All going to plan

As soon as it was light I lowered the dinghy, took off the motor, removed the chain & anchor and raised it back again.  We had a coffee to fully wake us off then it was off to the fuel dock.  Raising our main anchor took some time as it was particularly muddy and this had to be cleaned off the chain.  All this happened in light rain – a precursor to the front coming our way.  Refueling was a little awkward and required moving the boat a little more to reach the port filler.  Once this was done we rounded the corner and slipped into our slip.

Withing 15 minutes the front hut.  The winds picked up and the rain came down.  During this I went to the marina office to fill out the paperwork.

Our friend the port seal leak returned for a visit so before relaxing the syringes came out and a lot more grease was applied.

And that was about it for the day.  The weather was miserable, as expected.  We were glad of our decision to dock for our final two days here.

We kept checking the weather forecast every 6 hours.  Last weeks extreme variability is not apparent this week and steadfastly continues to point to a Friday departure.  The only changes have been slight and generally improved our outlook.

At 2 in the afternoon I tuned the SSB into the chat between the folks who left last Sunday.  They are all in solid and rising north easterlies, a long way from their destination and no easy way to get there.  These are our friends and we certainly wish better for them but it doesn’t look good for some time.  It reinforces our belief we made the right decision not to go until tomorrow.

In the evening we went one last time to the yacht club for dinner.  The number of cruisers were certainly thinner on the ground than last week.  Many have left and others were pinned to the boats due to the weather.  We shared the table with Callisto, Paleides, Kilkea and Wonderland.  The weather, of course, was the central topic and how it affects our decision to leave.  The folks heading to Fiji will all be leaving Friday.  Those heading for New Caledonia are thinking about Saturday once the winds have clocked round a little more.

Crewman Paul arrived just before 8 and joined us.  Once we returned to the boat Paul and I stayed up chatting until nearly (real, not cruisers) midnight.

Today we provision and do a final contents check on our grab bag.  It should be generally relaxing as we really can’t do much more to ready ourselves.

I have, of course, checked the weather again this morning.  We should be able to leave anytime tomorrow.  We’ll be leaving under the cover of the passing front with northwesterly winds propelling us out of here.  Saturday may end up being light winds but then we should have a few days of great sailing.  We’re excited.