Kathryn & Rick's Blog

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.

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.