Tanna to Port Vila (3rd July)

Well two out of three ain't bad - sounds like the title for a song.
The shopping went well and early in the afternoon Thomas returned with a good supply of Paw Paw, Ponpamoose, Spring Onions and Limes in exchange for 4 x D Cell batteries.  We also had a nice snorkel on the reef (not too difficult when the water temperature is around 26C) followed by a soak in the hot springs! We also confirmed our trip up to the Volcano (Mt Yasur) for 3.30pm on Sunday - the only thing missing are the 2 crayfish however, we were not that confident that they would be arriving so not too disappointed.


A BIG Warning to Navigators in these waters!

We ended up with 9 of us (plus guides) that went up to Mt Yasur from Port Resolution.  The standard transport is a 4WD drive ute so we crammed 8 of us in the back of the ute for the 7km drive up to the car park at the volcano.  Doesn't sound all that bad until you find out it takes the best part of 1 hour to get to the car park over some pretty rough roads that have been made even more challenging due to the recent heavy rain.

The whole experience of visiting the volcano is pretty hard to describe.  As you are driving towards it you see these mammoth clouds of volcanic ash in the sky and the car park looks more like a scene from the moon.  Apparently this is the only active volcano in the world that you can view from the crater edge and you can kind of understand why when you get there as it does have a bad reputation and we have heard that there have been some recent fatalities.  The viewing area is on the edge of the main crater, naturally on the upwind side.  We turned up at dusk which seems to be the most popular time as the lava explosions and volcanic fireworks are a lot more impressive as the sun goes down.  All we can say is that it something one should do if they ever get the chance.

Once the volcano tour was done it was time to get going again so we up anchored on Monday morning (1st July) to do the overnight passage of around 130nm to Port Vila.  We had a lovely sail with moderate easterly winds blowing - not too shabby at all.  We arrived at PV around 8.30am on Tuesday morning (water temp 27C) and are now tied up at the Yachting World wharf.  We have had a bit on an explore around town and had a great meal last night at the Waterfront Bar & Grill.  We were also able to catch up with Peter and his family for a quick cuppa and a chat in the arvo which was great. 

We had another surprise this morning while walking the mean streets of PV we happened to look out in to the bay only to see Gramac V from Martha Cove dropping her anchor - how far do you have to go!

We are expecting to stay in PV until Sunday when we will start our 2 weeks cruise along the west coast of Efate which Miss Amanda who is arriving on Friday.

On another subject we have now also set up a second BLOG page (yes painful) which we can update via our satellite phone as we do not often have access to the internet.
Unfortunately it is text only but it is better than nothing although it does have the added feature of position reporting on Google Earth which is kind of neat..  We will also keep this one going when we can so that we can upload some photos.
The link to the new BLOG is http://blog.mailasail.com/mustangsallycruising

Anatom to Tanna

The Little Red Dolphin clocks up 10,000NM
 

We ended up spending a bit longer in Anatom than expected due to weather which was not an issue as it is a very beautiful bay with really lovely people.

We found the village baker so were able to  buy some bread which was a pleasant surprise although the next day when we went back he was all out of flour until the next island trading vessel turns up in a couple of weeks.

 

We had a bit false start on our way to Tanna.  We were hoping to get here on Thursday (27^th June) but after setting off nice an early we found a sizable northerly swell had formed which is not a good thing in Port Resolution so we skulked back to Anatom and had another go on Friday.  We had a bit more luck on Friday and found a southerly swell had formed so we kept on our way to Port Resolution.  During the 45NM trip to Tanna we were lucky enough to catch a small tuna on our hand line which was all good until it arrived on board.  It became apparent that we are not very proficient at dealing with fish on board as it quickly looked like we had conducted an axe murder all over the back of the boat – this is something that we have to work on however, it did mean that we had a couple of nice tuna steaks on the BBQ for dinner.

 

We arrived around 15:00H only to find a 124ft pleasure craft in the bay called Platinum from

Fremantle – we figured with a name like that it must belong to some mining magnate!!  As we are keen to do the trip up to the local volcano, Mt Yasur which is only a couple of kilometres from the anchorage, we head into the main village in search of Stanley who is apparently in charge of yacht relations and tours.  Instead of Stanley we ended up finding Chief Narua (aka Russell) who informed us that is was already Kava time so we should come back to find him tomorrow morning.  We found out that Russell is also the local primary school teacher so we have found a home for some of school books that we have had on board since Melbourne.

