Beautiful sail under asymmetrical spinnaker to Ilot Amadee where the Amedee Lighthouse is. Quick trip to the island to get the lay of the land because everything was closed. Things only open when the tourist boat comes over on its day trips. The next morning we went back to the island to climb the lighthouse and do some snorkelling with turtles which were really placid and quite unconcerned about all the people. Really windy in the afternoon. Lively sail to Îlot Maître where we tried to anchor a few times before giving up due to unpleasant conditions and poor holding. Ended up in a lovely quiet anchorage at Ile Uéré.
Quiet morning paddling and swimming before heading in to Port Moselle marina in Nouméa. Sadly it was time for Rohan to go home and for our next guests to arrive.
Motor sailed over to Ilot Mato which is one of the higher islands in the southern lagoon area. It is surrounded by an extensive reef and tiny sand fringed islands. It is also home to lots of the local banded sea snakes which are quite unconcerned about visitors to their home. At times there is a red flag to indicate whether or not you can go to the island due to it being a nesting site for birds. There was no flag for us so we climbed the single hill for a fantastic view over the surrounding reef and lagoon. We saw turtles and a couple of black tipped reef sharks hung around the back of the boat for quite a long time.
It was a lively sail from Lifou to Grand Terre. After ducking inside the outer reef we overnighted in Baie da Kouakoue before heading to Baie de Prony and winding our way up to Baie du Carenage. This is completely different scenery – mountains with deep gashes exposing bright red soil, rocks, deep dark water. Apart from the colour of the soil it reminded me of parts of Pittwater in Aus.
Taking advantage of a very still, peaceful early morning, Paul took the SUP out and was paddling over a shallow, muddy section of the bay when he noticed a shape just lying on the bottom just underneath him. A shape as long as his board and definitely a shark – either a lemon or bull shark we think. It was definitely a breathe in sharply and “please don’t let me fall in just now” moment for him.
There are a number of walking tracks in the area so Ro and Paul hiked out to see some waterfalls and later we took a picnic over to some tepid “hot springs”. It was a lovely peaceful spot.
Bakery 
Loading the ovens 
Tribal hut 
Baker on the left. Cleaning the loaves after baking 
We arrived in the early morning after a 4 night passage to a huge bay called Baie du Santal on the western side of Lifou Island. This was to be the clear in spot for the whole rally into New Caledonia. A few rally boats were already there to greet us, it was good to see them again after such a long while. The rally boats continued to arrive throughout the day and night in readiness to clear in to the country.
Clearing in involved running up the quarantine flag, Paul preparing all the paperwork to present to the officials and making sure that we comply with any bio security rules for the country, in this case it was no fresh fruit or vegetables or any Fijian meat or dairy products. Until a boat is cleared in to the country, no one is allowed off the boat. They boarded all the boats the following day and we were all cleared in. Time to take down the Q flag and hoist the French flag.
Because we all had no fresh food left, the rally organisers arranged for a bus to take us all to the local shops on the other side of the island to buy food and SIMs. There were lots of baguettes so of course we had to buy some!
The local village of Doueloulou put on a welcome feast with traditional food and singing. The food consisted mainly of steamed meat and root vegetables with a few salads.
The village also had a bakery with wood fired ovens and they allowed us to watch as they loaded the ovens with the risen loaves and transferred loaves from one oven to the other. If I could speak French, I would have asked so many questions, sadly they didn’t speak much English either. The bread was delicious! It was while we were there and there was a break in the baking that the baker gave us a little tour of his home including a tribal hut that he apparently rents out and a restaurant for his guests. His menu included coconut crabs which Paul was particularly keen to eat so we made a booking to come back the following day for dinner. As we were leaving, the baker showed us another item on the menu that he was keen for us to try….it was a fruit bat! After we got back, Paul jumped on the radio and got 20 takers for dinner from the rally and with some help from French speaker Jen from Close Encounters, went back to the bakery to confirm a buffet for 20 including fruit bat, coconut crabs, fish and chicken.
Coconut crab 
Fruit bat 
Due to the political climate here, we were advised by the rally organisers not to visit various areas of NC including the northern most of the Loyalty Islands, Ouvea where there had been some altercations between visiting yachties and the locals including some gunfire. Consequently we planned to ride out the windy conditions in Lifou for a few days and then head over to Grand Terre.