Blogs

As many of you will know, we do not have a TV on board and have not bothered watching TV for the past two years, but big rugby games, well, they are tempting to watch. Especially the France vs NZ game in the RWC with all the history between these two sides. So, the other day, here in the Isle of Pines, we had a chat to the local resorts to see if one of them might be screening the game. It is a French territory after all...We were met with blank looks. Oh no! So on Friday morning, we walked the 7km to the Post Office in Vao, a 14km round trip, to buy a top up for our internet connection. It was a nice day for a walk and we enjoyed the morning, stopping for a picnic of iced coffee and freshly baked baguette for morning tea. Heather had a look at options for online streaming of the game during the afternoon, but there are technical difficulties with being in New Caledonia due to who has the rights to screen which games in what territory in a language that you understand. For a while it looked impossible! But that was only due to technical ignorance :-) Yesterday was a little cloudy with a few showers, so it was a good day to explore the wonders of the IT world (not) and tear ones hair out a little more trying to figure it all out. A learning curve to say the least! I am pleased to report that it all worked this morning and we were able to watch the game online, at 6am New Caledonia time, tucked up in bed with a cup of coffee. Perfect! Today the weather is the most miserable of any day in the last 6 months. Constant rain, gusty wind and generally a merky outlook - but our spirits are high from the win this morning and we are spending the day getting ready for passage to NZ.
Heather has baked some more William fruit cake which is great to nibble on when underway. Things that won't be needed for a while have been safely stowed away where they can't rattle and roll during the journey. A good day for inside jobs!

We made a break from the mainland and headed south for Isle de Pins on Monday. Nine hours of beating in to strong headwinds meant motoring all the way - topped up our water tanks again and gave the freezer a good burst. All systems working well. Met up with yacht Pamela again after meeting in Vanuatu. Went for a walk ahsore with Pamela and Dennis who showed us around the local haunts and we enjoyed a beer at one of the resorts together. Yesterday we did some maintenance jobs around the boat, scrubbing the bottom - again, making passage meals ready for our trip to NZ, greasing winches etc. With loads of things ticked off the list yesterday, today was a day of fun.
We hired a car and traveled around the island which is about 18km long and 14km wide. First stop was the produce market at Vao to buy some paw paws - yum! Then we set off around the island, stopping at Baie de St Maurice where there is a statue to commemorate the first missionaries to the island. The statue is surrounded by totem poles carved in traditional style. For some reason the locals here have a fascination with carving ugly faces with their tongues hanging out, much like our Maori carvings. Next on the anti-clockwise circuit is Baie de St Joseph, where locals sail their Pirogues, or sailing outrigger canoes. Further up the coast to the north-east at Baie d'Oro we trekked through the forest and down a shallow river to Piscine Naturelle. For those who wish to look this up on Google earth, Piscine Naturelle is a small natural swimming hole formed by a tiny inlet through the rocks where waves are pounding on the outside of the reef, but inside is calm as a millpond. GPS position is 22 35.019S 167 31.589E. The water in this swimming hole is so crystal clear you can see your own shadow on the white sand as you snorkel around and even the ripples you make on the surface of the water are reflected off the sandy bottom. There is a coral reef inside, filled with numerous fish and the largest number of clams we have seen anywhere. A truly special place and well worth the 200 franc entry fee (about $3). A great place to go for kids or anyone not so confident in snorkeling as there is no current, no open ocean and tranquil clear waters to view natures own aquarium.
After our walking and snorkeling we were ready for a coffee so treated ourselves to a cappuccino at Le Meridienne Resort. The coffee was excellent, if a little pricey at around $10 per cup, but it came with a couple of little sweet gem cakes and we were served a complimentary thimble full of sparkling water and a thimble full of mango juice. The view from the resort looking over the bay is simply spectacular and we enjoyed sitting in the sun in this idyllic location. A lagoon with many shades of blue, pretty mushroom shaped rocks and islands dotted about. Picture postcard stuff. Glad we were not staying the night though, at around $1000 per night! Next stop was Gadji on the North-west corner of the island. Again, very shallow waters go a long way out from the brilliant white sand beach forming pretty shades of blue that deepen in intensity the further out you look. A row of islands encircle the bay, with the signature pine trees standing tall.
Coming back down the west coast we stopped for a look at Baie de Ouameo before navigating the narrow path through the bush to the underground caves called Grottes de la Troisieme. These limestone caves are full of columns of limestone growing up from the floor of the cave and hanging down from the roof. Stalagmites and stalactite's. If you can't remember which is which just remember that as the mites grow up, their tites come down! There is quite a number of these caves in this small area, with many labyrinths, some going down deeper and deeper underground. The water in the bottom is so clear that it just looks like dry gravel at the bottom, until you throw a rock into it and hear the splash and see the ripples.
We treated ourselves to a wonderful lunch at Oure Tera resort (fresh Mahi mahi - if you can't catch it you have to buy it!)before continuing our journey.
We took the interior road north, stopping at the prison that housed 3000 French convicts during the 1870's and the graveyard where 240 of these souls were laid to rest. Convict labour was used to build the prison, the water tower and the cathedral in the 1870's. These were mainly political prisoners who disagreed with the French government of the day - they were the lucky ones - 20,000 political prisoners were executed by the French at that time but strangely they sent 3,000 of them out to this beautiful island in the Pacific.
We stopped by the airport to have a look at saw a replica of the airport on Wallis island. Both buildings look like they were built from the same set of plans. On the way back south we enjoyed the views coming over the hills, looking down into the turquoise bays. Very tall skinny pine trees dot the landscape especially on the coastline and on exposed ridges and islets. A fascinating day with beautiful vistas around every corner. This is by far the prettiest part of New Caledonia that we have seen so far.

