Noumea First Week 16th - 25th May 2019

Checking In

 



Baie  De L,Orphelinat  Anchorage

We arrived in the Baie De L’Orphelinat and dropped the anchor outside the other moored and anchored boats and as instructed by Customs stayed on board for the rest of the day. The relevant offices closed at 11.30am so we could not check in till Thursday. We didn’t mind as after our strenuous sail from Aus we needed some down time.

Next morning we set off to do the official business of checking in and dinghied to a marina on the south side of the bay where we were directed to Port Du Sud Marina to look for the Capitainerie (Harbourmaster, Marc) who would complete some of the process with us. We filled out forms for Customs, Immigration and Quarantine which took some time and cost $50 Aud. We also organised with Marc to rent space for docking the dinghy for two weeks (about $100 p/w) as there appeared to be nowhere to park her. The only dinghy docks are in Port Moselle and here, and both are pay docks. The waterfront around this harbour is lined with rock walls and we have been told to be very careful where we leave the dinghy. So, we paid up and it has been very convenient and also gives us a key for the showers and laundry.

After completing business with Mark, Peter had to meet the Quarantine official and take him out to inspect the boat. He took all our fresh food, not much, because we had eaten most of it. It was raining hard, but luckily the Quarantine man was young and didn’t appear to mind his journey in the rain. Meanwhile Audrey and I decided if we got a taxi we could make the Customs in the centre of town before they closed at 11.30 am. We must have just made it and finally all the official business was done.

The rain was still coming down steadily as we walked back to Port Du Sud. I started out with an umbrella, but soon discarded it as no-one here takes any notice of the rain and goes on as if the day is fine and sunny. I didn’t want to look out of place so the brolly went in the bag and I joined the locals in the rain. Aud and I found our way back to the marina without much effort and then joined Peter for lunch at the Le Bintz restaurant where we had curried prawns and fish. We had earned it!! Le Bintz is rated as one of the top 10 in Noumea. We go there every day for drinks or coffee and to make use of Alex’s Wi-Fi.

Noumea

We are still anchored in Baie De L’Orphelinat because the weather for the first nine days ranged from windy to very windy, from the SE (trade winds), with intermittent rain showers. There was no reason to leave our cosy anchorage as we had Noumea to explore. We have walked around most of this city and explored the harbour, Port Moselle, the city centre, markets, the cathedral, war memorials and resort beaches in the Baie des Citrons. We even walked around to the north-west side of the Port Moselle Harbour to the chandleries. Lucky Aud and I. That was Peter’s choice.

Our organisation for communication with the outside world has not gone according to plan. Both Aud and Peter set up an international roaming day pass which they both thought included Noumea, but when we arrived discovered that it did not. Consequently we have been very careful with phone calls and emails etc. Peter arranged his with the help of Telstra in Albany and they will be getting a serve when we get back. Audrey has bought a local cheap phone and sim card and we have been using that to phone home.

Sim Card

After Aud purchased the phone we had to find a Post Office to buy the relevant sim card. We had some directions from the phone shop lady, but as it was in French we ended up a little confused. I decided to look on the tourist map which had little envelopes to designate where to find the PO. When we reached the envelope we thought was on our intended route – no PO. More directions from locals only served to confuse the issue further. Then someone said it was on Av du Mar Foch. Finally, an hour or so later we ended up almost where we began on Foch Av at the Foch’n Post Office.

Out comes the Sun

The weather changed for the better yesterday, after a rainy, gloomy start. We booked a ferry ticket for a ride to Ilot Maitre for the day and were disappointed when we awoke to heavy rain and gloomy skies. Just our luck we thought! The island is only 3.5m from the harbour and not long after we arrived, the sun came out and the day turned into a beautiful, picture post card, glorious day – our first here. All of a sudden the place lit up and we swam with the fish and ate our sandwiches on the beach in the sunshine. The anchorage here is very crowded and we did not want to lose our spot, hence the ferry trip.

 

Liz and Aud enjoy the sun at Ilot Maitre

 

Car Hire

We will never do that again! It seemed like a good idea. Hire a car for the day and drive down the coast and then inland to Lac de Late. The roads are narrow, everyone drives much faster than the limit and it is all on the wrong side of the road. We never made the lake, but did see some of the coast to the south as far as Plum. It is very scenic and mountainous. The whole back drop here is mountains, where dark, ominous clouds collect in the evening and send showers down most nights.

