Peak hour

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Year Two
Date: 4/10/2009 13:30
Weather: slightly overcast and cool
Location: Baie Nord (22 20.033' S,166 52.673' E)
Log: 10300 nm
Author: Peter

Wow what a change of scene. We have been cruising some quiet anchorages and small communities for the last few months. Then comes the shock of New Caledonia on a Saturday morning. We woke up early to the sound of a constant stream of boats passing us. Still being tired from lack of sleep after the crossing we both tried to ignore it and stayed in bed. A few hour later when we did get up wow, what a sight. This country must have a high boat ownership per capita, and everyone seems to be out using their boat. We set sail into what looked like Sydney peak hour, with boats everywhere, setting off to take advantage of the weekend. I have seen the traffic of boats heading from Pittwater to Refuge bay during the Christmas/New Year period and this had nothing on a normal Saturday here in Noumea. As we exited the harbour area and were still limited in sight I could still count 38 boats on the move just near us.

From our 1st impressions New Caledonia is certainly an exciting cruising ground. For future guests, this would be a great place to come and visit us. There are many anchorages and things to see and do, via small hops (sails). The waters are so smooth given almost all of the cruising is inside a protecting reef. The scenery changes constantly and there is an abundance of sea life. The only downfall would be the cost of food.

Someone once said "you don't notice something until it is gone". Although this may almost always be the case, we did not notice certain things were missing until they returned. For example there have been next to no bird sounds in either Tonga or Fiji but here in New Caledonia there is a symphony each day and evening and it is so relaxing to listen to it from the shores, cabin or hammock.

We have now set ourselves up in the Baie Du Prony for the majority of our short stay as it offers a wide variety of the things we like to do. Today we went exploring up a small river to its head, where a lovely little fresh water river cascades across the yellow rocks into the salt. It was such a peaceful spot we just sat and enjoyed it for a while. Back at the entrance to the river we went ashore to explore the overgrown ruins of a penal settlement. New Caledonia like Tasmania appears to be littered with these old ruins always in very scenically beautiful positions. Unlike Tasmania however the ones we saw today, although still obvious, are well entrenched into the bush and are not set up as tourist attractions.

Penal Colony Ruins

Baie Du Prony is about 30nm east of Noumea. Like Broken Bay it is a large bay with a few tributaries ranging off in different directions. It is surrounded by bush and New Cals colourful soils.

Just around the corner near the entrance to the large bay is a large mine and ship loading facility and off in the distance to the west on top of the range you can just see teens of two bladed windmills that make up part of some large wind farm.

Wind turbines on the hill

So far we have seen three different coloured beaches in the bay. The expected white ones, the pitch black ones, and now a yellow one that makes your feet look like you have used bottled fake tan.

On a side note, all those friends that emailed us about the tsunami, thank you we really appreciate it. Luckily for us we were already in the best place we could be when it passed us. Out at sea in a depth of about 5000m. As a result we did not even feel it. Had we been at anchor somewhere though the early we receive the news the faster we can get to somewhere safe.

The native plants resemble what we see in Australia

A fresh water cray