Sailing New Caledonia; Name It

29/7/2017

Canal Wodin, New Caledonia

Name It

Sadly, after nearly two months in New Caledonia (a French colony), my French language skills have not improved.

I engaged our yacht agent Herve in the briefest conversation yesterday and asked him how I was doing. Now you must remember that I am his customer, so it was in his interest to be extremely diplomatic.  He replied that my French was not perfect. He just neglected to say how far from perfect it was. Probably didn’t have time to measure that gap!

It doesn’t help with the names of places in New Caledonia a mixture between French and the local indigenous people known as Canack’s.

When asked where we are headed, we must reply that we are off to Uere.  I have heard Australian accents on the vhf radio pronouncing this place as “You ‘ere, you erey” or worse “you rear”. This bay has now adopted a new title with us. It is now simply known as where “Leanne had her birthday bash”.

Also producing a bit of difficulty are places such as UA, UE, UIE, UO and We. You’d think that these would be easy, but apparently if you just say it the way it is written you can get it quite wrong. One would’nt want to sail all the way to We, if we were supposed to be going to Ua (pronounced Wah…I think).

The one place I thought I was having no trouble at all with was Isle De Pins. I was even getting what I thought was quite a French sounding twist when I said to people that we had been down to Aisle de Pens.

That was until we had Tristan and Claudia from Frozzie over for drinks. Claudia is French. She grew up in the south of France and being a teacher, she did have a giggle, well quite a laugh actually, at my expense, as in my best French accent I announced that we would like to go back to the aisle of male genitals.

Since then, we have all tried to get it right. Some of our group are now saying Aisle De Parns, Others Aisle de Pahhns and I have even heard the odd Aisle de Porns, which would probably go with my Aisle De Pens.

Isle Amedee is another simple looking name, but, has had some interesting pronunciations offered up by we English speaking numpties. Armaidee, Ameddy and Aimdee are some that have been offered up. Goodness knows what these are interpreted as by French person listening to our radio chatter. Even poor old Island Mato has been called MARTO.

At the moment we are heading up Canal Wodin to meet a couple of boats at Isle Casy, which is hard to get wrong. But from there we may go to Gadji or Gudji depending on your take. Gadji or Goudji is on the ISLE OF PINES (That's my Australian Translation). That’s how I am saying it from here on, because maybe it’s just me, but I feel a little weird about inviting others to sail down to the island of the male genitals.

 

Sunset at Bay UA

Right 'ere at Bay Uere

The easy one, Isle Easy

Jetty at Isle Te Ndo (Signal Island)

The fantastic Baie De Oro

Sailing New Caledonia; Fruit Salad

Fruit Salad

A group of people gathered at the Gold Coast in Australia with the common aim of setting off on a sailing adventure to New Caledonia and Vanuatu. They had been gathered together by one man who had sailed this path quite a few times before, and wanted to share his knowledge and love of the South Pacific with others.

In the middle of May 2017, 40 people had assembled aboard their various vessels. Quite like all the ingredients put together to make a really good fruit salad.

While these folk all had one thing in common (they were looking for an overseas sailing adventure), that is pretty much where the common thread ended and the differences began.

The first thing that set the apples apart from the banana's  apart was the group itself. Some chose not to participate in the rally and go it alone, others felt that if it wasn't for the rally they would not be going.

The peaches and grapes were defined by the various types of vessels that the people participating in the rally were preparing to sail the 800nm journey. There were 10 catamarans, 9 yachts (monohulls) and a trimaran.

Into this rally salad there were passionfruit who had a wealth of sailing experience including crossing the South Pacific several times, to the pineapples for whom this would be their first time more than a few miles from the coast of Australia.

Probably the greatest mix of all, was the differing backgrounds of the fruits. From Farmers to Engineers, Teachers to Computer Programmers, Business Owners to Retired Public Servants, this group is a huge cross section of the general population. Even the age groups varied from Twenties to Seventies.

But you know what? Once you got to mixing this salad together, it really worked. On the 23rd May the mixing started with all vessels and their crew departed the Gold Coast Seaway at 0700hrs.  The vessels seemed to go in all directions as soon as they were out in the ocean.

