Heart of Voh / Coeur de Voh from the air (not our pic!)



The view of the Heart of Voh from the viewpoint

We are anchored behind Koniene Island in a rather muddy part of the western lagoon near Pouembout. This stretch of the west coast doesn't have a continuous lagoon like the rest of the island, so you either have to leave via a pass into the Coral Sea and keep going, or go in and out through gaps in the reef, which are opposite rivers (the freshwater prevents coral from growing, creating a pass through the barrier.)



Outer barrier and Passe de Duroc near Voh


We are doing the latter. At this time of the year, large high pressure systems maintain a south east to easterly trade wind most of the time, making the trip south eastwards into a lumpy, swelly sea quite difficult. At night, close to the land, the wind dies but then comes back in a surge at around 10 the next morning. That means that you can use the time between 6 (dawn) and 10 to make progress before sneaking into a new anchorage.

Tomorrow, the pattern is interrupted as a low pressure system dumps gales and heavy rain on NZ to the south of us (fortunately for Wellingtonians, who were expecting to have the mid winter Matariki fireworks this weekend in the wind and rain, a lone southern right whale has turned up in the harbour, preventing the fireworks from taking place - they are now postponed to next weekend - whale permitting!). The rotten winter weather down south blocks the highs up here and we get a day of calm - just what we need to motor sail the last 60 miles down to the entrance to the southern lagoon!



The now famous photo of Wellington's visitor, a southern right whale, in front of the Beehive (NZ Parliament). This is probably a lone male searching for love, but these whales have suffered far more than the humpbacks that go up into the tropics, so he's probably going to be disappointed! Photo by Simon Woolf

All the anchorages we have had since leaving Noumea have been very good - sheltered, no swell and safe. Most of them allow us to get ashore for a walk, go shopping, or explore the hinterland. At Voh, we searched for the famous 'Coeur de Voh' - a natural heart shaped figure in the mangroves that looks just like a heart cut in them. It's apparently caused by two different mangrove patches that have differently coloured leaves, with an accidental heart shaped mangrove channel separating them. The heart can only really be seen easily from the air (photo above), but there is a viewpoint 400m up above the village that we walked to where it could be seen, although not so obviously. The outer reef was very impressive, though from that height!

By the time we get back into the southern lagoon it should have filled up with humpbacks migrating from Antarctica, so we should soon have a whale of a time ourselves!



Scenery from the Voh view point of the Kaala Gomen region



Coral snake / tricot raye spotted on a beach near Gomen. They are curious and friendly, but potentially deadly!



Always somewhere to explore - Geoff celebrates his 65th birthday between a rock and a hard place at the Notre Dame rocks near Koumac.



The yellow line shows our route outside the main barrier from the northern to the southern lagoons along the west coast of Grande Terre