Final Thoughts

·         When the sun comes out Noumea and surrounds are picture postcard perfect.

·         The coffee is not to our taste, although Peter is getting used to it. We have resorted to Mac Donalds for coffee at times. Alex at the Le Bintz Restaurant makes a nice latte for us. At one patisserie Peter asked for a large coffee for each of us, complete with hand signs. The young lady served our coffee, which was in large paper cups, however the amount of coffee in there was the same and it was only half full!! We tried!

·         We bought some almond croissants and will never do that again, so sweet and like over-dosing on marzipan. We all felt sick for the rest of the day.

·         There is very little room to anchor in this bay or Moselle Bay due to boats on moorings and at anchor. The marinas are full. Every man and his dog must own a boat here.

Peter at the old gaol

 

Au revior Australie   8^th – 15^th May

On Tuesday ‘MetBob’, our weather Guru from New Zealand, gave us the go ahead for our sail to New Caledonia. One small comment in his forecast did not necessarily impress itself upon us as it should have, due to our desire to get underway – ‘it’s not going to be entirely comfortable but this seems to be the best for this week.’ The email was long and the description of weather systems detailed so this statement was glossed over somewhat. He gave us way points to sail to and this involved doing a loop to the south to pick up favourable winds. We ended up covering 920nm in 6 days 23 hours and 20 minutes. MetBob gave us a time of 7 days and 59 minutes. Hey! Not bad! We were impressed with MetBobs forecast and our own sailing ability.

We spent two nights in the marina at Southport gearing up for departure and Border Force arrived at 9am Wednesday to clear us out. This was a relatively simple procedure that took less than an hour and then we were on our way. The day was magnificent and we sailed in a gentle northerly all day, Australia gradually disappearing behind. Day 2 continued fine and mild until the late afternoon when the wind turned East and began to push us off course – not so comfortable sailing close to the wind.

On day 2 we reached our first way point near the Brisbane Sea Mounts and we turned E/SE towards way point 2 just north of Middleton Reef. On Friday the frontal system caught up with us and grey overcast skies and stronger winds meant we were experiencing a boisterous sail. No hot drinks, too dangerous. I was feeling queasy as the wind turned even harder on the nose from the SE. Saturday followed a lumpy, windy, squally night where dinner was 3 minute noodles.

By Saturday the wind had swung to the south and the swells had picked up to 3.5m and swamped the cockpit in spray and occasionally dumped a big greenie in as well. Audrie seemed to catch the brunt of that! Unfortunately the rest of the trip followed this pattern. Strong, gusty winds, bigger swells than I liked to see, squally, grey skies with a patch of sun here or there and generally thoroughly uncomfortable.

Audrey and I compared bruises. We both looked like we had been dropped in the cement mixer. It felt like that too, actually. At one stage Peter took a full on dive over the table and landed head first in the bookshelf. That alarmed us and reinforced the adage, ‘one hand for the boat and one for self.’  Audrie and I decided that toast and vegemite was all we could contemplate cooking one morning, but it took two of us to manage it. The toaster required someone to hold it on the burner and even then the toast resembled something that a seagull had shat on rather than evenly spread vegemite and butter. Way point 3 had us turning further north and this alleviated the discomfort a little as we sailed just off the wind.

One interesting thing that happened out there in the middle of nowhere, was that we saw a ship turn up on the chart plotter. On examining the AIS info we discovered it was a tanker bound for NZ. It was not on a collision course, but quite close so we kept a good eye on it and eventually saw it passing in the distance. Then suddenly it turned at right angles and headed straight for us again. This was concerning. A ship in the middle of nowhere altering course towards us makes one feel very vulnerable. We kept our eyes on the chart plotter for several minutes and were very relieved when it again turned on its original course away from us.

Considering the conditions we had only two minor breakages. One was the top batten broke free from the batten car on the mainsail and then so very close to our destination one side of the lazy jacks broke free making it more of a challenge to drop the mainsail. The only other problem was when Aud discovered a leak through the deck had saturated one side of her bed forcing her to relocate to the main cabin.

Wednesday: 6 days, 23 hours and 20 minutes saw us entering the Boulari Passage into the lagoon and on our final approaches to Noumea. This was definitely not a comfortable passage, but not overly concerning given the prevailing wind conditions. The boat handled it well and we all have full confidence in Olivia’s seaworthiness.