It has been so windy here that we have been having more fun on land than at sea in the last few days. Our anchorage in Baie de Citron was reasonably sheltered, though not perfect, it had the advantage of being close to the beach and to the main road into town. Friends from Fusio joined us in the bay on Thursday, surprising us with cake for morning tea and we caught up with them again for drinks later that night. Thursday lunch was on shore at a local cafe with friends from Malakite. Each time we went ashore we bumped into fellow yachties who were doing the same as us - enjoying the cafes and the chance to provision from the local supermarket.
Yesterday we went walking and I won't cover all the details but after a 4 hour walk into town and up around the ports and to the supermarket we again treated ourselves to lunch at a local cafe - we felt we deserved it! One of our errands was to buy a spare fuel filter and the local garage didn't have one but the kind shop owner phoned around for us to find the one we needed. The place was miles away, so this man, Michel, offered to drive there in the afternoon and pick one up for us. Amazing service - when we called in that afternoon it was there waiting for us. This man is a yachtie himself and owns a local charter boat called Te Fetia. Last night a few more boats joined us in Baie de Citron and one was Te Fetia! Michel came by to say hello and make sure we were happy with the filter! There were ten boats in the bay with us last night and little did we know, but Friday night is not a great time to be there. The local night club was raging on with loud music until after 3am.
So today we decided to find a quieter spot and we have shifted to Isle de Saint Marie. It was only a short journey to get here but we were beating in to strong wind and short choppy waves all the way. It is relatively quiet here, but the wind still funnels around the bay, which helped to dry the washing in a very short time :-) Being the weekend, we have been entertained by locals enjoying the day kite surfing, wind surfing and water skiing. A hobbie cat went flying through the air and capsized in the strong winds at one point and promptly capsized again as soon as they got it right side up. A bit too much wind for some water sports today, but fun to watch.

It has taken us a few hops to get back from the Saint Vincent Baie area. Each morning we took advantage of the calm winds from 6am to 9am to make another hop before the winds came up and now we are back in civilisation! This bay is ideal as it is only a short walk to the supermaket and it has a nice sandy beach. Today, after restocking supplies at the supermarket, we went back to shore and did some repairs on our dinghy. While the glue set we snorkeled in the bay amongst pretty corals and then lay on the beach soaking up the atmosphere. Many families were having a day at the beach today, playing beach rugby and generally having fun.
Next to us in the bay are friends we met in Vanuatu on Darramy and some other friends we sailed with last season, on Vegas. Great to catch up! The weather forecast is for strong winds for the rest of the week, but at least we have had sunny blue skies each day and it is very pleasant once sheltered from the wind. On the beach today it was just beautiful. The kite surfers and wind surfers further out of the bay are having a ball and it is quite a sight seeing whole flocks of kite surfers flying through the air!