Baie de Gadji - In Photos

We meant to stay in Gadji for a few days but ended up staying for two weeks.  We joked on arrival that if it was too shallow we would have to wait for spring tides to leave.  We arrived and left on springs not because of the tides but because we were having such a great time with our friends  ...

What ?

Just another average day paddling a SUP towing a giant rubber duck.

A full but rather tired looking rubber ducky.

Really from a drone this time ... A photo from Q's drone.  Thank you James.

Anchored near our friends in Tika.

Love that water colour.

Fluenta's standard party trick - the spinnaker pole swing.

Tika livens it up with fender swinging.  Greer takes photos in case it ends badly.

And on Excalibur, multiple fender swings.  Amazing that there was minimal tears.

Why can't I swing too !

And of course Benjamin does not want to be left out !

Victoria teaches Sudoku to the girls from the other boats.

And the kids go camping for a few days.

Liz heading off to yoga with Greer.

Yoga with Fluenta in the background

Maintenance: varnishing Trickle's rudder and tiller

Maintenance: varnishing Trickle's rudder and tiller

and repairs to Trickle's rudder

and repairs to knees.  An interesting battle with infections.

Art day on Tika.

New friends on SY Moanna.

and helped out by old friends.  We were lamenting the fact that we cannot get printer cartridges for our Mexican printer and James and Chantal from SV Q gave us their old printer !  Our first print job was a hard copy of the awesome drone picture for the cover of our guest book.  Thank you James and Chantal.

Sunset and Tika Taka.

Shallow in Baie de Gadji

The cruising guide for Baie de Gadji states it is recommended only for catamarans and centerboard monohulls.  We did the math though and talked to others who had gone in ahead of us and figured out we would have enough water if went in on the latter part of the rising tide.  Note that in cases like this it is good to go in while the tide is still rising.  A boat entered after we did but at high tide - if they went aground they would have had to wait for two weeks to see as high of tide as it was that day as we were at springs.

We never saw less than 2.0 feet under the keel on the way in but at the first spot we anchored we realised we would gently go aground at the low tide that night.  Victoria and I did a little survey with the handheld GPS and depthsounder and found a spot where we would have at least 1.5 feet under the keel at the lowest tide forecast over the next few days (also close enough to Tika that the kids could shout back and forth).

A pretty spot worth the extra effort to get into.  Tika as viewed from the mast top of Fluenta (our old school drone - i.e. being winched up the mast).

Victoria swimming under the keel at low tide.  Note one of the many remora that lived under hull while we were there.

Tika and Fluenta kids swimming under the keel

Fluenta on my shoulder.

"Fluenta on my shoulder" selfie.  Note I am sitting on the bottom.

Shallow

Anchor well set.

More playing in and on the water in New Caledonia

Or course, we also spent a fair bit of time in and on the water playing without the kiting gear: snorkeling, swimming, dingy surfing, sailing, yoga and fishing ...

Benjamin is getting more comfortable in the water

Benjamin is getting more comfortable in the water

Ilot Amedee selfie

Victoria checking out the reef

And Johnathan saying hello to one of the many turtles

For his birthday, Johnathan wanted to go dingy surfing.  This time we made it more interesting by using the one of the kite boards.

Dingy surfing kids

And Trickle saw lots of use.  Here Victoria is sailing back from where the kids were camping

and time for yoga.

and the sea continues to provide food.

Kiteboarding and Windsurfing

Our time in New Caledonia was more focused on playing with our toys than visiting different areas.  Progressing our kite boarding was the major focus as there are great spots with consistent winds.  To make it even better there were loads of other cruisers who kite so we had a large group of patient mentors.   For the later half of our time in New Caledonia we met up with Tika again and the kids had lots of chances to learn to windsurf under the patient coaching of Russel.

Liz zooming along ...

and heading up wind !

Experimenting with jumping ...

and crashing ...

Victoria windsurfing

and Johnathan windsurfing.

Some of the cruiser/kiteboarder group - SV Shenangians, Fusio, Blue Bie and Cavalo  (Johnathan photo)

Benjamin was well looked after by the other crusiers as usual.  Emma of SV Hi Lo Yo.

And Philip of SV Blue Bie

and the blooper reel: Benjamin testing the structural integrity of the branch.

Going ...

Gone.