We continued the process of getting the boat back to Noumea and leave open the opportunity for further exploration if weather allows. For the last two days the forecast has predict rain but we haven’t seen any at all. The weather forecast we’re using is for the southern part of Grand Terre so it could just be that we just averted it.
We were up early and decided to fill our water tanks from our stores in the lazarette. As I have mentioned before, most of the bays we have stayed in are uninhabited. The charter base had given us 100L of water in jerry jugs to ensure we didn’t run out. To date we’ve been very conservative about our water usage. We have limited our showers and use the minimum amount needed to wash the dishes. The boat has two tanks and we were down to a ¼ of a tank in the smaller tank this morning. We dragged the jerry jugs to the front of the boat and poured them into the fill port. 100L brought us back up to ¾ of a tank. We’ll have plenty of water.
Once we were done with the water, we pulled the anchor to leave. We have used a trip line (a rope attached to the anchor on one end and a buoy on the other) in case we get stuck on another rock. The water was very cloudy because it is saturated with the red mud that we see everywhere. The anchor and the trip line deposited that red mud on the deck. It was a mess. I have read that the mud stains decks so we did a little swabbing before we left.
We motor sailed the whole way, only about 15 miles, through the Woodin Canal. We saw one person fishing on one of the reefs. Interestingly we have seen very few people fishing. It’s certainly not like Koh Chang Thailand where most people made their living fishing. It seems that a few people fish for hobby and for dinner but it certainly isn’t a major industry. Here are some pictures of the canal and the lighthouses.
We got to Baie de la Tortue on Ile Ouen by about 11:30. We were the only ones in the bay. We had no trouble anchoring in the sandy bottom. Rick spent the afternoon making spaghetti sauce, we worked on the blog, and did a little planning for the last couple of days on the boat. During the afternoon two other boats anchored in our bay.
Another amazing sunset! New Caledonia has really great sunsets.
Here is a map of our route.
