Month: June 2015

Cold Morning

June 5, 2015

We got up early this morning to head back to Noumea from Ile Casy in Baie de Prony. You know what? It’s cold here in the morning! I had to wear a jacket!!! I don’t like wearing jackets! (Is that too many exclamation marks?!)

cold-morning

New Caledonia’s Sky Show

June 4, 2015

These pictures were taken during our trip from Noumea to Ile des Pins and back up through the islands in the southern lagoon.

And the water show’s been good too! We’ve had lots of huge remoras under our boat in almost every bay.

remora-scene

Old and New – Handheld Depth Sounder

June 3, 2015

In Tonga last season: We could save an hour if we could find a deep enough route out of the other side of the bay. We did it the old-fashioned way, dropping a weighted string as we motored along in the dinghy. It worked and we had a route out to the east. This year, we stepped up into the 21st century with a hand-held depth sounder and I love it (but then, I’m a gadget guy!).

depth-sounder

This Vexilar sounder was part of our annual Amazon order. It was about $150 and a pure luxury that I’m so glad we bought. In the situation above, we would have used the oar as a depth sounder. Now, I just stick the end of this in the water, hold the switch forward for a second and it shows me that we have plenty of water, 4.4 feet of it to be exact, over this beautiful reef at Kouare Island, New Caledonia. (The water was so clear, it looked like mere inches.)

We haven’t used it much so I can’t speak to it’s durability, but so far, I’m very impressed. Here’s a link to it on Amazon. -Rich