The trade winds have been blowing hard for the last week and as we listen to the wind whistling and Zenitude trembling at the docks in Port Moselle we are trying to plan for next week's sailing. We'd like to go east to Ile des Pins but going east with this wind is not appealing. As the forecast says it will change by Wednesday we keep planning. At the moment we decided to leave the marina tomorrow and go where the wind takes us, which is probably west. There are several nice anchorages not far from Noumea, where we can wait for the wind to abate. Once we can head east we'll probably stop for the night along the way depending on the weather at the time.
G.
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Back in Noumea
After a quiet time in beautiful Ilot Kouare we came back to Noumea to pick up Joan that was brave enough to visit and sail with us around the lagoon.
It was a short and very enjoyable visit. The weather was good and we sailed first to Ilot Amedee. To Oscar's disappointment we aborted the climb to the lighthouse after looking up at the top from the beach, it certainly looked high to us.
On the way back to the dinghy a lazy sea snake gave us some excitement when it decided to go back to the water crossing just under Oscar's legs.
As always in Amedee, we saw many turtles swimming around. Joan enjoyed a good snorkeling before leaving the day after for our next stop, Ilot Larengere. This time the snorkel was amazing, a coral garden with plenty of fish, turtles, sharks and the highlight for Joan, her first encounter with a morea eel. From there we sailed to Baie Maa, a very quiet anchorage, perfect for the BBQ that was on the menu for dinner. Then we came back to the marina at Port Mosselle as the trip was over for Joan that took the early flight for Sydney this morning. It was great to have her company, even when it was just a very short visit.
We are now at the marina thinking on a trip to Ile des Pins before start planning our way back to Australia.
G.
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It was a short and very enjoyable visit. The weather was good and we sailed first to Ilot Amedee. To Oscar's disappointment we aborted the climb to the lighthouse after looking up at the top from the beach, it certainly looked high to us.
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| The lighthouse in Ilot Amedee |
On the way back to the dinghy a lazy sea snake gave us some excitement when it decided to go back to the water crossing just under Oscar's legs.
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| Sea snake |
As always in Amedee, we saw many turtles swimming around. Joan enjoyed a good snorkeling before leaving the day after for our next stop, Ilot Larengere. This time the snorkel was amazing, a coral garden with plenty of fish, turtles, sharks and the highlight for Joan, her first encounter with a morea eel. From there we sailed to Baie Maa, a very quiet anchorage, perfect for the BBQ that was on the menu for dinner. Then we came back to the marina at Port Mosselle as the trip was over for Joan that took the early flight for Sydney this morning. It was great to have her company, even when it was just a very short visit.
We are now at the marina thinking on a trip to Ile des Pins before start planning our way back to Australia.
G.
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Friday, 23 August 2013
At Ilot Kouare - A wooded island with a white sand beach
With a forecast of light winds and generally good weather we left Port Mosselle on Tuesday for a week of wondering around the lagoon.
Our first stop was Ilot Amedee, the island next to the Boulari Pass. The island is pretty and like all islands in the lagoon surrounded by reef. There is plenty of fish and lots of turtles. It doesn't look that there is any good place to anchor, at least for an overnight but there are about 15 moorings and we were able to get one. The drawback in this island is that it is very popular with local boats and it is crowded as half of the island is taken over by a local tour operator that deposits dozen of tourists for a day at the beach. Probably the abundance of fish is due to the glass bottom boat that goes around feeding the fish while lots of people marvel at the view thru the glass. Still, the place is nice and there is an operating lighthouse that you can visit and climb up for a view of all the surrounding reef. While we were there most of the people left by sunset and the place was very quiet at night.
From Amedee we came directly to Ilot Kouare in the southern lagoon. As we were approaching we could see a magnificent scenery. A green island with a white sand beach all around surrounded by corals and incredible clear turquoise waters. This is an isolated place, at least during the week and we found just 2 other boats at anchor. If the weather holds and doesn't turn bad we are planning to stay until Sunday when we start heading back to Noumea. A long walk in the beach and lots of snorkeling is waiting for us while we wait for the sun to come back as it has decided to hide under lots of clouds at the moment.
G.
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Our first stop was Ilot Amedee, the island next to the Boulari Pass. The island is pretty and like all islands in the lagoon surrounded by reef. There is plenty of fish and lots of turtles. It doesn't look that there is any good place to anchor, at least for an overnight but there are about 15 moorings and we were able to get one. The drawback in this island is that it is very popular with local boats and it is crowded as half of the island is taken over by a local tour operator that deposits dozen of tourists for a day at the beach. Probably the abundance of fish is due to the glass bottom boat that goes around feeding the fish while lots of people marvel at the view thru the glass. Still, the place is nice and there is an operating lighthouse that you can visit and climb up for a view of all the surrounding reef. While we were there most of the people left by sunset and the place was very quiet at night.
