Blogs

We anchored off the voli voli resort again, just as we have done previous years. it was time to launch the dinghy and head into the bar for a beer or two. as usual we were welcomed by the owners, the Darling family, and enjoyed catching up with all their goings on over the last year. a great resort, great facilities and very welcoming to cruisers. we even watched the All Blacks thrash the aussies in the bledisloe cup game!!!! we managed to get out for two dives, the breath taker and dream maker. again we were not disappointed with the dives. lots of fish, soft corals, swim throughs and giant fans. the wind is always a bit of a problem here and makes it awkward for diving and anchoring 'just in time' out at the reef. we have been lucky this year having robert onboard, who doesn't dive, be our boatman and watch.

:title naigani anchored in a lovely horseshoe bay with clear water, white sand beach and swaying palm trees. there had been a wedding here recently as the arch was still standing. tried to get jock to renew our vows, but, no way was he going to participate!!!! had barbeque dinner ashore with spanish mackerel robert had caught on the way with paul and jo on yinka. a lovely evening until the mossies came around. gorgeous sunset. no diving here as the next day wind increased and decided to move onto voli voli.

1/8/2013 said our farewells to all our old and new friends in savu savu for the last time this year and headed to namena. this is a well known diving haven and marine reserve and we have been trying to get there every year and it is critical the weather is right for this anchorage. our chance came and we arrived here wednesday lunch time along with steve and suzy (hiraeth) and paul and jo (yinka). the weather has been perfect since arriving. there has been absolutely no wind and glassy calm seas. the diving is absolutely drop dead gorgeous and amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as this is a marine reserve there is a $30/diver charge, but we have certainly got more than our $30 worth. i am beside myself!!! the corals are beautiful, fish by the thousands, sharks, moray eels, lion fish, cleaner wrasse, coral trout.....................there are so many dive spots from the chimneys, grand central, kansas city, the mushrooms but my favourite is called the tetons. this is a real wow factor dive. we have already dived this twice!!! we start at eight in the morning and usually do three dives a day. a dive compressor is a must and ours has certainly paid for itself over the last few years.

for those of you who read our updates, i apologise for their lack of interest and regularity, but the weather has been unusually unseasonally untropical, just day after day of grey, back to that uk feeling of living in a tupperware box with the lid on. no good at all for trying to work your way through coral strewn waters and explore the reefs and bays as the charts all have warnings saying don't rely on them as it is insufficiently surveyed, we need to use eyeball navigation, and that's not possible in the flat grey light. so there's not much to tell. the last sail we had was chilly, wet - and fast, difficult to see the pass through the reef and no good at all for whale spotting with all the waves and wind blown spray, it is the season the humpbacks are here with their babies - we're still hoping to see one.
we did get to isle de pins though and it is very lovely, quite different from the main island of new caledonia, far less developed, and it's great weather for walking. we hiked to the peak, n'ga and could see almost the entire island. we stood there and planned which bays to visit, where would be a great dinghy trip, and where would be wonderful to paddleboard - all of course on that morning when we wake up to the turquoise waters of the tropics.
we had another walk where i was gathering armfuls of pumice and trying to hold onto my bundle of treasures, whilst keeping my eyes peeled for the next perfect piece, i do know it floats, but somehow i tried to walk across a patch of pumice which turned out to be hiding a knee deep pool. thank goodness no-one saw the embarrassing slip as the ground disappeared beneath my feet and i stumbled and tripped into the hole - didn't drop my precious goodies though.
we are in baie de kuto and the water is clear, several turtles live around here and it's lovely watching their huge heads apear and listening to them draw in a deep breath before subsiding again. we also have 'the boys' living under our boat - a group of large aggressive ramoras - which are fun to watch when you chuck scraps over for them to gobble and squabble over.
fingers crossed for the beautiful island blues and greens to reappear very soon.