June 10, 2022
With no weather window in sight to head to Australia, we made the best of our time here with a quick trip out to some reefs and islands near Noumea that we hadn’t visited before. Wow, it was a great few days!
First stop, Recifs Snark. There’s nothing above the water here other than a couple of small rocks and a small sand hump, but it still provides nice protection from swells. It felt like being anchored at Minerva Reef again.
Next up, Recifs Quatre Bancs de l’Ouest. Again with nothing really above the water, it still made for a nice flat anchorage with the reef stopping any swell.
After two nights at reefs, it was time for an island: Ilot Amadee. No, this isn’t the the summer resort town where Jaws took place. That was Amity. Though this island is rumored to have a resident territorial tiger shark, making swimming a little more exhilarating for us.
Despite the shark risk, we did get in for a brief swim and bottom inspection and it was WONDERFUL! The water was 80F (27C) and was just cool enough to be refreshing on the hot day.
And now back towards Noumea to a place that’s been on Cyndi’s to-do list for a long time: Ilot Maitre. The island has a resort hotel on it that is said to welcome boaters. We found that yes, they do welcome us, as long as we tie our dinghy up to a buoy offshore and swim to the beach or pier. Beaching your dinghy is not allowed, nor is tying it up to the pier. That made our decision – lunch on Legacy it would be.
Speaking of lunch, we provided some for the critters under our boat. First, it was just two hungry remoras. Then bigger critters started to show up. Oh, and a lazy seagull who was tired of flying. We told him not to make a mess and he listened. –Rich
Note from Cyndi: This turned out to be a wonderful little trip that made us, after 2 years of mostly land-life in New Zealand, feel like cruisers again! Yes, we did some cruising in NZ during Covid-time, but there’s nothing quite like the feeling of being in the tropics. I will mention the two reef anchorages are, surprisingly, not in our Rocket Guide but instead were recommended to us by our neighbors. The other places, Ilot Amadee and Ilot Maitre, are both popular with tourists, but we’ve never felt any urgency to visit either one. We weren’t all that impressed with Maitre but were surprised at how special Amadee was with its clear blue water and so many fish! It has become one of our favorite anchorages in New Caledonia.
