New Caledonia - turtles, reef sharks, sea snakes and incredible coral
Current position: Port Moselle Marina, Noumea, New Caledonia, 22
16.8E, 166 25.9E
Places visited since previous (very, very long ago) update:
Ilot Ua 22
42.4S 166 48.5E
Ilot Maitre 22
19.8S 166 24.5E
Amedee Island 22
28.5S 166 27.8E
Ilot Atire 22
31.6S 166 33.5E
Baie de la Tortue, Ouen 22
27.4S 166 46.7E
Baie de Yate 22
09.2S 166 56.3E
Doueoulou, Lifou 20
55.3S 167 04.9E
Port Sandwich / Port Vila / Mele Bay, Vanuatu
Ahoy from the Good Ship Victoria! Life has been non-stop for the past few
weeks, first with our passage from Vanuatu to New Caledonia, and then with the
arrival of my sister, Rosie, who we were lucky enough to have on board for a
couple of weeks. Naturally, we were all
so excited to have her with us, that the pace of life on Victoria increased
dramatically, in our attempts to take her to wonderful places, show off how
well the boat sails, max out on the water-based sports, and party with our
friends in the evenings.. It is well
known that a “Gosling Day” consists of at least five different activities. I have to admit that five-a-day has been hard
to keep up since having children, especially as Angus prefers to function in a
slightly lower gear, but with Rosie here, we certainly got close.
Our final days in Vanuatu were wet, wet, wet! It rained non-stop for three days and we were
like drowned rats. We couldn’t dry out
our coats between soakings, the whole boat felt damp, and we all got a little
bit cold and fed up. We put off our
pre-passage deck checks and jobs for as long as we possibly could, and eventually
just gave up and did them in the pouring rain.
Thankfully, the weather finally cheered up the day that we set sail for
New Caledonia, and we set off merrily for the-200-mile passage to the island of
Lifou, New Caledonia. Other boats had
been worrying about the forecast, and that the wind angle was too tight, but we
were had full faith in Victoria and her seaworthiness, and were fairly relaxed
as it was “only a couple of hundred miles”.
We were not setting off on an optimal forecast, but the rally had
arranged to fly in the customs officials to Lifou for one day only, so if we
didn’t arrive by that day, we would have to sail much further to the capital
city, Noumea.
It turned out to be one of our worst passages. We were hard on the wind, with our sails
pulled in tight and the boat heeled over, meaning that moving around the boat
was hard work. Even worse than the angle
of heel were the side-on waves, which seemed twice the size of the predicted
1.4m, and they came at us relentlessly every five seconds. The majority were no match for Victoria; she
rose up them and slid gracefully down the other side. Some, however, proved more of an ordeal. They sprayed all over the foredeck. They broke over the coach roof. Some engulfed the entire boat, including the
unfortunate person in the cockpit. A few
times, the passing wave seemed to leave air instead of water behind it, and
Victoria would freefall briefly, before the sea caught her again with a huge
juddering crash. It wasn’t much fun.
We were lucky that the passage was only 40 hours long; food
preparation was an effort, cooking was verging on dangerous, and washing up was
almost impossible. Eloise slept in the
cockpit for the whole passage as she felt too sick when she went below. Jack slept in his usual bunk in the aft
cabin, and George – just to be on the safe side – slept on the floor in the
saloon. He prefers it there as it
eliminates any possibility of falling out of bed, but it makes it tricky for me
and Angus to move around the boat without treading on him.
We were all excited to reach the Island of Lifou, one of the
Loyalty Islands, on the south east coast of New Caledonia. We were equally amazed to see that the
landscape was dominated by pine trees and brick houses, with corrugated iron
rooves. We had become so used to coconut
trees and traditional village houses that the difference was remarkable. The other notable difference here is that, in
many places, visiting yachts are not really welcome. It’s political, and complicated, of course.. New Caledonia is part of France, but not
everyone here wants to be. There was a
long-awaited referendum last year, and those who wanted to become independent
lost the vote. The relationship between
the indigenous population, the Kanaks, and the European (mainly French)
population, is complex, particularly in the outlying islands. Tensions are high, and there have been some
episodes of violence, including a gun attack on an anchored charter yacht in
Ouvea, one of the Loyalty Islands, in May this year. We were advised to avoid some specific
places, and we have. The mainland –
Grand Terre – is no problem to visit, and there are numerous uninhabited
islands, so to avoid any issues, we have focused our sailing and explorations
in these areas.
