The yacht and ourselves still on dry land
We have changed plans somewhat. Looking at the winds and ocean currents, we had decided to leave for Lord Howe Island and then swing up to Noumea rather than going from Newcastle. We rang Clive Wilson, long term expert on the island and former Harbour Master. After his description of the last few low pressure systems which blasted them, we decided to change our minds and get a bit further North out of the way of these lows (which uncharacteristically keep coming every few days). So, we are now going to Coffs Harbor and then clearing Customs/Immigration straight to Noumea. We'll head East for a couple of hundred miles and then go more North to take advantage of the current and also because the wind direction becomes more Easterly towards New Caledonia.
Well, we continue to be frustrated by the people from "Careel Bay Marina"; their business cards say "experience the difference" and we are certainly doing that- compared with our Shipwright of the past nine years- Mark Humphries. Unfortunately, Mark's landlord of 23 years died and the offspring made life so difficult that he had to stop his business. They probably want to develop the site. Same with the excellent Mona Vale Fruit Market- in business on that site for 26yrs and another fruit market was there for 14yrs before that. Landlord will not renew the lease so they are shutting down completely. If your business depends upon rented premises and cannot easily move, beware!
Anyway, it is two weeks tomorrow since the "Experience the Difference" people said that they could slip our boat and perform the simple task (which is a 1 to 2 hr job) in about two days. They finally slipped it yesterday and said the job would be done this morning. Little do they realise we can study their activities with binoculars from our house!
At 1pm I called- was told "...the guy has just arrived and is collecting your parts (which we provided) and starting now. He actually collected the parts at 2.08pm and did nothing more. I rang again at 4pm. "He is doing it right now". When I asked when it would be finished, he did not know and said he would call me Thursday morning. Ha! I'm the one who is always calling him. When I looked through the binoculars again, I saw someone do something on our boat 10 minutes later and stop after a further 10 minutes. No more work today!
The car remains packed full of "stuff" and there are piles of food in the kitchen.
VERY frustrating and it is going to restrict Will's time in New Cal.
Dave & Penny
