Happy in the Ha'apai Group

At 7/06/2016 9:19 PM (utc) our position was 19°54.11'S 174°24.81'W

On the evening of Sunday 29 May we made an overnight passage of 75nm with a nice 10 knot easterly from Nuku'alofa, north to Nomuka Island, the southern most island in the Ha'apai group. Arriving at 9am we conned our way in with myself half way up the mast on our new rat lines negotiating a clear route through the coral heads. We spotted our first turtle and were very impressed with the many shades of blue created by the different sea beds from a deep dark blue to a brilliant turquoise surrounding the outlying reefs. We safely dropped anchor in 14m off the smaller island called Nomuka Iki.

We spent Monday and Tuesday anchored here in light winds. We launched our kayaks and paddled ashore and met the only resident on the island, an old man and his dog. He greeted us warmly and in a mixture of Tongan, English and lots of hand actions we had a brief conversation. Racks of dried fish lay salted above the high tide mark, pigs wandered behind his tin hut, a smoky fire held a blackened kettle and the local radio station could be heard from his radio. After saying goodbye we continued to kayak around the island. The tide was out and as we paddled over the inner reef we occasionally caught glimpses of bright coloured fish below. At one point we pulled ashore to stretch our legs and discovered cow pats along the beach. We have since seen evidence of cattle on all the islands we've visited. Waves crashed with regularity on the outer reef as we continued paddling along in the calmer inner passage. We met a local guy jigging for octopus from his wooden out rigger who had been to Tasmania last year to visit his sister! We also enjoyed a snorkel from the beach as well as from the boat to check our anchor and chain was clear of any coral heads.

On Wednesday we weighed anchor and departed under sail. After clearing Nomuka Island we set our course for 35 degrees true. We could see lots of scattered low lying islands on the horizon, one of them being our destination for the day, Oua Island. With an 8 knot breeze from the ESE we were close reaching in a smooth sea. To our west we could see the prominent pyramid shape of Kao Island which is 1000m high. Next to it was the shorter island of Tofua which is an active volcano. It was a sunny day and flying fish were stretching their wings as they flew across the wave tops. As we neared the Ava Fonuaika pass between Wickham Reef and Fonuaika Island we watched the sea around us intently for any signs of breaking waves or green water which indicates a reef system. As we were now working to windward it became clear we weren't going to clear a reef ahead of us so we tacked twice to avoid it. Once clear of the pass we had a gentle sail in to our anchorage at Peapea Island. Once again we navigated our way in, using both our echo sounder (fish finder) which shows a profile of the sea bed as well as depth and myself up the mast distinguishing between the different shades of blue to find a nice clear area to anchor. Peapea Island is a tiny dot of an island on the outer reef system of Oua Island. Although we felt we were anchored in the middle of open water we had a reef on two sides and an island on the third.

The following morning we kayaked around Oua Island and saw all manner of fish leaping across in front of our bows as our kayaks must have startled them, quite a few black tip reef sharks in the shallows and a very large turtle only metres in front of us before it took a breath and disappeared into the turquoise depths. We stopped at the small beach fringed island of Fakahiku to stretch our legs. As we glided onto the beach at least a dozen crabs scuttled from the waterline up to the bush for safety. All that is except for one which wasn't as quick as Wayne who leapt from his kayak and blocked its path. The two of them get blocking each other as they side stepped along the beach. After Wayne decided it was too hot to be running around chasing crabs we walked around the island and collected four coconuts to open later.

In the afternoon we sailed north for 7nm to Haafeva Island. We anchored in 8m on the north west side of the island. Here we had our best sleep in awhile as the anchorage wasn't rolly. On Friday morning we jumped over the side and had the best snorkelling we've had yet. The visibility was excellent and the coral gardens between the boat and the shore were spectacular. There was a huge range of coral which were all alive and a magnificent variety of colourful fish darted in and around them. We had a wonderful time snorkelling here and we were left in awe at the beauty of it.

On Friday afternoon we sailed east to Uonukuhahaki Island. We had a terrific sail to windward in ESE 10 knots and covered the 23nm in five hours. We found a clear sandy area between coral heads and dropped the anchor. We eagerly went for a quick snorkel from the boat before the sun went down.

On Saturday we went ashore to Uonukuhahaki Island which is uninhabited and walked around its sandy beaches. We discovered a few bits of flotsam washed ashore and plenty of cowrie shells and pieces of broken, bleached coral. The tide was running out and at the northern end of the island we were presented with a spectacular nature show. We came across a fairly big tidal pool and I spotted a small black tip reef shark swimming through what I thought was weed. Wayne soon noticed that my weed was thousands of fish about a finger length long. This enormous school of fish was herded up one end of the tidal pool by a variety of predators including several sharks, a group of king fish and also making the most of this bounty were terns overhead and several moray eels. Every time a predator would lunge into the school the air would erupt in small fish flying to escape. In the afternoon we had another great snorkelling session, seeing even more varieties of colourful fish.

After spending a windy day on board on Sunday we decided to move to the next island to our north on Monday. We had a brisk sail in a SE 15 knot to Uiha Island and anchored in front of the southern village. Uiha Island has two villages. We have spent the last few days anchored here as the island provides good protection from the strong easterly trade winds. Yesterday we kayaked the length of the island and met some local boat builders and today we went snorkelling close to the shore and saw some cuttlefish.

We have been regularly listening to Radio Australia on our HF radio and hearing all about the floods in northern Tasmania. Our thoughts are with those at home enduring the bad weather and floods.

All is happy on board.

email is via our slow and limited* HF radio email system. * Limited by the atmospheric conditions and propagation of the ionosphere.

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