The exit from the Baie de Prony was occasionally through sun showers and rainbows lit up hillsides. The nearby terrain showed the scars of both forestry and mining. Sadly, both activities resuled in quite a bit of erosion and land slippage.
Old mine entrance and remnants of a wharf
Sans Souci led the way out of Baie de Prony but once we'd put up our sails it was not long before we shot past and opened a gap of 1.5 nm. At this end of the Grande Terre of New Caledonia, the fringing reef is not as complete and there was plenty of swell breaking through from both the south and east making the 17-20 knot beam reach quite vigorous. The swell was courtesy of a low pressure system in the Tasman Sea which was providing plenty of heavy weather on the East Coast of Australia.
Our 42nm passage was completed in just 6 hours 'door-to-door' with boat speeds of 9 knots frequently noted by the Bloke who hand helmed most of the way. Our average was about 7 knots with a 2 knot current in our favour enabling us to arrive by 2pm for a late lunch. We were on too much of a heal to attempt any catering en-route. Fortunately our guests needed no acclimatisation and enjoyed the ride too.
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