Southern Lagoon Serenity
Seaplane Tender
“That plane looks familiar”, says Lyn as a yellow seaplane flies over our perfect lagoon island anchorage. “Maybe it’s the flying vet?” Brent from “Impi” had shown us his YouTube video where Guy the flying vet arrives at Casey Island in his yellow plane to give Moose the dog a checkover. Indeed it was the flying vet, and after we introduced ourselves we had a seaplane tied up behind JoliFou as we made new friends.
Perfect lagoon weather
From Friday the 16th September the forecasts were calling for light wind, sunny and settled weather. Perfect weather for exploring the beautiful remote Southern Lagoon. We headed into Noumea to stock up, anchoring in Orphelina Bay and taking the dinghy to drop Lyn at the cruise ship seawall opposite the Casino supermarket. We spotted “Shenanigans” in Port Mosselle marina at the charter cat area. “Impi” arrived in Orphelina and we caught up with Brent and Ana over sundowners, along with “Shenanigans”.
Dolphins
Next morning after a final shop at the fresh food market and dinghy fuel top-up we set off southwards, motoring over a smooth beautiful blue sea.
A typical Southern Lagoon Island
We spotted numerous large turtles and were delighted to have three dolphins come and play around the bow for a while, a fairly rare occurrence here.
Anchoring at the stunning Ua Island in the early afternoon, we paddled ashore on the SUPs and walked around the island.
Seaplane guests
For some unknown reason we awoke on the Sunday motivated to do some boat chores, with Lyn cleaning the oven and dive compressor locker (and I did something useful, can’t remember what). At midday the flying vet Guy and his partner Sonja arrived on his seaplane, planning to meet “Impi” for lunch. They had not yet arrived, so we invited them to have lunch with us.
They are a delightful couple and we soon made friends with them. Guy was actually born in the USA and is an interesting man, philanthropic vet, seaplane adventurer and kite-surfer on foils, amongst other things. Sonja is a super-keen horse-woman and competitive show jumper.
“Impi” arrived mid afternoon and we all went over for a coffee.
Unfortunately Guy had to fly back to Noumea before dark, despite invitation to spend the night.
Brent came over for a drink on JoliFou, regaling us with his stories of how he had come to own a diamond mine. It’s a long and interesting story which I am sure Ana has heard many times before.
Mates at Mato
Next day the wind was from the North East and we decided to sail North a bit to Mato Island. A fun sail including a close shave with the edge of a lee reef (Lyn was ready to start the engine if required).
Was great to see the “Shenanigans” there with their guests Tim and Sue. Lyn was doing some remote work as I went ashore with the “Shenanigans” crew, walking up to the top of this unusually high lagoon island. We enjoyed the stunning views of the surrounding islands and reefs and the pack of resident reef sharks.
In the afternoon we decided to snorkel the sheltered western reef drop-off area. It was pleasant, nice coral, medium fish but nothing too exciting. That night we had drinks and pot luck dinner on Shenanigans.
On Tuesday morning Lyn and I went for a snorkel at a nearby bommie, surprisingly pretty coral and small fishes. In the afternoon we went for a walk on the island, coming across a French couple from an Amel yacht who had a gorgeous little puppy with them.
Puppy love
Of course, Lyn was thrilled to get her doggy fix. That night we had a chicken dinner on “Shenanigans”, another fun night of hilarity.
By Wednesday the wind had come up a bit from the South West. We parted ways with “Shenanigans” as they headed off for Prony Bay and we set off eastward towards Gadji on the Isle of Pines.
Au revoir Shenanigans
Kite Boarding Lessons
You could hear the scream all the way along the beach! “She’s a screamer”, says Rob as we both look up just in time to see Lyn flying off her board and face-planting in-synch with her kite. It’s her first time up on the board and she comes up beaming from ear to ear, as only Lyn can.
Surfs down
On Monday 12th September the surf was forecast to be small and we said a sad au revoir to Ouano, departing early in the morning. We motored to Tenia in the light south-easter and anchored inside the sand spit at Tenia very close to beach, only boat there in perfect weather.
An idyllic setting soon spoiled a bit by the arrival of a water taxi with a small group of Japanese tourists. We paddled the SUPs ashore and walked around the island, re-familiarising ourselves with the natural splendour of this place.
Lyn spotted a sea hawk’s nest, a subject she has been trying to capture in her photography for some time. She managed to shoot some amazing photos of the mother returning to the nest with food.
St. Vincent’s shelter
With the wind increasing through the day we sailed on through Canal Ducos, anchoring in the perfect shelter on the North side of Moustique Bay at Ducos Island.
After an afternoon nap we awoke to find the wind had lightened and gone round to the north-east and used the opportunity to get farther South and enjoy a sun-set sail to the inner Uitoe anchorage where we had a beautiful and peaceful evening.
Next morning we departed at the crack of dawn, in order to motor to Maitre Island before the trade winds increased. It is a frequent wind pattern here on the West coast for the strong south-east trade winds to lighten to almost nothing overnight and then build through the day, probably due to the adiabatic effect of cool air flowing down from the inland mountains.
Moored at Maitre
Serendipitous Shenanigans
We count ourselves as very fortunate as time and again we seem to experience serendipitous moments along our travels. This was such an occasion. Our main purpose of coming to Maitre was to teach Lyn to kite surf, something she has been wanting for a long time, but very difficult on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Last year we had tried, and discovered it was just too hard with my smallest kite being too big for Lyn to learn on. This year we are prepared, with new smaller kites and a twin-tip board.
The serendipity was in us meeting Rob and Carolyn Port from the catamaran Shenanigans. They are friends of friends whom we had met briefly in passing last year. They are keen and proficient kite-surfers. “Carolyn and I love teaching friends how to kite”, says Rob shortly after we met, “we would love to help teach Lyn”. This was to be the beginning of a fun-filled few days and a new enduring friendship with these fun, funny and very sociable Kiwis. Lyn progressed rapidly under their expert tutelage, and by the time the wind died 3 day’s later Lyn was starting to be able to get up on the board, albeit briefly before crashing and burning.
Other noteable events during our time at Maitre:-
- Drinks (and drinks and drinks) on Shenanigans, Jolifou and Andromeda (Dean Cat, Michael and Iris).
- Bruce getting kite lines tangled with another French kiter, minor injuries but managed to extract himself with no gear damage.
- Bruce trying to kite when the water was too shallow, losing a fin on the reef, finding it again at low tide.
- Leaving all our kites stacked and pumped up on the beach whilst we had coffee at the café and warmed up for the afternoon session.
- Lyn wading out with her camera and taking some sensational action shots.
Local showing us how it’s really done
- Carolyn effortlessly demonstrating the back-loop to Bruce, who entertained with multiple big crashes whilst trying to learn it.
JoliFou 