Photo: Dol'Selene in the entrance to Swallows Cove, Vava'u
We have been in the Vava'u Islands for a couple of days now, Went into Neiafu and cleared customs, visited the market for provisions, caught up with the laundry and had a drink at the Yacht Club. Spent a night at Port Morelle and Tapana.
Dol is now anchored at Kenutu Island, an isolated island on the eastern reef. It was a bit stressful getting here as the marker buoys through the reef passages were hard to find and there were lots of locals snorkeling and diving for reef or shell fish and sea slugs which we understand demand good local prices for certain species. Gail was on the bow on coral and local fisherman watch. If the weather, which is hot and sunny with 5 knots of breeze, remains settled we will spend the weekend here. Snorkeling in the lagoon is amazing, not so much the coral, which looks to have been destroyed in the storms and is slowly recovering, but there is fish life in abundance, hiding in all the nooks and crannies of the numerous coral heads and patches.
Today (Saturday) was exploring day - firstly a dinghy ride ashore and a walk across the island to the seaward side - what an amazing contrast to the peaceful and tranquil anchorage we are enjoying. Seas and surf from the unprotected open ocean crashing into the island. Next a dinghy ride to nearby Umuna Is and the search for the elusive inland cave. After several attempts we located the trail and were rewarded with the darkness of a rather large cave descending steeply to a bottomless, apparently fresh water pool (not seen), Bats and other cooler creatures lurked within. Snorkel in the aquarium completed the morning and a relaxing afternoon of swimming, and deciding what is for dinner - just another day in paradise. Oh and our new water-maker pumps are almost here!
Monday we departed Kenutu for Nuku and collected our new water pumps on the way and spent most of the afternoon checking and double checking the plumbing to the watermaker before commissioning one of the new pumps into it. All seems good and we are now back making fresh water - Brian has a bit of plumbing to alter when fittings allow to ensure no repeats of our failure are possible, although exact cause remains a mystery.
Then it was on to Vaka'eitu lagoon, which is adjacent to the area known as the Coral gardens - we are off to snorkel and investigate. As it transpired getting over the reef into the coral gardens was a challenge and Brian made it for a small look only. Another yacht travelling in company with us managed to hole their inflatable in two places and requires major work to fix.
Oh - I mentioned I had to report back on the Astronaut ice cream flavor Neopolitan. Well what can I say, I guess it does taste like ice-cream if you closed your eyes, pretended you had something cold in your mouth and that lovely creamy liquid feeling aftertaste. In fact it was crunchy like hokey-pokey (honeycomb) but had some vague flavours of Neopolitan. For me, I will stick to the real stuff.
We have since moved onto the outer southern islands Ovalau being the first stop for overnight. We enjoyed a very pleasant day and Brian and Phil (from the yacht Bouton Dior) went fishing and well what do you know they actually got something, two in fact - a small Tuna being one of them. Dinner was lovely and shared with Phil and his wife Raewyn and a nice bottle of wine. The next day it was on to Sisia, a small local island for lunch and then into a local overnight anchorage before coming into Nieafu today Saturday for provisioning and we have decided to stay the night and watch the rugby test All Blacks playing Ireland. We are with a larger group from at least 3 yachts so it promises to be a good night.
Will give another update next week before we set sail from Vava'u