Bad But Good News

From Barry. Lynne was attacked by 6 dogs at the residence where we were to spend the night this past Thursday in Thio. The dogs pulled her to the ground and were biting viciously. I went to her aid and tried to kick the dogs away from Lynne and was myself attacked and pulled to the ground. Fortunately, the woman at the residence got the dogs to retreat after about one minute and before life threatening injuries occurred. Lynne sustained major trauma to her left calf and both arms along with other substantial bites. Lynne's hands and fingers were only slightly injured. We were given first aid at the clinic in Thio immediately. Lynne was taken by a 1 1/2 hour ambulance ride to the hospital in Noumea while I followed in the rental car. She started receiving treatment as soon as she arrived and underwent surgery that night to clean out wounds and get sewn back together. She has not suffered major muscle or nerve damage. My injuries were superficial on the right ankle and shin. Considering the severity of the dog pack attack, we are both very fortunate that the attack did not continue for a significantly longer time, we did not get bitten on the face or neck and the damage is not substantially more severe with major disabilities the rest of our lives. Lynne will have significant permanent scars on her arms and calf.

Lynne has been well cared for by the medical system in New Caledonia, from first aid, ambulance service, prompt emergency room service, surgical care and recuperative care. The surgeon did such a good job sewing all of the pieces together that he should work on Humpty Dumpty next. Lynne had so much thread sticking out from her body initially that she looked like a porcupine. By comparison, Lurch looks like a normal person. Lynne is able to get up and walk to the toilet and use her arms and fingers. She is still leaking a little blood in a number of places. The surgeon said that Lynne might be able to leave the hospital on Wednesday, but time will tell. The nurse that handles wound care is excellent and Lynne shows no signs of significant infection. A lot of the thread that was initially sticking out of Lynne's body after surgery has now been removed. We speculate that it was being used to wick fluids out of the wounds.

We have re-booked our flight to Auckland, New Zealand for Thursday morning on the chance that Lynne would be discharged from the hospital Wednesday. Whether we spend any significant time in New Zealand, or fly to California ASAP has not been determined yet. We do know that Lynne will not be on Sunrise anytime soon, if ever again. We are also very fortunate that this incident occurred in New Caledonia near Noumea, which is very First World, and not in Vanuatu, which is definitely Third world.

While we were at the medical clinic in Thio receiving first aid, two Gendarmes arrived and said that we needed to make a report in Noumea. When I arrived at the Gendarmerie in morning and asked for directions at the recruiting office, they called an appropriate person. Soon, several men in succession arrived and spoke with me. I was asked to come back at 11:00 am when a translator would be available. I returned at that time and was questioned for 3 hours by 3 or more Gendarmes and the translator. At least two of the Gendarmes were from Thio. One was the commander of the Gendarmerie in Thio. They had come to Noumea to take our reports personally. None had the slightest resemblance to Inspector Clouseou in Peter Sellers' famous Pink Panther movies. One of the men I had spoken to earlier came out for the third time, gave me his card and said to call if I thought of anything else or needed anything. His card said that he was the Commander of the Gendarmerie for New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna. I was given the name of a person in the French-American organization in Noumea to call if we needed any help. I received a call from the US embassy in Fiji asking if we needed any assistance. I was also given the phone number of the Fijian embassy or consulate in New Caledonia to call if we needed any help. Fiji handles US diplomatic affairs in New Caledonia. Then the Gendarmes went to the hospital and spent another 1 1/2 hours taking a report from Lynne. We estimate that they have put in 40 man hours so far dealing with a serious dog bite incident.

Sunrise has arrived in Opua. The delivery crew said that they had a nice passage for the most part, with no significant problems.

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Plans

Simon sailed off this afternoon on Sunrise in weather we would have avoided. But Simon is a sailboat racer.
We have a rental car until Oct 19 when we fly to NZ. Now that all the work has been done to get Simon off, we are starting to have a vacation land touring Grande Terre, New Caledonia.

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Lunch with a Kagu

And, so, we had to move off Sunrise, rent a car and start a new land life. We spent 8 nights in a Noumea Youth Hostel which was on hill and which had a beautiful view overlooking the city of Noumea and her many bays and harbors. From there we went to Noumea's museums, cultural centers and the aquarium. Our favorite outing was to the Parc de Riviere Bleue where we had lunch with a cagou/kagu. We sat down for a picnic lunch next to a sign that said, "Sentier a Cagous" (Trail to the Kagus) when up walks a kagu. We think he was interested mostly in our chocolate cookies. Contrary to what the bird book and pamphlets say, kagus are most definitely not shy. We took lots of great photos, said our goodbyes, got back on our bikes and down the road came to a trail to the Giant Kauri tree another site known to have the kagu. We saw more kagus and the very rare Crow Honeyeater, an endemic like the kagu. From there we took a long route home seeing the Chutes de Madeline in the far south of Grande Terre seeing a lake like Lake Mead behind a dam, the source of the power to run a huge nickel processing plant between Yate and Goro. The main road was closed and we ended up on roads that made Last Chance Canyon's washed out trails look good. These "roads" had potholes the size of our little car. We took another road trip there 2 days later and visited the dam, some mining ruins, read all the points of interest signs and spent productive time birding.
3 Kagu
1 Crow Honeyeater
Many New Caledonian Crow which is renown for its use of tools, mainly holding sticks in its bill to dig insects out of tree trunks.
1 White-bellied Goshawk.
Horned Parakeet

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Plans

Simon sailed off this afternoon on Sunrise in weather we would have avoided. But Simon is a sailboat racer.
We have a rental car until Oct 19 when we fly to NZ. Now that all the work has been done to get Simon off, we are starting to have a vacation land touring Grand Terre, New Caledonia.

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Sweet Sorrow

We are coming to the end of our tropical cruise and we are having thoughts about what a great boat Sunrise is, where we have gone together, how she's been our home for 12 out of the last 24 months, a major focus of our life for the last 20 years and how beautiful she is and… boo hoo, tearing and choking up. We had a beautiful and fast sail in perfect wind the other day with Sunrise her most graceful self. We had thoughts about maybe we should re-think selling her when - FORTUNATELY - we met a small boat going the other way, beating into the strong wind, rolling and horribly pitching and laying over about 40 degrees. Then we remembered the tough passages and, well, it is probably a good thing to part ways while most of our memories are good.

New Caledonia really is beautiful with her clear multi-blue water, sparkling sandy islands and fantastic bird and sea life. The sailing is great in the flat water of the lagoon and everyone speaks English to us when we try to speak French to them.

Simon arrives on Sunday to take her to Opua, New Zealand. Oh no, here I go again.

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