In our second day along the ICW we travelled 38 miles from Great Bridge, Virgina to Coinjock in North Carolina. We passed five bridges, but only needed to have two opened for us. Depths generally were at least 10ft, with a few brief drops to about 8.5ft. A video of our transit between Great Bridge…
Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto
Opened in October 2013 Ripley’s Aquarium is home to over 16,000 animals with more than 5.7 million litres or 1.5 million gallons of water, featuring salt and freshwater habitats from around the world. The Aquarium is located at 288 Bremner Blvd, right beside … Continue reading →
FPB Video: The Way
A new video in which we reveal the secrets behind all those ocean-crossing miles…
2016 Boats – some of my fav’s from last year
2016 boats – a few of my fav’s. It is no secret that one of my favorite subjects to photograph is boats or parts of boats. I LOVE shrimpers which was pretty apparent as I was going though my photos to find my 2016 boats favorites. So here they are – big boats, little boats and […]
The post 2016 Boats – some of my fav’s from last year appeared first on Moosetique.
St. Augustine to Ft. Pierce
We hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Our Christmas holidays were spent at the City Marina in St. Augustine while visiting with family and friends. We have stayed on the mooring balls here before but this was our first time at the city docks. We enjoyed the proximity to town and kept busy each […]
Some More Firsts…
It’s been a hectic week. Red Head was hauled for some out of the water work causing the kids to make some adjustments. We are at Hinckley Yacht Services in Stuart and the manager, Brian, kindly offered us the use of a conference room to hold the kids. …
ICW Mile 0 to Mile 12: Portsmouth to Great Bridge
Except for a brief transit around the Palm Beach area, we’ve not traveled the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) in Dirona. In our first leg along the ICW, we headed 12 miles south from Portsmouth, Virginia to the town of Great Bridge. Depths were at least 10 feet all the way, except for about 8.5ft at Great…
DOMINO 20 2017-01-14 01:07:00
ADIEU NEW CALEDONIA
December 6, 2016 – Ile des Pins
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| DOMINO at anchor in Baie de l’Orphelinat, Noumea |
This is our last day in New Caledonia, after 10 weeks and a fantastic circumnavigation. Still, there is so much we haven’t seen! But New Zealand calls and there is a small—very small— weather window… so, off we are.
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| NOVEMBER RAIN at anchor in Baie de l’Orphelinat, Noumea |
Who showed up 3 days ago in Noumea? None other than our Kiwi buddies Garry and Lori, the fisherman/woman extraordinaire on board their Malcolm Tennant Powercat “November Rain.”
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| DOMINO and NOVEMBER RAIN side by side |
We’ve been buddy-boating with these guys for over a year, off and on. We first met them at Port Denarau in Fiji over a year ago. We bumped into them again last year in New Zealand as we were on our way around the top to meet the Ski-NZ Rally. We knew they were in Vanuatu all season, hooking up Marlin and big game. But how fun it was to hear them honk at us as they idled on our stern in Port Moselle. Yes, they were going to take advantage of the weather window; yes, we would do a bit of seaway together; yes, we were all going to Opua.
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| NOVEMBER RAIN at Ile d’Ouen |
Rushed for time, we realized that we could not hit all the southern anchorages we had planned on: forget the Baie du Prony (oh, supposedly fantastic diving) – Forget the Phare Amedee – Forget all the natural reserves of the Great South — we forged on and overnighted at Ile Ouen where JP started to clean the hulls and props in preparation for the crossing.
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| Ile des Pins |
ILE DES PINS – This, according to cruisers, is a favorite destination. Yes, the island is beautiful, dotted with columnar pines. The sand is talcum-powder quality. The turtles that cruise around are gigantic. We stopped there for a few hours to finish to clean the props as “November Rain” was already on her way to NZ.
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| DOMINO at anchor… between stops |
Just like that, it was time to go… we got slammed a bit with wind in the 20’s and beam seas as we exited New Cal, but the wind soon calmed down to 10-15 and the seas flattened out to give us another marvelous ride at 11-12 Kts all the way to New Zealand.
What next? New Zealand for the season, haul out, a visit to the US… then… who knows?
