Friday, 22 June to Monday,
2 July 2018
On Friday, we rounded Ile Tiya and began the trip south down
the west coast of Grande Terre. We had originally planned to go further north
to the Belep Islands but with SE winds for the foreseeable future, we decided
not to add another 25nm to the 200nm to Noumea.
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| Time to head south - rounding Ile Tiya |
We had lunch at Ile Neba but when the wind went around to
the south a nasty swell came around the corner. We motored 6 nm to Ile Yava,
another picturesque anchorage. We spent 2 days here and enjoyed a long kayak each day.
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| Ile Yava |
On Sunday afternoon, we motored 6nm to Poum to buy some
bread and petrol. One small shop and a larger, more modern one at the service
station, which unfortunately was out of petrol for the outboard and generator.
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| Poum wharf |
Saraoni, who we had met at Touho, caught
up with us here and they got some great photos as we left Poum on Monday.
With
the south easterly winds set in, and no cruiser liking to sail to windward, we
are happy to sail shorter legs to slowly eat away at the distance to go to
Noumea. So today was 15nm to Ile Tanle. 2 nights here with just the chooks ashore
for company.
On Wednesday, it was 35nm to Koumac, one of the larger towns
in the Northern Province. We stayed 4 nights in the marina here, a chance to
give the boat a good clean and use the very reasonably priced washing machines
and dryer. Quite a treat after hand washing.
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| Phase2 and Saraoni (South Coast 36 Ketch) on the visitors pontoon |
The town is 2 km inland from the marina so we rode our bikes
to the tourist information and practised our French. Most of the people we met
have no English, unlike Noumea where they all say they have “a little” but
actually understand most of what we say. The butcher enjoyed my attempts at
French – they all go to the same charm school it seems and the meat was good
quality.
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| Good bike lanes on one street! |
On Friday, we rode to the Koumac Grottes, caves about 10km
from the marina.
Free entry and a lovely park to enjoy a cup of tea. You can go
over 380m into the big cave although we only did about half of that distance.
Pitch black but our headlamps showed the limestone formations.
On Saturday, we took a tour of the old mining village of
Tiebaghi with a guide Gizelle who sadly spoke no English. As we were the only
ones on the tour, we relied on Google translate. We did work out that Gizelle’s
grandfather had come out from Italy to work in the mine in the 1930’s. The many
single Italian men were housed in a 3 storey building, well away from the
married women!
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| View from the village |
Italian, Javanese, Vietnamese, Japanese and French all had
separate areas in the village built on the side of the mountain. Her parents
also worked and lived here. The village was home to 2000 people including the 600 miners.
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| Club still used for weddings and baptisms |
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| Bakery could make 600 loaves per batch |
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| Well equipped hospital |
During the war the mine was the largest producer of
chromium in the world as well as producing nickel. The village was abandoned in
1964.
Saturday afternoon was the weigh-in for the local fishing
competition. About 20 boats competed and the winning boat had caught over 400kg
of tuna.
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| Gendarmes supervising the weigh-in |
On Sunday morning we left Koumac and sailed 21nm to Baie de
Gomen. Nothing here except another mine and wharf. We were surprised to discover
that the ships cannot get in to the wharf as the bay is too shallow and the
nickel is transported to the ship outside the bay in barges.
Seems a very
inefficient process! Luckily they weren’t working on a Sunday as they load all
night.
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| Baie de Gomen |
Next stop was Baie de Chasseloup, a much more picturesque
bay with a Nautical Centre. Schoolkids had been out sailing in their Optomists
as we sailed in and we chatted with the instructors after going ashore for a
walk.
The dive instructor said just outside the reef was some of the best
diving in New Caledonia.
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| Circled twice looking for a way to get onboard! |
Baie de Chasseloup is 128nm from Noumea and is the
last anchorage in the northern lagoon. From here we have to go outside the
barrier reef to continue our circumnavigation.
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