Baie de Prony

Headed out of Noumea on Tuesday 4th July bound for Bay de Prony. Would like to say we had a nice sail down, but the SE trades are still up. The day was supposed to be a little let up, with only 15-20knts predicted but ended up being 20-25 with an occasional 30 gust. Ugh, slow and bumpy! The next few days were expected to be over the 20’s and rainy, so we tucked into a bay to have a few AFD’s (alcohol free days). The bay is littered with good anchorages all with lots of attractions such as hot springs, lookouts, waterfalls and red, red soil everywhere. We knew the boat would develop a nice (or not so nice) red tinge at the waterline by the time we left here. The bay is also the nickel mining center of New Caledonia.

First stop for three nights was back to Ille Casy. We picked up the mooring and were welcomed by the locals; a massive cod (1.2m) and his/her fish friends. Like the remoras (who we finally managed to dump) they got fed every morning and also posed for a photo or two.

At Casy we also caught up with other rally boats (Katfish, Curried Oates, Pandion and Aquabar) and had a couple of enjoyable fires on the beach exchanging stories and sampling some cool bevvies (so much for AFD’s)

We hit the jackpot one night and got the trifecta with a third boat hitting us since we’ve been in New Caledonia, whilst on a mooring buoy. The first was a 40’ yacht, the second a 48’ Catana catamaran, both at Ile Maître and this night another catamaran about the same as the Catana. Luckily no damaged sustained but it gets us why they have to swing and hit us in the wee hours of the morning when we should all be sleeping. The last hit at Casy disturbed not only us but them as they were in the middle of mixing cocktails, cranking up the music and generally having a fat time even until they hit at 4am, so moving their catamaran in the dark was not planned or appreciated by them but as we were there first, they went.

Time to farewell Casey and our friend the cod and make tracks for Baie de Majic a full hour away.

We arrived at Baie de Majic mid-morning on Saturday despite leaving Casy on Friday morning and it being only an hour across the bay. Why? The answer is easy, we lost track of the calendar and actually left Casy on Saturday and not Friday. The relaxed lifestyle is taking its toll on us, and we are forgetting what day it is, but do we mind, not really.

Anyway, back to Baie de Majic. We picked up a mooring buoy and settled into three nights of absolute calm and a blessing was that all the moorings were well spaced so no collisions in the night. Day 1 – stayed on board, because believe it or not it’s not all sunshine and beers – it rained on and off most of the day. Did a few jobs only venturing off for sundowners on Parhelion. Day 2 – a lovely sunny day so we took the opportunity to climb the hill to the lookout. A pretty good walk and great views of the southern lagoon, the reefs and Isle de Pins. Prony Bay is a nice change from the islands and reefs and allows you to do a lot of land sites and treks, but oh boy, the red soil/mud is a constant. That afternoon it was kayaking in the bay. Day 3 – it was up early and off to Baie du Carenage.

We arrived mid-morning after a nice little two-hour sail, dropped anchor in more red mud and then in the afternoon it was off to the hot (tepid) springs and waterfalls. We bumped into more Australians at the springs and on returning to the boat found that there were six others at anchor which isn’t bad as we thought it was only an anchorage for two or three. To our surprise one of the seven was actually French (not Australian!) and a Lagoon 440 to boot. Another peaceful calm anchorage.

Wednesday, we started with bacon and eggs, a change from cereal. Up anchor (more mud) and then off to Baie de la Somme to visit the historic village of Prony. It was only an hour’s motor from the ‘tepids’ so not much energy spent on the voyage.

Anchored in the Baie de la Somme (more red mud), grabbed the rubbish and off to the floating jetty and bins. Once ashore we followed the signs to Prony village, an historic and very small village established originally for timber milling and later for nickel mining. The convicts established the village and many of the convict ruins still exist. Up anchor that afternoon and off to Casy again to gather firewood for our next venture, Ilott Mato the following day.