Isle of Pines – Waiting for a sailing boat that never came

Who wishes to be forgotten in paradise?

Originally, the island said to be closest to paradise was planned to be our starting point for our sailing adventure on Magellan. Instead of one night, we ended up spending 17 long days without clear information. As we kept on waiting in hope for good news, we learnt that bad news was definitely better than no news. In fact, Magellan’s rudder blade broke between Fidji and in southern Vanuatu only a few days before arrival, and at first there was no way for them to contact us, nor to know how and when the repairs would be successful.

We speculated waiting would take just a few days. So we went out to explore the unique beauties of the island like cycling, hiking, horsebackriding, scuba diving. We did’nt find any reasonably safe and reliable kitesurf spot. Not being prepared for a longer camping-stay, cooking tools were practically unexistant, and we quickly started to suffer the lack of fresh food supplies and generally exorbitant prices, not only in the very fiew restaurants, but also in the foodstores. Frequent rainfalls and low temperatures over 5 days made our camping quite uncomfortable, but it was never too bad to be a reason to give up. Instead, we focused on catching up with things we’d never had time for up to now. Spending more time than usual guests, we started to socialize with locals. Each time they saw us again, they wondered why we we were still here, since we'd explained that we would leave very soon.

One day Anh-Dao could not stand it any more. She was ready to leave everything behind, even me! Of course I was more patient because I knew the captain of Magellan personally and remained faithful towards him. Moreover, where should we have gone, if not keep waiting in the camping? Nouméa with its expensive hotels was not an option. Moving anywhere else was another huge logistics project with all our gear. On that day there was a big invasion of Ozzies, enjoying some hard ground on their cruise back to Sydney. Watching the big cruiseship outside the Bay of Kuto, I realized that we could maybe just hop on and reach Australia that way. Calling the maritime agent, he was in for the deal but could not persuade the captain who was against such risky, short-noticed actions. Anyway, the sudden rush to clear our tent space and prepare our luggage saved the day and Anh-Dao had a proof from me that I was ready to look out for new options.

Fortunately, we met some very cheerful people who had come to Isle des Pins 38 years ago to develop tourist business with modern watersports. Now they run an Arts & Handicraft Boutique and create souvenir items themselves. We spent quite a few evenings with them to get inspired by the experience of one another. On these encounters we dare to conclude that it’s not the birth year that determines our age, but the sane amount and creative nature of our future projects and our positive attitude towards them.

After nearly two weeks, our friends on Magellan at last contacted us and the many speculations came to an end: Due to major technical problems, Magellan can’t immediately continue its trip to Papua-New Guinea and Darwin. For recovery, they’ll extend their stay in New Caledonia and add a loop via New-Zealand and Eastcoast Australia. This way, we also had to completely change our plans. But we had no way to leave the island for another 5 days. It’s quite challenging to change a travel plan spontaneously, when trying to keep expenses minimal, and wishing to meet friends in New Zealand or Australia spontaneously without disrupting their original programs. One thing is clear: We can’t stay any longer in New Caledonia. We have to move on rapidly and try to settle in Melbourne as planned. We are at the end of our trip, our budget reaches the bottom end. Thinking more about time, work, money than enjoying the moment on an island so close to paradise is a clear sign enough. In fact we’ve spent as much money waiting for the boat on Isle of Pine and taking the airplane as we would have for 2 months sailing to the same destination. And we will not have made the sailing experience we’d so dearly wished since we arrived in Tahiti.

How shall we deal with all this resentment towards our friends on Magellan? It wasn’t their fault! Lucky enough they survived their accident! Anyway, we were looking forward to see Chloé and Jean-Baptiste as we got back to Nouméa. They cheerfully picked us up with their Dinghy on our arrival at the the ferry-pier, carrying all our belongings with us. We ended up spending two nights on Magellan, experiencing fullmoon on deck, and exchanging all our stories with much enthusiasm. The expedition together would have been great, but “Es hat nicht sollen sein!”

Finally, we are happy to have made this special experience of New Caledonia. Despite the challenging extreme conditions with weather, wind and temperatures, we managed to push our limits in kitesurfing and add more lasting impressions to our underwater career. Many local people, no matter if native Melanesian Kanaks, native white Caldoche, or expat metropolitan French and other nationalities, were great source of inspiration to us in terms of friendly attitude, warm hospitality and great respect for the resources of nature. We will cherish all this good Mana as we move on to Australia and hope to find a place where we can keep irradiating our environment with it for a long time!

To explore the stunning beauty of Isle of Pines, click slideshow.