Phase2: Lagoon North of Noumea

Saturday, 18 June to Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Our first night in the Noumea lagoon was spent at Ile Uere just south of Noumea and the Peel Island of Noumea as it is only a few miles from the marinas.

12 boats were here on Saturday night, 4 on Sunday and only 1 was left when we departed at 1000 on Monday. We were joined here by Shellac, Bruce’s Fusion 40 from Wollongong with Stan and Trish from Zoo as crew.

From here we sailed north under spinnaker the 17nm to Ile M’be Kouen a tiny speck of an island that several people had told us to visit. On the way Warren caught our first fish, an 82cm Spanish mackeral, which was very welcome as I was surprised by the price of fish at the local markets.

M’be Kouen was a delight with good snorkelling and a secure anchorage. I saw my first sea snake here – they are very common, poisonous but with such a small mouth they can’t do any harm.

We had the anchorage to ourselves each night and only a couple of power boats visited during the day. We did several laps of the island – it makes Lady Musgrave Island look enormous.

On Wednesday we motored to Ile Moro, 10nm away. We stopped at Ilot M’Bo on the way but the gap in the reef was hard to find and we didn’t want to get the dinghy stuck inside. Ile Moro was a mainland island, rocky but with some interesting caves and cliff faces. We kayaked around it and the neighbouring Ile Abu.

Only 1 other boat here, Eclat de Mer, locals who had limited English which was still much better than our French. They explained to us with a lot of pointing and some role play what the locals who arrived in their tinnies were gathering from the exposed reef each low tide. Various shells were either delicacies or would kill us. When a SE arrived we headed around the corner to Ile Ndukue for the night. The good thing about this part of the world is that there are dozens of anchorages that allow you to choose an anchorage for the expected wind and they are all only a few nm apart. We awoke Saturday morning to find a navy patrol vessel anchored nearby.

With the arrival of the predicted westerly, we upped anchor and headed for Baie des Moustiques (Ile Ducos). We had sundowners with a NZ boat, Sonath, who have cruised this area for 15 seasons, and discovered that Mosquito Bay was aptly named. We kayaked on Sunday morning and introduced ourselves to Richard and Sylvie from Lady Helen, locals that the L’Attitudes crew had met up this way. They came over for afternoon tea and after 3 hours we had had a comprehensive rundown of their favourite spots in New Caledonia.

Room for plenty of yachts in this bay

On Monday, we decided to go for a hike up the hills to see the wild horses of the island.

We followed a narrow goat track that we discovered was indeed made by goats. A herd of over 50 with long horned billy goats was sighted and luckily kept well clear. I had images of a Pamploma style running of the goats that would not have had a happy ending for us. Warren loved the hiking because there are no snakes in New Cal except for the previously mentioned sea snakes that are harmless. This makes for much nicer walking through the grass, although the horses and goats have kept it a reasonable length.

We enjoyed one of our nicest morning tea stops, watching the horses and admiring the view.

Looking East

After our walk we headed for Ile Puen, 6nm to the north and where we hoped to sit waiting for good weather to go to Ile Tenia, an island on the outer barrier reef that was a must see from all accounts. We joined the Sonath crew who had surfed the pass next to Ile Tenia before returning to this bay for the night. Apparently surfers come from far and wide to surf the lagoon passes as the long swells lack the crowds of the Gold or Sunshine Coasts. Unfortunately, we awoke today to overcast skies, showers and a NW wind so we headed to Iles Testard where we now sit waiting for good weather to go out to the outer reef, a few nm to the west.