 

We wandered back into the village on the Saturday morning and this time did find Stanley but unfortunately there is a bit of a problem with the transport vehicle so we have left him on the case to work on our trip to see the volcano.  We are confident that Stanley will be back as he gave us his mobile phone to charge.  Luckily we do have at least some of the volcano in the bay with us as there is steam and boiling water running into the bay continuously which is a bit eerie and disturbing Mark to the point where he is doing regular checks to make sure there is no boiling water or glowing bits around the boat.  We have already started the trading process this morning and so far have ordered some Pompamoose (big grapefruit), Spring Onions, Paw Paw, Bananas and hopefully a Lemon from Timothy and on another front have ordered in 2 Cray’s from Simon so we are now waiting with great anticipation to see what actually turns up.   

 

We also found out that it was a good thing that we did not arrive on Thursday as the other boat in the anchorage (a cat with a young French family from Tahiti) reported that there was a large swell in the bay and also that their boat ended up covered in volcanic ash which then took around 5 hours to clean off the next day.

 

Hot Springs!

We are looking forward to a warm dip in the hot springs this arvo before our lobster dinner and hopefully have some good news on our trip to Mt Yasur and the famous Shark Bay - apparently this bay comes complete with sharks unlike its namesake – Shark Bay at Safety Beach!

 

 

Hello Vanuatu

We departed Noumea as planned on Wednesday 19^th June and did an overnight passage straight through to Mare in the Loyalty islands.  We had a very pleasant day at Mare sunning ourselves and enjoying a lovely snorkel in the wonderfully clear water.  The anchorage at the north of the island is really pretty and would have been nice to spend a few more nights here but not to be on this trip so after a morning dip on Friday morning it is up anchor again and we are not off to Vanuatu *Very exciting*. 

We weighed anchor and were out of the bay by 9..00am.  To get to Anatom is around 130NM so we can get along at a very comfortable pace as we do not want to arrive until mid-morning on Saturday to make sure we have reasonable light for our arrival.

 

We had a very gentle sail with winds of around 8-12knots from the south east for most of the trip and had a very comfortable night at sea although we did have a really big southerly swell running.  As hoped we arrived at the entrance to the bay / lagoon at around 10.00am and may a very safe arrival as the lagoon is very well charted and has a wide entrance.  For those that have travelled on cruise ships we are anchored right next door to Mystery Island.

 

Not long after our arrival we were greeted by Keith who came out on his dug-out canoe to greet us.

Keith on Surveillance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angalawat Bay at Anatom is very beautiful little spot with palm trees, lush green forest, white sandy beaches and breaking waves on the nearby reef – just a little different to your average view at New Caledonia!

Nouvelle Caledonie Part 3 and Farewell to Noumea (17th June)

We arrived back into Port Moselle (Noumea) on Wednesday 5th June as planned.  As the weather was calm we dropped into the fuel wharf on the way in to fill up the tanks!

First stop in Noumea was the laundry which was closely followed by a trip up to the Casino Super Marche and the Thrifty Hire depot to arrange a car for the following week for our "inland tour".

We had a lovely 'traditional New Cal' dinner over at Baie de Citrons with the Zenitudians on the Saturday night.  We also did the trip over to the Tjibaou Cultural Centre which was a very impressive building however, the so called history of the Kanak's was a bit lacking.  Things never seem to change in Port Moselle and most days you seem to have 2-3 new arrivals turning up from all over the place so you are never short of someone new to speak to.

We picked up the car early on Monday morning and headed north on the only freeway in New Cal via the international airport to our first stop which is a little township called Boulouparis- we were hoping to get a cup of coffee and a croissant but no such luck so we headed off again to La Foa which again is a small township but much more set up for tourists with plenty of eating places.  By this stage it was now 1pm so rather than coffee we went to the Hotel of many hats for some lunch. 

Fort Teremba

Our resting place for Monday night is Bourail which is the second largest township in New Caledonia which sounds a lot bigger than what it really is.  Before we arrived in Bourail we dropped into have a look at Fort Teremba which is a serious fort including a guillotine!!  Next on the list of stops was Poe which is a lovely beach just down the road from Bourail and seems to be a great hang out for kite surfers.
We arrived at our digs in Bourail late in the arvo and as the owner advised the accommodation is pretty basic but the hotel is better known for its food than the rooms and we were not disappointed!



