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| South Coast . Walk to Cap Ndoua lighthouse. |
We spent a week exploring the Baie De Prony and enjoying this wonderful place. However, the food supplies were becoming uninspiring, so we needed to sail back to Noumea to restock and have a general clean up. There was almost no wind so we motored all the way, but the mountainous scenery slid past slowly on a beautiful sunny day and there wasn't many of those.
After spending our first night back anchored in the Baie de L'Orphelinat we organised to spend four nights in the Port Moselle Marina so that we could re-fuel, fill up the water tanks, do some food shopping and get rid of the mouldering pile of laundry skulking in the back cabin.
Olivia was accommodated on the visitors pontoon along with all the other visiting sailors. Most were Aussies and that night we went with 12 others to a Vietnamese Restaurant where we had our best sociable time since arriving in New Caledonia. The marina is in the centre of Noumea and very close to the fresh food markets, so we spent some time perusing the fruit and veges that were a huge improvement on the quality of produce in the supermarket. Much of the fresh produce in the supermarket I would not feed to my chooks (that is if I had any!)
We were beginning to consider a trip back to Aus and contacted Bob in NZ, but he advised that it would be at least a week until the weather was suitable. That worked out well as we wanted to do a trip to the north of Noumea and out to some of the sand cays in the lagoon.
North of Noumea 19th - 23rd June
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| Enjoying Baie Maa |
In the distance, north of Noumea, are some very high, rugged looking mountains and the further we went north the more impressive they became. Our first night was spent in Baie Maa, a picturesque bay surrounded by hilly, cleared farm land complete with beef cattle.
Across the bay we could see several villages dotted along the shore and bays, so the next day we motored across to Tiare, anchored off and took the dinghy to explore the canal development there. By the time we arrived back at Olivia the wind had piped up so we thought it a good idea to find a more sheltered anchorage in Baie Papaye for the night. Several other boats had the same idea.
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| Liz and friends at Timbia. More of those community dogs. |
On Friday the weather was calm and sunny so we motored further north to Ile Moro where we anchored for lunch and dinghied ashore to explore the reef and some interesting weathered limestone outcrops along the shore. This island seemed a little too exposed for a night anchorage so we decided to motor across the bay to Timbia, a settlement along the south side of the same bay. Watch out for the coral bombies here. The water is silty and it is hard to see where they are. We anchored twice as one of the locals informed us we were probably a little too close to a bombie for comfort.
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| Ile Moro |
Having sailed up the coast via the mainland we thought it would be a good idea to visit some of the coral cays in the lagoon on the way back to Noumea. We picked Ilot Ronde for lunch and Ilot Signal the next day. Ilot Ronde was typical of everyone's idea of a coral sand cay - beautiful white sand beach, crystal clear water and stunning coral. Ilot Signal was similar, but was covered in prickles like you would not believe - Gallon's Curse and Caltrop. It was a bit disappointing. While we were at Ilot Signal Met Bob contacted us to inform us that there was a weather window opening for passage back to Aus, so we motored back to Noumea for an early start for checking out and a quick shop for some more fresh food before a lunchtime start on Monday.
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| A bunch of flowers for Liz |
Checking Out 24th June
The day dawned dull and showery, no wind! Checking out is quite a process which includes a 5-6km walk to three different offices, those being Immigration, Customs and the Port Authority. They must be visited in this order. Most of the time we walked in the rain, not heavy, but enough to wet you through. Once all the documents had been stamped and handed over we made a quick trip to Johnston's Supermarket to get a few last minute stores. Lastly we stowed the dinghy on board, deflated and packed in her bag and tied down to the cockpit table. We were ready to go and it was still drizzling. A quick check informed us that the weather was OK for our trip.
Goodbye Noumea.
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| Sunrise, Baie De Prony |
The Trip Back To Australia 24th - 30th June
I will never do that again!!
We motored out of Baie De L'Ophelinat in the drizzling rain towards the Passe Dumbea. We continued to motor all afternoon and into the evening. During the night the wind blew up and soon became quite strong. By the morning the wind had really picked up and we had to put a third reef in the main sail and from then on until day 5 we sailed with the three reefs in the main and no other sail and with this configuration she maintained 5-6kts. From day 2-4 inclusive we had very strong winds which Peter estimated at 25kts at best and up to 35 - 40kts in strong gusts. The only saving grace here was that it was from behind the beam. By day 5 the wind had abated to 25kts, which was a huge relief and on the last day with Australia in sight the wind gradually died and for the last few hours we motored.
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| Day two. Things are starting to get lumpy! |
This was not the storm conditions you read about in various sailing tales, but it was horrible. Firstly, I think I gave Peter and I food poisoning with some meat stew (I don't really know what it was - hard to tell by the packaging!!) that I had cooked two days before and we ate on the first night. I didn't particularly like the look of the meat but thought that cooking it well with heaps of veges would be OK. Both of us spent day 2-4 intermittently throwing up over the side. We could not eat anything. Even the tiniest bit of food provoked another bout of vomiting. Peter has not been seasick for over 20 years and I have occasionally felt queasy, but never actually sick for much the same time. I think it was the meat.
