USA
Copyright© 2016 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 39
New Caledonia is a long lean island chain bordering the Coral Sea. A French Protectorate, Noumea, New Caledonia is 1150 miles from Auckland ... as the crow flies. Tacking is not crow flying ... best guestimate?... 1850 miles of back and forth of our base line of 344 degrees true. New Caledonia is your basic atoll writ large ... really large. From Ile Nëkanmué on the southeast to Ile Pott on the northwest and beyond the atoll covers NINE thousand square miles. 9,266 actually. Biggest atoll on the globe. Extensive reefs, many wrecks ... and there's this island, Grand Terre, in the middle.
Grande Terre trends northwest-to-southeast; its area is 16,321 square miles. The island is 220 miles in length and 30–40 mi wide in most places. A mountain range runs the length of the island, with five peaks over 4,900 feet. The highest point is Mont Panie at 5,341 ft elevation.
We sailed between South West and Three Kings islands and headed for Norfolk Island.
Interesting place, is Norfolk Island. Settled, abandoned, settled, abandoned, penal colony, abandoned, taken over by Pitcairn Islanders, resettled by Australians, assigned to New Zealand, taken back by Australia ... oh yeah ... interesting place.
Tahitian women and British sailors spawned some of the most beautiful women and handsome men in the world.
We replenished our vegetables and meat at Kingston Wharf ... and explored. Some day, this will make a great place for tourists. Spectacular views, interesting and historic ruins, abandoned machinery, evidence of prehistoric occupation. For sure!
We were assigned a buoy and had to use the one of the ships boats for most of our stay, but there was one nice day, calm and flat, that we motored in and tied off. Pallets of fresh produce, and half sides of local cattle for the freezer. We had a picnic and a roast pig on the beach at Emily Bay. We invited the island and most of them came. The imports wore white lace and fancy hats ... the Pitcairners wore what they wore
Everybody went swimming in Emily Bay ... all of us and all of those spectacular women. This is where the tiny loincloth and toplessness struck.
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