Friday 26  October; Mouly, Orvea, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia South Pacific Ocean 22 43.08S  166 25.01E 

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone BST+10.00; UTC +11.00)

At last we have done some cruising.  The Isle of Pines was a welcome respite from Noumea; we lingered there three nights. I should have mentioned before that we had found 12 Moons and Seaquest there.  It was quite windy, but the anchorage generally well protected and were perfectly comfortable.  We didn’t do all that much – rested and enjoyed the sunshine doing a little snorkelling from time to time:

and accomplishing a major endeavour to clean off the barnacles and coral which had accumulated on the prop in Noumea while we were at home in the UK, (thus adding about 1.5 knots to our boat speed under engine!)

Yesterday we set sail for the Loyalty Islands; a group of several islands about 40 miles off the east coast of the Grande Terre mainland.  We had  a tough motor tack out of the anchorage upwind into 15-20Kts SW then a fetch for 10 miles or so (2 reefs in Main and Genoa) before bearing away for what turned out to be a glorious 120 mile downwind sail in flat water in the lee of Grande Terre.

We arrived in Orvea, the northernmost of the three largest islands, mid-morning today to find 18km of white sand beach stretching off as far as the eye can see. Turquoise water and brilliant sunshine.  I have said it before, but one cannot capture it in a photo from the deck of a boat!

See what I mean? We ate lunch and the team went ashore to make plans for the next couple of days.

At this point I confess that I am beginning to rue having taken the rise out of Lenie’s inhaling because I am now coming down with a stinking cold and doubtless will be begging to borrow the tincture (and  that designer towel) in due course. Mainly for that reason, I decided to stay on board having a quiet afternoon with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin (who by chance it seems presently are sailing between Galapagos and Marquesas Islands).

Here for a couple more nights, then down to Lifou before heading back into the protection of the Lagoon for Thursday night.

Finally, Sapphire arrived in Noumea on Wednesday morning, have provisioned and done all the touring they need  and now have a fair forecast to set off for New Zealand tomorrow, in company with 12 Moons and Seaquest.  A real shame to miss them!  Tant pis.