Tapana and Vicinity

Tapana Vicinity

The Exploration of Tonga Continues!

Our next exploration took us to Tapana, anchored between Hinakawa Beach and Motuha Island. We found a mooring ball close to the Ark Gallery and spent the better part of the day and night here.

  Jim and Kim, from New Zealand, have recently taken over the business which includes the moorings and the floating gallery. Kim makes silver jewelry and once she accumulates enough inventory she will be selling it in the gallery along with work from other local artists.

The moorings are hurricane rigged, meaning four separate anchor lines joined together on a 2 inch diameter line which in turn is attached to a mooring ball. Fee is $10 paanga or $5 per night. This anchorage is actually on the south end of the island of Vava'U. For $20 US you can get a return taxi ride into Neafu to reprovision. So no need to take the boat all the way back if you do not want to.

More on this anchorage later when we return on our way back to Neafu.

We left the next day under a cloudless sky to traverse through Fanua Pass. There are numerous shoals and coral patches so it is wise to do this when the sun is high and you have good visibility. That was our intention. We were just entering the pass when a squall presented itself - it seemed out of nowhere. The previous markers were long gone so were dependent upon our GPS, way points mentioned in the Tonga Guide (longitude & latitude donating a change in direction) and me on the bow as a lookout. I have the handheld VHF on and David is reading out depths as I verify. It is an art to read the depths in this water - it always seems to be deeper than I think- which is a good thing!

The rain stayed to the west of us but the cloud cover was significant enough to erase the color depth differentiation in the water. This always makes things a little tense as we traversed our way around and between the coral patches.

There were two large coral patches to maneuver around, passing to port. Once we got abeam of these patches we altered our course to the North for a quarter of a mile to the next shoal, also keeping it to port. I could just make out the path of darker water running East/ West. We then turned East heading into another passage and facing Lolo Island. We were instructed to keep our course by keeping our stern in line with the southern district of the beach on Ofu. There were shoals on both sides of us and our passage getting as low as 11 feet under the keel. Remember our boat needs a minimum of 7 feet so this did not leave us with a lot of room to spare!

We passed the shoal on the port side and turned towards the beach on Kenutu. It was a straight shot into the anchorage at this point where we dropped the hook in 38 feet of water. Now I can breathe!

Kinabalu and Balvenie were already in the anchorage. We joined them and a couple from Amerula on the beach for a potluck dinner and bonfire. Nice evening. There was a small moment of apprehension for me as we spotted a black banded snake - apparently venomous but with a very small mouth so it only tends to bite you between the toes! There was a bit of grass near the shoreline so I guess this is the type of environment that they like. I would never have gotten out of the dinghy and walked through the grass to shore if I knew they were there. But I guess they are not that aggressive. The tide came up by the time we were leaving and David was kind enough to walk out and pull the dinghy into shore so I did not have to walk in the grass again!

I got David to get in close enough to get this picture!

Snorkeling was okay. The water was crystal clear and the water was warm so I enjoyed some good swims around the boat.

A simple dinghy ride along the beach to find a cave on Kenutu Island resulted in a very pleasant experience. Anne and Mark, from Australia, have leased 12 acres and are in the final stages of building a house (Dreaming Gecko) and a small bar close to the cave. Views to the southwest from their home are spectacular to say the least. The reflection in the full glass front of the house is a painting in itself. 

Anne and Mark took a break from their To Do List and gave us a tour of their property. Our first stop was the cave with a brackish ( mixture of salt water and rain water) pool at the bottom. It was a bit of a challenge to climb down. Amanda was the only one to take it on. Future plans will include cement steps down to water level.

Further exploration brought us to another spectacular vista on the northeast side of the island showcasing dramatic cliffs, the open ocean, the main reef and apparently whales if you are lucky. We looped back through a section of the island that had experienced a fire but had already started to regenerate. We were rewarded with another lovely view through the trees of Confidence at anchor. It was kind of neat as I was sitting beside a gap in the lava rock and all of a sudden a blast of air came up through the hole - the blow hole was too deep for the water to reach us but the gust of air was substantial.

Anne and Mark have done a lot of work landscaping the property always trying to keep in mind the natural setting. Their water comes from the skies. Their power comes from the sun. Papaya, coconut and mango trees grow naturally and they try to grow their own vegetables. It is a lovely place. I offered to be the cook in their bar when they open next year.

On Saturday we left our beautiful anchorage #30. We were fortunate enough to have our course line on the GPS from our entrance. The sun was also high in the sky with little cloud cover making it a lot easier to pick up the shoals and the channels. The tide was also a little bit higher.

Confidence led the way with Balvenie and Kinabalu following behind. But I still kept watch and I still had butterflies in my stomach until we were safely through. I got most of it on the GoPro - should make for a great movie when ever I get all this footage organized!

We took a round about route back to Tapana and the Ark Gallery and put the hook down in 30 feet of sand between Tapana and Pangaimotu. We had reservations at La Paella restaurant for dinner.

We must thank our friends, Tim and Constance, for our wonderful dinner out. While in Mexico they had brought down some supplies and boat parts from Canada. They would not allow us to pay for them but asked us to promise them that once we made it across to the South Pacific that we would go out for a nice dinner on them. Did we ever find something special!

La Paella is a small restaurant on Tapana Island. Maria and Edwardo came to Tonga on their boat in 1988 from Spain. They spent 5 years in Tonga, sailed to Thailand, sold their boat, and flew back to Tonga and never left. They have had the restaurant for over 18 years. They are Basque and prepare a four course dinner, featuring wonderful tapas (Small appetizers - 8 in total) and their signature dish - Paella cooked on the wood coals! The food was exceptional. After dinner we were entertained with the beautiful voice of Edwardo with Maria and their sous chef ( sorry I did not get his name) on percussion. He is Tongan and Maria has taught him to cook. He has worked with them for 18 years! We shared this wonderful evening with Bob and Judy on Kinabalu.  What a magical night!

Sunday was a lazy day. David borrowed the hookah ( small air compressor hooked to a mouth piece) so he could replace the zincs on the prop and finish the small area of the hull that I could not clean from the surface. Excitement for the day - I was enjoying my morning cup of coffee in the cockpit when I felt a tremor through the keel and rudder. Channel 26 was on and we were immediately notified that there had been an earthquake 124 km away at a depth of 179 km and a measure of 6.3 . Too deep to produce a tsunami. Remember the Tonga trench has depths greater than Mt. Everest! And is the second last in the world. Apparently there are two new volcanic islands being produced west of here!

Monday we head back to Neafu to provision, get rid of garbage, pick up my made to order baskets and fill up the water tanks! Then we have to decide where to go next. That is the great thing about Tonga. Most of these anchorages are only one to two hours or less away from town!