Sailing Taurus NZ

Having sailed so far north to catch up with our friend Ralph on Jemellie, we needed to retrace our steps or face the difficult task of sailing due south to New Caledonia in an area of prevailing south easterly winds. Yachts of course can’t sail into the wind, or indeed roughly forty-five degrees either side of it. The name given to sailing at the closest angle to the wind is ‘beating.’ This is often a slow and uncomfortable angle of sail, involving the boat heeling to one side whilst rocking up and down fore and aft as she rides up and over the oncoming waves. Rather than beat south for a couple of days from Luganville we chose to try and ‘bounce’ back down the island chain in a series of day sails. The further south east down Vanuatu we travelled the easier our eventual angle of sail to New Caledonia would be.

This strategy unfortunately meant that sightseeing and tourism had to be put aside, and moving south made the priority. The cyclone season, starting at the end of October, is rapidly approaching and we have a long way to go. Fortunately, the often strong south easterlies were unusually weak, so we were able to motor into throw them, and we even had a day or two of light winds from a northerly direction that allowed us to sail.

Despite staying at some beautiful anchorages we didn’t get off the boat until we reached the island of Efata again, the island on which Port Vila is based. Arriving at a village called Utanlangi after several days of hot travelling the urge to go for a swim couldn’t be ignored, and getting low on fresh vegetables we wanted to see if the village had any fresh produce for sale. As it turned out the snorkelling was spectacular and the village charming and well stocked with veg.

We left early the next day and decided to anchor about halfway to Port Vila for a quick swim and lunch. The quick stop ended up being slightly prolonged when the anchor got caught in what looked like an old boiler, the only debris on the seafloor as luck would have it. We tried the old trick of turning in a circle to see if the anchor would free itself, and thought about using the dinghy grapnel anchor to grab hold of the main anchor and pull it free, but after I went for a swim I could see that the anchor was so well wedged that the best option was to dive on it. The water was about ten metres deep and though I tried I couldn’t hold my breath long enough to dive down and free it, so we quickly got the scuba gear out. We actually bought and carry the diving gear for exactly this kind of situation, making sure that we always have at least one full tank, so it was good to use it for that purpose and know that the money and effort hasn’t been wasted.

Once free we set off again and had a fantastic sail to Port Vila in fifteen knots of wind. After all the motoring and light wind sailing we had been doing it was exhilarating to feel Taurus come alive again.

Arriving back in Port Vila that night we anchored in our old, familiar spot. We headed into town for dinner and to visit the supermarket, and later than night started looking for a weather window to get to New Caledonia. Kevin and Shawnea on Meraki II got in touch to arrange a meeting to discuss weather patterns at the local bar, which naturally ended up in a few beers and everyone going to a traditional fire show at a local resort. The show was pretty spectacular, though I’m not sure all the Western pop songs were traditional Vanuatuan, and Cara was poisoned by her (non)-gluten free pizza. As we were considering leaving in a day or two we were concerned that this ingestion might cause a repeat of the kind of illness I had suffered on the trip from Fiji to Vanuatu.

It turned out that Saturday was a good day to go, so on Friday morning we headed to Customs to clear out. We were just in time as the offices closed shortly afterwards due to a public holiday that had only been announced a few days earlier. Friends on Norla who turned up just after us were turned away and had to go back the following morning.

Saturday morning saw us having a quick pack up and heading out of Port Vila by 9:30 am. The sail to Noumea started off with a bit of a choppy sea and 20 knots of wind on the beam, but as we left land behind the sea state calmed down and we enjoyed a peaceful, fairly fast, sail. The overall trip was nicely uneventful, the only excitement being when the wind swung to the SE and we struggled to get far enough south to follow our planned route through the Loyalty Islands. Pointing a little high slowed us down, but eventually the wind swung back to a more easterly direction and we could sail unhindered. The chart showed a series of FAGs between the islands (Fish Aggregating Devices), floating buoys that anchored in deep water can move upto one nautical mile. As we travelled through the area in the dark we kept a close look out, not knowing if they were lit or not, but we remain ignorant as we didn’t see or hit anything. All the following day we closed the distance to New Caledonia and were finally approaching the passage that takes one around the south of the island to Noumea, on the west, as darkness fell. At this point, after two and a half days, we were looking forward to our arrival. However, the speed of travelling by boat meant that we had another four hours to go, navigating through the channel markers in the pitch black and finally into the port of Noumea itself. Here we were forewarned to expect that we would have to anchor in a tight spot next to one of the mooring fields.

The Noumeans clearly enjoy their sailing as there are a number of marinas around the capital and well as large mooring fields, but it doesn’t leave visiting yachts arriving at 2 am much room to get the hook down. Thankfully, we were able to squeeze into a spot between a channel marker and another anchored boat. Due to lack of room we couldn’t use as much chain as we would normally like, but we were pretty confident that in the light air Taurus wouldn’t go walk about. It really pays to have confidence in your ground tackle in these kinds of situations, staying up for the rest of the night on anchor watch wasn’t an option!

Next day we called up Port Moselle Marina and arranged a berth. This seemed the easiest option as we had to head into Noumea to go the Immigration Office, and we weren’t happy to leave Taurus by herself on anchor. The Marina staff were great, and it felt fantastic to experience French culture again, though my schoolboy French is getting hard to remember — and I never knew a lot to start with!

We eventually found the Immigration Office (via a patisserie where we asked for directions so of course had to buy some pastries) and were glad not be asked for health insurance documents, which we were told we might need but don’t have. To cut a long story short, we had tried to get health insurance before leaving NZ, but despite explaining our plans to various companies and being sold different policies we kept finding that none of them covered us for sailing. Eventually we gave it up as a bad job and decided to take the risk, which has payed off so far (fingers crossed for the rest of the trip). The rest of the immigration process went without a hitch, with the bio-security folk coming to the boat and taking all of our fresh vegetables and fruit. We were just glad that we were able to keep the uber-expensive cheese we bought in Vanuatu, though the cheese available here is mouthwateringly good and much cheaper.

Since our arrival we’ve gorged ourselves on baguettes (still poison to Cara — poor her), ham, fresh tomatoes, soft cheese, and wine. The staff at the supermarket know us by sight, and we all have a good laugh trying to communicate. Food has been a bit hit and miss in the Pacific Islands, with the exception of the delicious and cheap food available in Fiji, so it’s hard to stop eating the food we have been craving for so long. Certainly we will be sorry to leave New Caledonia, despite the local unrest, of which I will say more next time.

Next time: adventures in New Caledonia.