There is plenty of coral off the southern beach at Uoleva Island so it took us a little while to find a sufficiently large coral-head-free area of sand in which to anchor without risk of our chain damaging any coral. We did find such a spot, however, just south of the one other anchored boat, which was just south of the Sea Change Eco-Resort.

To make the most of the sunshine, we immediately launched the dinghy an installed the outboard motor so that we could snorkel the reef at the south end of the island. The edge of the shallow part of the reef was reasonably interesting and we could have spent hours following sand-bottomed cuts into the reef. However, on our way back to where we had anchored the dinghy near the beach, we passed over the deeper coral-heads that were just north of the shallow reef. Here, the living soft- and hard-corals were much more prolific, larger, and more varied, and they were surrounded by a greater diversity of larger fish. This suggested that the whole part of the southern bay that was less than about 10 m deep (33 feet) and had coral-heads might be good for snorkeling, not just the shallow reefs at each end and along part of the shoreline.

The following morning (Sunday, August 20th), we took the dinghy ashore and went for a lovely walk along the beach to the northern bay. Although there was blue sky and plenty of sunshine, there was also a thin layer of very low clouds that would whistle through periodically. These clouds just dimmed the sun rather than blotting it out and they did not last long but it was an unusual weather condition that we had not seen in Tonga before.

Although there were obviously plenty of snorkeling options off Uoleva Island, with the winds backing to easterly and even a little northeasterly, we decided that this was the perfect time to go further south to Limu Island. The crew on Devocean had raved about this anchorage and the cruising guides also gave favorable reports. So on returning from our beach walk, we raised the anchor and motored around the southern reef that we had snorkeled on the previous day.

Turning east as if to go to sea through the Ava Auhanga Mea pass, we neared the west end of Tatafa Island then turned south to go through a narrow pass between the island and an exposed reef. This small pass should only be attempted by cruising boats in calm conditions and with good overhead sunshine but we had both and made a smooth passage, with the sandy bottom clearly visible at all time. Local boats, of course, use the pass in much less benign conditions with only a pole on each side of the channel to guide them.

After crossing the large, reef-studded bay to the west of ‘Uiha Island, we rounded the west end of the small Uonukuhihifo Island to cross Ava Mata Veka pass. Water rushes in and out of this pass to the ocean and there are quite sudden changes in water depth between the Pass and surrounding reefs or islands. This makes for areas with very turbulent water conditions. There may be very sharp transitions from smooth surface conditions where the water is upwelling to choppy, chuckling water where the wind and currents are colliding.



Adjacent smooth upwelling- and turbulent chuckling-waters as we cross the pass Ava Mata Veka with the west end of Uonukuhihifo Island beyond

For a short period, we had 3 knots of current flowing against us as we headed southeast, but once we were behind the long fringing reef that runs north-south to the east of Limu Island, it was much calmer and there was no current. This was just as well because we had to navigate carefully between shallow reef patches and groups of breaching, tail-slapping whales as we headed towards the shallow turquoise waters surrounding tiny Limu Island.