Sunday 27th Sept - Noumea, New Caledonia

After a long and very needed sleep we woke to a glorious day in sunny New Caledonia. It was to be a day of jobs! We headed over to the market and got some veggies, and then to the supermarket for some bits. Then onto the serious boat work. J went up the mast to replace the cups on the wind speed instrument (a bird had landed on it and broken it), and also to put the flag halyard back on (which fell out). It was then bimini cleaning time, J doing the stainless tubing and K cleaning the canvas on the dock. Warren from Memphis came over to help J with some jobs and so K decided to clean the brass door handles through the boat! Warren and J managed started to investigate a knocking noise which had been coming from the engine for a few weeks and had been getting worse on the trip here. We knew we had a slight bend in the prop shaft, but the noises we were getting were not consistent with that. After some probing we found a broken engine mount (there are 4 mounts which attach the engine to the boat - they basically transfer all the power of the engine to the boat and also stop the engine falling over in big seas!). Warren helped us jack the engine up and remove the mount so we're off to see if we can find a new one tomorrow - no leaving New Caledonia without one!! Warren and J also repaired the genoa track we had bent on the way from Fiji - a big heat gun and a hammer and in no time at all it was straight again and back down on the deck! All in all, a productive day with lots done, the worry over the engine noise is now resolved, but the new worry is whether we can get the new part and how much it will cost!!
A nice evening beer with Warren and Alison off Memphis (a free beer at the bar when you use the marina!) before back to Newt for tea and more sleep!