ADIEU NEW CALEDONIA
December 6, 2016 - Ile des Pins
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| DOMINO at anchor in Baie de l'Orphelinat, Noumea |
This is our last day in New Caledonia, after 10 weeks and a fantastic circumnavigation. Still, there is so much we haven’t seen! But New Zealand calls and there is a small—very small— weather window… so, off we are.
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| NOVEMBER RAIN at anchor in Baie de l'Orphelinat, Noumea |
Who showed up 3 days ago in Noumea? None other than our Kiwi buddies Garry and Lori, the fisherman/woman extraordinaire on board their Malcolm Tennant Powercat “November Rain.”
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| DOMINO and NOVEMBER RAIN side by side |
We’ve been buddy-boating with these guys for over a year, off and on. We first met them at Port Denarau in Fiji over a year ago. We bumped into them again last year in New Zealand as we were on our way around the top to meet the Ski-NZ Rally. We knew they were in Vanuatu all season, hooking up Marlin and big game. But how fun it was to hear them honk at us as they idled on our stern in Port Moselle. Yes, they were going to take advantage of the weather window; yes, we would do a bit of seaway together; yes, we were all going to Opua.
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| NOVEMBER RAIN at Ile d'Ouen |
Rushed for time, we realized that we could not hit all the southern anchorages we had planned on: forget the Baie du Prony (oh, supposedly fantastic diving) - Forget the Phare Amedee - Forget all the natural reserves of the Great South — we forged on and overnighted at Ile Ouen where JP started to clean the hulls and props in preparation for the crossing.
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| Ile des Pins |
ILE DES PINS - This, according to cruisers, is a favorite destination. Yes, the island is beautiful, dotted with columnar pines. The sand is talcum-powder quality. The turtles that cruise around are gigantic. We stopped there for a few hours to finish to clean the props as “November Rain” was already on her way to NZ.
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| DOMINO at anchor... between stops |
Just like that, it was time to go… we got slammed a bit with wind in the 20’s and beam seas as we exited New Cal, but the wind soon calmed down to 10-15 and the seas flattened out to give us another marvelous ride at 11-12 Kts all the way to New Zealand.
What next? New Zealand for the season, haul out, a visit to the US… then… who knows?
Until next time…
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| Adieu, New Caledonia |
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