Lagoon North of Noumea – Part 1

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.

Weather improving at Iles Testard

Noumea

Monday, 13 June to Saturday, 18 June, 2016
We tied up at our berth at Port Moselle and were met by Herve of Noumea Yacht Services who accompanied Warren to the office to check in, while Herve arranged for Immigration clearance (part of the Downunder Rally service).

Quarantine and Customs were advised of our arrival and we subsequently had a visit from a very nice Quarantine lady who took our fruit and vegies (and egg shells as I had cooked our last few eggs). She laughed when we said customs were coming next. No, she said, they are sleeping! No visit so after the required time were we allowed to go ashore.

Yachties meeting place

We spent our time in Noumea catching up with friends already here, finding the best bread shop, supermarket and sorting out some internet.

This proved to be an interesting challenge. We bought a card from Herve who helpfully set it to English language. We then started to see our credit slowly disappear when we were not using it. When I went to the post office to find out what was going on I was told that Africans from Mali had planted a virus on my phone that resulted in texts being sent to England (that we were paying for!). They kindly printed off the phone numbers. When I pointed out that the time of the texts was the same as the time I rang customer service I was told that “No those calls are free – it is the pirates!).

I got Herve to set the phone back to French and loaded some more credit. Gregory at the Post office was very helpful but assured me that the calls to customer service were free and that the texts were probably my iPhone texting England for updates to apps. I said I didn’t think this was likely and asked him to please not set the phone to English! (He was trying to be helpful).

Gregory was a good example of most of the people we have met. When asked if they speak English, they all say a little but in fact we are able to be understood most of the time with a little pointing and a lot of Merci (Thank you).

Exploring with Vicki and Tony

While in Noumea we also hired a car with friends, Tony and Vicki from L’Attitudes and drove around the countryside. This enabled us to visit some of the sights south of Noumea although some of the roads were a bit average.

Blue River Nature Reserve

We also visited the local Maritime Museum which had a great display about the last voyage of La Perouse whose ships were wrecked in the Solomons.

Today we stocked up at the local market and departed to spend a few weeks in the lagoon to the north of Noumea.

Coral Sea Crossing - Southport to Noumea

Tuesday, 7 June to Monday, 13 June 2016

We cleared customs at 1000 on Tuesday morning as planned and crossed out through the Seaway at about 1100. Songlines was a few miles in front and we set course for the first of MetBob's waypoints. Bob McDavitt (MetBob) provides weather forecasting and routing services and this was part of the reason we joined the Downunder Rally - Go East run by John Hembrow. Bob provided reports to John on Songlines who sent them to us as texts via our satellite phone. Bob had set a course taking us initially south of the rhumbline to Noumea so that we had a good sailing angle when the SE wind came in late in the trip. At noon we were 767 nm from Amadee, the entrance into the Noumea lagoon we would be using.

Songlines departing SYC

We had a 15-20 knot westerly so we made good progress during the day and stayed in contact with Songlines on AIS. At nightfall, we put in a double reef and had a comfortable first night at sea (even though the wind got up to 25 knots and we had a 2m swell) as the wind was coming from astern. I was feeling a bit queasy so ate carefully - apple and dry Jatz for lunch. Warren was cook the first few days until my tummy settled and he did a great job.

By 1000 on Wednesday we had set the spinnaker in a lightening SW wind which was dead astern so we had to gybe downwind. By midday we had covered 150 nm in the previous 24 hours and were now 632nm from Amadee.

By 1530 we were motoring in a light SW and settled in for a quieter evening, we even watched a movie to pass the time on watch (checking every 20 minutes that no other boats were around). We didn't see any for the next 4 days until we approached Noumea.    

Thursday dawned as a beautiful day but with no wind so we continued to motor. At noon  we had covered another 148nm  and were now 513nm from Amadee. At 1220 we raised sails and motorsailed for a few hours before dropping sails again on Thursday evening. Warren pulled out the jib when a light NW wind came in about 0200 on Friday.

When the sun came up, we gave the motor a rest, set the spinnaker, and made good progress to our final waypoint before altering course to Noumea. The Friday noon summary showed another 148 nm covered and Amadee now 371 nm away. We were making steady progress even when motoring on one engine. With the wind forecast to die again overnight we dropped the main at dusk and settled in for another quiet evening.

By Saturday morning, we had 266nm to go, so needed to make great time if we wanted to get to Amadee in daylight on Sunday. A 200nm day was needed – a possibility if the SE came up as predicted. We changed to the genoa, altered course to head directly to Amadee at last and waited for the wind while still motoring along. A frustrating day with wind around the 5 knot mark all day. By nightfall we were back to motoring with a double reef (still waiting for the SE change). When it finally arrived just before midnight, we got sailing again and killed the motor.

On Saturday morning, we realised we were not going to get to the lagoon before it got dark so we started to reduce sail. 8-9 knots under double reef and jib was slowed only slightly when we went to the third reef. At this point we need to average only 5 knots for the last 24 hours so we went to our storm jib, a tiny sail that still had us reaching 7 knots at times in the 25 knot SE winds.

We dropped the main altogether at dusk and tried to sail with just the storm jib but the seas were now up around the 2.5 to 3m mark and the auto pilot was struggling to stay on track. We started a motor and had it just ticking over all night to keep us under 5 knots. It was a very uncomfortable night – no movies - and waiting for light so we could enter the lagoon.

We arrived at the Amadee waypoint at 0600 as planned and were glad to see the seas calm a little as we sailed up the lagoon to Noumea, arriving at 0900 after 877nm in 142 hours.

A big thank you to Peter Mott (Northland Radio in New Zealand) who we reported our position to daily and who relayed MetBob weather and routing reports via HF radio. Also thanks to the good folk at Charleville Radio who also took our position reports and passed them on to our son, Ben who kept our family informed of progress and updated Skipr for us.

PS. Songlines arrived on Sunday morning, avoiding the rough night at sea - the advantages of a 50 foot cat!

Time for a new adventure

This morning at 0745 we cast off the lines and left Raby Bay to begin our cruise for this year. With Mum waving goodbye we headed off on what will be our biggest trip yet - New Caledonia and Vanuatu. We plan to be away about 5 months and Warren has the boat in top condition. Apart from the usual maintenance, we have replaced our trampolines, lifelines, anchor and chain - none of which you want to fail while away.

We hope to leave from Southport Yacht Club on Tuesday in company with Songlines, a 49 foot Ocean catamaran, provided the weather abates as is forecast. The crossing is about 790nm and we expect it to take 6-7 days.

Readers from around SE Qld will know that we have had some terrible weather the last few days. We had a quick sail down here today, covering the 35 mn in 5 hours. One reef in the main was perfect for the fresh westerly. If the forecasters have it right then the wind and swell should ease tomorrow and Tuesday. As we went past the Seaway today, large breaking waves covered the entrance and no one was going in or out. Let's hope the forecasters have got it right.