New Caledonia - Take One

We've been in New Caledonia for about a month now, arriving after a bit of an uncomfortable 6 day passage from Southport, Australia.  Lots of squalls with winds into the mid 40 knot range, as well as a nasty 2 knot contrary current all conspired to make our arrival beer taste oh, so sweet!!!


New Caledonia first impressions...

New Cal is an interesting place.  As a French colony, or whatever its official designation is called, the capital and only big city, Noumea, has a very strong French influence....French wines, cheeses, pate, boulangeries, restaurants, etc.  Not too shabby!  The relationship of the French with the indigenous people (Kanak's), seems stable, and although there is an ongoing effort for independence from France, the French government does provide a good deal of financial assistance and subsidy.  Nonetheless, we feel very little of the real warmth of the native people that we have over the past several years of cruising in Fiji and Vanuatu.  We really miss that exchange.  It is clear that underlying animosities do exist, and, especially with our inability to speak French, the subtleties are missed by us.

So it seems that cruising New Caledonia is more about the natural beauty of the lagoon formed by the barrier reef, the small islets, and the protection provided by the reef.  The winter weather we're now experiencing is very spring like, with steady temperatures in the low to mid 70's F, and usual moderate SE trade winds blowing most of the time.  So the country, about a week's sail from Australia, is a playground for Australian yachts and other tourists escaping the Aussie winter, much like the Caribbean is for the US.  Grand Terre, the main island, is large, approximately 200 miles long.  There are also three good sized islands, the Loyalty islands, on the east side of Grand Terre, which we have yet to visit.

Sandwich "American style", means they put fries on it!!!
Who knew???

French is the spoken language, of which we speak basically zero, though Cindi's been making great strides!!!  So it makes provisioning, repairs, and direction finding always an adventure.  Google Translate and Maps are our friends when navigating the city.


Noumea has a comfortable vibe, with good access to most things we could need, with a few odd exceptions.  Such as refill of our propane tanks.....they do not fill tanks in the country, just exchange.  This works fine for locals, but not us, as our tanks are hardly the local standard.  One guy in one of the main marinas, Port Moselle, offers to fill, but he does it with gravity instead of pumping the gas.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, our "big" tank would not fill, so we just have about 2 weeks left on the smaller tank.  We have an adaptor to use little 1 pound disposable tanks with our system, the kind often used with soldering torches.  So that becomes the new search.....to see if we can find any of these!  All good fun.


While in Noumea we applied for our next 1 year Australian visas.  These will take us through next June or so in Oz, when we'll depart for the next adventure with new Bravo, which should be ready in France in October 2019.  The visa process is done on line, but must be done out of Australia.  Adam's came back with a quick approval, but Cindi's required a medical exam including chest X-rays.  (Last year, we both needed the medical exams).  No worries, she got the exams, more paperwork, and voila, we're both legal for another year in Australia!

So, with waiting for the visas, doing some repairs to our B&G wind instruments, and just enjoying Noumea, we spent about 10 days in the city before heading out.

Seagull's eye view of Bravo

Had a nice sail to a small island in the south lagoon, Isl Mato. Though the entry into its little lagoon looked pretty hairy, the charting was accurate and we had a google earth satellite photo, as well as help from the Rocket Guide, a cruising guidebook published by an expat cruiser.  All good, we spent a couple of days here.  A bit rainy, but the dramatic anchorage was pretty great anyway.

Isle Mato

Bay of Prony

On the way to Isle d Pines we detoured to Bay of Prony to do a bit of exploring and a couple of good hikes.  The bottom is supposed to be fair holding but in deep red mud, so we were happy there were a couple of places where they offer public moorings.  There was hardly anyone else around, so moorings were the way to go for a few days.

Saw some beautiful iridescent butterflies in the woods.

Whale observation platform with great views of the south lagoon islands

Mooring in Anse Majik Bay

New Caledonia is all about nickel mining, and Bay of Prony is no exception.

Isle d Pines

When you mention to any cruiser that you're heading to New Caledonia, the first thing you hear is "Oh, you've GOT to go to Isle d' Pin". We were pretty keen to get there, so left Prony early one morning for the 50 mile beat through the south lagoon reefs to Kuto Bay, the main anchorage on the island.  The route finding is fairly straightforward, and we had a good trip across.

New Caledonia, surrounded by the largest barrier reef in the world, is a major stopping point for humpback whales on their annual trip up from Antarctica.  They arrive in late July/August, so we were really hoping to have some encounters.  We were thrilled to see two whales on the passage, including one who breached a couple of times right near the boat, putting on a fantastic show!  So hard to get the camera and photos in time, but here ya go...

We also had pods of dolphins at the bow several times, and fishing yielded a decent Spanish mackerel who spit the hook just as he was coming aboard.  Ah well, mahi mahi is on the program next.  (Though the fresh sashimi grade tuna at the Noumea fish market, at just 1300 CFP (approx $13 US) per kilo is hard to beat.....cheaper than lures, with our recent luck!!!)

We enjoyed Ile d Pin.  Got in some fun 5 mile hikes up to the two highest peaks on the island (only about 250 mtrs), and did some diving with the local dive company.

Trail went from the Kuto anchorage on the left, up the peak behind us, and down the ridge to the right.  A great walk with views the whole way!

Didn't need to get out our French phrase book to translate these!!!  We got the guy's message and kept on walking.  Guess he's had too many Amway sales people ring his bell.....

Diving

One of the dives that we did was absolutely spectacular...unexpectedly so.  The dive guides dropped anchor right next to a very small island up north off of Isl d' Pin.  They told us it would be a cave dive, but we had no idea how cool this would be.  We were a bit apprehensive, as we have no cave diving expertise, and the thoughts of those poor kids in Indonesia immediately came to mind.  But we were game to give it a go, and armed with lights we followed our dive master Nikko into the underwater entrance.

