Its monday 20th May, i’ve spent the last 3 days touring around Noumea. Done the normal tourist attractions, museums, gardens, walks, aquarium, beaches,etc,etc. Its difficult to get up to the higher parts of the island as the local transport seems to be very unreliable, it may get you there but theres not a very good chance of seeing the bus again to take you back !! The only way would have been to rent a car and stayed over somewhere, it seems though that you need to book your accomodation well in advance, not because anywhere is full, its just that they don’t like short notice – far too much like hard work !! Looks like we will be heading off soon to the Loyalty Islands, a fantastic looking set of three islands to the north east of New Caledonia. Stunning golden beaches, lagoons and palm trees. Have to start the process of checking out soon which sometimes is easy, sometimes difficult or sometimes plainly peculiar. When we checked in here the boat owner had to go and see the customs, immigration and a few other people, sadly there was a strike on and a big parade with loud music was happening. It was all very jolly even though they were unhappy with working conditions and the cost of living. The lady in immigration didn’t really want to be seen working during the strike and kept a low profile, fortunatley Porac offered the cleaning lady a tour of the local brewery if she was able to help, she convenietly stamped our passports and we were in !! The customs guy had already checked in one boat that day and didn’t want to do another as he was ‘so f*cking busy’, he stormed off to join the strike. If we hadn’t had a visit to the boat by 2.30 p.m. that issue was dealt with, this is quite normal according to the local yachties. Last but not least was the quarantine issue, a nice french lady came onboard and took some onions and garlic from us and then dissapeared. Most of today spent cleaning the boat, sorting out some fuel issues, bit of washing, general clean and tidy, has to be done every so often !!