Oh, wow! Sea Snake City

We forgot to mention yesterday that the rugged limestone shoreline (ancient raised coral reef) around all of the islands at Gadji had chitons everywhere. OH WOW, CHITON CITY! We have seen maybe a couple total during the last two years and here were hundreds or thousands. One of the interesting things of exploring is the uneven distribution of all types of creatures. That way, there is always something interesting to see and admire. We ended the day by taking photos of the "Green Flash" as the sun disappeared below the horizon.

Our trip from Gadji to Ilot Ndo challenged us with narrow passages through surrounding reefs, coral reefs needing avoidance and current pushing us one way then the other. We were rewarded with an island of our own, no signs of humans and multiple shades of turquoise water. There were lots of ospreys, brown noddies, black noddies, silver gulls and the usual tweety birds. After taking this all in from Sunrise, we were shocked to hear a helicopter approaching and were stunned when it landed and 3 people emerged. Barry says I should not use the Kiwi term "whop whops" to describe our location because then see what happens - Whop! Whop! Whop! Here comes a helicopter! He also is guessing that the term might have come from the fact that you need a helicopter whop, whop, whopping to get to such a remote location.

We walked completely around the island, observing, photographing and oohing and aahing. In the process, we saw innumerable tracks in the sand where snakes had crawled from the sea to the land or back. And then we saw a sea snake on the land. And another. And another. It was "OH WOW, Snake City! Eventually, we counted 14 sea snakes crawling on the land and beach. We don't know why there are so many on land and we haven't seen a one in the water - well, one. Perhaps they are there to lay their eggs. Maybe you could google and let us know. We also found 2 broken Chambered Nautilus shells and some turtles while on Sunrise.

This afternoon we snorkeled one of the best reefs ever. There was a 30' drop off, healthy hard and soft coral and beau coup de fish and other critters. The water temperature is a bit cold even when wearing our spring wet suits. I,Lynne, have the same O'Neill wetsuit I've had for the last 25 years and, despite lots of use, it is still in great shape. Also, my preferred mask is still the 25 year old Sherwood. We saw a shark, a number of giant clams (including a monster, 14 inches wide with a bright purple mantle one, a first), a huge Crown-of-Thorns seastar, and some really big Napoleans and groupers. There were some large violet sea urchins with very long, thin spines and bright turquoise markings on the shell. There were red sea urchins with long fat spines the diameter of your little finger and nobby red shells. There was also a most unusual sea urchin with very long, thin white spines interspersed with shorter brown spines the diameter of a needle. Nearing the end of our snorkel, I commented to Lynne that there were absolutely no mollusks other than the giant clams. Swimming back to the dinghy across the shallow sandy top of the reef, there were the mollusks, both alive and empty shells. There were at least 10 different types. One was a beautiful miter about 2 ½ inches long with a clean, colorful exterior. Since it was alive, we put it back.

The last few days, we have been in the middle of a high pressure zone, so there is very clear air and no or just a few clouds. That means that we have been able to see the "Green Flash" every night. By setting the camera to take pictures two stops under-exposed, the "Green Flash" photographs nicely. But when we have used the same camera to take a video, the exposure setting is normal and the green color washes out and hardly shows.

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S&S

Ilot Ndo. Paradise!

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All Things Bright and Beautiful Under Water

We had glorious snorkeling on the outside drop-off of the reef. From Barry: We tied up the dinghy on the lee side of a small island and swam around the island and over the reef to the outside. The coral kept getting better and better the farther we got to the outside of the reef. However, the incoming current and swells made the swimming more challenging. There were a few beautiful clams, including a giant and an all-black one. The water was very clear, providing outstanding visibility. On the outside, the reef just disappeared from sight, going straight down. There were a great many different species of hard corals and a little bit of soft coral. There were a great many fish on the edge of the reef. A considerable number were over 2 feet long. One of the drawbacks of New Caledonia is that there is a lot of ciguatera toxin in the reef fishes. Therefore we have not been fishing here, and the fishing would be awesome. The neat thing about the ciguatera here is that nobody else is fishing for reef fishes, so there are huge numbers of fish to see. The quantity of fish is as good as "The Aquarium" reef just inside the eastern pass of Rangiroa atoll, where we were last year. Toward the end of our snorkeling, it was easy returning to our dinghy. We just swam in, letting the surge from the swells push us along relatively effortlessly over the reef. Between the snorkeling and dinghy rides, this area has been the highlight of New Caledonia. Beautiful. Full of life. Sheltered water. Mild wind.

