Wednesday,
6 July to Wednesday, 13 July 2016
We
left the marina at 1200 and in very light W/SW winds motored to Ilot Bailly, 11
nm south of Noumea. This is a very protected anchorage that sits under the
impressive Mont Dore.
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| Ilot Bailly with Mont Dore across the channel |
Next morning, light winds again saw us motoring most of
the way to Ilot Casy, a small island in the middle of Baie de Prony with an
abandoned resort and a dog “Moose” who is fed by passing yachties.
We had been
warned so had bought some dog food but were surprised to find a pup with Moose
(and saw another, shier dog on another beach).
Moose led us on a tour of the
island for several hours, even showing us how he found sea cucumbers, dragged
them to shallow water with his paws and devoured the meaty portion!
We spent
the night at Rade de l’Ouest (West Harbour) as the wind was now a strong
westerly. Next morning, we motored 4nm to the Baie de Carenage in the head of the
bay.
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| Quiet morning at Baie de Carenage |
We spent 3 nights here as there are many walks and good streams for kayaking.
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| Not so hot springs |
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| Twin Falls |
There were several other boats around including the author of the “Rocket
guides” which are the cruisers’ bible for New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
On Monday,
we sailed down to Anse Majic which has a good walk up to the lighthouse on Cap
N’Dua and is a popular spot for whale watching.
All the walks in this area are
well marked but become treacherous in wet weather as much of the track is
slippery compacted red dirt.
The red is a result of the high mineral content of
the soils, nickel, which is extensively mined, cobalt and iron. There is a
large nickel processing plant that covers the eastern side of the bay but the
rest of the bay is slowly returning to its natural state after being mined and logged
to supply timber to the developing colony.
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| Trees |
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| No trees |
Wherever trees have been removed,
the red scars of erosion are evident. You can imagine Warren’s reaction to the
red mud on everything! On Tuesday we started to head back to Noumea, spending a
quiet night at Baie de la Tortue (Turtle Bay), Ile Ouen the site of another
closed resort.
It seems that some New Caledonian island resorts have suffered
the same fate as Queensland island resorts. Baie de la Tortue was beautiful and
while walking along the beach we met Tony and Ron off the 75 foot power boat, Capricorn. They told us there is great
fishing and snorkelling on the reefs. We also discovered they are from Raby
Bay, and in fact, we can see Ron’s boat Maverick
from our unit. It’s a small world sometimes. On Wednesday we sailed under
spinnaker the 28 nm to Noumea to see how Bastille Day is celebrated in New
Caledonia.
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