L'ille des Pins (Isle of Pines)

One of the places we wanted to cruise when we got to New Caledonia was the Isle of Pines.   It has purportedly white sand beaches and a beautiful bay for anchoring.   We did not come all this far to miss it!

Now that all of our parts have been delivered and the majority of the contracted boat work completed, we were antsy to leave the boat.  Since the boat is not quite ready to leave the marina, we decided to take a different mode of transportation out to the Isle of Pines, and went on the high speed motor cat ferry.

Most of our friends sail to L'ille de Pins over a two day period with an overnight anchorage along the way.  We made it there in two hours on the ferry.  We left at seven a.m. and arrived around 9:30 a.m., rented a car for the day, and returned to Noumea by 8:00 p.m. in the evening.  This is the fringe season, so we were able to get a good deal.  Ordinarily tourist class is about $120/per person round trip. We secured a special promotion of $90.00 round trip in VIP.  The savings went toward a rental car of $45.00 for the day including gas.

The most remarkable features of Isle of Pines are of course the pine trees, a great majority of them having shapes dissimilar to what we are used to in the states,

aquamarine water,

white sand beaches,

large rocks undercut by the sea,

and beautiful limestone caverns.

We also saw some interesting statuary,

Russ's 65th Birthday Portrait - You're as young as you feel!
churches, and the vestiges of a French prison built in 1881 to house political prisoners from the French Prussian war.  

We enjoyed a lovely meal at the Meridian Hotel looking out over the bay.

All in all it was a great day, and even though it was a quick trip, we enjoyed every second.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on the Sailing Vessel Worrall Wind.