4th 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.
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| The jetty at Signal Island denotes a fish sanctuary. There are also Sea Eagles nesting in the trees. |
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| This rock has a rather interesting "formation" at Ndkue Island, North of Noumea |
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