Since our arrival in New Caledonia, we have done a bit of exploring by sail, sea kayak, snorkel and foot.
We left Noumea on Thursday 27th Sept and our first stop was to pick up a mooring at Ilot Maitre just 3 nautical miles from the harbour. We dived into the crystal clear blue tinged water to snorkel around a couple of coral reefs nearby. We found them to be the most colourful we have experienced this year, perhaps it's the cooler water temperatures here, roughly 24 degrees as against the 26 degrees of Fiji and Tonga. We also saw many turtles and some very big fish that were unafraid of us as we snorkeled about. Needless to say it was a marine reserve and they appear to know it!
The moorings laid for our use were 2 ton concrete blocks with a rope shackled to them and a buoyed loop at the surface which we pass our own line through and back to the bow cleat. There is another submerged float to keep the lower part of the rope free of coral.
We stayed overnight and kayaked first thing in the morning around the island then sailed for Ilot Ouen where we found an anchorage for the night in Baie de la Tortue. This island is a large, hilly land mass with some eroded areas but is mostly forested and scrubby all over. There are many other anchorages around the island and a few settled areas around the shores.
We awoke early the next morning to sail through a shallow narrow passage in the reefs to the south of the island with Kathy up our ratlines spotting for coral heads. A couple of small motor boats passed us with the first giving us an incredulous look and the next one actually failing to take a turn soon enough and struck a shoal then slowly made its way onward with the outboard trimmed up. Anyway we made it through and then made our way to the normal shipping route where we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the day sailing with our asymmetric spinnaker to Isle de Pines, roughly 40nm south east of the mainland. On arrival we conned our way into a very busy anchorage in Bai de Kanumera which is on the south west corner of the island.
We stayed for 3 nights and enjoyed a walk to Pic Nga which is the highest point at 260 metres on the Isle de Pines. The views were amazing with all the shades of blue represented in the surrounding shallow and deep waters of the island. The track to the top was fairly direct and traversed a low farming area then ascended via an open ridge over weathered loose rock then re entered forest and scrub on the mostly flat top which afforded many views from different lookouts. The bird life was mostly made up of many vocal small insect and honey eaters which were hard to spot but sounded delightful. The pines that give their name to the island are incredibly tall and slender with not a lot of foliage spread for their height. The next day we paddled around the southern shoreline of the island then back via a few small offshore islands. On getting back to the boat we noted a huge crowd ashore on the beaches and snorkelling in the bay and discovered the P&O cruise ship Pacific Pearl was anchored nearby. We stayed aboard avoiding the crowds and later found out we had friends from Tasmania who had briefly escaped the winter and were perhaps among the crowd.
The third day we went ashore early and walked to the bakery to buy some baguettes. We then headed back for breakfast and got under weigh for a lively sail around to the eastern side of the island to anchor in Bai de Ugo. We had to negotiate a few more coral areas on the way so we just unfurled our genoa for the passage. On arrival into the bay it had clouded over which made it difficult to see the shoals from the ratline ladder so we had a cautious look around to find a suitable anchorage and narrowly missed a coral patch by hitting full noise reverse, we then executed a tight 180 degree (3 point) turn to get out of a mine field of coral heads. We were helped and advised by a newly launched Alloy Dashew designed FPB (F.... Power Boat) that we anchored next to in a perfect sandy area. We were invited over for drinks and a tour of the vessel after we were settled in. These boats are very well appointed and built in Whangarei, New Zealand. Perhaps a small scale cruise ship complete with stabilisers! We spent several days enjoying the crystal clear waters of this bay. We kayaked around the lagoon formed by the outer reef and the scattered limestone islets topped with towering pines, at low tide we walked along a dry, sandy creek bed to a natural swimming hole on a junction with another creek. This bay was breathtakingly beautiful and was a great anchorage in the westerly winds.
When the westerly wind went back to the south east we sailed around the northern end of Iles des Pines and anchored in Bai de Gadj on the north west corner of the island. This was once again a stunning place with clear water, numerous limestone islands and fantastic snorkelling. Here we snorkeled at a reef drop off and saw numerous large beautifully coloured fish. After a few days spent in this lovely anchorage we decided to sail for Ilot Ndo, a tiny island in the southern lagoon. As we sailed slowly out of the bay in light wind with the code zero ghosting us along we were treated to an amazing display of a humpback whale breaching. As the whale crossed our path ahead of us we realised it was a mother and calf. We felt very privileged to see these magnificent creature so close. The wind strengthened once we cleared the bay and outer reef so we replaced the code zero for the genoa and had a nice sail across to Ilot Ndo.
Stay tuned for more of our adventures in New Caledonia.
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