Category: 2019 New Caledonia and New Zealand Fall

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.

This morning we planned to motor from Chepenhe to Doueoulou, the bay that we originally anchored in when arriving in Lifou. We want to take our gifts to the chief.

Before pulling the anchor and while eating breakfast we watched a huge catamaran, likely 70 ft, anchor next to us. We also watched a pair of dolphins swimming in the distance. By 9:00AM we raised the anchor and said good bye to Chepenehe. It was a quick 1 hour trip to Doueoulou, we were anchored by 10:30. We decided to wait until after lunch to go see the chief. Unfortunately there were showers passing from about 11AM until 6PM. Luckily we found a window of time, around 3, that was mostly dry. We dinghied to shore and walked down the main road along the water. The shoreline was pristine.

Our cruising guide showed us where the chief’s house was, but we asked a few people along the way just to confirm. There were a number of native conical houses along the street. We pass some ladies sorting palm ferns which were likely destined to be used for a new roof. Nearby were pens with pigs. We have seen only a few cows on Ile des Pins.  Otherwise we haven’t seen any livestock. Here are some pictures.

We arrived at the chief’s house. The support poles on the entrance gate to his house were intricately carved.

We saw similar carvings on “totem poles” in Chepenehe. One thing that we have missed is learning about the Kanak culture. If we had been more organized we could have arranged an island tour from a local guide. Next time!

The chief’s property include a conical house what we consider a typical house and a graveyard out back which we think contained the graves of past chiefs and their wives.

There was a lady on the porch at the regular house who yelled “Bonjour.”  We went over to talk to her. We think she might have been the chief’s wife. Her English was very limited. She said the chief was not there and wouldn’t be back until tonight. She said she would give him our gifts. We offered our full stores (having thought we’d have a few more chiefs to visit). It included several bags of tobacco and some knitted sea creature toys that I made for the local children. She was very impressed and appreciative.

We said au revoir and walked back to the dinghy. It started pouring just as we got back so we motored back in the rain.

Later in the afternoon we prepped to leave for the mainland in the morning. You’re probably sick of sunsets by now but here’s another one.

Here is a map of our route.

After our long day yesterday we slept in until 6:30, woohoo! We had a bunch of chores to do—we transferred the fuel from the jerry jugs into the tanks, we swabbed the cockpit, lowered the swim platform, put the motor on the dinghy, and charged the batteries. Then we headed into shore. Here are a couple of pictures from our dinghy ride.

Our cruising guide said there was a small hotel that also rented cars so we motored down to their location, about a 10 minute dinghy ride away. They had a rope to tie the dinghy to and lots of coral around the landing spot. Rick stayed with the dinghy to make sure it didn’t get damaged and I went into the “resort” to check on the car. I walked through the whole area, yelling bonjour, but couldn’t find a soul, so I returned to the dinghy. We motored back to town and tied up at the dinghy dock (more coral). We walked into town which really isn’t much of a town. Here are some pictures.

We saw some men building a traditional hut. Here are pictures of a traditional house and the one being built..

We had brought our diesel jerry jugs to shore in the dinghy so we got them and took them over to Chez Alice, the local gas station/market. The only game in town. They filled them up while we bought a few provisions. A jerry jug full of diesel weights about 40 pounds and, although it was only about ¼ mile to the dinghy, it would have been a difficult ¼ mile. Luckily there was a local gentleman getting gas who spoke English with whom Rick had struck up a conversation. We asked him if he would drive our jugs down to the dinghy.  He was happy to oblige!. We loaded the jerry jugs in the dinghy and headed back to the boat.

We put everything away and had lunch. We spent the afternoon figuring out our next couple of days. We had a rough idea of our route back to Noumea that required more detail.

There is one bay north of here called Baie de Doking and it’s supposed to have a pretty cool grotto. Unfortunately it’s also pretty exposed and the anchorage is only barely tenable in an east wind. Additionally, boats anchoring there absolutely must take a gift to the chief!  The concern for the anchorage and with the relative difficulty our guide suggests exists getting ashore we decided to omit this one adventure.  It was a shame we couldn’t get a car — we would have both loved to visit the chief and the grotto.

The island to the north, Ouvea, has two chiefs, but another overnight sail will put a real dent in the time we have to return to Noumea — we decided against it.. We’ll get our chance to see a chief tomorrow in Doueoulou.

We had a light dinner and an uneventful evening.

We tried to sleep in this morning because we have our overnight sail tonight. We made it ’til 9. First thing we did in the morning was lower the swim platform and replace the gas cylinder so Rick could make coffee!   Then we prepped for our overnight sail. The trip to Lifou is about 100 nm (nautical miles or 110 miles) and we figured we could make about 5 knots (nm/hr) so the trip would take ~20 hours. Rick has sailed through the night many times on his two trips from Rhode Island to the Bahamas. I haven’t.

