Thursday, August 18, 2016

Hunga Lagoon and Resort

Here we are in Hunga Lagoon, Kingdom of Tonga. We are about 10 nm from our previous anchorage in Neiafu, Vava'u. While no one would call Neiafu developed there are stores, restaurants, etc. Here in Hunga they don't need that stuff. There is a village (we will walk to it later) but everything here comes in by boat from Neiafu. We were fortunate to call the resort before we came, there are only three mooring balls and we got the last one. Dinghy dock - who needs a dinghy dock. There is a beach.

The entrance was quite a treat. The charted entrance (the one that shows deep water) is wide enough to transit if you have helper wheels on both sides. The entrance used by everyone shows on the chart as foul. Of course it does. Instructions: (see photo below, note that since we are inside the passage instructions would be reversed.) Enter taking the little rock down your port side. This leaves 20 feet to port and 20 feet to starboard. When you pass the rock turn to 115 magnetic until the water gets deeper again. The bow lookout guy (Matteo in the case of Reboot) can see the bottom! The water is so clear he can't estimate the depth other than to report he sees the bottom. Depth gauge goes from infinity to 4 feet in 50 feet of travel. Then, while we are all holding our breath it goes back up to 20 feet. We are in. XO was not concerned, he slept through it all. Many thanks to Colin who walked us through the procedure.

As usual I forgot to put on my shorts as we came in so the other cruisers got to see Roger in his glorious (wet) boxers. Did I mention it has been raining forever so everything we touch is wet?

We are looking forward to some great snorkeling and swimming while we are here.

Fair winds and following seas :)

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