Across to Grande Terre and Baie de Prony

We left the beautiful waters of Ouvea early morning (6AM) bound for the east coast of Grande Terre (the large island of New Caledonia). Normally we would have a more specific location for where we were heading, but the truth is, in this case since we had light headwinds, we just wanted to get as far south on the east coast as we could and still get anchored before dark. There are numerous passes that we could come in through depending on how far south we were able to get. I choose three, a best case, worst case and probable. We anchored in Baie de Nakety as the sun was setting around 6PM. The bay is the home to a mining operation, so while it was a secure anchorage for the night, it wasn’t a “paradise” anchorage. This was our first stop as we moved to the Baie de Prony on the south coast of Grande Terre.

The next morning we once again got an early start to try to get as much progress down the coast as we could before the afternoon headwinds made traveling too uncomfortable. SV Whisper HR had made landfall a bit further north and we touched base by VHF radio agreeing to stop at Port Bouquet for the night. We arrived by noon, allowing them time to catch-up, and had a nice evening. The next day was a bit more challenging as the headwinds made it slow going as we motor-sailed to Yate. We had a pleasant evening at anchor, and made plans to enter Havannah Pass the next morning and finally arrive in Baie de Prony. Havannah Pass has strong currents and needs to be entered following a slack, rising tide. While we followed the guidance, it seemed we were a little early since we had some adverse current initially. That afternoon we entered Baie de Prony and made our way to the public moorings at Anse Majic.

Baie de Prony is a large bay with numerous anchorages. The bay has a variety of areas to explore, with rivers, hiking trails, reefs, islands, etc. Even though the area has been heavily mined, it is still a beautiful spot. Anse Majic provided us access to a great snorkeling spot and a fabulous hike to the lighthouse and overlook of the area. Moorings have been provided to protect the coral reefs in the area, and you are not allowed to anchor there. This area is very protected from winds, and is often used as a hiding place while waiting for settled weather to venture out into the Southern Lagoon and/or Ile de Pine. Since we had a period of settled weather coming, we made the decision to leave and go to the Southern Lagoon, thinking that we would likely be coming back later in the week as the enhanced trade-winds came back.