[password] forester11
[position] 20 24.074S 166 08.644E
[status]  BEAUTEMP-BEAUPRE
Truly the jewel in the crown of Ouvea ... and of New Caledonia! This beautiful uninhabited island, with its characteristic turquoise water and white sand, is both a turtle and a bird sanctuary and we were fortunate enough to be there during what was clearly the turtle mating season. Not so sure about being fortunate to be there during the nesting season for the birds - the noise was incessant from the rookery which we anchored near to on the first night ... and the smell of the guano had us anchor further from the shore than we could have! We explored by kayak the first day, so were able to get close to the land and see that the birds had laid their eggs in the sand and that the hundreds of birds who were not sitting on nests were sharp (and noisy) lookouts! We tried to avoid the nesting areas when we walked in this island the following day .. but on the one occasion when we got it wrong we certainly knew about it!
The turtles were, however, the highlight - we have never seen so many ... and lots of them were really huge. We were amazed to see them mating around our boats - but it was even better when Ben and I walked to the other side of the island to see them both swimming and mating near the shore and also resting on the sand. They seemed quite oblivious of us, so we were able to approach them without them so much as blinking an eye!
The first night there were only 4 boats in one anchorage and we three (Blue Summit, Letting Go & Felix) in another ...the next day we squeezed about 8 boats all in one anchorage (away from the noisy birds!). We enjoyed drinks on Manuhaea, a bonfire on the beach and morning coffee on Felix with others on the Rally while we were there, but when 7 more Rally boats arrived the next day, we decided it was time to return to Ouvea.
Seeing a whale just in front of us in the shallow water of the huge Ouvea Lagoon as we sailed from Ouvea to Beautemp-Beaupris was pretty exciting, but as much as we whale watched as we motored back into the wind, they kept well out of sight!

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