Category: New Caledonia

This morning we packed our stuff up before going out for breakfast. We went to a very nice little coffee shop about a block from the apartment. We had bagels with cream cheese and pesto. It was quite good. The barista told us that pesto on bagels is quite common in New Zealand. I think we will be having bagels, cream cheese, and pesto when we get home.

After breakfast we got an uber to campervan office which was close to the airport. During the drive we noticed that the houses are very close to each other and have very little property. Most of the houses along the road had fences which we guessed provide a little privacy since they are living so close to their neighbors. The side streets had fewer houses with fences, but still more than we would have in the US.

There were a lot of people at the office picking up campervans so we waited for a bit while the people ahead of us were serviced. We watched a video on various aspects of the van while we waited. Eventually it was our turn. Danny from Maui, the campervan company, filled out paperwork with us and then gave us a quick overview of the van. Once Danny was done with us we unpacked our suitcases and returned them to the office where they will hold them for us. Then we were on our way.  Here are pictures of our van.

First stop was the grocery store. We weren’t sure how much we needed to provision, specifically we weren’t sure how often we would see a grocery store and how much we would be eating out. We ended up getting food for lunches and one dinner.

The ladies at the grocery store were really friendly. In fact everyone is really friendly. Our accents give us away and everyone asks how long we have going to be here and where we are going. They all gave us suggestions on where to go and what to see.

With provisions stowed we drove to Akaroa, about an hour and a half away. The views along the drive were beautiful and reminded us of Switzerland. Lots of green rolling hills covered with sheep and cows.

We stopped at Barry’s Bay Cheese Factory. They have been making cheese there since 1895. We tasted some of their cheese and Rick talked cheese with one of the owners. Of course we bought some.

We continued on to Akaroa. Akaroa is on the Banks Peninsula. The peninsula is the remnants of several volcanos. It has two large harbors and many smaller bays and coves. Akaroa was the chosen site for a French colony in 1838 however when the French settlers arrived in 1840 they found the British had already established sovereignty over New Zealand. The French stayed on and Akaroa has some French overtones.

We drove through the cute little town and then decided we better figure out where we would spend the night. Our campervan company has an app showing potential camp sites. We were told that we should change the batteries tonight so we need a site with a power hookup. There was one that met our criteria just on the edge of town. We drove in an got a site with a fantastic view.

We relaxed there, sitting outside and enjoying the sun. A duck family was hanging our the van, looking for food.  We didn’t give them any, but they kept us company.

After a little while we decided we would go into town for some dinner. We could have walked but we are on a hill and the walk into town takes 20 minutes, but the walk back is mostly up hill. We decided that we didn’t want to do that on a full stomach so we drove into town. We had dinner at a lovely French restaurant. We felt like it made up for not having a single dinner out in New Caledonia. The food was delicious.

After dinner we returned to our camp site and wrote the blog. So far we really like the campervan and the freedom it affords us. In fact Rick thinks we should buy one at home. I say maybe, but let’s see how it goes.

Here’s our route from Christchurch to Akaroa.

We started out day by preparing to return to the base.  We stripped the bed and packed up some of the food.  At about 8:10 Rick started the motor and we motored around the corner to the base.  After a short wait personnel from the charter company took us in to the dock.  There we retrieved our suitcases from the charter office so I could pack while Rick helped with odds and ends and filling up the fuel tank. 

Everything went without a hitch.  Many thanks to the base manager, Stephane, and his able assistant, Isabelle.

We are spending the night in the same apartment that we stayed in before our sailing trip.  We couldn’t get into the apartment until noon so we went over to the market and got some breakfast.  We also bought a couple of bowls and a hanging mobile.

We returned to the boat and collected our bags.  The base staff called a taxi for us but it was a very long wait so I walked over the apartment and Rick waited for the bags.

When we got to the apartment we took showers and did laundry. On the boat we took infrequent navy showers. Boy did a long hot shower feel good!

We were going to go out to dinner but were tired and didn’t feel like a big meal.  So we just relaxed and went to bed early.

No pictures today because I figure you’ve seen pictures of Noumea and the apartment.

Another low key day. We started the day by fixing the halyard. It was easy and only took about 10 minutes.

After we relaxed for awhile. We checked the weather and one site predicted 20-30 knots winds and the other, typically more accurate, predicted 17-23 knot winds. I suggested we head out and at least sail around , enjoy the boat for one last day. So we did. We unclipped the main and pulled the anchor. We had just motored out of the harbor when Rick noticed we had wrapped the halyard again, this time on the other stay.

Weird coincidence that it happened two days in a row and never before on this trip. Fate was telling us that the sailing portion of our trip was OVER!

We headed back into the harbor, reanchored, and in about 10 minutes fixed the halyard. This time we listened to fate and stayed put. It was a good thing because the wind really increased. We saw readings of 21 knots on our instruments while sitting in the harbor and our weather website said it was blowing 27 knots outside the harbor.  In high winds the rigging on the boat starts to sing.  We experienced it here and in Greece.  By the time I thought of taking a video so you could heard it the wind had mostly died down.  At its peak the “singing” was much louder.

We relaxed for the afternoon. I finished my book, the Gift of Rain (I recommend it).

