27th June 2025: Into Vanuatu

 My new crew member Bulgarian Peter had a couple of days to get used to the boat and then we were scheduled to depart.  Its difficult for me getting used to having someone strange on the boat especially after having Nik onboard for the last month where we were pretty much always in sync with what we had to do.  Am aware I am not the most accommodating of travel companions but am trying to make an effort to be a bit more patient.  Peter is a fairly burly, rough around the edges type of chap with a heavy eastern euro accent.  He is older at 70 but seems fairly agile around the boat and affable enough.  One reason I took Peter was that after he gets off Sea Otter in Darwin he is already slated to crew across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town so he is certainly committed.

I spent the day before our departure (Thursday 19^th June) getting ready to leave.  Went to customs and immigration and filed the requisite paperwork to get our departure clearance.  Once filed the vessel has 48hrs to leave New Caledonia.  I reprovisioned with food from the excellent nearby Auchan supermarket. The next morning I went to the marina office to settle up and to say goodbye to the lovely ladies who carried out the admin for the marina office.  I have found everyone at the marina to be super friendly and helpful and it was sad to say goodbye.

We motored out of Noumea and headed south. After a couple of hours the wind came in and we managed to sail most of the way through the Woodin Canal and onto the nights anchorage at a protected calm bay called Port Boise.  Early next morning we took off and were clear of the New Caledonia fringing reef by around 5am heading approx north east.  Our route initially took us to the south of the southerly most Loyalty Island called Mare approximately 80NM away.  We sailed all through the day and rounded Cap Boyer on Mare at around sunset and then turned more northerly to lay a course for the port of Lenakel on Tanna Island in Vanuatu approximately 140NM away.

The track from Noumea to Lenakel to Port Villa

I need to improve my weather forecasting skills.  I am using a app called Predict Wind which provides weather forecasting and also routing information and has proved to be really useful.  However it is one thing to have all the data but another thing to interpret it.  Again I looked at the forecasts and decided that the data looked reasonable enough to make the crossing.  The conditions were still up (up to 3m seas, gusting 30kts and roll of up to 5.5deg forecast) but this was less than we had encountered for the majority of the passage from New Zealand, it was a broad reach and the passage time was only 36hrs – so even if it was a bit uncomfortable my thinking was we just needed to suck it up.

The first part of the trip during the day was great - nice sailing although a bit rolly.  Once we turned around Mare and nightfall came though the motion got worse and I was as sick as I have ever been.  The next 18 hrs were pure misery.  Peter was feeling it aswell but was not as bad as me.  I was either down below trying to sleep when off watch or on deck dry retching on and off.  Lenakel could not come quick enough and slowly over the following afternoon it came into view.  We eventually put the anchor down in a rolly harbour around 1800 in the dark.  One of my golden rules is not to enter an unknown anchorage in the dark but I would have to call this exceptional circumstances.  There was another yacht there – an American catamaran called Gratefull and we circled it and then put the anchor down close by.

Had a rolly night and was up early the next morning to see a large inter island landing craft type freighter pass us heading for the wharf.  Sometimes these can be a real hazard as some commercial vessels have an aversion to yachts being near the wharf area and will intentionally pass close or create unnecessary wake.  (kind of similar to the relationship some drivers have for cyclists).  This one was good though and put on a great seamanship show when coming along side the wharf after a tight turn.  There was not much to Lenakel that I could see.  A reef to seaward was keeping most of the swell out and there were patches of reef around the bay.  In the middle was a concrete wharf at which the landing craft had tied up to.  Most of the shore was rocky/reef with small dark sand patches every so often and then lush green vegetation beyond.

Lenakel Harbour with wharf and landing craft (Sea Otter far right)

We had come to Lenakel as it was a dedicated port of entry for Vanuatu.  Failing to raise the customs office on the VHF radio I decided to head in to shore and luckily the skipper of the US cat, a guy called Jamie, had the same idea and he offered me a ride into shore in their tender which was bigger and better suited to the conditions than our tender, Wee Otter (credit to Nik for coming up with the perfect tender name).

Checking in took most of the morning by the time we had walked to the right location, found the customs office, found the customs dude, visited the immigration office, met the biosecurity guy, visited the biosecurity office and paid a visit to the local bank ATM to get some local currency out to pay the entry fees.  By midday we were clear.  The town is quite rural with no large buildings.  It reminded me a bit of rural SE Asia like parts of Indonesia.  Very few modern buildings, a lot of run down structures and roads in poor condition.  However the people are friendly and there was a busy small market down near the wharf. Jamie stocked up on vegetables while I looked around trying to guess what most of them were – all looked very earthy, green  and healthy but not sure what they were or how I might go about cooking with them.  Am sure that will come.

Lenakel Market

Peter went ashore and had a look around but I stayed onboard as was pretty shattered from the passage.  I was eager to press on to get to Port Villa.  This trip is really a round–about transit to Darwin so whilst we will stop and look at a few sights I am not approaching this as a holiday cruise and want to keep pushing on.  So next day around midday we left Lenakel for an overnight sail of 120NM.  This time I was ready for the roll after having taken a couple of tablets.  Weather was still up but we were running with the wind and we had a really great sail during the night.  The next morning saw us rounding Pango Point, turning into Mele Bay on the island of Efate around midday.