Tuesday morning and our route takes us across the island to the East coast.  We thought the villages on the West coast were small but they have nothing on the East coast townships.  The road across the Grande Terre is very hilly and windy so it takes a lot longer to get around than perhaps you would normally expect.  We dropped by a few places on the eastern side but to be honest the townships are pretty basic and mainly set up around supporting the nickel mines in the area.  We even ended up driving through a working nickel mine which is exactly what you can imagine Mars would look like!

Our trip today then takes us back to Farino which is back over on the western side of the island.  Hard to believe but it took us around 5hours to travel 200kms today which will give you an idea of the condition of the roads!.  Luckily the tourist information recommended this for our second night as we don't imagine there would be many places to stop over in the east!  The district around Farino is very picturesque and reminds us a bit of the Dandenong's but tropical.  The accommodation for the night is in a bungalow that is tucked away in the forest and we  both agree that we would have been more than happy to spend some more time around this pretty township. 
Wednesday morning and we are off to 'Le Parc des Grandes Fougeres' - which is basically a national park in the rain forest but it is very well set up and we had a great walk for a couple of hours which was great and very pretty - we even managed to get up to one of the peaks in the park at around 520mts.

Les Parc des Grandes Fougeres

After our walk it is back to Noumea and Mustang Sally!.  Thursday is provisioning day which in total takes us 3 trips to the supermarket but the boat is pretty much full again and ready to get on our way to Vanuatu.

We headed back to the Baie de Citrons on Sunday for a spot of lunch for Di's birthday again Oscar and Graciela from Zenitude.  We had a lovely meal and good company so a pretty neat way to spend your birthday in Noumea!

We are now looking at weather windows to get on our way.  At this stage it looks like we will be clearing out of Noumea on Wednesday and sailing overnight to Mare (Loyalty Islands) for the night and will then do another overnighter to Anatom which is the most southern island in Vanuatu.  We have been advised that the customs officials come out in a dug out canoe to do your customs clearance - will have to get a photo of that. 

Next stop after Anatom will be Tanna were we get to go and see the active volcano Yasur and then onto Port Vila with an ETA of the start of July.  We better make sure we get there in time as we have to meet up with Peter (Ex Sally crew from RMYS) who is holidaying in Vanuatu and we also have to pick up Miss Amanda who will be joining us for a couple of weeks of cruising around Efate.

Will write more once we arrive at Vila!

Nouvelle Caledonie Part 2 (6th June)

The Little Red Dolphin in New Cal

                                                                                                                                                                               Well we are back in Noumea after a wonderful few weeks down a the Ils de Pin and the Southern Province. We ended up spending a very lovely 8 days in and around the Isle of Pines.  Some of the highlights included the hike up to Pic N’Ga which is 262mts tall and a great vantage point to see the rest of the island. 


P&O Carnival Spirit

On Wednesday the 22^nd as forecast the P&O cruise ship Carnival Spirit pulled into the bay with approximately 2000 guests on board and as this was their first stop since leaving Sydney we estimate that all 2000 of them hit the tiny resort town of Kuto Bay.  Kuto went through a bit of a metamorphosis overnight going from a bit of a sleepy hollow with not much going on to a full on action holiday resort.  In the morning we went ashore to check out the stalls and get amongst the action and also to see if we could get a lobster!  We didn’t  quite manage to get a fresh lobster but did have lobster for lunch which was pretty nice and while we were enjoying our lobster lunch we happened to sit next to a couple from the ship who happen to live in downtown Dromana – how far do you have to go!!!


Ilot Brosse

As we were not quite up to keeping this pace for a whole day and with the weather still calm and sunny we thought it was a good opportunity to duck over to Ilot Brosse for the night.  This little island is only about 8NM from Kuto Bay and is a lovely little anchorage although the snorkeling was not quite up to the recently set standard of Ilot Mato. 

Port Vao



                                                                         
We stayed on at Kuto Bay until Monday 27^th May.  Before we left we did manage to fit in a couple of excellent evenings with Retour (Bevan and Jan) and Miami (George and Ute).  How bizarre is this – we finally worked out where we knew Miami from – they were in at Misima Harbour (Louisiades, PNG)when we were there in 2011!   We also ended up hiring a car for the day and did a bit of a run around the island including the Vao market where we purchased some rather yummy pawpaw jam and the largest avocado we have ever seen.  One thing that is really starting to stand out is the general lack of tourists in the resorts.



