Monday, October 15, 2012

Vava'u Group - Kapa Island

We released the ties of our mooring ball at Vava'u Island (Kingdom of Tonga) on a sunny day around 14:00 to explore some of the islands and anchorages, the first and most northern set being the Vava'u Group.

A Moorings Chart is produced that has several circled numbers on it (along with several published guides). These numbers correspond to moorings/anchorages/places of interest. Sailors always refer to these numbers, especially when conversing on the VHF radio: Where are you? with a reply such as Oh, I'm at #16.

Our first stop was at #7, Port Maurelle of Kapa Island, only about an hour away where we set anchor at 15:00 amongst 12 other boats (S18°42.014' W174°01.788').

We immediately went snorkelling in the warm water and walked the sandy beach. We saw many of the usual fish but were treated to an eyeful of 3 very large and very bright purple starfish! Purple seemed to be the dominant colour as we also spotted purple coral. Snorkelling is always a new adventure!

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