Off season in New Caledonia

The first three weeks saw us sitting on anchor just outside Port Moselle in Noumea.  Due to an overwhelming number of overcast days during our sail across from Australia our batteries (which rely on solar) were at an extreme low and we decided to sit and wait for them to top up.  Unfortunately for us the majority of days over those initial 3 weeks were overcast as well which is why we sat there so long. 

During that time we did manage to explore a lot of the main city of Noumea by foot which the weather was perfect for as it did keep the heat down.  By paying a weekly fee to the Port Moselle marina we were able to use their dinghy wharf, have hot showers and more importantly (for me) use their wifi.

The internet in New Caledonia is an interesting experience.  You purchase a local sim card and then pay a certain amount to get a certain amount of credit to be used within a certain amount of time.

Example of this is paying approximately $6.30aud gave me 250mb to be used within 3 days.  $12aud gave me 500mb to be used within 5 days and the option that I chose the most was $23aud which gave me 2gig to be used in 10 days.  Have to say when you are use to unlimited data to use in a month it was a shock to the system to see how much data is used when putting a post on facebook with a few photos.  Still I managed to make it work for us ensuring that when we were sailing out and about that we always had enough data to check the wind and weather.

Once our batteries were fully charged we left Noumea and sailed south to explore Prony bay.   It was an excellent spot to explore with plenty of places to anchor up and hide from the wind when needed.  Again the majority of the days were overcast and/or raining however when the sun did come out it was absolutely glorious and we made the most of it.  Every day I tried to get out for a kayak (even in the rain) and it was so nice being on and (when snorkelling) in the water without any creatures trying to bite, eat or sting us.

After two weeks we decided to head back to Noumea, mainly for two reasons.  One we were going through our food/drink supplies faster than expected and also a big wind was forecast and we knew the anchorage outside of Moselle was nice and secure.  We ended up staying on anchor for six days and had timed it really well.  We saw the Bastille day celebrations and we ran into Babe! (yacht) with Paul and Trish on board.  We originally met them in Savusavu in 2017 and had some fun nights with them and some other boaties.  It was great to see and socialise with them again and reinforced to us just how small this wonderous world actually is.

After the big blow had past we once again sailed away from Noumea.  While we really wanted to explore all the outer atolls and Il Pines the weather just wasn’t been on our side to do so.  Every week without fail 5 out of 7 days were overcast and or raining and the wind seemed to change direction every day with at least once a week a big blow coming through.  Knowing this we decided to stay close to the mainland so we could duck into bays whenever we needed to.   

Luckily there are plenty of little islands and bays to explore just out of Noumea and when the weather allowed our days were filled with sun and snorkeling and it finally felt like we were in the pacific islands.  When the winds picked up we would change anchorages and duck into little bays to wait it out

One thing we have been missing so far is the cruising community.  While there are other boats out on the lagoon with us, the majority of them are locals and speak French which limits our communications.  We do realise it is still reasonably early from the world reopening after covid and will take a few more months for more boaties to join us and we are hopeful that by the time we sail through Vanuatu and Fiji we will come across more adventurers like ourselves.

For those interested below is the breakdown of what we spent in New Caledonia converted to Australian dollars:

In order for us to hopefully stay out cruising for the next 2-3 years we will need to stick to a budget.  We were always aware that New Caledonia was going to be expensive and as expected we have already spent more than we should have.  That being said we are positive we will get back on track once we head to Vanuatu which we will be doing in the next few days.

	June	July	August	Total
Supermarket	766	763	300	1829
Alcohol	133	328	55	516
Internet	141	75	88	304
Boat purchases	140	1022		1162
Fuel	204	140	49	393
Entertainment	269	41	205	515
Laundry	39	45		84
Total	1692	2414	697	4803

We will definitely be back again, next time choosing a better three month window to explore this gorgeous area.  For now though it has suited our purpose and that was to get us out of Australia.