OUVEA- LOYALTY ISLANDS
We are in an atoll in the Loyalty Islands with unbroken horizons of white sand but bucking around at anchor holding tenaciously to the sandy bottom until a weather system moves through and we get a chance to do the vacation bit for Jodie. Even putting the motor on the dinghy requires such athleticism that we have postponed it for a while, focusing on indoor routines instead. That means Jodie doing Yoga on the forward deck and Pilates on the salon workout mat (push-ups right now) so Kris and I step over Jodie while transiting from book reading to kitchen duties. We had thunder and lightening last night with clouds down to the deck in pitch black. The moon does not rise till 3am so it was quite spectacular. When the weather system moves off we will be in paradise with turquoise water, white sand and protected from the trade winds by the reef so we will do some snorkeling. We are in the Tropical Convergence Zone so these Son et Lumieres are par for the course.
Well we aren’t quite in paradise yet, although there is a hotel that goes by that name on this island. The weather has been quite unexpected and not what we’d all dreamed of. Ouvea is a lovely atoll with a very long white sandy beach and large lagoon, which could be quite beautiful if the winds and rain would give us a break! We’ve had a couple of small openings in the clouds and for a brief time yesterday afternoon, the winds slowed, but overall it’s been very rocky, rolly and not conducive to enjoying “paradise.” We’ll probably end up sailing back toward Lifou, or maybe even the main island?? We went into “town” yesterday, which is interesting because it’s really just one long stretch of random houses and building, no real town center, just a bunch of villages strung together.
The one grocery store opened at 3pm yesterday, so we bought some stale baguettes and a couple of sodas – it was really different because everyone was waiting outside for he store to open and then once it did it was just a counter with all of the stuff back behind it and people had to line up to ask for what they wanted. Just getting to the beach is a bit of an adventure with the ocean swell and waves – we got a bit swamped before we could all scramble out of the dingy and quickly pull it up the beach. Then to return, we had to launch it out into the swell and jump in and start paddling quickly before the waves swamped us back onto the beach. Not a very dry experience. Jodie and I decided to swim back to the boat last night, which proved to be quite arduous as we ended up doing breaststroke over the rollers. John slowly rowed the dingy back beside us. At least it was exercise off the boat!
5/28/2011
Lifou in the Loyalty Islands
At last, we had a gorgeous day yesterday beginning with a clear blue sky and early morning coffee in the cockpit as we looked out over the turquoise lagoon of Ouvea that’s rimmed with a stunning white sand beach.
Since the winds were still blowing a bit, we decided to set sail for Lifou, about 53 nautical miles away. We watched a large manta ray which was fantastic and also saw several eagle rays as we traveled across the lagoon. We are now bobbing at our anchor in a lovely cove with the clearest waters I’ve ever seen. We can see all the way to the bottom 7 meters under our boat and look over the vast fields of coral teeming with little fish. 
Up on a cliff and out on the point sits the lovely Chappelle Notre Dame de Lourdes, a white sided and red roofed catholic chapel. It’s still a bit too windy to go snorkeling, but that’s on the itinerary as soon as the waters calm a bit. 
Our plans are to sail around the north end of the island tomorrow into the main town of We, where we are hoping to rent a car and drive around the island and also find an internet cafe, etc before we travel further down the coast to what promises to be a the most beautiful beach in Lifou, called Luengoni beach. We’ll probably set sail back toward the mainland around June 1st, perhaps stopping for a few nights in the Iles des Pins. We must go back and clear out with customs and immigration in Noumea before traveling to Vanuatu.
5/30/2011
After a lovely calm morning looking over the side of the boat and watching sea snakes, squid and other fish swimming by while drinking our morning coffee, we set out in the dingy to go snorkeling and it was wonderful! We saw two turtles, a white tip reef shark and lots and lots of beautiful fish and very healthy colorful coral:)
Now we’ve lifted anchor and are motorsailing across the bay and away from Lifou toward the Havannah Passe and probably on down toward the Ile Des Pins. Depends a bit on the winds, etc. It’s a fairly calm day, but we’re hoping to have enough winds to at least sail part of the way and save on diesel. It’s a little over 100nm, so will take us 16-20 hours. We’re still in the convergence zone so have had several rain squalls and a very impressive lightening and thunder storm last night. For now the sky is broken clouds, not too hot or cold, nor raining…so life is good.
I’m on the night watch as we make our way back across the waters from the Loyalty Islands to Ile Des Pins. We got much more wind than expected, so are arriving too early for a safe passage through the reef, so we’ve slowed up. Lots of traffic around New Caledonia. We just had two different very large freighters pass by. At least we have AIS now, so we get some warnings and positions on our MaxSea navigation software. Very, very helpful.