Day 3,147 - New Caledonia (22° 27S 166° 46E) 9:36hrs - January 11th 2016 Lucky

Cyclone Ula, which upgraded yesterday to a category 4 with sustained winds of over 210km/h, formed south of Samoa and over the last week has churned a mountainous wake of foaming seas as she weaved and meandered her way across the Pacific, narrowly dodging Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu. Forecasters predicted she had her sights set on New Caledonia and weather models showed her barreling directly into Noumea later today. But luckily, for us, Ula has decided to change heading, and as we type this entry she is slowly swinging south-by-southwest and harmlessly out to sea.

Most of Noumea's fleet of pleasure boats reluctantly returned to their respective home ports this week, cutting summer holiday's short in order to prepare for the country's first named storm of the season. Cruise ships have been absent from the main port for a few days, and our marina, Port Moselle, has hoisted the orange flag indicating that a cyclone alert is in effect and for all mariners to "...double the dock lines, remove covers, biminis, awnings, in fact any object potentially capable of becoming projectiles."

As Dream Time is basically cyclone-prepared, we spent our week playing tourists instead of fretting over the weather. We visited cultural museums, drove around the very southern tip of Grande Terre, over mountain ridges and across dusty red plains, through lush jungle valleys and around a coastline that's ravished by both sea and sun, and during our visit, a wild brush fire sweeping out of control towards the small village of Yate, where concerned locals sat mesmerized outside their properties as if willing the winds not to change direction.

We joined a group of Australians on La Petit Train, the city's definitive tourist experience and for two hours trundled around the capital at twenty miles an hour waving at absolutely everyone we passed like a group of visiting simpleton dignitaries. It was fun, and almost everyone waved back.

We've spent a few days on boat projects, too, installing a new touchscreen chartplotter, a12-volt charger at our instrument panel so friends no longer have to straddle electrical wires in our cockpit during cocktail hour. And I've also fixed the air conditioner, which we haven't used since our sweaty jungle stay in Guatemala back in 2008 (Catherine loves the result of this project the most). So with our cabin maintained at a very refreshing 80 degrees, while the mercury creeps closer to 95 outside, the marina dripping in 90% humidity, and with tropical cyclone Ula now heading south, we're feeling pretty lucky today.

Life's looking pretty good. Thanks Maui Jim! Click the sunnies we wear above & access these cool styles on MauiJim.com