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.

The Boat Retirement Plan: Royal Recy

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Sailors spend an awful lot of time thinking about how to keep our boats alive.

We replace sails and rebuild engines. We polish stainless steel, repair fiberglass, chase electrical gremlins, replace pumps that have mysteriously decided to die at the worst possible moment, and occasionally have long, philosophical conversations with a piece of equipment that has absolutely no intention of cooperating.

The goal is always the same: Keep the boat sailing.

But what happens when a boat finally reaches the end of the line?

That is where things get really interesting.

While exploring New Caledonia, we discovered a company called Royal Recy Boat, and frankly, we think what they are doing is pretty brilliant.

Their mission is simple to say but considerably harder to accomplish:

Take boats that are no longer useful, take them apart, and give as much of them as possible a second life.  And they are doing it right here in New Caledonia.

The boat graveyard problem

There are roughly 27,000 vessels registered with the maritime authorities, and that creates an interesting problem. Boats don’t live forever. In fact, estimates suggest that around 6,300 vessels could reach end-of-life over a 15-year period, with perhaps 20–30% of those constructed primarily from fiberglass.

For years, one of the biggest challenges with old fiberglass vessels was that there simply weren’t many good options other than disposal and burial or scuttling and sinking.

Not exactly a boat scrapyard

Royal Recy Boat was created in 2017. They describe their approach as recovery, depollution, hand deconstruction, sorting and local recovery of the materials.

And that “hand deconstruction” part is important.

Rather than simply crushing an old boat into one enormous pile of boat confetti, they carefully take it apart.

First comes the removal of pollutants and unwanted materials. Then the boat is dismantled piece by piece, with the goal of keeping useful components intact and separating the different materials so they can be directed into the appropriate recycling or reuse streams.

Which means that the old boat’s bits and pieces don’t necessarily end up as…well…bits and pieces.

They can become useful things again.

One boat. Lots of lives.

Think about everything that goes into a cruising boat.

  • Metal.
  • Wood.
  • Stainless steel.
  • Aluminum.
  • Electrical components.
  • Hardware.
  • Fittings.
  • And, of course, fiberglass.

Royal Recy Boat recovers and sorts these materials, sending them toward local reuse, recycling or other recovery pathways.

They were closed when we went by so I could not get any photos of the recovered and salvageable items.  Let’s hope we don’t have to dig through this pile.

Some of the hardware can be sold for reuse. Wood can find its way to artisans, carpenters or other users. Metals can enter recycling streams. And the company has even developed a marine “second-hand” parts concept—essentially giving perfectly usable boat equipment another chance at life.

For sailors, this part is especially fun.

Because anyone who has ever needed a very specific, slightly obscure, no-longer-manufactured marine fitting knows that the used-parts universe can sometimes feel like a treasure hunt.

One person’s obsolete deck hardware may be another sailor’s “OH MY GOD, THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!”

The numbers are pretty impressive

According to the New Caledonian government, during one 2022 pilot operation Royal Recy Boat processed 16 end-of-life recreational vessels in four months. Government information also reported that as much as 92% of the materials from a dismantled vessel could be reused or sold, leaving approximately 8% as material that could not be recovered.

The company’s ambition, however, goes even further:

100% recycling and recovery.

That’s a pretty audacious goal.

The boat may be finished sailing…but its materials don’t have to be finished.

Royal Recy Boat +687.85.85.12, +687.79.06.16, royalrecyboatnc@gmail.com. Located 3 rue du Captaine Bois, Nouville 98800 Noumea.

We found Royal Recy Boats around mid-August 2026.

Find Royal Recy Boats on No Foreign Land. 

Our blog posts run 4-6 weeks behind live events.

Reef Days and Island Ways

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What do you do when you need a little solitude?  You head to the reef.  

The forecast had a week of very light winds and we had some underwater projects to tackle.  

Just 11nm from Noumea (the capital of New Caledonia) is the beautiful, secluded Grand Recif Abore (Grand Abore Reef).

There is not much protection here so you really need to come when the weather is just right.

We had absolutely glorious weather with light winds and very little swell (even during high tide). 

Just look at these colors!

It felt like our own piece of paradise.

One shot is looking north and the other is looking south.

Just, Matt, myself, and the beautiful blue ocean.

Please Tell Me that Isn’t So?

Believe it or not, I have not been in the water for over a year.  Yes, I know, I live on a boat.  But the water has been very, very cold (60’sF or colder)!  We did not get in the water at all in New Zealand and only a handful of times in Fiji.  (This is me smacking my forehead).

It was time to suit up and jump in the water. 

We had two big projects to tackle. 

First, we had to clean the bottom of the boat including the waterline, both hulls. and all of the niche places (thru holes, behind the dagger boards, refrigeration and SSB plates, rudder, props, saildrives, etc.).

We also had to change the zincs on the props and fix a little “wiggle” that we noticed the last time we motored.

Even though the water temp was about 74F – I was freezing!  Normally I could finish the entire boat in about 4-5 hours.  However, I could only do one side before I was breathing funny and called it a day.

I jumped in the next day to finish the other hull while Matt worked on the props.

Bonus

We had some spectacular sunsets and sunrises.  With unobstructed views of both.

Another spectacular bonus was that there are thousands of sand dollars under the boat!

We were anchored in about 4-5 meters of water which is just at my limit for free diving.  

But, I was very tempted to get the dive gear out to pick up some new collectables!

All of the black spots under water are sand dollars (they are actually white but the camera picks them up as black).  

Our blog post runs 4-6 weeks behind schedule. 

Find Grand Recif Abore on No Foreign Land.

We hung out at the reef for a week (Aug.2026) and enjoyed the solitude and beauty.