Speed demons
We left Ouvea nice and early for our longish 62NM sail back to the "main land" being Grande Terre. We were heading for a place about half way up the main island, called Kouaoua. We were lucky enough to hook a small spotted cod as we sailed across the shallow Ouvea Lagoon.
Once we left the lagoon, we really got moving. e had one reef in the sail and an excellent 15kys of wind right on the beam (i.e. at right angles to our path). This is our point of sailing for maximum speed. We zoomed along at around 7.5kts and indeed averaged 7.3kts for the entire distance between the Ouvea Lagoon and the main lagoon entrance. We averaged almost 7kts for the whole passage early afternoon rather than the expected early evening. Remarkable.
We reached our anchorage just off a small mining town and the "world's largest curved conveyor"- all 13Km of it. The village was very pleasantly laid out and there was an excellent supermarche. Everyone was very friendly.
The anchorage itself was stunningly beautiful. We were in a sort of fiord with towering, steep mountains all around. The tops were shrouded in mist.
a 30,000tonne ship arrived to keep us company but fortunately did not come and share our anchorage. They were pushing barges out to it and it was then loading nickel ore with its four cranes.
We were surprised how quiet the town was and the anchorage was very peaceful and totally still. We had a day's rain and just huddled up reading books below. The day's rain was sufficient to collect over 130litres of water and keep our water tanks quite full. In fact, we might not need much more water before returning to Australia.
All the best,
Dave & Penny
