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.