We returned back to Noumea on Friday 21 June 2019. With perfect timing, a music festival was being held in Noumea that night. Unfortunately by the time we had arrived and sorted ourselves out it was getting late and the music all appeared to stop at 9pm. Until then we could hear an interesting mix of local beat (Kanak style), rock, and pop. Looking at the programme the various genres (including classical) were performing at about the same time in town centre venues. Away from the town we could hear the resultant mix, which was … interesting!

We anchored in our ‘usual’ spot in Baie de Orphelinat amongst the other half dozen or so anchored yachts, on the edge of the moorings. This is a reasonably sheltered spot with good holding in 8 to 10m of water. Unfortunately there is some roll due to boat wash. Some of this is due to large craft not slowing as they enter the harbour, or more common, smaller craft going too fast too close. This was annoying as the skippers should show more consideration, but we could live with it.

Our time in Noumea was essentially spent restocking the boat. There is easy access to shore in the South East corner of bay where there is a public boat ramp. This makes it easy to pull up dinghy and secure it to nearby trees or railings. As a bonus there is also a large bin for public rubbish disposal.

We used the supermarket at Port Pleasance, which goes under the unlikely brand of ‘Casino’. It is quite close to the dinghy landing, clean, well it, air-conditioned, and amply stocked. The prices are pretty much Noumea standard; in fact they possibly even a little cheaper than the main Noumea market and specialist shops. The prices are, of course, high compared to Australia and NZ as so much has to be imported. We also noticed that food is of high quality, so the old adage of you get what you pay for applies.

We had noticed that alcohol is not sold from Friday lunchtime. OK, that generated a trip on Monday to restock. Of course, the majority of wine on sale is of French origin. This generates a minor problem for us. We are used to the NZ (and Australian) way of describing wines by the grapes used in the wine; hence, Merlot, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc etc. However, the French describe the wine by region; Bordeaux, Bergerac etc. Oh well, we look at it as a chance to try out new wines, and so bought a selection!

The Port Pleasance collection of shops also had a serviced laundry. This allowed us to off-load our washing and pick it up clean, dry and folded the next day. The prices were not too bad, pretty much equivalent to the NZ cost of a serviced wash. And, as the laundry is right next to the supermarket, it is really convenient.

The weather was generally grey with occasional showers. Fortunately we did have one period of ‘useful’ rain. We say useful as, whilst the showers wet the deck they did not really clean it, by contrast the rain not only cleaned the deck but also allowed us to collect a useful amount of good fresh water. Great!

We did meet a very interesting French lady. Mireille saw us buying an Anglais dictionary at the local book shop. We bought it as it has the English/French translations, but, Mireille thought we needed it for the English. We talked outside the ship for a few minutes, and then Mireille invited us to her apartment for a cup of tea. Of course we accepted the invitation. Mireille’s apartment was very close by. To say the least it was a very nice apartment. 4th floor, 250m2, a large wrap around balcony, and a really impressive view right over the associated (private) marina and the bay. We could clearly see Tai Mo Shan at the end of the bay. Mireille is a retired teacher and she was keen to practice her English on us. As she said, everyone in New Caledonia speaks French. Her husband is a, now retired, pilot who used to fly for Air New Caledonie. They had a house in France, and that was where her husband spent some 6 months of the year. He also flew with a French flying club as an instructor. Indeed, it sounded like he ran the club. Mireille joined him for 3 to 4 months of the year. We had an interesting afternoon talking about life on the yacht, in New Caledonia and such like. As we left we exchanged details and agreed to meet again.

Picture – There are quite a few boats moored in Baie de Orphelinat. The view from the slipway. Tai Mo Shan is somewhere at the seaward end of the forest of masts. There are also sizeable marinas either side of the bay!