Category: Uncategorized

August 24, 2016 in New Caledonia

If you ever see us out on the water, doing donuts, there are at least two possible reasons:

1. We started our sundowner at sunrise, or
2. We’re calibrating our compass. This was the case today.

Why?

OK, good question. I think it’s necessary because of the change in magnetic deviation as you change latitudes. There’s quite a difference between New Zealand (about 20° declination) and New Caledonia (about 12.5° declination).

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Yea, but what difference does that make?

For us, the most obvious difference is in how the radar images align with the chart. Notice on the before and after animation how much the alignment changes.

I used to think this was just some kind of drifting alignment issue with the chartplotter or radar. I’d change the settings in the radar setup to adjust for this. The nice folks at Navico explained that it was probably due to magnetic variation as we traveled north and south each season.

Now, after each leap up or down the globe, we do a donut to calibrate the electronic fluxgate compass.

August 25, 2016

We have a beautiful little bay all to ourselves. Here are some scenes from last night and this morning

Click for larger images.

 

August 23, 2016

We pulled into an absolutely beautiful little bay on the north side of Ile Owen. Cyndi made the comment that any designer or decorator should travel – the color palette in this bay was stunning. She’s right. Here it is (taken entirely from the photos below – shot in the course of about a minute from our cockpit).

August 19, 2016

Ah, baguettes, croissants, French cheese, lovely coffee, incredible food (including some world class cheeseburgers), and an amazing seafood market. Vive la France (and French territories)!

At the moment I’m working on posts about the Marlborough Sounds, but Rich will have a few current posts in New Cal. -Cyndi

August 18, 2016

We’ve been in Noumea, New Caledonia, for a few days now. It’s one of those places that really makes me appreciate our external WiFi antenna.

Instead of searching for a place to perilously perch our precious PC, like this poor guy and so many others… (They do this to be near the WiFi signal.)We sit in comfort, in our cabin, surf the net, send emails and research our next stop (New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands).

These WiFi antennas (antennae?) are pretty common. We got ours, along with a small 12 VDC WiFi router that it plugs in to, from a great company called Island Time PC in Florida. I say “great company, not just because of the quality products they sell, but their exceptional level of support as well.

We made a little mount that lets us attach the antenna to our topping lift. We only install it when we’re in port or near a WiFi hotspot. It takes only minutes to put up and otherwise, stays out of the elements.

The truth is that we use this antenna less and less. In most places cellular is our go-to internet access method, but that said, I wouldn’t be without it. The cellular data is pretty expensive here, and once you pass 50MB per day, it is very slow (throttled). The WiFi here can also be very slow when there are a lot of people using it, but at least it’s free. -Rich