A Red Nightmare in Baie de Carenage - July 03

Rain starts and it seems it will never end

 After 24 hours of non stop heavy rain pouring on top of us we started loosing our good mood. Another 24 hours of the same and the nightmare started. The first day we had kind of fun, filling up buckets of water, topping up our water tanks, showering on deck, all the dust collected in the marina gone, our deck never looked so clean with so little effort, fun. When the night came and the rain continued we started to get moody, then a festival of lightning started and we knew our 'sleep soundly' night was gone, as we started to get concerned. We've never been in so much rain for so long. When daylight came on the second day and we saw the transformation of that place from a quiet green calm waters anchorage into a red muddy disturbed waters full of debris passing by we started to get really worried. As we were pondering what to do, we heard the noise of our chain moving and next thing we know we are riding down the current dragging chain and anchor at about 2 knots. Not need to say what a nightmare it was, try to control Zenitude, stop the ride, raise the anchor, and try to figure out what the hell had just happened. At that moment the sky decided to throw also thunders to add a bit more drama to our situation. At least it was daylight. We really thought about leaving the place but instead came back to try to re-anchor, not knowing which other place would be better. And then we saw it and understood, we've been anchored exactly in the spot where the main part of the rain water was trying to leave the place while the tide was changing.

Our new friends, the 2 French boats that came together with us from Bonne Anse were absolutely fantastic helping us to choose the right place as they'd been there many times. Later they said they'd been there more than 40 times and never saw anything like it. Once we found the spot where the current was little and the depth good enough we finally re-anchor. Eventually the rain started to diminish and by sunset was over. We left the place the next day, covered in red mud that will be another nightmare to clean up. Baie de Carenage is at the heart of the nickel mining area and the bottom is a deep red mud. By bringing up and down our anchor 3 times we collected probably about 3 or 4 tons of this red mud that was evenly distributed all over the boat by the wind. A lovely place indeed but we doubt that we'll ever return.

'Absolutelly Georgeous', our new friends in the reddish waters

G & O

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Baie de Prony - Going South

After a quiet night in Ilot Baily we knew we had 2 more days of settled weather before of the next front which would be arriving on Monday afternoon with lots of rain and wind. We decided to go directly to Baie de Prony that has many protected anchorages including Baie du Carenage considered a 'hurricane hole'.
Our first stop was then Bonne Anse, just at the entrance of Prony. It is a beautiful spot quite popular with the locals on the weekends (we suspect that everybody in NC has a boat). One of the anchoring spots has 4 moorings and we were able to grab one after a couple of the local boats left later afternoon on Saturday.

There is plenty of fish in this bay, the Recif of Prony starts nearby just a short dinghy ride and we could see a couple of divers catching their dinner there. This is not a protected area and it is quite ok to spear fish in the coral. All of these making Oscar upset with his spider bite that it is not still 100% healed. He can't risk to go into the salty water because this water is alive with all kind of organisms that love an open wound. By sunset there were lots of fish jumping around our boat, surely bigger fish below trying to have dinner as well.
There is a little beach, the scenery is very nice with lots of very green trees on the hill and a reddish type of clay or mud that looks pretty but is not so good for the walking trail that leads to a lighthouse on the top.

As we were getting ready to leave on Monday morning, a French couple from a neighbor sailboat, 'Absolutely Gorgeous' came on their dinghy to offer us a bunch of very fresh sardines they just caught in the shallow waters off the beach with their net. We actually saw them fishing and were wondering what type of fish they might be getting, never imagining there were so many sardines around. With just two passes of the net they got a full bucket of them. As they couldn't possible eat so many, the few boats around, including us, got a share of their catch. It made a delicious lunch of fried sardines with a very cold beer we indulged for the occasion. In a mix of their poor English and our even poorer French we understood they were planning to leave for the same place we were going, the hurricane hole Baie du Carenage. He said it was an excellent place to sleep soundly in bad weather.

Actually the three boats in Bonne Anse, including us left towards the same place. It was an easy sail of about 8 miles in a kind of meandering way. At the end of a narrow channel Baie du Carenage opens in an area surrounded by hills. The wind had started to pick up on our way up reaching over 20 knots at times until we got in the bay, which was as expected very, very calm.
We found 3 other boats already here, there seems to be a lot of space but you can't anchor close to anybody as boats swing in different directions in this bay, so you need plenty of room to anchor. We might have timed our arrival well because as soon as we finished with anchoring the rain started and here we are a day later wondering if it will ever stop. It has rained non stop so far. But we did indeed slept soundly in this quiet place.
As I write this I can hear the wind starting to pick up, we expect tonight will be the worst of the storm and expect it to be over sometime during the day tomorrow. We would like to visit ashore. Nearby there are a waterfall and a hot spring small pool but no need to go there at the moment, we have plenty of water here as it is.
G.

