Ile des Pins

Early this morning we left Ile des Pins after spending a wonderful week there. It's no wonder this is such a popular place. We were lucky that the weather was magnificent. The island is beautiful with the green vegetation, lots of pines, very white smooth sand beaches and turquoise clear waters. We stayed in Kuto and did 2 day trips to Ilot Brosse as the weather was very settled.

Fabulous Ilot Brosse 

Looking for the track to Nga

We did the track to Nga which is easy in an interesting forest but managed to loose the track before getting to the apparently breathtaking views. Anyway, it was a good walking exercise. Also we spent some time in Kanumera beach, another amazing bay with the famous rock that is 'forbidden to climb'. The rock seems to be falling in pieces that stay at the bottom in the clear waters of the bay, the trees manage to grow on the rock while their roots corrode the rock creating a beautiful effect.

Kanumera beach

Our last day was a bit of a disappointment as the big P&O cruise ship deposited thousands of tourists in this tiny place and our plan to rent a car and go around the island was crashed. There was no possible transport if you didn't have a P&O cruiser card and no cars left for renting. Oh well, something to do next time.

There were several cruising boats in Kuto and we met again with Retour. They mentioned that
with settled weather you can go with your boat to Vao, where there is the main village and a nice market for fresh produce that opens Saturday and Wednesday. Another activity left for next time.

Just after lunch we arrived at Kouare where we are at the moment.
G.

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At anchor in Ilot Uere

We left Port Moselle marina at lunch time and decided to come to Ilot Uere, which is just 6 1/2 miles from Noumea. It was a short but quite uncomfortable trip, by the time we arrived we had head winds blowing over 20 kn. The lagoon is shallow and gets very choppy with winds over 15 kn. The anchorage is protected from the swell however the wind gets thru and there is little protection despite what we read in our cruising guide. Fortunately the holding seems excellent and we are expecting the wind to abate later tonight.

The weather is not really inviting for any dinghy trip to the beach ashore so we are just relaxing on board. On top of it the beach does not seem very inviting either as there are plenty of stones where you expect to find sand, in other words, we are not quite impressed with this anchorage.

When we arrived we found Retour already at anchor here, we might catch up with them later if we decide to put the dinghy down in the water.

 Zenitude and Retour at anchor

Next day we had a chat with Retour and came to shore for a walk. We changed our minds about this place, finding it quite nice. Ashore we did a long walk and found mangroves along the way, a beautiful and peaceful scenery, amazing considering this is very close to Noumea. Our friends in Retour tell us that they've been in this anchorage in several occasions in strong winds and they never had a problem, with the holding being excellent.

Pebbles on shore but quite beautiful nevertheless

A quiet moment

The second night something happened. By sunset French Marines started arriving. Quite interesting, all of the sudden hundreds of marines had invaded this peaceful place. We had to assume it was for training purposes, no threats hiding in the mangroves it seems. As we left next day at sunrise, we didn't hang out to find out.

Marines start arriving

Beautiful Mangroves

G.

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Thinking on Ile des Pins

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. 

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.

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.

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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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.

Landing 

It doesn't get much better than that ....

G.

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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. 

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:  

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!    

Zenitude sailing somewhere in the big ocean

G.  

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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