Janneke Kuysters and Wietze van der Laan are captivated by the Pacific islands of New Caledonia\u201cOK, this time you\u2019ll do it, right?\u201d Wietze asks, full of hope that this time I\u2019ll grab the mooring buoy without a hitch. I\u2019m totally focussed on the white buoy bobbing right in front of us.
\nI mentally prepare the mooring lines in my left hand to go through that ring. But just as we are 3m away from the mooring, a pig surfaces, a big, fat, grey pig. It looks me straight in the eye and says: \u201cPffff!\u201d I am stunned. \u201cThere\u2019s a pig!\u201d I yell at Wietze.
\n\u201cA what?\u201d And then I\u2019ve missed the buoy and have to do another turn. The second time it all goes well and ten minutes later the stillness of this sunny day descends around us.
\nAm\u00e9d\u00e9e lighthouse and nature reserve \u2013 the lagoon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photo: Hemis Alamy
\n\u201cNow what did you say about a pig?\u201d Wietze asks me. I open my mouth to tell him, when it hits me \u2013 it\u2019s not a pig, it\u2019s a manatee! We both dash outside and there he is again, swimming slowly around our boat before making a majestic dive to the grassy patch behind us. Welcome to New Caledonia.
\nTime to dwell
\n\u201cAre you going to Vanuatu?\u201d a lot of people asked us when we were waiting for a weather window in Opua.
\n\u201cNo, we\u2019re aiming for New Caledonia, so we have more time there,\u201d was our answer. As always on a circumnavigation, you have to pick and choose where you go, and we feel we are richly rewarded for making this choice. After an uneventful crossing, we see Mount Dor\u00e9 vaguely in the early hours of the morning. The VHF comes to life with French chattering.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSelling your boat in the Pacific: How to get full price after an ocean adventure<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBuying a boat, sailing across the Atlantic and then exploring the Pacific, before selling it for the purchase price in\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tExpert advice: How to sail across the Pacific Ocean<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYou can lose a lot of friends when you\u2019re sailing across the Pacific. After the first couple of photos you\u2026<\/p>\n
The pass through the reef is easy to spot (the flat bit between the massive rollers) and the Amed\u00e9e lighthouse beckons with her arms of light. As soon as we are inside the reef, the sheer size of New Caledonia hits you. It takes 13 miles to get from the reef to the capital Noum\u00e9a. And all the time you feast your eyes on innumerable shades of blue which the morning sun reveals.
\n\u201cDid you know that it is only slightly smaller than the Great Barrier Reef?\u201d I ask Wietze while I read through a cruising guide. \u201cAnd a World Heritage Site also. Lots of protected coral and wildlife\u201d. He nods, trying to avoid hitting one of the many anchored boats outside Port Moselle, one of the two marinas that provide check-in facilities.
\nPort Moselle has one dock set aside for visiting yachts. The rules are strict in the busy season: three nights maximum stay. That\u2019ll give us plenty of time to clear in and have a good look around. Clearing in is a breeze: a brisk walk to Immigration (two forms, two stamps), Customs is handled by the marina (one form) and the biosecurity officer comes on board. Our vegetables can stay; she only takes one potato.
\nNoum\u00e9a\u2019s Port Moselle and cathedral. Photo: Oliver Strewe \/ Getty
\nWithin two hours everything is done at no cost at all. All forms are French\/English and all the people involved speak English in a very charming French way. We feel like we have found Paris in the tropics.
\nTime to explore
\nThe market is next to the marina and we stock up on delicious papayas, melons, bananas, veggies, fish, all mouthwateringly fresh and colourful. The local produce is reasonably priced but everything imported is breathtakingly expensive.
\nWe wander through Noum\u00e9a and love the Place Cocotier (Palmtree Square) where there always seems to be an event going on. The little museums are gems where there is lots to learn about New Caledonia\u2019s history. Having a little French cup of coffee on a terrace is the best start to the day imaginable here.
\nLocal produce is relatively cheap
\nOur three days pass very quickly and soon we find ourselves begging for more at the marina office. \u201cNo, please go,\u201d a local sailor says to us. He grabs my elbow and points at the chart on the wall. \u201cLook here: protected anchorages on the little atolls. And here, \u00cele des Pins. World class, you have to go and see it. And here, Prony Bay, you can spend a week there.
\n\u201cGo, and come back after a month. Or better, after a whole season. It is such a shame that most cruisers come here for only a few weeks.\u201d
\nWe decide to take his advice seriously. One more round of the market to stock up on fresh goodies, and late in the afternoon we cast off. A whopping four miles from the capital is the first atoll, \u00celot Ma\u00eetre, a cute little island surrounded by a reef. To avoid people anchoring on the coral, the French government has laid hundreds of free mooring buoys all over New Caledonia.
\nAnna Caroline at anchor off \u00cele U\u00e9re\u00b4near Noum\u00e9a
\nThey can take boats of up to 10m in all wind strengths; bigger boats have to go elsewhere when the wind picks up over 20 knots. We tie to a mooring and enjoy the sun setting. No green flash on the horizon, but the green flash of a very French bottle of Chablis on board.
