Here we go again. Day 1

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Another cyclone season is upon us and it’s time to get out of their playground. Those bullies just toss everything around if it’s in what they call their personal sand box. The Atlantic has their own gang too, called the hurricanes. Hells Angles can only aspire to the mayhem the ocean gangs have achieved.

We are bound for our second home again, New Zealand 🇳🇿. The plan was Australia but they decided they had too many tourists. We did get “long stay visas” but they came with restrictions. We could come and go as many times as we liked during our long stay, but we had to leave every 90 days. So for sailors that means finding a spot for the boat in a town with an airport every 90 days and flying out to get passports stamped and fly back. $$$$$ and it’s such a big country it just seemed like a painful way to avoid cyclones. So back to friendly New Zealand where we can happily bring $$$$ in for vessel upgrades and repairs.

We left Noumea after fueling up at 7:30am, the weather window has lots of light winds so the fuel might just come in handy. That and fuel wasn’t terribly expensive with the duty free certificate after you have cleared out of the country.

Fueled up and on our way.

The last baguettes and almond croissant 🥐 were purchased, but the croissant didn’t make it till sails were hoisted.

First 12 hrs down, 800 miles to go. We won’t set any speed or distance records this trip. So hopefully that means it’ll be an uneventful trip back to the land of the long white cloud. And of course the crazy weather systems that roll by with names like former cyclone Gabriel and their gang members.

Bright side, plenty of craft brews to choose from

Cheers

Crossing the Pacific Ocean….Again

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Matt and I are taking the big blue watery road across the Pacific Ocean again.  This time we are departing from the amazingly beautiful country New Caledonia and heading for our beloved New Zealand. Our trip should take between 6 to 6.5 days to cover the roughly 900 nautical miles. Please follow us Crossing the Pacific as Matt blogs “live from the sea” and you can track our progress.

Predict Wind Tracker:

https://www.predictwind.com/tracking/SugarShack?mapMode=useAtlas&windSymbol=WindStreamlines&weatherSource=ECMWF&trackDuration=0 Crossing the Pacific is never easy, but we are hoping for fair winds, calm seas, and no storms. As always, we appreciate your well wishes, prayers, and hopes for a safe and uneventful passage.

The Sad Life of the Melanesia

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The wreck of the Melanesia is an awful eyesore located in the tranquil Baie de Toro.

In an attempt to avoid this wreck we anchored in Baie Ma’a,  a neighboring bay, around the corner.

Baie Ma’a is a beautiful and peaceful bay situated just 11nm from the Noumea, heartbeat of New Caledonia.

A surprising discovery to see brown, dry brush on the hillside. Evidently, this bay is in the rain shadow of Grand Terre so it remains dry on the hillsides.

On the weekends, this becomes is a popular spot for the locals.  They like to go out fishing and return here to the peaceful anchorage.

 Here is a photo from the neighboring hillside.

Hop Over to a Shipwreck

There is a little dirt path from Baie Ma’a over to Baie de Toro where the wreck of Melanesia has landed.

The walk was super easy and relatively flat. 

After about 30 minutes we reached the Baie de Toro, hung a right, and walked along the coast line.  We saw the immense shipwreck as we rounded the peninsula.

Unfortunately, you can see this eye sore from every angle of Baie de Toro.

The Wreck of the Melanesia has been resting on this shore since Cyclone Anne hit New Caledonia in 1988.

The rotted exterior now blurs the inside from the outside.

This small coaster which launched in 1955 had a variety of names and home ports. 

Her name prior to Melanesia was Glenelg which you can still see on the side of the bow.

A Sad Ending for Melanesia

She has had a checkered past with several captains fleeing various countries trying to escape persecution.

In 1980 the ship’s captain escaped Australia in the cover of darkness bound for Vanuatu.  However,  the Vanuatu locals suspected the ship of arms smuggling and her seized again.

In 1981 her Captain escaped again only to run aground just north of New Caledonia.

It took a small team one year to refloat the ship. In December 1982 she was transported to Noumea.

Noumea acquired this ship in 1983 where it changed names to Melanesia.  This poor ship was beyond repair and just sat until 1987. 

At this point the port authority was so embarrassed by the stranded vessel that they moved it.  And then Cyclone Anne repositioned it to its current location on the beach.

Poor Melanesia had a very tumultuous life.

I found these photos taken in 1994 when Melanesia was a little more in tact.  Photos courtesy of ShipSpotting.com/photos

Find Baie Ma’a on No Foreign Land and find Epave du Melanesia on No Foreign Land.

Our blog posts run 4-5 weeks behind actual live events.

We visited the Wreck of Melanesia in the middle of August 2026.