After five, six or in some cases seven days at sea, the rally salad was thoroughly mixed together by the sense of achievement, having arrived in Noumea. Nowhere was this more evident than at the "arrival party" where the whole rally salad was served up, with the help of a French rock n roll band who cranked their amps right up as forty or so sailors let their hair down.

Since then the salad has got off in many different pieces. Some headed north to explore, others went south to see what they could see. But each time their paths cross, we can hear or see the genuine camaraderie between apples, passion fruit, bananas and strawberries. Wether its helping out with a technica boat problem, recommending a marvellous anchorage or even just bragging about seeing a whale, the feeling of belonging to the group is evident.

It was also very apparent when 8 boats and their crews came together, most went out of their way, to help celebrate Leanne's birthday.

Like the master chef's say, it's is the blend and the mixing of the distinct flavours the make this salad work and for that my friends I am going to give you a 10.





     

Sailing New Caledonia - Eating Chocolate cake

4^th July

Ndkue, New Caledonia.

The adventure we are having in New Caledonia is a bit like eating chocolate cake.

All participants on the Down Under Go East Rally have been in New Caledonia a month now, and I have been enjoying every day, one day at a time, each beautiful bay or Island at a time. Sort of like eating a chocolate cake one piece at a time, each piece as light and fluffy, each with a generous coat of sugary icing on the top.

Today, we are in the Northern end of New Caledonia’s amazing lagoon that is formed by a barrier reef. The island we are anchored off is called Ndkue. Ndkue forms a horeshoe shape on the northwestern side and we are anchored inside a beautiful bay sheltered by steep bushy hills of the island and fringing reef to the ocean. The sun is shining down on clear water, so clear we can see lines, bumps and holes in the sea bed from 6 metres above.

Leanne and I have done an explore around Ndkue by dinghy, finding it quite shallow, sandy and what we thought was a bit lifeless on the southern side. That was until we went out a bit further out in slightly deeper water, were a hundred or so bombies or underwater rock heads each seemed to support a colony of fish. It was as though each rock formation was a city. Each of these fish cities was home to a colony of blue, or green, or black and white striped fish. They would rush around and huddle together in the hundreds and then as we go past they spread out to go about their day again.

We could have easily missed this colourful show. If we had been an hour later the wind may have picked up, making it hard to see through the ripples. I reminded myself that this moment was the essence of our sailing adventure, which is, trying to live in the moment instead of thinking of it as time running out and trying to get to everything at once. If you like we are trying to eat our cake, one piece at a time instead of thinking about what is for dinner.

It’s not that easy to live in the moment for anyone. While we were there bobbing about in the dinghy, my mind went back to loved ones at home. How many of the people we care about are suffering from health, financial or other problems and they would all love to be here to see these little fish watching us as we watched them.

There are times however,  on our sailing adventure when thinking into the future is required. For example, for the twenty or so people we have met or been talking to at the daily get togethers and sundownners (5o’clockers) in New Caledonia, I think there are 40 or so opinions, ideas and philosophies on when, where and how to get to Vanuatu from here. I guess that will have to come into our thinking soon as visa, cruising permits and entery/exit arrangements have to be made well in advance.

To be honest though I can’t seem to get into the discussion about something that is a month and a half away. We are here in this beautiful bay enjoying the sunshine listening to the water lap on the hull. Much to my Mum’s disgust, I am having more chocolate cake regardless of how close to dinner time it is.

The jetty at Signal Island denotes a fish sanctuary. There are also  Sea Eagles nesting  in the trees.

This rock has a rather interesting "formation" at Ndkue Island, North of Noumea

Sailing New Caledonia - First 30 days Places we have been

Easy Tiger Sailing Adventures – New Caledonia

First 30 Days – The Places We have been

1.     Noumea – Baie l’Orphelinat. Our Arrival point, dropping anchor here on the 28^th May in about 10 metres of water.  Among half a dozen other rally boats, we had to anchor outside the “official” area that Anchoring is allowed. We fully expected to be told to move on from but the call never came, thank goodness. Also we were lucky that we had left before any westerly wind came in as the others reported that made it pretty horrible. This bay is behind a headland. On the other side of the headland is the Port Moselle Marina. It was a fair old hike in the dinghy. The bonus was that for a fee, you could securely tie up your dinghy right at the marina office from where it is only a modest walk into the main city which has all the shops and services you could possibly want.