We found a mixed flock of about 30 Pacific Golden Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones resting on a rock/islet near Sunrise. Our dinner time dinghy ride was beautiful scenery of coral caves, bridges, coves and mushroom-shaped rocks. For sure, Baie de Gadji is Osprey City! We have great Osprey photos and, also, videos of the sharksuckers feasting on pieces of croissants being thrown into the water.

A food speciality on the Ile des Pins is land snail. It has a pretty shell about 4 or 5 inches long. I bought them "already prepared" in the shell because that sounded like a new taste treat that we could handle. After cooking we discovered that the whole entire snail was still in there with antenna, lungs, guts, everything. We hope the fish enjoyed the escargot . Ditto the national dish, bougna. When it was served to us it was prepared with black pepper which both of us detest. The only other food news is that, because it was my birthday yesterday, I put sparkling purple sprinkles on my potato salad.

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Oh, wow! Osprey City. Plus all creatures bright, beautiful, great and small

9/28/13 Now we have 3 Sharksuckers that look like remoras with an oval suction disc on top of their heads. The people on The Rose had 7 and they told us to feed them. So this morning we threw bread in the water, out from under the boat they came, and we watched, photographed and took video of them. Also, 6 Common Stingarees (rays). Yesterday we spent the late afternoon in the company of 6 or so Ospreys - young, old, fighting, fishing, flying, carrying a Black Damsel (we think) fish, screeching at each other and posing majestically. Took Rubber Ducky out for a spin over reefs and around islets, seeing birds, sea creatures and 3 other boats in a huge turquoise lagoon complex with beau coup de bays, islands, reefs and sand bars. All this is in very shallow clear water so we could "snorkel" from the dinghy. Yesterday we added the Red-throated Parrotfinch and Shining Bronze Cuckoo to our life list. We saw a green dove but could not identify it. We have seen 62 species of birds since leaving NZ in May of which 44 are life birds. Day before yesterday, Ilot Moro yielded 2 copper and black banded sea snakes of unknown species on shore. I either stepped on the sea snake or right next to it; it was hard to make an accurate assessment because I was busy leaping and screaming. I'm not afraid of snakes but it is surprising what instinct does. We recorded 2 Buff-banded Rails, 2 ospreys fishing and flying with fish in talons and 4 Lesser Frigatebirds plus the usual fantails, honeyeaters, gerygones, Swiftlets, Cuckooshrikes and Sacred Kingfishers. We are so so grateful to be here living this life!!

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S&S Gadji

Anchored at Ile Tianloro in Gadji Bay NW corner of Ile des Pins. Here 2 days or so.

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s&s

Safe and sound Baie de Uamaeo which is spelled 6 different ways in our guides. Barry took me out to lunch at a nice restaurant for my birthday. Then bird watching. There is no restaurant anywhere where we will be on the 28th.

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cup

Please let us know who wins the America's Cup. Go, Kiwis, go! (from mom) Go, Team Oracle! (dad)

Sea is glassy. Sky is cloudless. Beautiful! Leaving about 1100 for Uamaeo/Oamaeo Bay W side of Ile des Pins.

OK. Off to Ilot Moro to birdwatch

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Safe & Sound on Ilot Moro

Anchor down at 1025 on Ilot Moro. Wow! Beautiful reefs and islet with sunny clear sky.

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Kuni Child, New Caledonia

Beautiful Vanuatu Children

                   

Vanuatu Children                                                                                                       

Notice the toy ball woven from leaves. 

Ile des Pins

Excellent birding opportunities on Ile des Pins and we have added about 10 lifers (birds never seen before in our life).   Interesting history of convicts being shipped from France and imprisoned here.  When we first arrived the skies were cloudy and rainy and we certainly didn’t agree that the Ile des Pins is the most beautiful island in the world.  Today, however, it was clear and sunny and “stunningly beautiful” just as the books say.  What a difference the sun makes. 

 

The bay where we are has internet.  It is stunningly slow and irritating.  Most of the pictures that I’ve tried to put in our blog or put in Facebook have failed by timing out.  I agree with Barry – we were happier when we had no internet and didn’t even try.  Today is our last day of internet for tomorrow we leave for remote anchorages.  If you want to keep up you really should check our blog: svsunrisenews.blogspot.com or google svsunrise. 