From Amedee we came directly to Ilot Kouare in the southern lagoon. As we were approaching we could see a magnificent scenery. A green island with a white sand beach all around surrounded by corals and incredible clear turquoise waters. This is an isolated place, at least during the week and we found just 2 other boats at anchor. If the weather holds and doesn't turn bad we are planning to stay until Sunday when we start heading back to Noumea. A long walk in the beach and lots of snorkeling is waiting for us while we wait for the sun to come back as it has decided to hide under lots of clouds at the moment.
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| Landing |
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| It doesn't get much better than that .... |
G.
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Saturday, 17 August 2013
A big ocean out there, but still, it’s a small world
When we are cruising we often encounter other cruisers that
we’ve met before, usually in the same season when we are all doing more or less
the same routes. There are however, some completely unexpected encounters that
make you reckon ‘wow, it’s a small world’. This season so far we have had 3 of
these encounters. It is always very special to find people you’ve met in
another time in another world.
Our first surprise came one day when we were walking the
docks at Port Mosselle marina back from the regular visit to the doctor treating
Oscar’s spider bite. Docked a couple of berths away from Zenitude was Akka, with
our German friends Andrea and Andreas. What a wonderful surprise! We initially met
them in San Blass, Panama in 2010 when we were all sailing around these
wonderful islands of the Kuna Yala Indians. We were together again in Shelter Bay Marina while getting ready for the crossing of the Pacific Ocean, sharing all
the hectic times to get ready for transiting the canal. We crossed the Pacific that same year, but we
were always a bit ahead of Akka and even when we kept in touch for a while by
email we never met again until now.
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| Akka at Port Mosselle (behind little Emma) |
The second encounter was even more surprising as it happened
in a more secluded place. We were arriving to the Aore Resort in Luganville to
pick up one of their moorings. The Aore Resort has 4 moorings for visiting
yachts, only 2 were taken and as we approached to grab a free one we couldn’t
believe Sea Fury was just there. The special thing about Sea Fury with Roger on
board is that we met for the first time somewhere in the big Pacific Ocean in
2010, 1500 miles away from any land on our second week sailing from Galapagos
to Marquesas. It was then so unreal to see a white sail in the horizon as it
was unreal to find her again 3 years later in a Luganville mooring. Check our
website Home page to see the picture that Roger took of Zenitude back then and the
page “Galapagos to Marquesas” for more pictures and the complete story. Here is a picture of Sea Fury now:
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| Sea Fury at the Aore Resort moorings |
What can we say of the third encounter? We are moored at
Port Vila and behind us there is a Swiss flagged boat, Miami. The day before
leaving we go ashore, introduce ourselves to George and Ute from Miami and join
them for happy hour drinks. George is unbelievable with languages, he speaks German
and English as well as perfect Spanish, perfect Portuguese, Italian and we don’t
know what else. Ute somehow follows the conversation in any of these languages.
He has lived in Rio during same years we
lived there. They crossed the Pacific 2 years ahead of us. The amazing part of
the story comes next day when we dinghy our way to Miami to say good bye to
George and Ute. George has recalled back from his memory that we actually met
in Bundaberg 3 years ago at a Melbourne Cup lunch in Bundaberg, recalling that
Oscar had picked up the winning horse becoming very popular among the cruisers that
followed his lead.
It is indeed a big ocean, but still, it’s a small world!
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| Zenitude sailing somewhere in the big ocean |
G.
Friday, 16 August 2013
Back in French territory, arriving at Noumea
When a weather window opens for a passage the advise is 'go' and that is what we did when the forecast showed a week of settled weather and light trade winds. We are now arriving at Noumea on a gorgeous day after a good passage from Port Vila. It seems that we have got ridden of all spiders on board so this time we are planning a good 'going around' the many reefs and beaches nearby Noumea once we have rested and completed clearance procedures at Port Mosselle marina.
G.
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G.
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Friday, 9 August 2013
Luganville and back to Port Vila
The week in Luganville went flying while enjoying life moored at the lively Aore resort. Staying at one of their moorings you get a bit of resort life, it is good value for money, prices are not too bad. They have a nice swimming pool, a beautiful beach, an excellent restaurant and are very accommodating with any needs you may have. This resort is in the Aore Island just across town of Luganville and has a ferry several times a day to town.