Baie l'orliphant  is crowded and rolly.

2.     Baie De Prony – Baie Kaoris – (Anchored in 10 metres mud and rubble). After several days in Noumea and after attending the Down Under Go West Rally Arrival party which was a hoot, we headed south to Baie De Prony. As far upstream as we could get there is a beautiful bay named Baie de Kaoris. We sat there for a few days  with another rboat called Aqualibrium, in a millpond, surround by red hills, waterfalls and mangroves. There were tris to the hot springs, walk trails and several waterfalls to climb to the top of. We even managed to catch a couple of large Mud Crabs.

The fishing was good and the crabbing even better at Baie Kaoris

3.     Isle De Pins – Kuto Bay (4 metres in sand)– Having visited this bay via a cruise ship several years ago, it was exciting to think that Leanne and I had now sailed there on our own catamaran. There is a beautiful beach to walk, there is a small bar/restaurant and a short walk away, there are two shops selling basic necessities.

4.     Isle De Pins- Gadji (anchored in 2 metres of sand)- How lovely it is to arrive in the spectacular GAdji after a 2 hour trip that is not for the feint hearted. After weaving our way through (and over) reef and dodging bombies we foud perhaps one of the nost spectacular anchorages we have ever been in. The blue of the water, the rock formations (like Mushrooms), the snorkeling in the outer bay and the bonfires on the beach made this place really stand out as special.

Thanks to Clint Wooler for this great Drone shot of the Gadji Anchorage.

5.     Isle De Pins – Baie De Oro – (Anchore in 2 metres of sand) – All I can say about this anchorage is …wow. It was like we drove Easy Tiger straight into  a post card.  With tall straight pine trees, palms and ferns growing in the limestone that has been undercut by the bluest of waters, this lace was superb. The Meridien resort is right there on the beach plus a short walk up the dry river bed is the natural pools, where thousands of tame fish are happy to come up to you and say hi as you snorkel by.

6.     Isle Mato -  (Anchored in 8 metres sand an coral) – Anchoring in a trench between the reefs means there is no swell. A short dinghy at high tide to the actual island then a steep trek (maybe a climb) up to the top revealed some spectacular views of New Caledonia’s  southern lagoon. It would have been better to be there on a day when the weather was better.

The Crew From Lickety Split and Easy Tiger at Baie De Oro

Baie De Oro form Le Meridien Resort

7.     Isle Ouen, Baie Ua – (anchored in 5 metres sand) Probably not the prettiest place we have been but really good place to sit out the westerly. Still has palm trees and beach with steep red hills behind formed a nice backdrop, the water a dark green. We had bonfires on the beach until our camp site was taken over by locals with tents etc… Hope they appreciated the wood we stacked for them.

Loves a campfire, the first mate

The captain's ready for marshmallows!

8.     Baie De Prony – Ilse Casy – (On a mooring) This place was spectacularly pretty. Big palms and yellowish sand beach, with a jetty poking out to green tinged clear, clear water. A big spotted codfish swimming underneath our boat, and the sole occupant of the island, a dog named Moose, to keep us entertained.

Leanne (Easy Tiger) Julie (San Souci) and Amanda (Bossa Nova)  with Moose.

9.     Baie De Prony – Baie Carenage – (anchored in 10 metres mud) Around the bend from Kaoris, this bay has walking trails another hot springs and at least five rivers running into it. From here we dinghied down to Baie De La Somme and trekked to Prony Village.

Ruins in the village of Prony, from when it was a timber town.

10. Isle Maitre – (on a mooring) A beautiful island with L’escapade resort on it. For $3000 per week you can stay in one of their bungalows that is built right out over the blue water. Lot’s of little fish to see when you snorkel around the moorings.

11. Baie Maa  -(anchored 5 metres of sand) Anchored at the foot of steep hills covered in thick green foliage. Mountains in the background. No-one else here.

12. Isle MBE Kouen – (Anchored in 7 metres sand) The clearest blues water I have ever seen in my life. Looking at our anchor 7 metres down and I could almost read the brand.  Small little Island with a beach and a large fringing reef of pretty coral and lots of small fish.