 

 

Silver Gull on Beach of Pumice

Silver Gull on Pumice Beach

Barry with Rubber Ducky

The Neighborhood

Birds and Ile des Pins

Birds we have seen in New Caledonia so far:
Silvereye
New Caledonian Myzomela - Ile Ouen
New Caledonian/Goliath Imperial Pigeon - Ile Ouen
Red-vented Bulbul in marina
Silver Gull same as Red-billed Gull in New Zealand
House Sparrow in Noumea and marina
Black Noddy 1000s on passage from Ile Ouen flying, diving, fishing, sitting.
Brown Noddy 100s on same passage diving, fishing.
Great Crested Terns at sea and resting on reef - as in all South Pacific
Gray-eared/Dark Brown Honeyeater - Ile Ouen
Osprey at sea, fishing
Common Waxbill in city
Purple Swamphen, same as Pukeko in New Zealand
Rainbow Lorikeets - Noumea Central Park, same as Vanuatu
White-faced Heron - same as New Zealand
Spotted Dove in Noumea
Fan-tailed Gerygone - Ile Ouen and same as Vanuatu
Common Myna in Noumea

Also turtles, very large. A sea snake in Port Moselle harbor,
There are many more sea birds here than in Vanuatu. Our theory is that in New Caledonia the French have a military presence and keep out the illegal Southeast Asian fishing fleets. More fish equals more sea birds. We see the war ships patrolling off south Grand Terre.

Our sail from Grande Terre to Ile des Pins was fast, smooth and lovely. More turtles here and the yacht, "The Rose" which we met in Surrarow.

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Turtles

Turtle in Pilot Bay, Ile Ouen. In fact, we see turtles so often that we forget to report. On way to Ile de Pins, no wind.

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Venus and Saturn

Are next to each other. Take a look!

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New Caledonia

New Caledonia is much more beautiful and unspoiled than I imagined with much bare red soil and pine trees which are the shape of well-used pipe cleaners. Aside from the pine trees the vegetation is sparse and low growing due to the ultramafic soils - full of minerals, especially nickel. It is not volcanic like Vanuatu, but rather a piece that broke off Gondwanaland leaving Australia behind, according to the books. There is much floating pumice here and it could be that the same pumice we sailed through last year has blown this far. We knew we were in a different world when we sailed into the southern lagoon of New Caledonia. The water became flat calm, the soil was bright red, there were those weird trees poking up and everywhere were white sand islets brilliant in the sun. And it was cold because we have sailed south almost out of the tropics now.

Our Port Moselle Marina neighbors are fun and interesting and from all over the world. The younger couple on our port side are from Finland and the British Nick and Kathy on Impala are on our starboard. We have been with Impala many times in Vanuatu and we enjoy their company.

Saturday we walked the capital city of Noumea and toured the New Caledonia Archives Library where we learned about the nickel mines. Nickel mining is the big deal here in New Caledonia.

Half the people are Melanesian Kanaks, and the other half mostly French. The Kanaks, like the niVans, are into Rastafarian/reggae music, garb and hair-dos. When we missed the last bus down the hill, a Kanak man stopped and generously gave us a ride into the city. He also generously offered us a joint asking "Marijuana?" It was the only word besides "merci" that we had in common but it is amazing how well charades and pointing works.

The bad news about Noumea is that it stinks of sewer and cigarette smoke and the people speak French. The good news is that if we try to speak French, people will speak English back, I think because it is less painful than trying to understand our French.

As soon as we got boat chores done in Noumea we left for a beautiful little islet just 6 miles south of the city. It smells good and is quiet and peaceful - aahhh.

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Port Havannah

Rainbow

Rainbow

Port Havanna Anchorage, Vanuatu

Dinghy up River by Survivor

s&s

Safe and sound in Port Moselle Marina next to our friends on Impala. Friday the 13th is our lucky day - they speak English in the marina!! Plus, after the lightning, all the rest of the trip has been perfect. Accidently turned off inmarsat breaker again so let us know if you get position reports. Sorry!!

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Land Ho

Approaching Havannah Pass, can see land, and glow of Noumea lights.

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Lucky to Be Alive

Very grateful that the 3 of us - Barry, Lynne and Sunrise - are alive and well. The sun is shining, a butterfly just fluttered by and we are bobbing around in a beautiful cove. Not anchored, mind you, that would be illegal because we haven't checked into New Caledonia yet. Last night from 3 am to 7 am was another story. 8 knots of wind forecast. The highest we recorded was 42 knots. Then there was the lightning, thunder, rain that stung your skin and almost blinded you, the howling rigging and the ocean crashing over the deck. I told Barry that if we are struck dead by lighning, I've loved being married to him and loved our life together. I don't know why the lightning didn't hit us with our mast sticking up 50 ft - the tallest thing in hundreds of miles.