Until next time…
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| Adieu, New Caledonia |
dominomarie
DOMINO 20 2017-01-14 00:07:00
ADIEU NEW CALEDONIA
December 6, 2016 – Ile des Pins
|
| DOMINO at anchor in Baie de l’Orphelinat, Noumea |
This is our last day in New Caledonia, after 10 weeks and a fantastic circumnavigation. Still, there is so much we haven’t seen! But New Zealand calls and there is a small—very small— weather window… so, off we are.
|
| NOVEMBER RAIN at anchor in Baie de l’Orphelinat, Noumea |
Who showed up 3 days ago in Noumea? None other than our Kiwi buddies Garry and Lori, the fisherman/woman extraordinaire on board their Malcolm Tennant Powercat “November Rain.”
|
| DOMINO and NOVEMBER RAIN side by side |
We’ve been buddy-boating with these guys for over a year, off and on. We first met them at Port Denarau in Fiji over a year ago. We bumped into them again last year in New Zealand as we were on our way around the top to meet the Ski-NZ Rally. We knew they were in Vanuatu all season, hooking up Marlin and big game. But how fun it was to hear them honk at us as they idled on our stern in Port Moselle. Yes, they were going to take advantage of the weather window; yes, we would do a bit of seaway together; yes, we were all going to Opua.
|
| NOVEMBER RAIN at Ile d’Ouen |
Rushed for time, we realized that we could not hit all the southern anchorages we had planned on: forget the Baie du Prony (oh, supposedly fantastic diving) – Forget the Phare Amedee – Forget all the natural reserves of the Great South — we forged on and overnighted at Ile Ouen where JP started to clean the hulls and props in preparation for the crossing.
|
| Ile des Pins |
ILE DES PINS – This, according to cruisers, is a favorite destination. Yes, the island is beautiful, dotted with columnar pines. The sand is talcum-powder quality. The turtles that cruise around are gigantic. We stopped there for a few hours to finish to clean the props as “November Rain” was already on her way to NZ.
|
| DOMINO at anchor… between stops |
Just like that, it was time to go… we got slammed a bit with wind in the 20’s and beam seas as we exited New Cal, but the wind soon calmed down to 10-15 and the seas flattened out to give us another marvelous ride at 11-12 Kts all the way to New Zealand.
What next? New Zealand for the season, haul out, a visit to the US… then… who knows?
Until next time…
|
| Adieu, New Caledonia |
dominomarie
NEW CALEDONIA – West Coast
NEW CALEDONIA – West Coast – An Underwater Paradise
October 2106
Oh, I suppose it could take for ever to explore the West Coast of New Caledonia and we certainly could have spent many more weeks in that area. The snorkeling is superb, especially in the reserves that have been set up along the outer reef. We purposely skipped all land stops, even Koumac, to concentrate on observing the reef.
Most of the west coast can be navigated inside the lagoon, except for about 90 miles between Baie de Chasseloup and Baie de St Vincent. But the fishing outside is splendind, as we hooked up a 200-lb black marlin and lost another marlin, that one enormous, in the 400-lb range! So, I’ll take you along our route.
1st Stop: Ilot Yande – 20*03.639S – 163*47.354E – This is one more day anchorage given to us by “Spirare” and we gave it a shot. I guess Serge is a more daring sailor than we are! JP scanned the bottom to drop anchor and all we could see was coral heads under the hull.
The swell rolling in through the pass would have pushed DOMINO towards the reef and we felt uncomfortable dropping anchor at that point. Off went.
2nd Stop: Neba – 20*09.384S – 163*54.890E – Much better!! Sandy bottom, protected from the roll, and nobody in sight. We found the best snorkeling at the SW end of the island. For hours, I let myself get lost in soft coral, gardens of anemones, and a kaleidoscope of tropical fish. We spent 2 days, caught spiny lobsters (the locals allowed us 2 per day) and just filled our eyes and hearts with colors.
3nd Stop: Baie du Croissant – 20*16.779S – 164*01.882E – You’re gonna ask me, how many dives does it take before you get sick of it? Every dive is different. Every snorkeling experience is special in its own way. Here, the reef extension at the south end of the bay sports an amazing anemone and soft coral forest in pastel colors of mauve, pistachio, pale yellow, soft grey… colors that we’d not seen before.
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| A weary octopus is eyeing me! |
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| Juvenile yellow boxfish |
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| Lobster time! |
Snorkel around and you might find yourself in a hot pool springing from the sandy bottom, and suddenly black and rust algae are all around. You never know what you will find: spiny lobsters love to hide under coral flowers… go find one!
