Day 4: Arrival New Caledonia!

Calder awoke to the announcement, “Fish On!” He jumped out of bed and started reeling. A morning gift from the sea of a large wahoo that will feed us many meals. So thankful!

Just after Calder finished processing the first one, the line whirred again – another wahoo! This one spit out a squid beak, must have had a good squid meal.

We can see a fleet of international fishing vessels on AIS fishing the waters around Fiji and Vanuatu. Locals in Fiji talked about commercial overfishing. Just 100 nm past that line is where we started to catch fish. The waters surrounding Fiji and the maritime corridor between Fiji and Vanuatu are frequented by various international fishing fleets, including both licensed and unlicensed operations.

Cora is up and making brownies, feeling better! In fact, Chris started this morning’s watch wondering about a chocolate massacre that seemed to be all over the helm seat; Cora and I may have been eating chocolate on our dark night watch.

The wind and seas continued to decrease and we motored along, the ocean seeming placid in comparison to the prior days.

We wandered around deck, even launched the drone for some photos.

Overnight uneventful and we were to Havannah Pass when we wanted to be (well, one hour off, as the time zone changed!). We were struck by the topography and vegetation here, mountains and hills, a patchwork of bright orange mineral deposits and green palm trees mixed with pines; stunning!

This is also the biggest lagoon in the world. Yes, in the world!

Into the protected lagoon, we cleaned the boat, made muffins (to share with the agencies checking us in), and even took a shower. We are sailing into Noumea under Code Zero, the capital of New Caledonia and the only place we can check in.

The chatter on the VHF is in French. Chris is doing his daily Duolingo French with a hope of understanding just a bit. No room at Port Moselle outside the city center, so we are just around the corner at Port du Sud in Baie de l’Orphelinat. Biosecurity, very friendly about it, removed our remaining fresh fruit, veg, eggs, honey, and bag of shrimp. We are cleared and our yellow Q-flag goes down. The main marina office coordinated our Customs and Immigration, all so friendly and welcoming.  I love that we can take our sailing home for a 4 day trip and be in a new country! We are going to sleep good tonight, another safe passage in the books.

Final stats: Total mileage: 739.2 nm from Fiji to New Caledonia in 102 hours and 20 min. Average speed 7.04 knots.