2012 Overview – Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Australia

We enjoyed our schedule last year where we left New Zealand and spent the southern hemisphere winter cruising through two tropical island groups before returning to New Zealand. This year, our plans take us a little further west to visit Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Our marine insurance requires us to be out of the tropics by cyclone season and in either Australia or New Zealand. We have decided to try Australia this year and to spend the holidays there.

Year End Summary

Dates	Places	Miles
Apr 5 – May 9	New Zealand	135
May 10 – May 16	New Zealand to Vanuatu	998
May 17 – Jun 16	Vanuatu	507
Jun 17 – Jun 20	Vanuatu to New Caledonia	481
Jun 21 – Jun 30	New Caledonia	0
Sep 22 – Oct 24	New Caledonia	263
Oct 25 – Nov 5	New Caledonia to Australia	1186
Nov 6 – Dec 31	Australia	1335
Total Year		4905

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2012 was another great year – starting in beautiful New Zealand, seeing some primitive native cultures in Vanuatu, discovering the great cruising in New Caledonia, and ending in sophisticated Sydney with a spectacular fireworks celebration.

We flew back to New Zealand and returned to Avante in April 2012 bringing two large boxes of boat parts.  While we had not needed much work done in the yard this time, we did need to upgrade and replace some more of our electronics, and it was much cheaper to purchase these parts in the USA.  Our 4 cycle Yamaha outboard had been having problems with the quality of gasoline found on South Pacific Islands.  It refused to start up this year, and we could not get one of the jets out of the carburetor, so we took it to the dealer.  When the cost of a brand new 2 cycle Yamaha was only $1000 more than repairing the old outboard, we opted for the one that was 25 lbs less for the same horsepower and the one that would be a lot more tolerant of island gas.  After completing our maintenance and provisioning work, we again sailed around the Bay of Islands and nearby areas. 

This year we decided to join the ICA again for part of their Western Pacific Rally.  We would go with them to Vanuatu, then leave the rally to head to New Caledonia where we planned to leave Avante for several months.  Once again, the weather window did not cooperate, and our departure from New Zealand was delayed about 5 days.  The 1000nm passage to Vanuatu took 6 days and was by far the easiest passage that we have had to or from New Zealand.  We had a great start with a noon to noon run of 209nm, then the wind dropped off, and the sailing became slower and easy.  We had to use the engine occasionally and even experienced some downwind sailing for a change on this passage.

We entered Vanuatu at the southern island of Anatom and worked our way north to Port Vila on Efate, then continued north as far as Luganville on Espiritu Santo.  We stopped at a total of 8 islands including Anatom, Tanna, Efate, Epi, Malekula, Ambrym, Pentecost and Espiritu Santo. 

Being with the ICA rally really enriched our experience in Vanuatu.  We appreciated the usual reduction in clearance issues that the rally provides, but several of the rally activities were memorable.  The highlights for us were visiting the active volcano in Tanna and watching the land diving in Pentecost where natives jump off high towers with vines tied to their ankles. We and maybe 15 other boats got a close up view of land diving at one village while several thousand people from a cruise ship watched a similar ritual 20 miles to our south.

A sailing friend had told us to expect the islanders to be another group of natives with their hand out, but we did not find this to be the case.  Other than the towns of Port Vila and Luganville, we saw a lot of islands with small villages.  The natives were used to cruising sailboats and did not bother us.  We were more interested in them, and they seemed very comfortable with the role of being a tourist attraction in order to earn income.  Several times we observed them change out of western clothes and don traditional costumes to perform a dance or ceremony. 

Port Vila is an interesting town, and the moorings off Yachting World are a great place to spend a few days.  On the other hand, Luganville proved to be a disappointment.  Despite a lot of Australian tourism there, provisioning was surprisingly limited.  Also, there was not a great place to anchor or moor near Luganville, and fuel had to be hauled in containers from the nearest gas station to an abandoned dock and then out to the boat by dinghy.  Because Vanuatu has a number of islands spaced comfortably apart, we were able to enjoy some great sailing as we went from island to island.  We enjoyed our time there quite a lot, and we found Vanuatu a welcoming and interesting place.