 

Sailing Olivia 2019

A New Sailing Season Begins      26th April - 3rd May 2019

Scarborough Marina



The sun rises on a new day and a new sailing season, Scarborough Marina

Karin dropped me off at Perth Airport at 9.30pm ready to board the midnight flight to Brisbane, then on to Scarborough Marina where Olivia had been residing for the summer. Peter had gone ahead 5 weeks earlier to do some routine maintenance, such as antifoul the hull, service the motor and install a new echo sounder. He also had some jobs to do for me, mainly find a bicycle shop that could sell us some fold-up push bikes. I have been wanting one of those for a while now. He also had friends Robin and John from WA join him for a fortnight of exploration from Moreton Bay down to the  Gold Coast.

At Perth Airport I met Audrey, a sailing companion of many years, who was taking 5 weeks off work to help us sail Olivia to New Caledonia. We have planned to go to New Cal for some time and this year is the one! Our plans are to set sail for New Cal as soon as the weather allows and if time permits perhaps do Vanuatu as well, before heading back to Townsville later in the year. We have been in contact with Bob, the weather guru, from New Zealand, who is renown for his weather routing advice for sailors transiting the Pacific Ocean. We were anticipating a departure today, Friday 3rd May, but Bob tells us that strong headwinds are expected in a few days, so we are staying put for now.

Scarborough Marina is a good place to leave Olivia over the summer as it is one of the cheaper marinas in Moreton Bay and it has an excellent lift out facility for maintenance. The staff are friendly and the amenities clean, fuel jetty accessible at high tide (for us), and the shops are an easy bus ride or long walk away, depending which takes your fancy.

Audrey grazing on fungi on the way to the shops!
Actually she was taking an artistic photo. 

Our walk to Redcliff took us along the seafront for five kms of parkland and on the way we discovered that the Faraway Tree is actually in Australia. I knocked on the door, but no one was at home.

We found the Faraway Tree.  It's at Scarborough!

A Trip To Brisbane

We had a spare day so we decided to take the train ride into Brisbane city to find the AEC Office so that we could do our absentee votes and get that little job out of the way. Having accomplished that we found a money exchange and purchased some petty cash for New Caledonia. Our $200 turned into 13,000 SPF. We could easily be multi-millionaires there!!! After the conclusion of our business we decided that lunch on the South Bank was in order and we enjoyed a leisurely walk through the parkland.

South Bank

 

Having accomplished all we wished to do in Brisbane City we made our way to Central Station to catch the train back to Kippa Ring, then the bus onwards to Scarborough. Things did not go according to plan. Firstly the bike shop rang Peter and informed us that the folding bikes had not yet left Melbourne and would not arrive in time for our departure to New Cal. Big disappointment!!! Order cancelled! Then when we were still five stations short of our destination an announcement informed us that there was a problem with the overhead power lines ahead and that passengers would have to disembark and continue by bus to our destinations. I won't swear here, but we did.... However, buses were quickly provided for us to continue our journey, although somewhat extended due to traffic building towards rush hour. Finally as we arrived at Kippa Ring Station as our 699 bus pulled away before we could get off the train/ bus. Damn!!


Folding Bikes Arrive

Hooray!! Postponement of our departure date has meant the bikes are here.
The folding push bikes arrived yesterday evening, after much anguish because we thought they would not make it before we left. They had to come from Melbourne. The postponing of our departure date meant that the bike shop could get them to us just in time. They look beautiful and I can't wait to get on them and go for a spin. We had better read the instructions as the one we took out to try, definitely did not go back in the bag quite like it was packed before. We all had fun trying it out on the pontoon, scaring the onlookers as we wobbled our way along. Something about a narrowish walkway, water each side, made me nervous.



Maiden Ride: Spectators Audrey, John, Colin & Issy

Peter had already made friends with John (English) and Colin and Issy (Scottish) who were berthed either side of us. Both of these boats are on their way to Thursday Island for the Indonesia Rally leaving later in the year. Such interesting people, with world sailing experience make us feel mere novices. We have had a great time socialising with them and other yachties from France, USA and Canada who have sailed in here and briefly shared time with us. It has been sad to say goodbye this morning as we departed for Tangalooma Wrecks on the western side of Moreton Island before motoring (probably) south to Southport, on the Gold Coast, where weather permitting, we hope to check out next week.

My first blog for 2019 will have to contain a big thank you to John who ferried us to the shops for our stores, in his hired car. Also to Issy and Colin for being such good neighbours at the Scarborough Marina during our short stay. Safe Sailing friends and hope we catch up some day.



Audrey has a go