Anyway, safe and sound so far. Bob around here until this afternoon when we leave for Havannah Pass, arriving in Noumea and check-in about 2 or 3 pm.

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Survivor in Port Havannah

From Barry: Wednesday, Sept 4, we motored to Port Havannah on the island of Efate. Although our course has changed from SSE to SSW from yesterday to today, the wind has clocked and is right on the nose again, for the most part. The mainsail provided minimal drive all day. There were a few brief times that we were seduced into putting out a headsail, but would soon be luffing or backwinded and forced to roll it up again. It was a relief to enter the narrow northwestern channel into Port Havannah, a deep bay between Efate and the fringing islands of Moso and Lelepa. We are told that Moso and Lelepa are "famed" as the locations of one of the "Survivor" TV shows series. We anchored off the mouth of a small creek in nice sheltered water. Port Havannah was also used as a sheltered anchorage by our ships during WW2 and there are supposed to be numerous relics of those times to be found by divers.

5 September. We took a dinghy ride up the creek for about ¾ of a mile looking for birds. We heard many, but only got brief glimpses and took no pictures. We also snorkeled in two spots, but the visibility was only fair and the coral fair for the most part. We did see lots of small colorful fish at the second location, along with a number of small to medium clams, two pin cushion starfish and a bunch of large "feeding tube" creatures, all of which we had also seen in French Polynesia. Our neighbor here is a megayacht named "Blue Gold", home ported in Port Vila and when we dinghied past we were invited aboard by a NiVan, Nixon of Asanvari fame. We got to see how the other half lives! We got a complete tour of the ship from bridge to engine room. Made in Italy, the yacht had beautiful, large sitting and dining rooms and numerous cabins, two kitchens, a large laundry room and large engine room. The bridge was impressive. On the other hand, the yacht had seen better times and was badly in need of repair in the showers, electronics, engine room and a few other places. We were told that the yacht is owned by a Dutch businessman who visits infrequently. Since the water maker had been sold off, they were in need of some good drinking water. We supplied them with 15 gallons. It is a lot of boat for a crew of two relatively inexperienced people to maintain (Nixon and his girlfriend).

6 September. We went up the creek again in the dinghy soon after it got light. The birds were very active and calling up a storm (birds in Vanuatu have 2 or 3 espressos when they get up in the morning) but hard to get a good look or picture. Eventually, we got some fair to good looks and some pictures of Rainbow Lorikeets, Pacific Emerald Doves, a Grey-Eared Honeyeater, two Pacific Black Ducks and a dozen shore birds, either Bristle-thighed Curlews or Whimbrels. Lynne is going nuts trying to figure out which it is. Midday, we moved the boat near the southwest end of the harbor (where they filmed Survivor) to get a shorter hop to Port Vila in the morning. We also saw Pacific Reef Heron and Mynas. By the way, the shore birds were Whimbrels.

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We Have a Plan

Do boat chores here in Port Vila until Tuesday afternoon, Sept 10. Monitor windvane needs welding, 4 alternators not working? Winches need servicing. On Tuesday we need to check out and get fuel. Yesterday went to supermarket, ATM, shoe shopping, out to eat 2 times, topped up cell phone, delivered 6 loads of laundry to Yachting World to be done. Then... it's off we go to New Caledonia, a 2 or 2 and a half day passage.

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Moving South

I got up at 2:15 am and went out to look at the volcanos for a long time. There is not just a steady glow, rather eruptions. Don't know why I find them so interesting. Orion was up, standing on his head as he does in the southern hemisphere. I stay up later than Barry because the really good news is on from 8pm until 9 pm from Australia. That's right - 9 pm is late going to bed here. It's pitch dark at 7 pm and Barry can't stay awake past 8.

Sept 4, 0100 here in Vanuatu. The volcanos, now 50 miles away, are too far to see anymore.