\nWe spend a week exploring. While we enjoy a picnic lunch on the beach of \u00cele Am\u00e9d\u00e9e, where the old metal lighthouse proudly stands, a fellow cruiser walks over and asks: \u201cYou\u2019re going to \u00cele des Pins too tomorrow?\u201d We shamefully admit that we haven\u2019t been pulling up our weather charts in the past days. Happily cruising around in the benign tradewinds has made us lazy. But the wind is veering to the east. Now is the time to go.
\nUnexpected gem
\nThe next morning we are on our way at first light. We sail 40 miles upwind, a long slog against a steady ocean swell. \u201cI sure hope that it is worth it,\u201d says Wietze sourly.
\nAnna Caroline beating upwind
\nOnce we turn into Kuto Bay we know that it was worth every minute. We sail into a wide, sandy bay, palm-fringed with an inviting terrace right in the middle. The anchor sets beautifully, we inflate the dinghy and off we go.
\nWe run into a local guy who introduces himself as William. \u201cI\u2019ll take you to go sailing,\u201d he says with a smile. Wietze points at our boat: \u201cWe know sailing, my friend.\u201d
\n\u201cNo, not the sailing we do here,\u201d William persists.
\nSo the next morning at 0700 he picks us up from the beach. We wade through the water to Bernard\u2019s boat. It is a classic pirogue, made from the trunk of a pine tree. Sailing on a log is interesting, but Bernard manages to make remarkable speed with it. A turtle can only just dodge us when we thunder downwind.
\nOld and new: sailing with a traditional pirogue outrigger canoe \u2013 which also has an outboard motor
\nBernard steers his nimble craft with a large paddle as an oar. It turns on a dime, as we find out when we race past a massive rock, while Bernard chats about his tribe. He is Kanak and a member of one of eight tribes on the island. The total population is less than 1,500, so the tribes are relatively small.
\nAnother pirogue sets off from the beach and apparently it is the same with Kanaks as with all other sailors: two boats on the water is a race. We\u2019re having lots of fun comparing the speed and the wind angle of both boats. After two hours, we declare Bernard\u2019s red boat the winner.
\nHe drops us off at a beach, from where we walk through the forest to a river. Then we follow the riverbank for about a kilometre before we get to La Piscine Naturelle (the natural swimming pool). Again, one of those unexpected gems: white sand, spectacularly blue water filled with colourful clams, coral and tropical fish.
\nBeautiful La Piscine Naturelle on the \u00cele des Pins, just south-east of the main island of New Caledonia
\nAfter snorkelling to our hearts\u2019 content, we walk back along the river to the road. William picks us up, his face beaming with pride: \u201cThis was special, right?\u201d It really was.
\nA lovely downwind sail brings us to Prony Bay. It is as if we enter a different world with lush green hills and red earth. Mangroves show their feet at low water. It\u2019s a mysterious landscape, I feel as if fairies could come out of the bush any moment.
\nBadge of honour
\nThe people of New Caledonia have a special word for this red earth; they call it \u2018boue rouge\u2019. When things have their own word, alarm bells should go off. The boue rouge is the most amazing mud; it sticks to everything and water won\u2019t wash it off. The non-skid on our deck will bear the boue rouge badge of honour for years.
\nVegetation clings to rock formations on the reefs that have been sculpted by waves over the millennia. Photo: Blaine Harrington III \/ Alamy
\nFor the Kanak people, there are many sacred sites in this bay. Anchorages are all a convenient four or five miles apart, and from almost every beach there is a marked track leading to a lighthouse or hot spring. We walk for hours and can\u2019t stop being amazed at the abundance of flowers and unusual plants.
\nAfter weeks of pottering around its bays and islands, we were convinced our decision to focus on New Caledonia was the right one. Early in the season the tradewinds are not as strong, so the range of destinations is much wider.
\nIn the marina office we run into the same local sailor again. \u201cDid you like it?\u201d he asks with that special grin of barely hidden superiority. \u201cYes, we did,\u201d we say.
\nMountains are the backdrop to New Caledonia\u2019s landscape. Photo: Tim Hester \/ EyeEm \/ Getty
\nAbout New Caledonia
\nNew Caledonia is a French Overseas Territory. Although French is the official language, most people speak (or at least understand) English.
\nClearing customs is a straightforward process which can be dealt with in English, as most forms are in two languages, and most of the formalities can be handled by two marinas: Port du Sud and Port Moselle.
\nChannel markers and other navigational aids are maintained to European standards, but it pays to have detailed and recent charts of the lagoon.
\nThe price level of marinas is high, as is as eating out, but with some careful shopping it is possible to provision without emptying the cruising coffers.
\nATMs are widely available, and credit and debit cards are accepted almost everywhere.
\nAbout the authors
\nJanneke Kuysters and Wietze Van Der Laan left the Netherlands in 2013 with their Bruce Roberts 44 Anna Caroline. They have crossed the Atlantic, sailed the Americas up to Alaska and cruised the Pacific extensively.
\nFirst published in the September 2020 issue of Yachting World.
\nThe post Cruising New Caledonia: Spectacular sailing in the French corner of the Pacific appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Janneke Kuysters and Wietze van der Laan are captivated by the Pacific islands of New Caledonia\u201cOK, this time you\u2019ll do it, right?\u201d Wietze asks, full of hope that this time I\u2019ll grab the mooring buoy without a hitch. I\u2019m totally … <\/p>\n