have had a small hole in it so we discarded it. WE invited David and Mary to come across to Tiare to help us drink the bottle of Coruba that had been given to us in Noumea all those weeks ago. They brought some coconut juice and we had some orange juice (out of a packet!) all of which helped the rum go down. Very upmarket snacks and nibbles - venison and a local seaweed delicacy.
Then it was an early dinner as we were all feeling very tired after the nautical exertions!! Wish we could spend longer here because it's where the Diahot River, which is the longest river in New Caledonia, disgorges into the sea and there is apparently a very scenic dinghy trip possible up the river, but that would take at least another day and we need to press on. Who said the cruising life was cruisy?!!!
Cheers once again
Jim and Gina (Jean)

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