Vao Market

Baie de Prony Light

 From Kuto Bay we headed back up to Bonne Anse as there are some strong trade winds forecast so figure it would be best to go a nice comfy anchorage for a few nights.  We did the walk up to the lighthouse which has some great views of the southern lagoon - you might be able to tell from the photos that it just a bit windy.  From our anchorage in Bonne Anse we can see, what we now commonly term as, Mordor which is the nickel mine over the back- we thought this was quite funny as it really does have the red loom just like Mordor however, what is even funnier is that as Mark was delving further and further in to our Rocket Cruising Guide it looks like we are not the only ones who call it Mordor!!


Hot Springs

Moose from Ilot Casy










After a couple of pleasant nights at Bonne Anse (especially when we knew how windy it is outside) we moved further up into Baie de Prony and to Baie de Carnage which is again a great little anchorage and very calm but all the soil around these parts is really red and slippery clay so not much for walking on however, there is a great little hot spring just a short dinghy ride away which provided some great entertainment in the afternoons.  We did manage to slip our way up to the waterfall which is really pretty and well worth the effort.

Saturday (the first day of winter) and it looks like the weather is starting to settle a bit so we figure it is worth sticking our heads out again and head over to Ilot Casy which is a lovely little tropical island in the middle of Baie de Prony and we get an even better view of Mordor from here.  We ended up in the north bay on a mooring which seems far too close to the beach but that also makes it kind of nice as well as we can sit on the back deck looking over the tropical foreshore.  We headed into the beach in the arvo for a wander around and managed to do all the walks on the island and also got to meet up with Moose, the local dog, that was left behind when the resort keeper left the island.  Yes there was a resort / hotel here but like many of the others is now shut.  Anyhow Moose gave us a fully guided tour of the island so we saw it all and he was rewarded with a very nice tin of Tuna for his efforts.

Both Sally's at Ilot Casy

Next stop is the Baie de Somme which is only just across the way (approx. 2NM) but a great anchorage for westerlies plus their are some really nice walks including the pretty little village of Prony!. 

We have kind of being hanging out to see how long our LPG gas bottle lasts as we are only able to get Butane here in the land of the French. We normally hold  2 x 3.8kg bottles and have a third on board as we have to survive with what we have until we arrive at Port Villa which is about 10weeks in total since our last fill at Lord Howe.  Normally a bottle lasts us 3-4weeks so even with the extra bottle it is pushing it just a bit tight and nobody likes getting up in the morning to a cold cup of coffee.  To our great surprise the bottle lasted us until the 4th June which is almost 5 weeks so we are not quite sure what they do in LHI but we are very impressed with their LPG and are now more than happy that we are going to make it through to Port Villa without having to endure cold coffee.  We are so comfortable we have even started with a few luxuries like fresh baked bread etc.

The plan now is to spend around 2weeks here in Noumea and during that time hire a car and go inland for a few days to see a bit more of the Grand Terre.  We are also putting together our next provisioning list for our last shop before we leave Noumea (mid June) as our last places to stock up are here and also in Port Villa and then after that it is going to be about 10weeks before we get to see a shop again - quite a daunting thought actually when you think we have to cater for approximately 70breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and drinkies!

 

Will report in again before we leave Noumea and head back out in to the big blue on our way to Vanuatu.

Sunset - Baie de Somme



Ilot Casy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Nouvelle Caledonie - Part 1 (21st May)

Bon Jour!!!!

We spent a few days in Noumea although it was public holidays so not much was open but always interesting to check out the food market and supermarket.  It seems to take a lot longer to do the shopping here as you spend quite a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what you are buying plus it is interesting to see the different type of foods especially as many of them are imported from France.

Roger looks like he is in heaven and is certainly enjoying the local cuisine.

As Grahame has to head back home soon we figure we should at least head back out into the lagoon for a few days on the pick.  On Friday 10/5 we headed out to Ilot Matrie which is a local tourist / resort island only 10NM from Noumea and seems to be a local hang out for the kite boarders.  Unfortunately the weather is pretty ordinary and looks like it is going to remain that way for a few days yet so we decided it would be good to head up to Baie Maa for a few days which is not the most beautiful part of Noumea but it is a good anchorage.  The area looks like a bit of a holiday area with lots of holiday shacks and as it is a holiday weekend there are plenty of yachts in the bay.  We did a bit of exploring and found and old wreck on the other side of the island.

