Isle de Pins

We are back in this most beautiful island enjoying a quiet time and waiting for what we call a weather window so we can set off to New Zealand. We could go pretty much anytime this week but are waiting for the perfect window which of course we will never manage to do but enjoy it here so it is tough to leave. So will open another bottle of wine and enjoy a few more sunsets which are perfect from here. We have not had temperatures below 25C for a long time and looking at the NZ weather we will be needing shoes, socks and sweathers. When we do get down to NZ we will be heading back to Canada and hope to be there at the end of November so that will be very cold for us. Today is Halloween and we have talked to three of our grand children, two who are old enough to be very excited about going out trick or treating. I imagine that they will be rather wired tomorrow with all the candy.  I will try to remember to let you know when we leave as it will take us five or six days to complete the passage.

Back in Noumea

bring the baguettes home in Lifou

Floating on air in Ovea

Marian on the beach with no one on it

Dinghy floating behind Kilkea

Yes another sunset

From the Isle du Pines we sailed up the east coast of New Caledonia stopping for a couple of nights at anchorages that were pristine. We were the only boat in sight with no trafic on the radio's either. We were going north so that we could visit the Loyalty islands which are sixty miles or so off the east coast. We first went to Ouvea which has the best beach we have seen anywhere in the South Pacific! Miles and miles of white sand beaches with no oe on them except the occasional turtle. It reminded me of Grand Cayman 45 years ago but a longer beach. We spent a week there swimming and just relaxing. There were a few other boats around who we knew so still lots of happy hours. The next island is to the south of Ovea called Lifou and is more of an island rather than the atoll that Ouvea is. Here we enjoyed a little more civilization with nice walks and fresh baguettes daily. Lots of big turtles here and we enjoyed just watching them all around the boat at anchor.

We then did an overnight passage back to Prony Bay on the south end of New Cal and spent a few days at different anchorages. We did a walk up to a light house with great views over the south lagoon which is the biggest in the world. There are a number of lovely islands around that had resorts on them but for whatever reason most of these are deserted with everything still inplace in the buildings including dishes and furniture. I guess the economic downturn combined with what people now demand of resorts put most of these out of business. We think New Caledonia is little known to the world and so far away that they do not have that many tourists.

We came back to Noumea and the marina and are enjoying some more time in town. We watched the final of the Rugby with a bunch of New Zealand friends last night and were relieved that NZ won as the country needs some good news after the earthquakes earlier this year.

Right now we are waiting for a weather window that will allow us to sail down to NZ. You have to go pretty much straight south towards Norfork island and then turn east as the winds change. There is a huge change going from the tropics to the more temperate regions. It seems the dividing line is around 30 degress south where the weather changes. This seems to create confused seas and is generally not a pleasant passage. Hope we guess right.