Cruising New Caledonia in the Eighties

This is the report of the Research Vessel Moira duing it's initial voyage in New Caledonia in 1981. The Australian Report ends in the Tasman Sea and this log begins at an isolated ocean atoll in the Tasman Sea, Elizabeth Reef.

During this portion of the research expedition, the Moira sets out to define the outline for a report on evolution of life on our planet. The general theory of evolution uncovered by the past expeditions requires a linguistic model to overcome the mental barriers our civilization imposes on our levels of understanding.

To begin the voyage, just click on the green marker above to go to the next section of the report - or click on the red marker to go to the last section of the report. I appologize for the "Start Here" error on the above chart. This will take you to the Elizabeth Reef but the button is actually on Ouvea.

What follows is totally irrelevant to the report and you can safely ignore it and get on with the action.

 

A not so brief word from our sponsors

As I write this the wind is howling at 30 knots and the Moira is dancing a lively jig at the end of her anchor chain. We are snug in the Carinage at the head of the Baie de Prony in New Caledonia. You will find more about this very anchorage in the 1981 report presented here. Times have changed since I wrote "A Fold in Time". The fold is, indeed, vanishing just as I predicted thirty years ago in 1981.

A gigantic nickel processing plant was built on the eastern shore of Baie de Prony and mining has resumed in earnest there. Whole mountains are being leveled - strip mined to gather the nickel and iron rich ore to make stainless steel. The Carinage and the four rivers that enter it are still pretty much as they were back then - for which Freddy and I are grateful. But that won't last long as all of this lovely land has been leased to the mining company and will one day be a vast barren wasteland with silt-filled erosion ditches replacing our glistening waterfalls and clear streams.

Freddy and I call the Nickel processing plant "Mordor", named after the Lord of the Rings. At night it looks very much like the twin towers and we can hear the Orcs busy with their war against middle earth.

We are busy photographing a "memorial" showing the beauty of this part of our planet. I have been putting these images on 360Cities.net and Google Earth so you can see them long after the wilderness has vanished from our planet. To see our spherical Memory Bubbles of Prony just search on 360Cities.net for prony.

Freddy and I are now "professional south pacific tourism photographers" and publishers of a travel guide to New Caledonia and a tourism guide to Vanuatu. We ceated a network of websites to sell these guides to anyone who wants to visit New Caledonia and Vanuatu. These guides and the websites are perfect for anyone planning a vacation in Vanuatu or New Caledonia.