We have left New Caledonia and this will be our last ocean voyage before we return to Scotland. The circumnavigation of New Caledonia was fun. It was a total of 774 boat miles with the last 400ish to windward. The flat seas of the lagoon made the sailing very like coastal sailing in the UK. The wind drops most nights to nothing which made the anchorages very pleasant. To be recommended especially if you enjoy French customs and language. We are loking forward to going back some day. It will be especially good to see our friends Olivia and Olivier from Lifou.

We upped anchor from the Iles des Pins yesterday afternoon just after lunch and have been sailing to windward up to an hour ago when a rain cloud killed the wind. Wind seems to be returning slowly. The weather forecast is for light winds mostly on the nose. Giselle goes well to windward and we took on a good bit a fuel so that we can motor a lot of the way if needed.

The tropics are behind us now but the sea temperature hasn’t dropped yet from its 24°C so it promises to be a hot day. Position: 23°58’S 167°23’E [-23.969,167.378] at 06:00 GMT+12 , GMT 18:00 30th October 805 miles to Whangarei, New Zealand. ETA at 5 knots: 01:19 Mon 7th November GMT+12 Time Wind: SE 10 knots Sea: Lumpy with several swells of 2.5m Sky: 20% cloud cover