Isle of Pines

The 35 mile trip to the Isle of Pines was back into the prevailing conditions so not a comfy one. Our guests handled it well but we were all very happy to drop anchor in the beautiful bay of Kuto. It boasts a wide white sandy beach backed by the famous pines, blue water and a bakery. Oh, and we even managed to find a small internet café. The cruise ships visit here and drop anchor way out and we witnessed the little ships ferrying the passengers back and forth. The kids found some new playmates on the next boat, and enjoyed a lot of time just hanging out on the beach with them. All too soon we had to head back to the main island, Grande Terre. We split it into 2 days again and headed for Isle de Ouen. This time we were going in the right direction and had a lovely sail over. Our first choice of anchorage was a little exposed and apparently had sharks in it so we carried on to Turtle Bay in the south west corner. We were very keen to visit here as Charles parents had been here, also on a boat, some 20 years ago. Once more we found a deserted small resort, also a scout camp and just a couple of residents in this corner of the island. It was a sheltered spot but the water was murky so none of us were tempted to swim (maybe the sharks had followed us). We went for a little explore and gathered some coconuts. Luca can actually shimmy up a tree now to collect them! We then had fun cracking them open (thanks Mark) but we didn’t really rate our rum and coconut sundowner that night!
The following day was also a pleasant slow sail back into the marina in Noumea. We managed to sneak into a spot and the kids were delighted to find their old ARC pals on Sirius had turned up. We didn’t see them for the rest of the day as they all played so happily together.
Sadly we said goodbye to our guests and hoped that we had not put them off of sailing for life!
We then started a bit of a clear out in preparation for the arrival into Australia. Good size re cycling bins on shore helped this process and there are always people happy to accept pre loved goods in the marina.