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New Caledonia Passage Preparations

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It is with a heavy heart that we depart New Zealand.  We have loved visiting this beautiful country over the last four years.  The NZ government has allowed us to stay roughly 24 months but it is time for us to head west.  So we begin the passage preparations.

Passage Preparations

It has been an unusually cold autumn in NZ with temperatures dipping to the low 40’s.  Matt and I have not dared to get in the water as it is just too darn cold!

How does this relate to our passage preparations?  It is best to have a clean bottom at all times but especially when you are preparing for a passage.

We have not cleaned the bottom in almost two months due to the cold weather.  So, it was time to do a “haul and hang.”

We head 10 miles down river to Marsden Cove Marina.  They have lovely facilities to haul catamarans.  The haul out slip is also the fuel dock so we took advantage of that and filled our tanks.

The slipway staff expertly situated the travel trailer under our boat and around our scuppers.  The haul out went smoothly as they drove us to the wash bay.

The yard had two men pressure washing simultaneously.  She was cleaned up in no time!

We did not have a lot of growth, but we did have some barnacles and soft growth that easily came off. This is what grows on your bottom when you sit in a marina for 6 weeks.

Our friends on “Midnight” captured us traveling up river (thank you Michelle!)

Provisioning

We have to be careful when provisioning as there are a lot of foods that are not allowed to be brought in to New Caledonia.  Prohibited items include: all pork products, eggs, fresh produce, vegetables, grains, rice, seeds, nuts, honey, certain sea shells, wood products, feathers.  Chicken and beef have to be labeled from AU or NZ with expiry dates and original packaging.

We loaded up on staples and junk food.  We allow ourselves to eat badly during passages as sort of a “reward.”

Prepared Meals

Matt was busy preparing, cooking, and freezing loads of passage meals while I was in the states.  This allows us to just warm the meals up in the pressure cooker if the sea conditions are poor.

Each cube can easily feed 2 people.

Donations

I gather more prescription glasses and sunglasses for donations to the smaller islands.  The local New Zealand Rotary club provided 300 prescription glasses and 50 sunglasses. 

We separated the glasses by prescription and then sorted a variety of prescriptions into 8 packs.  This will allow each recipient to have a variety of prescriptions, colors, and glasses.

Paperwork

There is always a lot of paperwork to complete prior to a passage.  You have to do paperwork to clear out of the country you are currently in and a lot of paperwork to clear into the country you are headed to.

New Zealand Departure Paperwork

Each vessel has to schedule an appointment with customs to clear out of the country.  When you schedule the appointment you have to include the following documents:

  • Completed C2B Advanced Notice of Departure Form
  • C3B Advanced Certificate of Clearance
  • C4B Completed form with Customs ID and T.I.E. number
  • Boat Registration
  • Copies of bio page for each crew member
  • Photo of vessel

In addition, each vessel has to complete the online declaration form with Maritime NZ and schedule a spot on the quarantine dock at the port of departure marina.

New Caledonia Arrival Paperwork

New Caledonia is relatively easy compared to New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji. They do not require advanced notice, but you do have to let the officials and the marina know when you are coming.

We completed the following

  • Customs Arrival Clearance Form
  • Biosecurity Form
  • Health Certificates
  • Crew Letter

Of course, all the documents have to be updated if you change the port of departure, port of arrival, date of departure and arrival, and crew.

Normally, we would not have many, if any, changes. 

However, this particular trip we have tried to add (2) different crew to go on this passage.  And both crew were unable to come.  More on this to come….

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye to our New Zealand Family was so incredibly difficult!

Top Row: Matt, me and Rob (RH Precision) then Kara, Matt, me, Sharron, Gareth, and Jason

Second Row: Geoff and Sue (Whangarei Marine), me, Rob (Tavake) and Matt, and Sandra and Andreas on Pico.

Bottom Row: Kathy, me, Kara, Sandra and Matt, Sharron, and I.

Our blog posts run 6 weeks behind actual live events.  

As we waited for a weather window which never seemed to come, we did passage preparation from Mid-May to early June!

Donations for the Locals

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Many of the villages in the remote islands are in need of basic supplies like food, medical, clothing, tools, fishing gear, and school supplies.  So, we always try to stock up before heading out to these items to bring them much needed supplies and donations.

We are lucky enough to be a part of the Pacific Rally again this year.  It brings loads of benefits to us as cruisers crossing the Pacific. One of the benefits is having access to organizations who want to donate items to the remote islands but don’t have any means to get the supplies out to the locals.  So, they team up with the cruisers who collect the donations and distribute them to the islands along the way.

Glasses

The Papakura Lions Club is an amazing organization that collects glasses.  They receive between 350-500 glasses each month. Every Wednesday a group of volunteers led by Kevin sort the glasses. 

First they, sort damaged or broken glasses into large flour bags to be trashed, then they sort sunnies (sun glasses) into their own bin and lastly they sort eye glasses.  This is a photo of one of their two rooms dedicated to just glasses!

The yellow boxes are new donations, the white “Cotene” bags are discarded or broken glasses, the red and blue crates need to be sorted.  The eye glasses are first cleaned, then dried.  Next they measure the strength of the prescription and ensure that both lenses are the same strength.  Next they put them in little plastic bags and mark them with a label showing their prescription strength.  

I originally signed up to take 25 eye glasses.  After I emailed with Kevin he assured me he could give me more so I decided to take 50 eye glasses (25 for Vanuatu and 25 for Solomons).  But when I got to the facility and saw how many they had in stock, I left with a box of 350 eye glasses and 400 sunnies.

The sunglasses had to be cleaned and sorted into prescription and non-prescription and then they are all ready to go!

Clothing

The Pacific Rally received over 20 large pillow cases of clothes.  They were then distributed to the boats to distribute.  I volunteered to take 2 bags. One bag has 35 adult women’s items and one has 50 baby items.  

Medical and School Supplies

A local heard asked us to bring their donations of medical supplies and children’s books.  We had lots of extra medical supplies and some supplies that were expired so I added it to our pile of donated goods.

Fun Stuff for Kids

I purchased a lot of goodies before I accumulated the eyeglasses, sunnies, clothing, and medical supplies.  Not to worry as I am sure we will find lots of children excited to be on the receiving end.   We had lots of school supplies, goggles, and stickers, planes, jewelry, etc….  I can’t wait to hand these out!

Our blogs run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog occurred around mid-May.  In our last blog post we share how we provision for 6-months at sea.