Last night Rick had trouble sleeping so he was reading about Ile des Pins in the Rocket Guide, written by a local and available for download. Ile des Pins is about 30 miles southeast of the main island of New Caledonia. He discovered our the route we had previously planned required us to sail around reefs, doable but not our preference. It turned out that it was best to leave from Anse Magique. We woke up to beautiful sunny morning and decided that rather than do the hike we would take off early to make the Ile des Pins with plenty of daylight. We were off the ball by 6:30, motored through Prony Bay and put up the sails. Conditions were perfect, 9 knots of wind building to 12 knots, out of the northwest. We sailed most of the way (we are working on conserving fuel because there aren’t that many places to get more). As practice for our crossing to the Loyalty Islands, I skippered for most of the way.
As we got close to the island we passed several small islands and you can see why this area is called Ile des Pins. It looks like lots of those cell towers we have at home disguised as pine trees. Here are some pictures from our sail.
After about 7 hours of sailing we pulled into Baie de Kuto which is absolutely beautiful. The water is a magnificent turquoise blue, the sand on the beach is white with palm trees and pines behind. We share this view with six other boats.
At around 2 we finished anchoring and decided to eat lunch. Then we did our usual chores,relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
We just had a lite dinner, having eaten a late lunch. It was a very clear night with lots of stars and the moon is almost full. I finished my book and started a new one before going to bed early.