On the 13^th the weather is starting to improve so it is over to Ilot te Ndo (Signal Island) for a night before heading back into Port Moselle.  It is a lovely little island and we had a great explore around including some snorkeling on some near-by bommies.  The island is a nesting colonies for many birds including shearwaters so you are continually watching where to put your feet so as not to fall down into a burrow.  We saw plenty of great coral when snorkeling and where lucky enough to swim with some turtles and Roger even saw a small reef shark.

Tuesday and we are back to Port Moselle for Grahame’s last day.  We had a lovely farewell meal out with Oscar and Graciela as Grahame has to catch an early bus to the airport for his flight home.

As the weather forecast for the next week is looking awesome we get all our jobs done and get the boat provisioned as we are planning to head down to the Lagoon de Sud and the Ils de Pin on Wednesday.

We saw Grahame off at the bus stop on Wednesday morning (15/5), do the final fresh shop and we are again out of Noumea and this time heading south to the Baie de Prony which is the stepping off point for the South Lagoon and the Isle of Pines.  We found life on the bateau a little quieter today as we are missing the company or our trusty cabin boy.  We spent the Wednesday night in at an anchorage at Bonne Anse along with a number of other yachts with similar plans.  This is quite an industrial area so not all that attractive.  Thursday morning and we are up anchor at 9.00am and heading south for about 8NM to the Ilot Mato which is a small island and lagoon and a little bit of paradise. 

The first day at Ilot Mato we did some exploring of the lagoon in the dinghy and had a lovely snorkel on one of the bommies close to the boat.  After a very pleasant and quite night in the lagoon it is into the island in the morning for a bit of an explore plus we took some lovely photos from the top of the island.  We then headed out in the dinghy to the outer fringing reef which was just awesome.  We saw some amazing coral and fishies and also a small white tipped reef shark as well!!

 

Since the Ilot Mato we have now sailed down to the Ils de Pin which is about 40NM from Bonne Anse.  We are currently anchored in Baie de Kuto which is rather lovely and even better we are able to buy fresh baguettes every morning.

We went into the local resort for dinner last night and was lucky enough to get my first green drink for the voyage to date - hopefully there will be many more to come!!!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) there is meant to be a cruise liner with 2000 guests on board which should make it for a very exciting anchorage and may bring some more tourist activities to the area which could be good - there is  rumour that we might be able to get some fresh lobster for lunch.

As we only have limited access down here will do a more complete update and add some photos once we are back to Noumea!!

 

Basically we are both well and having a great time!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Lord Howe to Nomea (7th May)

As you probably figured from the last post we enjoyed Lord Howe so have included a few shots from our adventures there.


The Goat House (Lord Howe)

Extreme Walk to the Goat House

Island Trader - Lord Howe

We decided to depart from Lord Howe on the 1st May as the weather forecast for the passage looked good.  We have been lucky to be receiving forecasts from Roger (Clouds) Badham through Oscar and Graciela on Zenitude and also our own Clouds McDermott who has been doing an awesome job for us!

Zenitude also left with us so it was nice to travel with some company and we arranged a regular sched with them and also Ocean Star who took a slightly different track to us and is heading out to spend a few days at Middleton Reef before heading back to the coast.

As with the rest of our trip to date the wind seems to have been behind us all the time which makes for a great crossing but we can't believe that the wind could be coming from directly behind for such a long time.

The passage across was very uneventful but we have had lovely sunny and warm conditions for most of the time apart from the last day when we struck plenty of rain. 

On Day 4 of the crossing we decided to put out the lines and managed to hook a couple of fish.  The first one was a small Indo Pacific Sailfish which Mark hooked but it managed to shake itself free before Mark could get it on-board which was a good thing as we were planning to send it back to the deep anyhow.  The second fish was not so lucky and our resident fisherman (Roger) managed to catch a lovely Mahi Mahi which we devoured on our first evening in at Port Moselle after sharing a beer or two with Oscar and Graciela.

The Mahi Mahi - Good eating and very pretty as well!

After around 700NM and 5 days at sea it was amazing that Zenitude only arrived around 2 hours before us and even more amazing is that Roger's friend Johnny, who is delivering a Big Cat out here, only turned up just before us as well and is parked right next door to us..

Arriving at Port Moselle

We have managed to do all the official stuff now and have been imported into New Caledonia.  So far not much else has happened although we have had a wander around the street and marche where we managed to buy some pretty nice French produce so think we are going to enjoy the eating here.


We are planning to head off to La Bout De Monde for drinks and a steak dinner!!!