New Caledonia is home to the second largest coral reef in
the world, after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The Southern Lagoon, off the south-west tip
of Grand Terre, is scattered with magical islands and white sand bars, all
surrounded by azure blue sea, fringed with the most incredible coral any of us
have ever seen, and teaming with fish, turtles and reef sharks. Rosie is such a fanatical snorkeller that it was
hard to keep her out of the sea when she was here, even at dawn and dusk, when
it is wise to take special care because it’s shark feeding time!! She even managed a swim with a baby whale in one bay. Jack was usually close behind; he has become our keenest junior snorkeller (aged three). He gets himself all ready, wetsuit (it’s a little bit chilly here..), flippers, mask and snorkel on, and over the side of the
dinghy he sploshes. And then he’s off
like a rocket wherever he wants to go, pointing at turtles and rays and fish,
signalling the divers “OK” sign with a big grin behind his mask. He won’t be steered in any direction except
where he wants to go, so we have to just follow him. Happily none of us have
come face to face with any aggressive sharks; a ten-year-old child lost their
leg in a bull shark attack in the marina here not long ago – the kids are taking
extra special care not to fall in the sea when they climb on and off the boat…
We had high hopes of Rosie becoming an expert windsurfer
while she was here, but it has been so windy that it was all we could do to get
in and out of the dinghy in some anchorages; inflating our paddle board on the
foredeck would not have ended well, never mind trying to attach a sail to it
and go windsurfing.. We have had 20-25
knots of wind most days, which has been a little challenging at times,
especially when trying to explore remote little islands with little protection
from the swell. Although she only
windsurfed once, Rosie managed plenty of kayaking, including the most memorable
trip, in Lifou, when she and Eloise (in a one-man kayak) were paddling hard
into a strong headwind, when they completely lost the plot and capsized. They were both laughing so much that it was
all Rosie could do to get back on board, and when she did she promptly
slithered off the other side, with the kayak flipping again as she went. Eventually they managed to recover their
composure sufficiently to clamber back aboard, and we continued our epic upwind
trip – dodging squalls, exploring caves and looking for an elusive beach. After anchoring behind a rock, picnicking in
the rain in the dinghy, and a bit of after-lunch cave snorkelling, we were all
so wet and cold that we gave up on the beach and headed back for the shelter of
Victoria.
The tiniest island we have visited here in the Southern Lagoon
was Ilot Atire. The co-ordinates are
above – have a look on google earth and you will see how tiny it is. It looked like a sand island, but when we
landed the dinghy we were glad we had all worn shoes, as it was all dead coral
and incredibly beautiful shells. We
walked around the island and picked up all the plastic – a whole shopping bag
full – depressing but not surprising.
The kids got going on their usual Survivor game, which was particularly difficult on this island with no vegetation or shelter. They found driftwood to wood to make a fire,
washed-up coconuts for fluid, shells and plastic bottles to collect rain water,
and were just hunting for hermit crabs and working out how to catch some fish,
when we noticed some sharky fins in the shallows nearby. We were able to wade out, shin-deep, and
watch black tipped reef sharks feeding on the reef just metres from us, which
was quite incredible. We snorkelled the
surrounding reef before dinghying back to Victoria and braving the swell to
climb back aboard. Shortly after us, a
sea snake arrived with his head out of the water, eyeing up Victoria’s swim
platform. Next thing we knew, he was
squeezing himself through the gap between the swim platform and the hull, and having
a rest in the sun. We were pretty
uncomfortable with him there – although allegedly their mouths don’t open far
enough to bite any part of a human, and they are not aggressive, their poison
is deadly, and there is no antidote.
Angus flicked our serpentine friend back into the sea with a stick, and I
think we’ll keep the aft cabin windows closed until we have left New Caledonia.
It was so wonderful to have Rosie on board – we tried to
persuade her to stay, and debated hiding her passport, but in the end we said
goodbye to her as planned yesterday. Now
we are into our final couple of weeks exploring New Caledonia before we start
to think about sailing back to New Zealand.
We have about ten days cruising, before we return to Noumea for our
pre-departure preparations. The rally
fleet will head south in the first good weather window after 18th
October, and as on the way up here, most of the wives and children are flying, while
the men are importing their friends from New Zealand to crew on the passage
home. We have debated taking an unknown
person on board to help us, but we figure it is probably easier to stick with
what we know, so Family Watson will be returning on Victoria without any
extras, unless any of you reading this are keen for an adventure – in which
case please do email us asap!!
Love to all back in Blighty, and so sorry that Brexit is
still ongoing…
Photos - 3G not good enough to add any to this blog so see instead:
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