At night we plan to wear harnesses so we could clip onto lifelines on the boat. If, god forbid, one of us fell overboard the other one would never find him or her in the dark, hence the harnesses. So we got out the harnesses  and adjusted them to fit. Then we installed jack lines, lines that run forward the length of the boat that we could clip to and adjust anything on the foredeck if need be. Rick tied extra ropes around the dinghy to try to prevent the jib line from getting caught on it. Rick also checked engine vitals such as oil and coolant levels. We were ready.

While we were readying the boat we saw a dolphin or porpoise in the bay so we stopped to watch him. Unfortunately he never got close enough to the boat to take a picture.

Our route took us through the Havanna Channel where the currents can be pretty dramatic, particularly around the full moon, so we needed to time our departure just right. Also impacting our timing was the fact that we didn’t arrive at Lifou in the dark. Heading into a bay surrounded by reefs in the dark is not recommended. We raised the anchor at 1:15PM and were on our way by 1:30. We motored through the channel and then raised the mainsail. We didn’t pull the jib out because the wind was too far behind us. I took the wheel while Rick  cooked the steak for a late lunch/early dinner. Tasted great, very fortifying!

We sailed for the rest of the afternoon. The sun sets early and it is dark by 6:30. We enjoyed another beautiful sunset this evening.

I stayed up and sailed with Rick until about 7:30PM.  Then I headed below with the goal of sleeping through Rick’s first shift, which ended at midnight. I think I only slept for about an hour and a half. The seas were very confused. We were rocking and rolling and the boat was making a lot of noise as we rolled with the waves. I came up at midnight. Rick stayed up until about 12:30 and got the sails and our course adjusted to make our sail a little more comfortable. Then he went to bed. I woke him up at 2:30AM. It had started to rain and I was afraid of a squall It turned out to be just a sprinkle and he headed back to bed. During my watch one other boat passed us, I think it was a tanker or cargo ship but it was probably at least a mile away. Otherwise everything was quiet. I had to adjust our route and the sails a couple of time, but otherwise I was alone with my thoughts. I was going to listen to a book but decided that would be too distracting for my first overnight sail. It was very peaceful sailing at night.

Rick woke up around 4AM. He said he felt like he had 4 hours of deep sleep. I went to bed and slept for about 2 hours. Here is the gps about 3/4 of the way.  It was what we navigated by in the dark.

By the time I woke up the sun had risen.   I couldn’t get back to sleep so I kept Rick company as we neared the bay on Lifou. Here are sunrise pictures.

We arrived in Doueoulou around 11am.

We anchored the boat and had some lunch. Then we took a two hour nap. When we woke up we decided to move the boat to the next bay up, Chepenehe, because Doueoulou will be a good place to depart from .  We’ll spend more time here the day before we make our return voyage back to Grand Terre. Chepenehe looks like a nice little town.

We got the dinghy off the deck and decided to leave the motor for tomorrow. I took a shower and relaxed until dinner. We listened to the kids playing on the dock and enjoyed the sunset.

Dinner was great!  Rick has made some really amazing meals, especially considering the size of the kitchen!

We had made it to Lifou without any problems! What a day, actually two days!

Here’s a map of our route.

 

Last night started out a little rocky-rolly, but the winds and seas calmed as the night progressed. We were up early. We got the sail cover unzipped, the dinghy lashed to the deck and we were off the anchor by about 6:30. We had a lot of boats join us in the bay from a sailing rally in Lifou yesterday (there were a dozen), but no one was stirring when we left.

We motored out to the head of the bay and put the sails up. We had 4-5 ft waves and I wasn’t feeling so good so I took a Dramamine.  Dramamine always puts me to sleep — you know what they say about a foolish consistency — well it did. I woke up as we entered a little squall. We reefed the sails (reduced our sail size) because the wind was picking up and getting a little squirrelly. Once we were made it through the squall the skies cleared and the moderate winds returned.  We shook the reefs (un-reefed the sails) and continued uneventfully to Port Boise on Grand Terre. Grand Terre is the main island in New Caledonia.

It was chilly, probably around 72F, but there was a strong wind of 12-14 knots so we both donned our jackets.

We pulled into the bay of Port Boise and anchored.

We relaxed until dinner. Rick started to cook steak and some vegetables. Midway through the stove ran out of propane. Unfortunately the gas is stored under the swim platform. We didn’t want to lower it in the dark because if it came off again it would be hard to get back on,so we tried the grill. It was out of gas too! We put the steak back in the refrigerator for another night and had cold cuts for dinner.

Here’s a map our route today.

