Day 167, Year 2: Arrival in Isle of Pines
Date: Monday, October 8, 2007
Weather: Sunny Day, Winds NE 10-12, Turning SE 10 in Anchorage
Latitude: S 22 degrees 39.477 minutes
Longitude: E 167 degrees 26.403 minutes
Location: Kuto Bay, Isle of Pines, New Caledonia
Interesting day. The waxing moon, just barely a crescent, came up just before the sun. It was a glorious morning. We had spent the night slowing ourselves down so we would reach the Passe de la Sarcelle at 10:40 AM, our best estimate of low tide. We had used local tide charts to reach this conclusion, but we now think our information was just not correct. At 7:30 AM, Scot Free II, Ranger, and Incognita arrived at the pass and decided to enter. They reported back that it was calm and that they
had only a half knot current against them. Since we had not planned to enter until 10:40, we noted the information, took the reef out of our headsail, and sailed as fast as we could. We had only turned the motor on twice during the trip at this point, and only then to motor to the east into the wind to slow ourselves down. In the end, that was a bad decision, but based on the information we had it seemed best at the time.
We arrived at the pass at 9:40, an hour before mean low according to our information. But it was not a pretty sight. The sea was a seething froth of white and there was no way to tell what was reef and what was not. We entered the seething water and found ourselves surfing down six to nine foot waves that were coming from directly behind us. Mark was having to wrestle with the helm to keep Windbird on course so I rolled in the headsail giving him a little more control and then went out on the
bow to watch out for shallow water. At this point we were totally relying on the electronic charts and hoping that they were correct. In some places they are a few hundred feet off, sometimes more, sometimes less, so when you first arrive in a new location you have to watch carefully until the offset can be established. Once in the middle of the pass, we could see the reef on each side and a small islet ahead. Using those as points of reference, we deemed that the charts looked roughly correct,
so we relaxed a little and surfed our way through. Galaxy was behind us and they chose to sail up close to the reef on the northern side of the pass and follow the reef in. Theirs turned out to be a much better choice as they had much calmer waters had only three knots of current against them at their worst point. We had three, then four, then finally back to two the further in we got. We were running the motor at 2800 RPM’s and still going only three to four knots. Once we got through the pass,
we continued to motor through the lagoon. We had talked to Bruce on Incognita and he had taken a shortcut through the reef-laden lagoon and reported that the path was very wide and easy, so we went that way. We arrived in the Baie de Kuto anchorage not far behind Ranger, so the shortcut clipped off almost two hours of motoring through the lagoon. Galaxy came in shortly after us, along with two other boats. There were already about ten boats in the anchorage, so we have lots of company here in
beautiful Isle of Pines.
We set the anchor and almost immediately a beautiful green turtle came to the surface of the turquoise water to greet us. She surfaced four more times before swimming away, and we felt warmly welcomed to New Caledonia’s southern lagoon. The colors of the water here are not quite as stunning as in Ouvea, but the tall pines and volcanic peak of Pic N’ga hovering over the anchorage give it a very different look. There are white sand beaches here, plenty of them, but not one that is 25 kilometers
long. The Lonely Planet says you can walk to the top of the 262 meter summit of Pic N’ga in only 45 minutes. Bet it takes us two to three hours!
We want to spend time in this anchorage exploring the nearby sights, but we also want to go around to another anchorage near Vao. From there, you can explore the Baie de Upi, one of New Caledonia’s gems. It is very shallow so you can only explore in a dinghy or you can rent a sailing pirogue, a traditional outrigger with a triangular sail. Pictures of this bay are so beautiful and I really want to go there. From the upper reaches of that bay, you can walk to a beautiful blue hole, a clear blue
pool cut off from the ocean by a reef, where they say the snorkeling is delightful.
As soon as we got here, we got the dinghy in the water and we going to shore to explore. But then we found out that there was a late afternoon 60th birthday party on shore for Maree on Galaxie. We met a few new cruisers and had fun celebrating with Maree. Tomorrow we will explore.
