Our History

Over the past 30 years, the Mary-D company has concentrated on running day trips to the Amedee Lighthouse Island, 24 kilometers west of Noumea. This service typically runs 4-6 days a week and transports around 25,000 visitors annually to Amedee Island.

Our main ship is the Mary-D SEVEN the latest addition to the fleet of Mary D, which was built at the Strategic Marine Shipyard in Singapore. Our new high speed ferry has a main deck with a seating capacity with luggage racks for more than 100 persons, includes a bar, kitchen and a dance floor, the upper deck can accomodate another 80 passengers in a open seating concept.

The Mary-D has 40 employees who cater for all needs of the business. We have our own kitchen and staff who freshly prepare the delicious food 4-6 days a week for day-trips to Amedee Island as well as for special dinner cruises. We also have an in-house maintenance department where all repairs and services are done for both ships in our fleet. Many of the employees have been with the company for over 10 years, and a few have been working with us since the very beginning of our business venture. This has created a very friendly and family atmosphere in the company.

We started in 1980 with our 1st vessel “Mary D”, which was only 17 m with a capacity of 75 passengers and it used to take us 1 hour 45 minutes to reach Amedee island. Since then we have progressively upgraded our boats with the California and the Mary D Hydroflite, up to our current fleet of 2 vessels:

  • The Mary D Princess, our other vessel which was upgraded in 2007 and can carry up to 100 passengers.
  • And last but not least our ‘state-of-the-art’ boat – the Mary D Odyssey, which started operating in 2012 which is powered by 3 powerful MTU 1085KW engines coupled with 3 Hamilton hydro jets, and has all the latest marine technology and safety equipment.

Mary-D’s main excursion is the Amedee Lighthouse day trip. In 1999, France presented the Mary-D with the Bronze Medal for Tourism as one of the best Tourist Attractions in the South Pacific. The product has developed over the years to include a barrier reef cruise, glass bottom boat tour to marvel at the coral and fish around the island without getting wet!, now accompanied by volunteers from the Noumea Aquarium, a welcome drink, hot and cold lunch buffet including many local and seafood dishes, a traditional folk dance show during lunch, coconut tree climbing, sarong tying demonstrations and, on certain days, an organised nature walk.

In the 30 years that the Mary-D has been transporting visitors to Amedee Island, we have greatly endeavoured to improve the ease of access and the infrastructures on the island. You will find a fully equipped restaurant including a fully licensed bar and a souvenir shop. There is also running water for toilets and fresh water showers.

The Amedee Lighthouse Island is not just a visitor’s paradise – it also marks one of three main shipping passageways into the Noumea’s lagoon, the Boulari passage and is classified as a unique world heritage site by UNESCO.