Port Villa is the capital of Vanuatu and is located oin Efate Island.  It sits around Port Villa Bay which is off the larger Mele Bay.  Within Port Villa Bay are two protected anchorages called Pontoon Bay and Paray Bay formed by the presence of Iririki Island in the middle of the Port Villa Bay.  Paray Bay to the east and the NE part of Port Villa Bay form the waterfront for the town which rise fairly sharply away from the water.  Port Villa is a working port and so the waterfront is ringed by various commercial enterprises from accommodation, shopping, to wharfs and shipyards further around.  It makes for a really interesting place to sit and watch life go by.

                                                                    Port Villa Bay

Port Villa - Paray Bay (Sea Otter at mooring)

There is no marina in Port Villa but a group called World Yachting provide all the same services but without the mooring pens.  There is a sea wall you can med moor to or a number of moorings in the bay which can be rented.  Ashore there is a bar/restaurant, showers, rubbish disposal and laundry service.  We put Sea Otter on a mooring planning to spend a couple of days looking around before moving on.

My saga with the autopilot is slowly being resolved.  I ordered a brand new unit from Lewmar in the UK but that will take 4 to 6 weeks to be delivered.  Meanwhile Nik carried the defective unit to Perth when she left and my good friend Graeme has pulled it apart and identified the broken component.  Am now trying to source this part so we can rebuild it and have a spare unit onboard.  Meanwhile Graeme will use his inimitable skills to effect a repair to the broken piece in case we cannot source a replacement.  So things are looking up but clearly does not help me in the short term.  Luckily the wind pilot onboard is behaving itself which limits the amount of hand steering we need to do on the passages.

The broken autopilot

Off to explore Port Villa.

18th June 2025 - Final Days in New Cal

 

The weather for the past couple of weeks has been up and down.  We got back from the trip to the Isle of Pines and went to anchor and hunkered down in Noumea harbour on Wednesday June 4^th as there were some strong westerlies with rain forecast for two or three days.  We could have found a remote anchorage somewhere to ride out the weather but being in the harbour would allow us to restock with some perishable items for the final week.  When the weather turns it’s a bit depressing being on the boat but we make the best of it and try and get some jobs done.

I removed the autopilot and stripped it down to try and see if I could ascertain the problem.  I got as far as the clutch before a lack of tooling stopped me removing any other parts.  Whilst I could not locate the issue I now am confident it is in the clutch.  Have been chasing a completely new autopilot but was told that is 8 to 12 weeks away!  Am sending this unit back to Australia with Nik to be looked at by the specialists at South Fremantle Marine Services.

We got into Noumea town on a couple of occasions and restocked with food and drink.  Its always great being on the French islands as they have all the food stuffs you can find in mainland France – the cheeses, meats, bread, wine etc.  I feel that over the last month I have put taken on a fair bit of extra ballast.

Nik’s return to Australia was booked for 17^th June and I was planning on leaving New Caledonia shortly thereafter and heading to Vanuatu.  For the last week we decided to visit three or four of the islands near Noumea.  The weather was very calm and overcast most of the time which allowed us free reign of the island anchorages.  We visited Laregnere, Signal, Maitre islands and also Dunbea pass on the outer reef and spent some memorable days and nights enjoying the solitude for the most part and the scenery.  All the locations proved to be really worthwhile.  The islands are all wildlife sanctuary’s and have set moorings for use of visiting Yachts.  There are no facilities on the islands but you can go ashore and have a wander around.  

Ilot Laregnere

Sea Krait

The real attraction is the snorkelling which was fantastic – beautiful extensive coral gardens and all manner of sea life - fish everywhere, sharks, rays, sea snakes, lots of turtles etc.  The most disconcerting were the white tip reef sharks which freaked Nik out until she realized they were not really out for a bite.  The Dunbea pass site was the most amazing as it was on the protected side of the outer reef.  The water was crystal clear and a beautiful turquoise. We dropped the anchor in about 8m of water and could see it clear as day from deck.  Dunbea Pass is a popular surf spot and we could see surfers riding curling waves at the pass while we sat motionless on the inside of the reef.  The reef is extensive and once anchored we took the tender to view the coral formations.  Certainly this is one of the highlights of the trip.

Sea Otter off Ilot Signal

Nik on Ilot Signal Beach

We completed the islands tour on Friday 13^th and motored into our berth in the Port Moselle Marina for the last time and carried out the preparations for Nik leaving and the boat departure.  We managed to get out to a lovely restaurant called Marmite Et Tire Bouchon (pot and the corkscrew) on the eve of Nik leaving for a splendid meal.  Then the next day (17^th June) Nik was gone and I was back to just myself on the boat – but not for long.

I am planning on departing New Caledonia on Saturday for Vanuatu.  It’s a sail of approx. 200NM so should take only 1.5 days.  I have managed to attract another crew member to help me with the sail both across to Vanuatu and further on to Darwin.  His name is Peter, he is from Bulgaria and he joins me on 18^th June.

