New Caledonia

New Caledonia (nicknamed ‘Le Caillou’ by the French inhabitants) is an autonomous overseas collectivity of the French Republic, comprising one main island ‘Grande Terre’, the Loyalty Islands and various other small islands. It is situated 750 miles east of Australia and 930 miles north west of New Zealand. The island nation of Vanuatu lies to the northeast.

The ten day trip to New Caledonia was positively horrible, one of the worst seas ever. I suffered badly from ‘mal de mer’ so poor Mike had long sessions on watch alone. Then our beloved autopilot George broke down – completely – so we had to steer all the time. It poured with rain. Things got so bad we hove-to for a period just to try and get a bit of rest and got pooped twice, the second time the water came right down into the saloon!  Mike took George’s motor apart and found a loose wire – hooray, he worked again. There was a patch in the middle when the weather cleared and the sea calmed. During this brief pleasant period I identified loads more stars and constellations during night watches. Then the weather deteriorated again and good old George starting playing up again - groan. Towards the end of the trip the wind died off completely and we had to motor and at that stage the boat engine began to give trouble – it would stall for long worrisome pauses and then continue. We were extremely glad to arrive at the main island ‘Grande Terre’ on the morning of the 17th of May, slid through the pass without seeing any reefs, and tied up wearily at the marina in Noumea.


Check in was straightforward and blessedly free in the French islands, but then Quarantine arrived – two sturdy young women with big boots but little charm who strode into the boat and confiscated all our fresh veggies and eggs. We were furious as we’d not been warned and had really stocked up before leaving NZ. That evening we had dinner with Jean-Pierre – it was great to see him again, meet his lovely wife Nelly and son Pierre and they were extremely hospitable. After a couple of days in the harbour we moved the boat out to the anchorage. It was a long dinghy ride into the town, but anchoring is free.

Noumea from the anchorage

Noumea is a very attractive town, very French and the island itself is lovely. After our six month break we were delighted to be back in sunny, laid back island life again. It had been starting to cool off in New Zealand already but here, 1000 miles north, it was lovely and warm. JP went off with a few clients for a charter sail on Melancolie and we then gave serious thought to chartering Forever as a way to earn a living. That’s how our friends Andrea and Kikka paid for their cruising, but they had a fully set up network of marketing in Italy. After considerable investigation, though, it appeared that it would be difficult, if not impossible for us; we would need to be resident in New Caledonia and the boat registered there, insurance would be exorbitant and then we’d need to do the marketing ourselves. And when JP got back from his charter, his tales of disobliging guests were enough to convince us. I must say, we very much liked New Cal and could easily have settled there, but though French it is not part of the EU and we could not automatically just live there. We were always so envious of the wide selection of stunning islands around the world where French folk can live if they wish – in fact there are even tax incentives for French nationals to live in these islands.

During the next very pleasant four weeks, we explored the island, bumped into numerous old cruising friends and met new land lubbers. Maureen, who was so kind to us, worked near a long stretch of beach – we’d cycle over there for lunch and sit on the beach so Mike could ogle the nude windsurfers. The French are always SO uninhibited. And James, the Australian script writer - when we met him he was still an aspiring script writer with four kids and a supportive lawyer for a wife. Her faith in him was not misplaced, and since then his scripts have been made into films, one of which, ‘Two Twisted’, starring the delectable Sam Neil we actually saw on tv some years later.

Our troublesome engine was serviced and fan belts replaced and then on 15 June we went off cruising towards the Ile des Pins (Pines), an island south of the main island. Leaving Noumea, we stopped and hooked onto a buoy at Amadee Lighthouse where we found our old buddies Petima and spent a hilarious evening with them and Cigale. The next day we sailed on and anchored for two nights at Mato Isle. On the swim to shore we saw two small sharks and some scary looking sea snakes.

Ile des Pins

Then we moved on to Pins which is a truly beautiful island and we cruised around there for five days.  Mike found and collected lots of lemons, paw paws and a big bag of granadillas (passion fruit).  As usual, we took long walks exploring everywhere, including ruins of the old prisons.  France sent a total of 22,000 convicted felons to Nou Island and other sites along the south-west coast of New Caledonia between 1864 and 1922. This number included regular criminals as well as political prisoners such as Parisian socialists and Algerian nationalists. Like Australia, many of these former convicts eventually became citizens of New Caledonia.

Always pleased to get baguettes; prison ruin behind

We had arranged to meet Jean-Pierre and Nelly here but were having trouble locating them, so we decided to head back.  Happily, on the way, at Isle Ouen we finally made contact by telephone and met up with them at Turtle Bay.  At dinner that evening on Melancolie we had ‘confit de canard’ for the first time served with potatoes fried in duck fat.  Major coronary material but utterly divine!  Mike had been singularly unsuccessful with fishing on this trip (I didn’t even try) but the next day he went spear fishing with Nelly who is a total pro and very determined.  She found plenty of shells and some small lobster which were very tasty with spaghetti.  On our last day, we moved again and this time caught plenty of good fish to take back to Noumea with us.  The return sail was pleasant and fast.  Melancolie passed us and took a good photo of Forever.

At this point, poor Mike had very bad toothache which I was treating with clove oil and the little Boots mini dental kit we’d bought before leaving UK. This was one of our best buys and a life saver for Mike and his problem tooth on many occasions.



There was a great fish barbeque that night at JP and Nelly’s.  We spent the next couple of nights wining and dining with Pieter and Nicole (Petima), Pierre-Philippe and Katrina (Olla), Steinar and Guro (Marialene) and John and (new crew to replace Christina) Michele (Taraipo).  Pierre Philippe and Katrina, being French speaking, found work quite easily and stayed in New Cal, but we would meet the other boats later in our travels.  We had already organised our Australian visas and now prepared to leave.  (I find it bizarre that with British passports we needed visas for countries like America and Australia, but not for France or any of it's territories.)  JP and Nelly came to say goodbye presenting us with gifts of tinned pate and a tin of that fabulous ‘confit de canard’ that we’d loved so much. We set off from Noumea on Thursday 30th June heading for Bundaberg in Queensland.