Fish!
We had a comfortable trip down from Port Bouquet to Embouchure de la Yate. Anchored in a pleasant river mouth just before the sun set. The best news was a 1 metre long Mackerel which we caught around midday. Just as Penny was threatening Chick-Peas for dinner! Whew- just in time!
We were able to pack away plenty of beautiful fillets, sufficient for a week of feeds.
Today, we went ashore and explored Yate. Turns out that there are two villages with the same name. One is here and we got some veggies at the local hardware store (the only store in town). Then, we explored other streets feeling sure there must be some other shop around with bread, wine etc. A couple of men who were chatting asked us what we were looking for. We got the message across but they explained it would take much walking. Then one of them asked us to hop in his ute and he took us EIGHT KILOMETRES to a small store. He had not being going there- just took us out of kindness. Then we needed to come home. Claude had offered to wait. Perhaps we should have said "yes" and bought him something but we had not. So, we hitched a ride. The first car stopped and Jean-Lac took us most of the way in his dilapitated old car. It sure beat walking and was very generous of him.
Due to the unexpected trip to the shop, we got to see the big Hydro-electric plant up in the mountains. Very impressive. It joins the large number of wind turbines in the many wind farms around New Caledonia (including Lifou). We were going to take the rubber ducky up the river to the Hydro scheme but strong winds are preventing this.
Tomorrow we will head back around the bottom of Grande Terre.
All the best,
Dave & Penny