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Night and Day in the Islands of Vanuatu

The big deal about the megapodes and dugongs is that they are both listed as vulnerable to extinction. This is noted in the Lonely Planet so most visitors are aware but, sadly, most niVan in the custom villages are not. To maintain the population of a species, the ancient chiefs had tabus at certain times of the year and in certain critical places. There is a tabu on megapode eggs now but the word needs to be spread. (Tabus in Melanesia are like our hunting "seasons" and regulations. )

We feel very welcome in this village - we now have 50 bananas aboard. Can you put them unpeeled in the freezer and use for banana bread later? Someone please answer, we have no way to google. We also have cabbage, popo (papaya), pamplemousse, mandarins, regular grapefruit, island cabbage, bok choy, snake beans, yams (not like ours), kumalas (sweet potatoes), limes, nuts, taro, laplap and tomatoes. In addition, 2 families made the effort to follow the hens in order to find their nests and find 8 eggs for us. Snake beans are big striped beans and are delicious. When I say big, I mean like the various sizes of zucchini. Of course, all this fresh-from-the-garden produce is delicious.

Today, being Sunday, we went to church - this time AOG (Assembly of God). We were inspired by the prayers and sermon even if we only understood about a fourth of it. There was great singing and guitar playing. (I think I said that Melanesians and Polynesians could teach white people how to sing. However, this afternoon we listened to Handel's Messiah on Sunrise and I take back what I said.) In church the children played on the floor and 2 of the children had real shoes - brand new. The shoes were good because you could take them off and use the laces to tow your shells as you drove your shoes around the floor. They had no real toys but used shoes, sea shells and coins to play with. After, we shook everyone's hand but, fortunately, there were only 24 adults and 15 children this time.

When we arrived in the village for church, we were again impressed with how tidy and well-kept the village is. Everyone was out and about cooking and cleaning. The young children were naked and happy, but when the parents noticed us they ran to get underpants to put on the children. Hey, we like naked! (I'm afraid the missionaries are giving us white people a bad reputation.) We birdwatched while waiting for church which, we were told, would start when we heard the guitars play. Sure enough, the guitars played some chords and everyone ducked into the house to put on their Sunday best clothes, emerged a few minutes later and went into the church.

From Barry: The buildings are constructed differently in this village from what we have seen elsewhere. In this village, the walls are sheathed with horizontal strips of palm wood. Many of the windows have covers that are hinged at the top. We have seen these window covers before in Fiji. In other villages in Vanuatu, the walls are made of woven bamboo strips or woven palm fronds or pandanus and the windows often have a lattice, perhaps to keep the dogs and chickens out. This village had a dirt road passing through and bicycles which we haven't seen before.

It was another beautiful sunny day today. The twin volcanoes of Ambrym over 30 miles away are silhouetted against the sky. It was another terrific day climb the volcano. Tonight, the glow of the erupting molten lava is reflected off the bottom of the smoke or clouds over each of the volcanoes. Awesome! We are here in the dry season. And dry it is. Our boat is so encrusted with salt crystals that it is starting to remind me of Searles Lake in Trona. I am very envious of Brad and Debra on Starlight. They have such a large desalinator that they have a fresh water deck wash-down system. We have to wash our boat off with buckets of salt water. We could sure use a good rain. However, we are so thankful for the modest desalinator that we do have that makes enough fresh water for us to drink, cook, wash dishes and bathe. Life is not only good, it is terrific!

From Lynne: I spent hours the last 2 nights on deck looking at those fascinating volcanos erupting - and the stars, the Milky Way, Venus, Scorpius, the Southern Cross and those 2 bright stars in Centaurus which point to the Southern Cross, the occasional meteorite and the dark, dark shore. When the sun goes down that's it out here in the boonies/whop whops. Except for large areas around the 2 main towns of Vila and Santo/Luganville there is no electricity in Vanuatu. Just try to imagine - virtually no clocks, mostly no watches (lack of batteries), no stoves, ovens, propane or any gas, nor lights, fans, radios, TVs, CD players nor any major or minor appliance. There is nowhere to re-charge your cell phone (called a mobile here) unless you are lucky enough to have little solar panels. No wonder they still communicate with drums and loud hooting. We have seen a few generators in places heavily visited by tourists (like the bungalows near Yassur volcano).

Monday, Sept 2 Yesterday we dinghied along the rocky cave-riddled shore and looked at the underwater reef life from the dinghy. We've spotted large turtles and searched to no avail for dugongs. Today we snorkel the reef, do boat chores and wait here in Foreland Bay on Epi Island for the wind to abate for our trip to Efate and Port Vila.

Birds: White and dark morph Pacific Reef Heron, Pacific Swallow, Glossy Swiftlets, Common Mynah in the village only, Dark-brown Honeyeater (sings like a mockingbird), Metallic Pigeon, lorikeets, and kingfishers heard. Oh, and piglets, chickens, cows and a few dogs wondering around in the village. No cats.

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