Tepana Island
13 July 2014 | Tonga
6 to 12 July 2014
Tepana Island
Sunday 6 July we decided to move to Tepana Island. The nice thing about Vava’u is that it is compact, so the trip would only be some 6 miles. However, it did involve skirting the reefs to the South West of Kapa Island and then going through a gap between reefs to the South of Kapa Island and the North of Taunga Island. This gap is some 400 metres wide, so not really a problem.
The wind was in the East, we were heading East, so motor on! We knew our electronic charts are some 0.2 nautical mile, or about 400 yards out. The gap between the reefs was some 400 metres, or just over 400 yards, so it was back to good old visual navigation with sighting compass and paper chart. This was easy enough as we could take bearing on prominent islands. In particular, the gap between Kapa and Taunga lines up very nicely with a transit on Laputa Island and Tu’amakalau Island, a couple of small islands just South of Tepana Island. So, line up the 2 islands so they just touch, that will be on a bearing of 053 Magnetic, and you will pass directly between the two reefs; guaranteed. Oh that it always worked this way!
The rest of the trip was easy, avoid the shoal in the middle of the first lagoon (One of our friends got a shock when the bottom came up from about 70 metres to 2 metres!) and past Afo Island into the anchorage. There is a rock shelf across charted at 13 metres. So the bottom comes up from 60 metres, pretty much vertically to about 10 metres under the keel, and then plummets back to 60 metres. OK, so we know this will happen. We know the depth will hold at about 10 metres. We know thousands of boats have been over this. And yet, we still hold our breath!
The anchorage at Tepana is great! It is very well sheltered from the trade winds, and pretty much enclosed so sheltered from all winds. The corner we anchored in is fairly shallow with a gradual gradient. Best of all though, it is sand; beautiful anchor-gripping sand with no coral rock or heads.
The anchorage has a few moorings and an interesting little floating art gallery called ‘The Ark Gallery’. The artist, Sheri, is American and moved to Tonga some time ago. She and her husband built the gallery some 14 years ago and now live on it full time, running the gallery and looking after boats moored long term.
Neiafu is only some 4 miles away; an interesting walk past a couple of villages and over the causeway. Helen had a bit of a cold so Paul walked into town. The gardens seemed more productive here. Most it has to be said were left to nature to some extent; however, one was particularly well maintained with neat, weed free, rows of produce. Paul saw the Tongan tending the garden and congratulated him. Beaming with pride the owner explained how he tended his garden one week and then sold the produce in the market the next. He also listed what he grew; taro, tapioca, cassava, potatoes, and carrots as well as bananas, paw paw and coconut. The road to town was tarmac so the pigs and chickens in the village were mostly kept in the gardens. Still, the occasional pig in the road did keep the traffic speed down.
In town the Pharmacy was able to supply some comparatively cheap cold and flu tablets. The pharmacist recommended Vicks Vaporub, but then sadly said that it was sold at the local ‘Chinese’ store! A quick trip across the road secured a small tub. The video shop sold DVDs and as we had seen our fairly extensive collection at least once, Paul went in. In addition to a couple of films he scored a real coup; Game of Thrones Series 4. Those who have watched Game of Thrones will understand. Everyone else, well, we thoroughly recommend it to you. Start at Series One and enjoy the ride. Suffice to say we had to ration ourselves to two episodes a night!
Back at Tepana we took the dingy South over the reefs and shoals. Our main aim was to look at the Fanua Tapu Pass through to the East. Some friends had mentioned they had seen Manta Rays there; an added bonus. Unfortunately we did not see any Manta Rays. However, we did confirm that the pass through the shoals and reefs is not particularly well marked (we could only see one of 3 sets of buoys). Furthermore, the colour of the water did not seem to be a good indicator as the pass is not that deep. We had also talked to some people who had been through the pass a few years ago. They had a forward looking sonar, and a GPS track to follow, and still they hit a coral rock on the way back. Fortunately there was only minor damage (a minor dink on the rudder). Our conclusion; we had been on a boat on the pass; OK it was a dingy, but that would be all we did! Still we did a nice tikki tour on the way back stopping at a few of the islets and looking at the shallow clumps of coral.
There was some light rain; enough to wet everything, but not enough to collect water. So, the water maker was in action for a few days.
Of course, social life continued. We had dinner with our friends from Freebird II, Bruce and Christine. The next day we had our Saturday afternoon DVD performance. There weather was not so nice with cloud and occasional spotty rain (no use for water collecting), so why not. Of course, the movie, Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks, was with a nautical theme. And the plot line, a container ship off the coast of Somalia gets taken over by pirates … and we were glad we were in Tonga!
And our photo. Well the yacht, Tamar, was on a mooring at Tepana, and the ship’s cat was keeping watch!