Downtown Noumea is pretty comprehensively closed on Sunday afternoon. Shops, supermarkets, bottle shops, entertainments, all of them. So we hopped on the folding bikes and cycled down to Anse Vata via Baie des Citrons. These are the hub of tourist activity - here are most of the hotels and holiday apartments. The beaches there are coarse buff to brown-coloured sand, and there is of course no real swell as the fringing reef eliminates that all along the coast. But the sands were crowded with local families and overseas visitors. It seems that all of the locals and many visitors were smoking - it is quite a shock coming here and realising how many French people still smoke, and in public places like restaurants and cafes as well.
Today is Monday, and we are going to fill the water tanks, buy some fresh baguettes and head out of this stinky harbour for the week - Tom and Amanda are flying in next weekend so we are going to move out to cleaner, clearer waters, aiming to make it back up here a day or so before their arrival. We may get down as far as the Isle of Pines, as the winds seem set to make that an easy run - we'll see.
So we'll be back on line at the end of the week, hopefully with tales of landing more Wahoo and Mahi Mahi!