Sunset at the Ile des Pins
I'm writing this update sitting in the cockpit watching the sunset. The last light from the sun is silhouetting the tall black shapes of a row of pine trees and behind me the sky is turning grey with a blush of rose. The water is calm after a bit of wind during the day (more from the north which is unusual) and every now and again a turtle bobs up to take a breath. Around the yacht we have 5 remoras swimming and feasting on our sink drainage (Jim has just done the washing up). We are not sure if these are the same ones that we saw at I'Lot Maitre and have followed us here, or a new bunch. Remoras are intriguing fish that are usually seen attached by a kind of sucker pad to sharks or other large fish -these ones are huge, we don't want to see the sharks they belong to! The day has been a hive of activity - just not for us, a cruise ship came in this morning, disgorged all its passengers and has now departed. We decided to leave exploring ashore for another day!
We spent a week in Noumea with very little inclination to do anything more strenuous than walk to the supermarche. Another arrival wanted to know what museums we had visited, to which our answer was a shameful 'none'. Even after a week, our attention spans and ability and/or desire to do much was very low and sleep very much a priority. However, we did eventually stir ourselves to get as far as the nearest island anchorage and picked up a mooring buoy at L'Ilot Maitre. Being close to Noumea this is a very touristy destination and also a popular spot for locals. Noumea has several large marinas and the number of boats is overwhelming after months of hardly seeing any. At L'Ilot Maitre we saw turtles, dugongs and lots and lots of kite-surfers on the other side of the island. We went for a short dive from the yacht and decided that along with the duvets, the thicker wet-suits need to come out of storage. We decided to bestir ourselves on Friday and move on. However, Friday turned out to be the windiest day so far, so we waited another day and left on Saturday beating into a still fresh SW. Towards dark we headed to the nearest anchorage and spent what was actually our first night at anchor in nearly 2 months. We continued on the next day in a mixed bag of weather arriving at Kuto bay in the Ile des Pins late afternoon.
We spent a week in Noumea with very little inclination to do anything more strenuous than walk to the supermarche. Another arrival wanted to know what museums we had visited, to which our answer was a shameful 'none'. Even after a week, our attention spans and ability and/or desire to do much was very low and sleep very much a priority. However, we did eventually stir ourselves to get as far as the nearest island anchorage and picked up a mooring buoy at L'Ilot Maitre. Being close to Noumea this is a very touristy destination and also a popular spot for locals. Noumea has several large marinas and the number of boats is overwhelming after months of hardly seeing any. At L'Ilot Maitre we saw turtles, dugongs and lots and lots of kite-surfers on the other side of the island. We went for a short dive from the yacht and decided that along with the duvets, the thicker wet-suits need to come out of storage. We decided to bestir ourselves on Friday and move on. However, Friday turned out to be the windiest day so far, so we waited another day and left on Saturday beating into a still fresh SW. Towards dark we headed to the nearest anchorage and spent what was actually our first night at anchor in nearly 2 months. We continued on the next day in a mixed bag of weather arriving at Kuto bay in the Ile des Pins late afternoon.
posted by Elenya at 12:50 am
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