 

 

Oh boy, what a day! But first let me tell you about our night. The seas were calm when we returned to our boat from our sundowners at Avant. It was around 7pm. By 10pm everything was rocking and rolling. The wind had increase to 18 knots out of the west, directly into the bay. The waves built quickly to an estimated 3 ft. Complicating things was the fact the full moon tide was going out, amplifying the wave action and our discomfort. We were both up making adjustments to various aspects of the boat. Eventually we were able to get some sleep and even slept in until 6:30 (Rick’s normal wake up time on the boat is 5am).

We started the day with the plan of going into “town” to buy some more internet access. We had a leisurely morning. We had raised the swim platform last night because it was slapping the water and making a lot of noise. When Rick lowered it one of the lines snapped and the platform hanging from a remaining line, floating, completely off the boat, in the water. The wave action was causing it to bang against the boat. It was chaotic and stressful. For those of you not familiar with a swim platform it is the back of the boat and a significant piece of boat real estate.

We were able to get a line to secure the platform, but the bottom was not aligned or engaged with the supports on the boat itself. We used another line to pull the middle of it towards the boat and eventually got it aligned. Then Rick replaced the line that snapped. It took some more figuring before we got the new line on properly. The next problem was the brackets for the hinges were broken. We tried to fix them with zipties but that didn’t work, so we tried rope. That seemed to work.

By this time we were feeling satisfied that we might be able to continue on this journey without more lost time due to mechanical problems. We would still need to take care when raising and lowering the swim platform.

By now it was lunch time so we had a little to eat. Next we needed to resolve our internet problem, so we took the dinghy into shore. We normally get into the dinghy from the swim platform. But given all the problems and our uncertainty about the sustainability of the fix we didn’t want to leave the swim platform down while we weren’t on the boat. This meant getting into the dinghy from the side of the boat —  a big step down — but we were able to do it. Off to the beach! We went to the store that we thought Bill and Susan told us sold more cards for internet access, but it was closed on Mondays. Our hearts sunk because we thought we might have to stay here another day to get the internet cards. We went into the hotel and talked to our favorite concierge (she was the one that helped us with the scooter) and she told us that the store down the road sold the cards. So we walked down the road and got more cards. Then we decided we would go to the bakery and get some bread. Many places close for lunch. It was 2:30 and the bakery didn’t reopen from their lunch break until 3:30. We decided to wait. At 3:30 when it reopened we learned that the oven was broken and there was no bread. So we walked back to the dinghy and returned to the boat.

We had to step up onto the boat from the dinghy on the side. Big step up!

We want to leave first thing in the morning so we got the dinghy motor off the dinghy and onto the boat. The boat was still rolling like it was the night before so it was difficult to move the motor, but eventually we got it situated. By now we were too tired and mentally exhausted to get the dinghy onto the deck. Also it was still pretty windy, so once the dinghy is hauled out of the water it becomes a rubber kite with a hard bottom. As Scarlett O‘Hara said, “We’ll deal with that tomorrow.” We had a light diner and hit the sack early thinking it might be another rock and roll night!

It rained last night and the day started very overcast with periods of rain. We still had the dinghy motor to contend with. Not the best start to the day. After fiddling on the dinghy motor for a while we add more gas to the motor and tried it again. Lo and behold it worked. Best we can guess the gas had water in it. Whatever, it’s working again. On top of that, it was still overcast but no longer raining.

We kept the dinghy motor running while we quickly got ready to go ashore. The motor got us to shore with no further problems. We tied the dinghy to a tree and walked to the scooter rental location. Once we had our scooter we headed to the natural pool in Baie de Oro. We parked the dinghy at the Meriden.  Here are pictures of the Meriden’s very pretty entrance.

We walked about 20 minutes to the natural pool. The natural pool floods at high tide and then becomes isolated as the tide goes out. Any fish that come in with the high tide are trapped until the next high tide. It was about mid tide when we arrived. It was really lovely. Lots of white sand, turquoise water, green pine trees, and even a little sun.

There were about 10 people there, a couple of them were snorkeling. We had brought our snorkel gear but it wasn’t very warm so we opted not to snorkel. We walked in the pool and fish swam around our feet.

After enjoying the pool for a while we hopped back on our scooter and drove to Baie de Gadji which is the other major bay on Ile des Pins. On the way to Gadji we stopped at the grocery store for some eggs.

Like Oro, Gadji is very shallow. Now we understand why we couldn’t anchor in either of these bays. Had we anchored in navigable water we wouldn’t have been able to make it ashore in the dinghy.

I tried to walk out to the water but the sand was like quick sand. Here is a picture of my footprints.

A man and his son were selling coconuts so we enjoyed fresh coconut water and coconut meat while admiring the bay. Here are some pictures.

Throughout the morning we had overcast skies with periods of sun. The forecast said thunderstorms were expected in the afternoon so we figured we should just get back to the boat. We drove back to Kuto, dumped our snorkel gear and new provisions in the dinghy and then drove back to the rental “office” (it was really someone’s porch) to return the scooter. On our way back we stopped at a hotel to check out their restaurant for lunch. This is the first meal we have eaten out in New Caledonia. It was very good and the view was amazing. Here are pictures.