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On the move again

Finally Oscar's lesion (from the spider bite)is almost healed and we decided to start moving even though it might be another week before he can go diving. We are slowly going south to Ile des Pins. Today we stopped at Ilot Bailly to spend the night and relax after the hectic activities before leaving Noumea. Right now we are at anchor in a quiet night in a very quiet place. There is nobody else here and it is very peaceful. Our next stop is probably Baie de Prony about 5 hours sail from here.
G.

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Aussie Spiders on board keeping us in Noumea

When we removed our main sail for repairs it appears that we disturbed a white back spider that had set residence in Zenitude. We are not sure but the fact is that the following day a nasty insect bite appeared in Oscar’s leg and since then I have found 2 nasty looking black spiders on board, one appeared when we removed a piece of the gennaker rigging that we haven’t used for this trip and the other one jumped in front of me when I moved a piece of fabric that was on deck. Not nice. 

They don’t have this type of spiders in New Caledonia so these came traveling with us from Australia. We are actually sure they took up residence in Zenitude when we left her on the dry in Oyster Cove yard. When Zenitude went back to the water we thought we got rid of all spiders and ants which were really annoying. But apparently, there is no way to get rid of spiders unless you find them.  

With doctor’s advice Oscar is treating the lesion but healing is slow. In the meantime he can’t swim and we decided to stay around civilization in case more medical care is needed. So we are still in Noumea, doing land sightseeing and still enjoying French cuisine. The issue is lots of food and too little exercise. But not all time is lost, we keep fixing and improving Zenitude. This is starting to look like a working holiday, but not without fun.  I’ll update the post when we are ready to move again.
G.
 

Anse Vata on a cloudy Sunday

One of the many restaurants in Anse Vata, Noumea

Up in Anse du Fort

Good French services for our French boat keeping us in Noumea

From previous experience in French islands we suspected we could get several of Zenitude's maintenance jobs done here, we must say, cheaper and better than in Australia. Because Zenitude is a catamaran and she is French, it is easy to find parts and expertise in French territory. When we got an excellent recommendation for Incidences Voilerie, the maker of our sails, we immediately contacted them to have a look at our main sail. The sail now is back and repaired, the bad news is that after 10 years of sailing the material is worn and it may not survive another year. We are now waiting for a quote on a new sail. We found Helene Corr, the representative of Incidences here in Noumea very professional and reliable and her services reasonable priced.

When we removed the main sail it became obvious a little rigging issue, so next thing was to get advice from a rigger. We contacted Georges Auteret. He is pretty famous around here. Everybody knows him and everybody says he is the best. We've been dealing with riggers before in the US and in Australia and this is the first time we find somebody that really understands the particulars of catamaran's rigging. He did a full inspection and found our rigging still in good condition, however being 10 years old is reaching the age for changing. It will have to be changed sometime in the next couple of years so we asked for a quote considering that this may be a good opportunity to do it. Georges comes with lots of recommendations and the quote was very reasonable, so we decided to do it here and now.

Georges up the mast checking the rigging

Georges at work

Conferencing ....

Meanwhile,Zeni the dinghy, is also getting a face lift. We ordered a custom cover from another excellent guy that does canvas work and quoted almost half of the price asked in Australia. He found that poor Zeni had the bottom quite damaged and started to get osmosis, meaning water is getting inside the fiber. The damage comes from our many landings on beautiful white sanded beaches, carrying poor dinghy on the sand. The canvas guy recommended a friend that did a very good job, again, at a very good price.

All this means we are still at Port Moselle marina. The weather has become ugly this week so we are happy here doing all these works while the wind blows at 25 kn. at times inside the bay. It's been reported very high winds out there at sea. We are hoping by Friday all work will be finished and we can start getting ready to leave, probably on Monday when the weather improves.   

G. and O.

Moving around - A little sample of the large lagoon

Sailing around the huge lagoon

We left Port Moselle on Wednesday to visit some of the little islands nearby Noumea. We couldn't go far as we left our mainsail in Noumea for repairs and have also ordered a cover for our dinghy. Our plan is to come back to the marina next week. 