We left the rally in mid-June and sailed to New Caledonia. As we had been experiencing some problems with our autopilot in strong winds, we were looking for a light weather window for the 480nm passage from Luganville to Noumea.  We were lucky with the weather, and our passage took us a little over 3 days.  Our initial impressions of New Caledonia were good – nice topography, accurate nautical charts and functioning navigational aids.  We headed around the south end of New Caledonia to Noumea where we had arranged to leave the boat.

New Caledonia is still part of France, and it shows.  Noumea is clearly the nicest town we have seen in the South Pacific.  It resembles, but is nicer than, Papeete.  Port Moselle Marina proved to be a safe place to leave Avante, although we learned that we were lucky to have secured a reservation there.  Again, we had an agent to watch the boat and keep it clean.  The air is dirty from mining, and the growth on our bottom after 3 months was horrendous.  We flew home at the end of June and returned near the end of September with our usual two boxes of boat parts.  Noumea is a delightful small city, and it is a great place to provision as French wines, cheeses and other culinary delights are readily available.  The French expats living here enjoy a relaxed and comfortable lifestyle.  Many work for the government and enjoy a nice bonus to their salaries because they are so far from Paris.

We had budgeted about 4 weeks to sail in New Caledonia.  Like the vast majority of cruisers, we chose to spend all our time in the Great Southern Lagoon between Noumea and the Ile des Pins.  This gave us a nice relaxed schedule and the chance to spend more time than we usually do at anchorages.  Despite a lot of days with 20 to 25 kt tradewinds, the sailing turned out to be somewhat tamer than our more recent island experiences.  There were a lot of boats, and we often found mooring balls.  Except for one remote section of the lagoon, it was well charted and hazards were marked. The disappointing factors were that the water was still cool for swimming in October, and there was not that much to do when we went ashore at many of the anchorages.  The Great Southern Lagoon is a delightful cruising area, and it is easily covered in several weeks.

We hope to return to New Caledonia and see more than the Great Southern Lagoon.  The only native islanders that we saw were in Noumea where they were an out of place minority, and they did not make a very good impression.  Some good friends who had taken the time to sail all the way around Grand Terre reported having a number of interesting experiences.

On our passage to Australia, we detoured to the north and stopped at Chesterfield Reefs for two days.  We then entered Australia through the Capricorn Channel at the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef and headed northwest to Mackay to clear in.  This was a fairly lengthy route, and we covered almost 1200nm.  We had moderate to light winds which made a comfortable but slow passage.  We spent a total of 9 days underway plus 2 days at anchor in Chesterfield Reef.  Our Chesterfield Reef stop was wonderful.  We were the only boat there, and the feeling of being alone by some tiny islands in the middle of the ocean was special.  The place was absolutely full of nesting seabirds.

We cleared into Australia at Mackay, then headed north to the Whitsunday Islands.  A lot of our Australian cruising was based on advice from Stephen Everett, another J/160 owner, who lives in Brisbane.  He had advised that the Whitsundays were lovely, but they were full of charter boats.  He said that some of the best cruising was between the Whitsundays and Brisbane, so after a week in the Whitsundays, we began heading south.  We spent about three weeks covering the 600nm to Brisbane.  The northern section of this trip was full of lovely anchorages at islands and reefs.  The southern section was more challenging because of shallow areas and bars.  Timing our trip with the tides was essential here.  The deep keel of Avante was an issue, but we were able to get through the Great Sandy Straits and over Wide Bay Bar without incident.  Upon arrival in Brisbane, we headed for Raby Bay, a development of homes and canals where the Everetts live.

We were headed south to Sydney for the holidays.  Getting Avante through the maze of shallow channels from Moreton Bay off Brisbane to the Gold Coast made the Great Sandy Straits look easy, but we had the advantage of a king tide and our friend, Stephen, as a guide.  From the Gold Coast, we went offshore for the 400nm passage south to the Pittwater area just north of Sydney. We enjoyed this popular cruising area, and we spent the only Christmas where we stayed on the boat and did not go home for the holidays in Pittwater.

At the end of the year, we sailed south to Sydney.  Sydney is a lovely city, and sailing in Sydney Harbor was wonderful.  It is easily the nicest big city harbor that we have seen.  With the main port located at Botany Bay, there is little commercial activity in Sydney Harbor, and its shores are covered with homes and parks.  Being out on the harbor enjoying the most amazing New Year’s Eve fireworks celebration was a highlight.