Portions of the cave were pitch dark, while in other areas we had beautiful shafts of sunlight coming down into the tunnels.  Absolutely amazing.  The dive shop said later that due to wind and sun, the caves are only dived about 15 times each year, and they chose this dive for us because all of the stars were aligning....

I didn't bring my underwater camera down, unfortunately, as it was our first day of diving since Vanuatu last year, and didn't want to hassle with all of the gear.....my bad, big time.  So I stole a few shots off the internet, while good, hardly do the Grottes de Gadji any justice.  Thanks to Kashiyama Hironori for posting them online.

Like Australia, New Caledonia's original European settlement was for use as a penal colony, in this case by the French.  Isl d' Pin was one of the prisons, and some of the old buildings dating to the late 1800's are still standing, slowly being reclaimed by the jungle.  We dropped by to investigate.....

Entry to solitary confinement cell building

Cindi checks out her new solitary cell.....no worries, fits ok!!!

After about 10 days of hiking and diving in Isl d' Pin we headed back to Noumea, stopping again in Prony on the way.  We've been in the marina for a few days reprovisioning, and will head north in the lagoon tomorrow for another jaunt.  Our good mates Bruce and Jody from s/v CaVa have just arrived from Fiji, so will share a few anchorages together.

New BRAVO update:  the aluminum has been ordered, and is at the CNC cutting shop.  The pallet loads of numbered pieces will be delivered to the Boreal yard in early September for fabrication to begin.

Getting wet in Vanuatu

We've been having a great time underwater here in Vanuatu.  Both diving and snorkeling, there's a lot to see.  Most known for its wreck dives, mostly from WWII, we've also found a fair variety of fish, and great underwater topography thanks to the volcanic origin of the islands.  The coral may not be as vibrant as we've found in Fiji or French Polynesia, but its fairly good in many places, especially where protected from the ravages of recent cyclones.

Wrecks

SS President Coolidge when launched

The big attraction in Vanuatu is the wreck of the ship SS President Coolidge.  It is an enormous luxury liner which was in use during WWII as a troop transport ship for allied forces.



With Vanuatu (then New Hebrides) used as a major allied base during the war providing bomber support for the Guadalcanal theatre in the Solomons (the largest base in the Pacific except for Pearl Harbor), the ports of Espiritu Santo and Port Vila saw enormous buildups of ships and troops.  It seems that the Coolidge was entering the port at Santo, which was heavily mined to defend against Japanese submarines.  She was given the secret coordinates of the safe course to navigate, but was not advised that the course was set through a mine field.  The captain, thinking the course was a bit close to a reef, and unaware of the danger of a deviation from the recommendation, made a change, and hit a mine.  The captain, knowing he was about to lose his ship, tried to run her up on a beach, but she hit a coral reef near the shore instead, sank, and gradually slid down to her current resting place.

Abandoning ship

The "Coolidge" is a big ship (653 feet in length, compared to the 883 foot Titanic).  She is also very accessible, as she sank close to shore, and as such is a very popular recreational dive destination.  (Most guidebooks and articles rate her as one of the top 10 wreck dives in the world).  There's a lot to see, both from the early days as a luxury ship, and her later days as a naval vessel.

The diving is quite deep.  She lies on her side on the sloping bottom, with depths ranging from 35m to 60m.  Dives at this depth have short bottom times, with some decompression likely required.  The payback is lots to see.  We found old military hardware, guns, and ammunition, medical supplies in the sick bay, a barbers chair anchored to the "wall", actually the floor, but the ship is on her side, which can be a bit disorientating, and other bits and pieces.  We only did two dives on the ship (a minimum of 6 are recommended to see it all, including the swimming pools, china closets, Japanese baths, engines, etc., but we felt we got a great intro to this amazing wreck.  Here are a few images from the Coolidge dives...

Descent to ship bow

 

Trying on a gas mask found in a locker on deck

Supplies in sick bay

 Another unique dive in Santo harbor is what is known as "Million Dollar Point".  When WWII ended, the Americans were preparing to abandon the base as they pulled the troops out.  New Hebrides was governed as a sort of joint colony of the British and French governments at the time.  The story goes that the Americans offered the huge quantity of military hardware to both the Brits and French for pennies on the dollar.  Hardware included trucks, tanks, jeeps, bull dozers, cranes, spare parts, etc.all in tremendous quantities.  Both governments declined the offer.  They knew that the Americans would not ship the hardware back to the States, and felt that if they waited until the yanks pulled out, they could get the goods for free.  The Americans didn't like these terms, and instead decided to drive all of the equipment into the sea.  A huge waste, and testament to pig headed leadership even among allies around the world.

But there it all lies, perhaps the worlds largest underwater military wrecking yard.  Makes for fascinating if not overly scenic diving, as you can make your away around and into the old equipment.  There's even an old naval boat wreck to check out while down there.

Cindi tries to start an old truck, while a little scuba gremlin jumps on her back!!!

Just to add to the variety, there are also plane wrecks to explore around Vanuatu.  Here are the remains of an old Dauntless dive bomber which went down, broke into three major sections and sank next to Aore Island, right near our current mooring position.  We went over with the crew of Legacy in our dinghies one morning.....made for a fun dive in about 75 feet of water..

Finally here are just some random shots from other dives we've been doing in Vanuatu.  This country just continues to amaze us with the variety of species and often great water clarity!!!

Arc eye hawkfish

Great camouflage of black striped goatfish

Dorid nudibranch

Granular sea star

Lionfish, highly venemous

Gorgonian fans

Snowflake moray eel

Mantis shrimp