It was relentless! The wind!! Day three dawned squally and raining with big swells and water continually dumping in the cockpit. The tops were being blown off the waves and whitecaps. We put the lee boards in the companionway and poked our head out every 20mins to keep watch. We made sure we had the ship alarm on the chart plotter activated and no-one would be coming from Australia in this, so that left fishing boats. Peter used the radar seriously for the first time and it was useful in these conditions. Visibility was poor, but it appeared no-one was out there with us. The only ships we saw were on the last day just off the Queensland coast.
When we felt able to eat again it was a matter of just grabbing anything from the cupboard that came to hand, usually biscuits and cheese. There was no way it was safe to prepare food. We had no hot drinks for most of the trip - too dangerous to boil water. Even drinking water had to be done from a bottle, or wear it. At one stage, when we were able to eat again we decided a cup of soup would go down well. Peter opted to make it and opened the overhead cupboard to get out the sachets. The sugar container had dislodged itself from it's spot and as he opened the door it fell out, hit the floor and deposited all of it's one kilo of sugar all over the galley floor. Try cleaning that up in those conditions!!!!
Olivia is a great little sea boat and we had no breakages. She sails so well on just a reefed main or a headsail alone. Her counter stern enables her to flip her bum up over those nasty following waves that are determined to poop her. Waves constantly whacked into her side making a sickening jolt and pouring a waterfall into the cockpit. For three days we sat, propped in the cabin or lying down. You can't do anything and I had too much time to think about things that might go wrong. Have I mentioned - I will never do that again!!
We opted not to go further on to Vanuatu, although Peter would have liked to, because I chickened out after our trip over. I did not want to get even further away from Aus when it was only Peter and I to bring Olivia home. Having Audrey with us on the way over made things very much easier. Having to front up for a watch every three hours in those conditions was hard.
Just to finish off our trip to Southport, we arrived at 1am and as we approached the Gold Coast Seaway entrance we noticed another boat entering just in front of us. It turned out to be Moor R & R. Lucas tells us in his anchorage guide that the Seaway readily breaks with the tide ebbing into a developed swell. We thought our arrival was timed quite well for slack low tide. Just as we steamed over the shallow part at the entrance a breaker picked us up and helped us in. Hairy to say the least!! We anchored in Bums Bay at 1.30am and fell into bed for a well earned, still, peaceful sleep.
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| Endless wilderness New Caledonia South |
Re-Entry 1st June
Sunday. Not a good day to ask officials to check us in. We waited in Bums Bay with the yellow Q flag hoisted and at 8am Peter rang Border Force to alert them to the fact that we had arrived. We had expected it to be Monday, but strong wind has the advantage of providing a quick trip. We were advised to make our way to Southport Marina when we had organised a berth on the Super Yacht pontoon which is also used for vessels in quarantine. Border Force turned up as we docked and proceeded to ask lots of questions and fill in all the relevant forms. No charge there! They then arranged for the Bio Security mob to come and do their bit. We were told it 'might not be today'.
Meanwhile we were unable to go ashore until Bio Security had done their thing. Luckily they dredged up an official who was able to come on a Sunday and he came and asked a lot more questions and inspected the boat. He took some food, but not much. We had in fact not stocked up too much in Noumea as we knew the drill here. He took a few eggs, vegetables and the rubbish. In all half a rubbish bag full. That cost $150 charged by the marina to dispose of it correctly. He took some photos and told us we were cleared to go, but that we would need an inspection as Olivia has a lot of internal wood fittings.
It was arranged that the boat would be inspected at Manly asap. That man duly arrived two days later and there was more questions and form filling. Then he inspected the boat, took photos and presented us with a bill of $230. We had only been to one country and were away for 8 weeks, so the whole process was not too onerous. Beware those who come from Asia, America, Africa etc, maybe over $1000 and a long wait while red tape, unlimited form filling, inspections etc which require approvals from more than one authority are processed. He was very chatty.
Olivia has been passed.
In Conclusion
I'm glad we went to New Caledonia. It was on the 'To Do' list and it was certainly an adventure. I loved Baie De Prony, the sand cays and exploring Noumea. The scenery is stunning. We found everyone helpful, especially the marina staff at Port Moselle, but, I will never do that again!
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| Tipplers on the way to Moreton Bay. Bliss! |
We are now berthed at Manly in the Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club for a month. Both Peter and I are going back to WA for a months holiday. We will be back here on 29th July to ready ourselves for the trip up the Queensland coast to Townsville where we'll probably keep Olivia for the summer.
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| Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club Marina |
