Welcome to issue two of my newsletter, where I share updates on our travels and my books. If you missed the first issue, you can find it here.
Without further ado, here we go:
WHERE IS WALDO?
I’m writing this morning from Îlot Maître, a small motu off New Caledonia’s main island. It’s just before six in the morning. Loud music is coming from the beach, likely from a wedding that started last night and is still going strong. The French really know how to party.
A week ago, we sailed 3 days from Vanuatu to New Caledonia. This is our last stop of the “season” before heading to Australia to hide from cyclones for the next seven months. I say “season” because, when sailing around the world, your itinerary is restricted by the annual hurricane and cyclone patterns. In the Southern Hemisphere tropics, cyclones form from early December until early May. So the cruising season, when you can make progress toward a circumnavigation instead of hiding in a hurricane hole, runs from May to November. This means our season is about to end!
This year, we picked Sydney, Australia, as our subtropical hurricane hole, which, of course, is no hole at all.
And that’s why we are in New Caledonia, a French territory a few hundred miles east of Australia’s east coast. This place has surprised us in many ways. First, it is gorgeous. It is a typical South Pacific volcanic island, surrounded by a reef that creates a spectacular turquoise-water lagoon. It is also very French. Noumea feels like a tropical version of the French Riviera, full of cafes, bakeries, and superyachts. In fact, we recently met a young French couple who have been hitchhiking around the world on sailboats. They said that, of all the French islands they’ve visited in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, this was the first time that an island had felt truly like France. That may sound like a compliment, but the story has a darker side. If you’re interested in learning more, Google “Kanak Disenfranchisement in New Caledonia” and read the UN Special Report on the Rights of Indigenous People.
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