DO YOU KNOW YOUR BUTTERFLYFISH? ID These!
4th Stop: Ile Tanle – 20*18.785S – 164*04.824E – The Poum Peninsula offers good protection from weather… and weather was upon us, so we tucked into Tanle Bay to weather a stormy night. Don’t expect much in terms of snorkeling: we hoped to find good stuff at Little Tanle, a sand island covered with low brush, but we found it entirely surrounded with a tangle of purple staghorn coral: pretty but no fun to snorkel! The entire bay is somewhat marred by the scars of mining, the hills dry and dusty, but it was a good stop in a blow.
5th Stop: Chasseloup – 20*57.773S – 164*39.238E – We exited Tanle in the morning and, taking advantage of a no-wind situation, exited the lagoon and went fishing… yes! Hooked up 2 black marlins, caught a wahoo, and had a load of fun!
The anchorage at Chasseloup is enormous, good holding, and again an easy stop. The shore offered no interest to us, another mining harbor, but easy in and out. Actually, we were in a rush to get to St. Vincent Bay as bad weather was on the horizon.
6th Stop – St. Vincent Bay – Ile de Puen – 21*57.827S – 165*57.431E – St Vincent Bay is a large complex of islands, peninsulas, bays and nooks where one can spend weeks exploring, fishing, hunting, crabbing, clamming, or just do nothing at all!
Just drop anchor in front of the old campground and horse ranch. This is another good anchorage in a blow. We tried to snorkel the Canal de Puen: the worst ever!! Zero visibility, totally dead coral heads, no fish. Better to snorkel the west end: much to see there!
7th Stop – Ile Tenia – 22*00.115S – 165*56.567E –
NATURAL RESERVE – NO FISHING/HUNTING –
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| Juvenile Clown Coris |
By far one of our favorite spots to snorkel, especially the north-east end of the island. Home to massive spiny lobsters, this is a good anchorage by calm weather.
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| “Big Ben” – The biggest ever |
Lots to see… including the banded black and white snake!
On our second visit, we took the dinghy out and snorkeled the outer reef (22*00.720S – 165*55.811E) – To find the exit through the reef, find the 2 sticks/flags on the western end of the island!
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| How well do you know your coral? |
8th Stop: Baie des Moustiques – HURRICANE HOLE – 21*59.948S – 166*03.052E –
Another storm was upon us and we hid in that hole for 4 days… no mosquito, though! We found an excellent harvest of cockles and rock mussels along the sandy beaches of the bay. We tried to snorkel the wester end of the island, but the visibility was nil after 4 days of heavy winds and swell. YES< excellent hurricane hole!
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| Reef is everywhere |
9th Stop: Ile Ndukue – 22*.06.062S – 166.07.039E – OUR FAVORITE!!!
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| Ndukue… what is there not to like? |
Our absolute favorite. You can snorkel every day and never see the same thing… plenty of shells: cowries, tritons, Murex, fusiform conch, and then some!
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| Pipefish |
The outer reef of Ile Mathieu hosts all kinds of coral, while its inner reef is all about sand and seaweeds.
The shore at the anchorage is lined with mangroves, and locals line up to find mangrove crabs, those large black crabs that have such a sweet flesh (not in season while we were there…)
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| Nudibranch |
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| So many Murex |
T
hat same shore is home to all kinds of mud creatures, including the elusive CROCODILE fish!
The reef between Ndukue and Ile Moro is an unbroken coral garden with incursions of anemones and soft corals.
How well do you know your coral?
Across the channel, the large reef is yet another experience in soft corals in psychedelic colors. and more Fern Starfish
And again, many cruisers drift-dive the pass (but not for us). And so many colorful giant clams!
Found another Triton!
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| Oriental Sweetlips |
10th Stop: Ile Moro – 22*07.008S – 166*09.862E – Another cool little anchorage by calm weather.
11th Stop: Ile Ronhua – 22*03.963S – 166*01.841E – Yet another lovely snorkeling spot by fair weather – Two great snorkels: along the C-shaped reef, and (for a different experience with snakes) the shallow reef to the east.
So much …. so much… so lovely…
Even eels and snakes and lionfish look fine!
And now, it’s time to think of our next destination: the Great South… but will we have time?
Until next time…
dominomarie
