Sailing Tips when Cruising in New Caledonia

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Staying Healthy while cruising

Frederique and I have been cruising for over 35 years in the South Pacific, often in very remote areas where we have to rely on each other for any medical emergency. We have become specialists in preventative medicine aboard a yacht and include a section in our guide on how to stay healthy when cruising in the south Pacific and what to do if you have a problem.

Two technical aids we consider vital to remaining in good health are fresh water and protection from insects.

Here is how we solved our freshwater and watermaker problems:

This is how we prevent malaria and other diseases carried by insects:

Treasure Map to where to buy things in Noumea

When you need to find a part, a supermarket, a tool or some hardware, someone to fix something aboard your yacht, our cruising guide has an interactive map showing you where to find just about everything you might need when you come to Noumea. Believe me this is sometimes very hard to do without our guide. For one thing the French Yellow Pages are totally incomprehensible. Try to look up something - even if you know the correct French name for it - and you will quickly become totally amazed at how difficult it is to find something. Getting directions to a store from a French person is often difficult, too - even if they speak English. One reason is that the names of the stores in French are so long that everyone abbreviates the store names. So they say, "Try ETC and if they don't have it check out ATF or GLT or maybe SOPEMA.

It's all so easy on our guide. Point to "Supermarket" and you will see exactly where they are overlaid on an aerial image of Noumea. Click on Ducos to zoom in to the rabbit warren of streets where Noumea hides all the parts and supplies you need. If you don't see a particular store that someone has told you about it is because we have found them to be untrustworthy or quick to price-gouge non-French speakers.

Keeping the yacht in shape

Painting a yacht is a major chore - stay with gell coat as long as you can. But if your gell coat disintegrates as did ours after a paultry 20 years, you will have to paint and then protect that paint so it lasts as long as possible. Here is what we do to keep the Moira looking trim

Reading delight

If you have not yet made the shift from paperback books to ebooks - wait no longer. e-books are a boon to the cruising life. We happily dumped bags and boxes of our favorite books, freeing up precious shelf and storage space and now have at least 100 TIMES as many books as we ever had aboard before. All of everything our favorite authors ever wrote, including long out of print books that are very hard to find anywhere - let alone in places like Vanuatu or New Caledonia. I am now using a Kindle and Freddy just got an android tablet - truly wonderful. Easy to read day or night, quick to find any book, not to mention the ability to download the newest books - any of them - often at very low price with my Amazon account. Here is more about ebooks.

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