The main attraction in Luganville is scuba diving the wrecks from the Second World War that are scattered very close to shore just out of town and the main diving site is the US President Coolidge, a huge cruise ship that was converted into a military carrier for American troops and sunk next to shore after taking the wrong entrance into port and hitting a couple of mines intended for Japanese war ships. Oscar enjoyed 7 dives to several parts of the ship. They are quite difficult dives as you traverse different compartments on the ship and some of them with depths up to 65 meters, therefore, it is advisable to use a good and responsible dive operator. He did all the dives with Allan Power, absolutely fantastic and no doubt we do recommend him to anybody looking to dive in Luganville. Allan has an excellent organization to dive the Coolidge, with very good and experienced guides. They evaluate your diving skills with easier dives before taking you to the difficult ones. Diving the Coolidge was a long time dream for Oscar and he was thrilled he could finally do it. A fantastic experience that if you ask him about it, get ready for hours of story telling.
Luganville is the turning point of our trip and from there we started our way back on Wednesday when it seemed that the weather was right for the trip. We decided to take the route on the east side of Malakula Island and sailed a first leg to a very nice and quiet anchorage, Uri Island in Port Stanley, to rest for the night. As Oscar was looking at the mangroves on shore and thinking on a dinghy ride to see if we could get a mud crab for dinner, a local lady on a canoe showed up trying to exchange a grapefruit for a tee-shirt. She said one of her 4 sons could get a 'big' mud crab for us. All enthusiastic she goes back and soon we see a guy going into the mangroves with a bag. Not long after that a live big crab materialized for us and not having the heart to bargain with this poor people we paid market price for it and had a nice crab dinner.
At 6:00 AM next day we left for the second part of the trip. We must have chosen the right window by luck as the weather had little to do with the forecast and we did a very slow and painful first half and a very fast and quite ok second half entering Port Vila at 6:00 AM this morning. Now moored at Port Vila we are having horrible squally weather thinking it is good to be in port. It will be pizza night tonight.
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| At a mooring in beautiful Aore Resort |
The main attraction in Luganville is scuba diving the wrecks from the Second World War that are scattered very close to shore just out of town and the main diving site is the US President Coolidge, a huge cruise ship that was converted into a military carrier for American troops and sunk next to shore after taking the wrong entrance into port and hitting a couple of mines intended for Japanese war ships. Oscar enjoyed 7 dives to several parts of the ship. They are quite difficult dives as you traverse different compartments on the ship and some of them with depths up to 65 meters, therefore, it is advisable to use a good and responsible dive operator. He did all the dives with Allan Power, absolutely fantastic and no doubt we do recommend him to anybody looking to dive in Luganville. Allan has an excellent organization to dive the Coolidge, with very good and experienced guides. They evaluate your diving skills with easier dives before taking you to the difficult ones. Diving the Coolidge was a long time dream for Oscar and he was thrilled he could finally do it. A fantastic experience that if you ask him about it, get ready for hours of story telling.
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| Diving the US President Coolidge, accessible from the beach |
Luganville is the turning point of our trip and from there we started our way back on Wednesday when it seemed that the weather was right for the trip. We decided to take the route on the east side of Malakula Island and sailed a first leg to a very nice and quiet anchorage, Uri Island in Port Stanley, to rest for the night. As Oscar was looking at the mangroves on shore and thinking on a dinghy ride to see if we could get a mud crab for dinner, a local lady on a canoe showed up trying to exchange a grapefruit for a tee-shirt. She said one of her 4 sons could get a 'big' mud crab for us. All enthusiastic she goes back and soon we see a guy going into the mangroves with a bag. Not long after that a live big crab materialized for us and not having the heart to bargain with this poor people we paid market price for it and had a nice crab dinner.
At 6:00 AM next day we left for the second part of the trip. We must have chosen the right window by luck as the weather had little to do with the forecast and we did a very slow and painful first half and a very fast and quite ok second half entering Port Vila at 6:00 AM this morning. Now moored at Port Vila we are having horrible squally weather thinking it is good to be in port. It will be pizza night tonight.
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Friday, 2 August 2013
Malakula Island to Luganville
It was a very quiet and uneventful trip, motoring all the way in very calm seas. Very relaxing, good for a change. We arrived at the Aore Resort in Luganville, grabbed one of their moorings and sat to wait for the westerlies.
The resort has a nice restaurant and our first dinner there was excellent and reasonable priced. Oscar claimed he had the best dish at the restaurant since departing from Australia.
We are planning to stay here for a while to dive the US Coolidge and the One Million Dollar Point, the main objective for coming here.
G.
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The resort has a nice restaurant and our first dinner there was excellent and reasonable priced. Oscar claimed he had the best dish at the restaurant since departing from Australia.
We are planning to stay here for a while to dive the US Coolidge and the One Million Dollar Point, the main objective for coming here.
G.
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