Tuesday 9th July saw light winds and sunny weather. A beautiful day, if not really idea for sailing. Still, we had a lazy breakfast and raised anchor at 0950 for the relatively short passage of 25 nm to Ile Mattheu.

The light winds meant we raised the Main, primarily as a steadying sail, and motor sailed along the coast. It was a shame to motor. Well, it is noisy and uses fuel; albeit at a reasonable 3 to 4 litres an hour. Still, at least we charged our batteries and made some water. And, to be honest it was very pleasant just motoring along watching the coast slide by.

It was interesting to see how quickly the urban Noumea became rural with a few houses and then, well, no houses. The geography of New Caledonia is such that pretty soon the coast is only reached by a range of peninsula. And then as we continue along the lagoon, the coast consists of islands separated from the main land. Many of these islands are nature reserves, the rest are barely inhabited.

And so after an uneventful passage we rounded to the lee of Ile Mattheu and were securely anchored at just before 3pm. This allowed plenty of time to get the dinghy in the water and beach comb.

Ile Mattheu is about 1.5nm long and 0.5nm wide. It is separated from the mainland (a peninsula) by shallow passage some 1/3 nm wide. The island is hilly with steep sides, and completely uninhabited. Indeed, it is barely touched by man. The anchorage is a large bay that runs the length of the island and is well sheltered from the trade winds. Most of the island is fronted by a narrow beach of sand/mud with occasional rocks. The beach is backed by steep slopes covered in scrub. On the beach we saw many tracks from a cloven hoof animal, presumably deer. We could hear the animals going through bush, but never saw one. What Helen did find was several beautiful sea shells in great condition, including nautilus and spider type shells; her best beachcombing ever! However, as we anchored we saw what looked like a stick in the water. Oh no, it was Helen’s nightmare, a brown striped sea snake. As a result she carried a stick ashore, just in case!

The hour or so ashore was enough of Ile Mattheu for us, so after a quiet night we weighed anchor and headed to our next northern destination, Ouano.

Picture – Helen beachcombing on Ile Mattheu; complete with stick!