June 10

Well, cyclone "Gina" did not end up affecting us. The hurricane which never was I call it. Though in fact it was, it just wasn't near us while it was. Since we arrived here at Baie de Careenage we have been checking weather reports every few hours through a variety of means and as of last night the storm was downgraded to a Tropical Depression and then to a simple Gale and is reported stationary about 350nm NW of Noumea, the capital and about 170nm NW of the Northern tip of New Caledonia. So it never came anywhere near us it turns out, but we are glad that we took the precautions of coming here but we are not sad that we will never find out how good a hurricane hole this really is.

Now we are talking again about changing our plans. The big thing is that its too cold here. We need to get further North and find warmer weather soon. We are wearing sweats almost every day and I for one am still freezing. The average temperatures must be in the low 70s with much lower temps at night.

Tomorrow we will go back to Noumea and hang out for a few days there. We still haven't seen any of the sights such as the museums and the cultural center which is supposed to be very interesting. After that we will clear out with customs and head for Vanuatu with only a brief stop in the Loyalty Islands (Mare) instead of the deep exploration we had planned of those islands.