Wednesday 29 May and we started our exploration of the Noumea anchorages with Ilot Maitre. We weighed anchor at 1035 and raised sails within Noumea harbour to make the short, 3 nm, sail out to the holiday islet of Ilot Maitre. The sail was pleasant in the light SE wind and soon we were furling sails and motoring in to anchor.

Ilot Maitre is a small island; indeed Ilot means ‘islet’. It is a sandy rise some 1km long and 200m wide, with a maximum height of probably less than 10m above sea level. The islet has been partially developed with a resort complex consisting of a couple of dozen or so chalets on stilts just off the beach and a further dozen or so on the islet. There is also a restaurant and pool and some administration buildings. The resort is only open to guests, although the rest of the islet, including a reasonable sized barbeque area (with basic brick barbeques) is open to the public. The resort is served by a long pier that allows the frequent small ferries from Noumea to berth at all tides.

The islet sits at the North Eastern side of a large reef, some 1.5 miles diameter. This is fortunate as the trade winds blow from the South East, so the reef and islet provide a sheltered anchorage on the North East side. The islet is and popular with Noumeans and each weekend we could see the forest of masts, and mass of boats in the anchorage.

The anchoring area is edged by a series of moorings. Being midweek, the anchorage was nearly empty and most of the moorings were available. However, our cruising guide advised that the inner line of moorings were in shallow water, and the outer line was only suitable for boats up to 10 to 12m in length. We were larger and so opted to heed the advice and anchor. We therefore headed slowly in and dropped the anchor in some 5m of clear water. This had the great advantage that we could see the sea bed and so heed further advice and avoid anchoring in the sea grass. Even so, our anchor hit sand, and as we applied reverse engine thrust, dragged. Looking down we could see a few rocks appearing in the sea bed. Our conclusion was that here there was a thin layer of sand over coralline flat rock. As a result the anchor would not dig in. We therefore raised anchor, and moved some 200m to another spot and again dropped anchor onto a sandy area. This time we dug and held nicely under reverse power. It was now 1140, just over an hour since starting out.

With the boat secure and lunch eaten we headed ashore in the dinghy. The approach to the beach was shallow but by staying close to the wharf we could get ashore under motor and land. This also avoided the buoyed swimming areas extending out from the beach.

First we walked around the islet. The beach is sandy all around and pleasant to walk on. The extensive reef to the west and south was unexciting, and from the beach seemed to be mainly flat rock with some sea grass, and very little coral. Still we circumnavigated the islet easily. The sun was out, albeit with some high level cloud, and the day was warming up. This was a perfect excuse to don mask and snorkel and explore the swimming areas. These proved to be shallow; waist deep at most. The bottom was largely sand and sea grass, with the occasional piece of coral. It was not really inspiring, but the dip did nicely cool us off.

That night the wind swung southerly and the anchorage lost some of the protection from the islet. In addition, the frequent ferries and other small boats caused some wake and so we suffered some chop and motion.

Overall, we could see why Ilot Maitre is a popular anchorage for Noumea residents; it is close and offers safe swimming.