We returned to the boat. Fortunately, no problems with the dinghy motor. We felt like even though the day didn’t start off so well we recovered and had a nice day exploring a beautiful island.

Once back at the boat, I tried to log onto the internet to buy more data for our sim card. Unfortunately, the website would not accept our credit cards. While we were struggling with this our boat neighbors came over to introduce themselves and to invite us to their boat for sundowners. At 5:00 we headed over to Avante to have drinks with Bill and Susan. We had a really nice time. They are from Telluride and Scottsdale and have a lot of experience sailing around here, so we picked their brains about their experiences sailing to the Loyalty Islands, etc. We really enjoyed ourselves and hope our paths cross again soon. They will be in New Zealand while we’re there, so maybe . . . .

We came back to the boat and relaxed before another early night.

Originally we were going to leave Ile des Pins tomorrow but we need to deal with this issue of internet access so we are staying put for another day. It’s important because that how we get our weather updates so we don’t want to be sailing blind!

We had some rolling last night associated with high full moon tides, but we slept OK.

We were up early because today is scooter day! Before we left the boat we emptied the two 20L jerry jugs of diesel into the tank. It was trickier than it sounds because we wanted to make sure we didn’t spill it. We certainly don’t want it in this pristine water, but also it makes quite an ugly mess if you spill it on the boat. We were successful and didn’t spill a drop. We are back up to full according to the fuel gauge. Next trick will be figuring out how to fill the jerry jugs and get them back to the boat, but before we do that we need to go pick up our scooter.

We dinghied to shore and tied the dinghy to another tree. Then we walked about 2 miles to the campground where they rent scooters. Here are a couple of pictures from our walk.

And here are pictures of our scooter.

We were a little early but a few minutes after our arrival a lady came out and to complete the paperwork. Then we were off. I am always nervous then we start scootering and I’m continuously asking Rick to go slower, but eventually I get comfortable and relax. We wanted to go to the Saturday open air market in a small town, Vao, about 4 miles to pick up some vegetables. We easily found the market but we either arrived too late or they just don’t have much produce this time of year. Here are some pictures.

We left the market shortly after we arrived and headed north. We drove along the coast. It was beautiful. Here are some pictures.

We continued north until we reached Baie de Oro, home of the Meriden (very swanky) Hotel. We went into the hotel, Rick had a cup of coffee and we logged on to their wifi. The scenery was magnificent. It was low tide and the bay is very shallow, so you could walk across it with water only up to your knees. Lots of pines were visible on the other shore. I have learned that they are called columnar pines. Here are some pictures of the Meriden and the bay.

We talked to couple from Australia about traveling around the pacific islands. They talked about their sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands, another place that’s definitely on our list of things to do.

We left the Meriden and headed back to our boat in Kuto. Along the way we stopped at two grocery stores to pick up some more provisions. Carrying two six packs of 1.5L bottles of water is tricky on a scooter, but we managed. There were lots of people in Kuto because another cruise ship had arrived this morning.

We had trouble starting the dinghy motor and we thought we had flooded it, so we rowed back to the boat. Once back at the boat we had some lunch and ran the engine to charge the batteries.

An hour later Rick tried to start the dinghy.  No go. He set about to fix it.  He worked on it for quite awhile, called the base for consultation, even got it running for about 5 minutes, but couldn’t fix it.

We had to go back in to take care of the scooter. The wind was coming from the land so rowing in was going to be near impossible, so we the skipper of a nearby boat.  He arrived in his dinghy and was happy to tow us in to shore. We took the two empty diesel jerry jugs with us. We drove the scooter to the gas station with me holding the jerry jugs on each hand, making it impossible to hold on to Rick! We filled up our jugs and Rick tied one onto the rack on the back of the scooter. I stayed at the gas station with the other one. He dropped it at the dinghy and then came back for another round. Once the diesel was delivered we went to the camping ground where we rented the scooter to see if we could park it on the beach near our boat and use it again tomorrow.  Denied!  We left it there and walked back to the dinghy. We will have to walk back to the campground tomorrow to pick it up again. We rowed the dinghy back to the boat.

Once back onboard we both took showers.  What a luxury in our water conservation mode!  It felt really good to be clean. Needless to say we are not rowing into town for dinner so it was dinner on board and an early bedtime.  We were beat. Another amazing sunset tonight.

A couple of random things about New Caledonia

1. The weather has been very nice. Day temps are in the mid 70s and night time temps are in the high 60s. It’s a nice temperature because it doesn’t feel too hot when you are ashore and it’s great sleeping weather.
2. There are very few bugs. So far I have gotten one mosquito bite. We have had a couple of flies on the boat, but they’re no big deal.