So that’s it for New Caledonia.  It has been a great experience.  Given the natural beauty of the island its surprising that there are not more tourists around but the tourist infrastructure seems to be lacking possibly something to do with the political situation regarding the independence push.  Most of the visitors we met were either French or Australian and given how close Noumea is to the East Coast if Australia am surprised there are not more Australian visitors.  It is a bit pricey compared to Asian destinations but the scenery both above and below the water really is stunning and certainly worth a visit.  We enjoyed our time here and really appreciated the friendliness of the people and the whole French vibe.

Sunset over Ilot Signal

3rd June 2025 - Too many islands - so little time

We made it to Ile des Pins on the sixth day after leaving Noumea.  We spent the first five days hoping from anchorage to anchorage working our way down the south west coastline before completing the 40NM crossing to Ile De Pins.

First day out we stopped at Ilot Bailly – a small island only approx. 20NM from Noumea.  From there we carried on South and stopped at Bay Ire in the north of Ile Ouen to ride out a squally period then on through the Woodin Canal (where I got a quick lesson on tidal streams) to the Baie Du Prony and Ile Casey.  At Ile Casey we spent a couple of days and then headed for the Ile De Pins.

Ilot Baily

The scenery is just spectacular.  The sea is various shades of blue / green and tourquoise depending on the depth and the presence of reefs and generally it is very clear.  The backdrop of the land is equally impressive – from the hilly coastline to the magnificent ridge lines of high mountains behind them which always have a kind of haze about them which adds to the allure.   The entire land mass is green with lush vegetation.  In the south there are red scars through the hillsides from both man made and natural causes.  The earth is the same colour as in the Pilbara (NW Australia) – a very red dirt and also similarly there is extensive mining activity here.

The Pilbara'esque terrain of Ilot Casey

The anchorages are for the most part deserted and typically we were alone or had only one other boat nearby.  Around Noumea there are a lot of local boats getting out at the weekends but further afield there are very few boats and the few we did come across were Australian.  Its very surprising given the cruising grounds although its not a cheap place onshore.  There were riots here not that long ago which made headlines and it could be that the tourism side has not recovered.

All our anchorages were very remote with no services onshore at all.  It was very relaxing.  Typically we spend our time in transit, exploring onshore, snorkelling around reefs or just relaxing on deck.  It is very easy to just tune out and watch what is going on around the anchorage – its kind of like people watching but there are no people.  Then of course there are the chores which have to be done which to be honest are pretty light – the main one being cooking.  The evenings are just magical when we sit and watch the sunset until it becomes dark.

Ilot Casey

We waited for a northerly wind which came on Wednesday 28^th May and then sailed downwind to Kuto Bay on the Ile Des Pins in very light conditions.  It’s a 40Nm crossing and we took most of the day to complete it picking up a mooring around 15:30.  When we arrived the bay was deserted.  Given what we had heard about how popular the Ile De Pins was and the 20 plus mooring field we had expected to see a few yachts but there were none.  We thought that maybe there was some reason that we were not aware of but turns out its just quiet.  Four other boats arrived over the next few days.

Kuto Bay

The Ile des Pins is beautiful.  The island is about 40KM long and 20km wide and has some height to it around the south with Pic N’ga at 280m being the highest point. The island is surrounded by reefs and shallow lagoons of azure water. As the name suggests there are stands of pine trees everywhere some becoming forests.  Kuto Bay is a wide open bay with a long sandy beach fringed with palm trees and pine trees running around it.  The entrance to the bay has protective reefs both north and south with some impressive surf rolling in when conditions are right.  Across a narrow ithmus is another bay called Kanumera which is just stunning – see photo below.

Kanumera Bay - Ile Des Pins

The island is very un-developed and has a kind of Rotto vibe but much more remote.  There are a couple of hotels and resorts and some Gites and places to camp and a few shops selling just the bare necessities (plus baguettes of course).  We thought we would  be able to stock up here on fresh produce but no such luck.  And there very few people about and even fewer tourists.

Piscine Natural

Initially the plan had been to sail around the island and visit the three or four spectacular anchorages but unbeknown to us anchoring in these areas is now forbidden so instead we hired a car and had a look around the island.  The scenery is stunning but there is not too much else to see.  We watched some traditional piroques sailing in one of the lagoons and then visited a place called the Piscine Natural which if you have minimal French you will understand is a natural swimming pool.  This is a pine fringed lagoon protected from the surrounding sea with water as clear as glass and coral beds. 

Piroques sailing on Baie d'Oupi

We spent five days on the island, met some other cruisers and generally took it easy.  The weather finally looked right to return north and we headed out on Monday 2^nd stopping overnight at an isolated reef called Ilot Mato, welcomed by a small pod of dolphins, before sailing on to pick up a mooring off Noumea at the Ilot Maitre.  It’s a glorious calm evening here and we are planning next week’s schedule which will involve visiting the islands to the north of Noumea.