Usually these remoras seem to initially plant themselves like some bizarre figurehead on the hull of our boat’s bow.  Guess this one got used to me enough to go to town elsewhere on our hull.  Ilot Maitre, New Caledonia.

They’re creepy fish, remoras.  After all, these guys attach themselves to sharks and the other big Kahunas (like Napoleon Emperor fish) of the sea to clean parasites off of them.

But they’re especially creepy when you see unexpectedly their masked eyes peering out whilst their bodies hug our boat’s hull.

Yet, like the sharks, I’m grateful for the remoras services.  They were cleaning our hull!  At Ilot Maitre, there was a pair of them hard at work on it.  One was about two feet long, the other at least 3 feet long.  I guess when there’s no sharks around, hulls provide a decent alternative.

We put on a thick application of a honey-like hull paint in New Zealand, which has held up quite well, but apparently there were still enough nummies to keep a couple sizable remoras happy for quite a while.  I thank them for their efforts as hull cleaning generally falls into my to-do list and we especially wanted a clean hull for Australia.

Location Location
This was set for pre-posting while we were in Noumea (S22.16.830 E166.25.888), November 3, 2016, and about our time in Ilot Maitre (S22.20.002 E166.24.385), October 31 – November 2, 2016.
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Cruising By the Numbers

• November 2016 we’ll be sailing from New Caledonia to Australia, 760 miles
• Our September 2016 sail from Vanuatu to New Caledonia was 305 miles.
• Our August 2016 sail from Fiji to Vanuatu was 525 miles.
• We cruised just under 440 miles in Fiji, between late May and early August.  
• Our May 2016 sail from New Zealand to Fiji was 1090 miles.
• December 2015 – May 2016 if we weren’t cruising New Zealand or hunkering, we were making massive road trips from New Zealand’s tip to its tail.
• From December 2014 – November 2015 we sailed from Northern Florida’s Atlantic side to New Zealand, over 10,000 miles, with more than a few stops in between.
• December 2013 – May 2014 we sailed 1792  miles from Jacksonville Florida to the Bahamas. and back.
• March 2012 we bought Journey in St. Lucia.  September 2012 we moved aboard, did some boat work, then sailed her to Jacksonville Florida by June 2013, 3762 miles.

Up Next

We plan to catch a safe sailing weather window – likely Friday, November 4th to Australia, about a 1 1/2- 2-week ~760 mile passage.    There will be some pre-posted catch up posts on New Cal while we’re underway.  Once in Oz, we’ll check in at Bundaberg, then travel South down the East Coast to Pittwater, near Sydney where we’ll park Journey.  We’ll travel over land there for a bit and figure out where to go back to work somewhere in the world.  Job tips are appreciated!