The lagoon is huge and from the many places that can be visited we choose Ilot Te Ndu first as recommended by Mark and Dianne. A beautiful little inhabited island surrounded by coral reefs. It is part of the natural reserve so all the fish in the coral is protected for desperation of Oscar that couldn't go spearfishing while the big groupers indolently looked at him.

Sunset at Ilot Te Ndu

We snorkeled in several places and saw lots of turtles, sea snakes, a couple of white tip small sharks, unicorns, groupers, trouts and lots of colorful fish. The highlight in this area being the turtles.

Coming to the surface for a bit of air

It was a weekday and at sunset the place was just   ours. We spent 2 beautiful days and then left towards Ilot Laregnere. At mid way we stopped in Recif Senef for a snorkel. It is a very pretty place with many colors and lots of fish. Oscar was very keen to find the groupers here but I guess they know they are not protected in this place so they were nowhere to be seen. Again the white tip sharks always patrolling the reef. 

If you can spot, the shark patrolling the reef

Ilot Laregnere is another natural reserve with a nice beach, picnic area, camping and BBQ facilities. It is very popular for the locals. This Friday was the start of a long weekend here in NC and soon weekenders started arriving in their boats. Many of them camping in the beach. Even in the rainy weather people was enjoying themselves and at night we could see several bom fires in the beach. 

Weekenders at the beach in Ilot Laregnere

Next stop was Ilot Maitre, the island with the famous Escapade resort. A beautiful hotel where apparently the majority of the tourism comes from Japan. We went to visit and had a drink at the bar. The place is fantastic though quite expensive and there is no where else to go in the island, so no alternative for restaurants around. 

Bungalows at the Escapade Resort

This is our last stop and soon we'll be back at the marina. In all the places we've stopped we had our remora pets underneath Zenitude, everyday waiting for breakfast time, maybe because they are french, they love the scraps of our baguetes.

Breakfast time for the remoras  

A nice week over, we are back at the marina with internet again, probably for about a week. 

G. 

Port Moselle Marina, Noumea. It's a marina life.

Raising French and Quarantine flags during arrival

This is a modern marina located in the centre of town, the ideal spot to rest, get the boat back in shape and enjoy the cosmopolitan town full of shops and good restaurants, all within easy walking distance. Prices for a week at the marina are very reasonable, compared to Australian prices, and the rate includes energy, water and internet. We decided to stay a week.  We cleared customs at the marina and agriculture came to the boat and took away whatever we had left in fruits, vegies and eggs, they asked to wait for 2 hours before leaving the boat (apparently somebody may show up for an inspection) and then we were free to remove the yellow quarantine flag and move around. Immigration had to be left for next day as they only work in the morning till 11.30AM.

Port Mossele Marina with hundreds of sailboats

A little while later, Mustang Sally, with Mark and Dianne and their friend Graheme arrived. We met them in Lord Howe and we traveled in tandem, they were just behind us and invited us over for drinks to celebrate our easy passage. On a route where the usual wind would be on the nose, we got blessed with downwind sailing for the duration of the trip. Amazing.

Next morning we would have happily slept in but we had to make it to Immigration before 11.00AM.  It took us a while to find the building, about 6 blocks from the marina. Luckily we run into Dianne, Mark and Graheme who told us how to get there. Eventually we found the building and completed formalities. We are now legally in New Caledonia and can stay here for a total of 6 months. So far, it looks like a good place to be. 

First trip to the supermarket

On the way back we stopped at the Super Marche, run again into Mark and Dianne, I guess we all had the same things in mind: cheese, pate, jambon, baguettes and wine. Oscar found ‘bavete’, which is a cut of meat we have in Argentina (entranha) that is great for the grill and soon a BBQ at Zenitude was organized for the following day with our friends from Mustang Sally. 

We’ve had rainy weather since we are here and it seems this pattern will continue into early next week. With half the week already gone we’ve now been able to do the cleaning, the laundry, some shopping and some of the little fixes we’d like to get done here. Nouvelle Pleasance, just 10 minutes away by dinghy, is the place to get all kind of boating services. I was surprised to see the number of boats here, even now that is the low season. Boats arriving from the Pacific crossing will not arrive until later in the year, during what is considered the high season. 

We haven’t decided where to go next when we leave the marina on Wednesday. There are many islands in this big lagoon to visit and the plan is to go around discovering places. We just need the sun to come out again and make it inviting. 

G.