That evening we had another amazing sunset.

We had dinner on the boat and Rick used up as much of the food as he could so it was a bit of hodge podge. I had downloaded a bunch of shows from Amazon so we watched Jim Gaffinan, a very funny, low key comedian .

We had a relaxing morning until about 9:00 when we pulled the anchor and started our 17 mile journey to Ilot Amedee.  Ilot Amedee is about 13 miles south of Noumea and has a reputation of being very picturesque. We motored whole way. The seas were choppy, rough and the wind was coming from the wrong direction, or as Rick says things sucked. There were lots of black clouds overhead even though the forecast said there was 0% chance of rain. Eventually it started raining although not heavily. Generally it was just cold and raw.

With about 7 miles to go we saw the famed lighthouse of Amedee.

We followed it in. Amedee is a very small island but it does have a restaurant and a dive club. There were mooring balls in the anchorage but they were for smaller boats so we anchored. Although the island blocked the worst of the waves we had winds of 15-17 knots and there was a lot of rocking and rolling. We ate lunch with hopes the conditions might calm down, but they didn’t, It was going to be a difficult, rocky, rolly night had we stayed, so we pulled the anchor and headed out. We were headed to check another island, Ilot Maitre, a bit closer to Noumea, with hopes conditions would be a bit better.

We decided to raise the main sail in an effort to counter the effects of the waves. I use the winch to hoist the sail while Rick keeps the boat pointed into the wind. I was having a lot of trouble getting the sail up. It turned out the halyard (the rope pulling the sail up) was stuck on the spreader (part of the rigging that holds the mast up). This was a problem because the sail was half way up.

What to do? I ended up putting on my harness (because the seas were still rough), climbing up on the dinghy, which is lashed to the deck, clipping my harness to the mast, and manually pulling the sail down. At this point at least the sail was down but the halyard was still stuck on the spreader. We motored the rest of the way and decided to come to Noumea since we needed to deal with the halyard while anchored in a calm location.

We got to Noumea and anchored after sailing around the mooring field to find a good spot.

That evening we watched another great sunset while enjoying champagne provided by the charter company. Even though we have one more day with the boat we toasted to a good sailing trip.

As of this writing we still haven’t dealt with the halyard. It will be a good job for tomorrow.

Rick made chicken for dinner.  We had a very calm night, no rocking and rolling, like we would have had if we stayed at Ilot Amedee.

Here is a map of our route today.

We had a low key day today. We have three more nights and two more places to visit which means we need to stay in one place two nights. We decided to stay in Baie de la Tortue because it’s pretty and we have a very secure anchorage. Also it was overcast with some rain in the morning. So we planned our route for the next two days and worked on the blog. I also read a lot of my book.

Another good hair day, Rick!

And another nice sunset!

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.

Today’s the day we need to get in position for our return to Noumea and the charter base. We have to be in by 8:30 Saturday morning, which isn’t for four days, but we don’t want something unexpected to happen that prevents us from getting back on time. We made it around the southern tip of the island today. We had a couple of places picked out that would have been a shorter sailing day but the winds, seas and weather was good so we figured we’d make hay while the sun shines, as they say.

We left Port Bouquet at about 6 this morning. There is a natural “channel” along the eastern side of the island. On one side of the channel is the island itself and on the other side are the reefs. The channel is about two to four miles wide but it’s littered with smaller reefs and shallows. We motor sailed down this channel and then came through a true channel called the Havannah Channel. For most of the way along the eastern shore the wind was directly in front of us.  Here are some pictures from along the way.

We pulled into Port Boise about 4:30 and then it took us three tries to get anchored. It was a long day. Rick made chicken for dinner.  It’s amazing what he can cook on a boat.

Here is a map of our route.

Today was a long day but somewhat boring to write about. I will give it may best shot. We were up very early, around 4:30AM. We’re going back to the main island. Our night sail to Lifou took about 20 hours from the southern point of the mainland to Lifou. It wiped us out for the next day. Rather than do that again we decided to sail to the middle of the eastern coast of the mainland which we calculated was 60 nm or about 10 hours. We left at first light, just prior to sunrise.

We experienced rough water from confused seas at the beginning of our trip, but it got better as the day went on. We saw lots of flying fish and even a turtle swimming along the surface, but no dolphins. I have never experienced dolphins riding our bow wave and it doesn’t look like I will this time either.

I was the skipper for much of the voyage.  Actually the auto pilot (aka Otto)was the skipper, I just monitored the auto pilot, the seas and the wind.

This was the first time in any of our sailing trips that I haven’t been able to see land.  It was dark on the way over so that doesn’t count.  In our other trips we have had some long days and covered a lot of ground but we could always see land.  Here are pictures from along the way and the chart showing a passe we needed to go through to reach our destination.

We arrived in Port Bouquet at about 3, right when we had planned.   Here are pictures of Port Bouquet.

Once in the harbor we had a terrible time anchoring. It took us 4 tries, about 1 ½ hours, to get the anchor to catch, but eventually it did. We were both every tired and Rick didn’t feel like cooking so I had cold cuts and he had left overs. Definitely an early night for us!

Here’s a map of our route.