Having got all my chores done including laying on some supplies, I decided to move from the harbor at Neiafu to somewhere a little more quiet. Port Maurelle is approximately 6 miles out of Neiafu, so it was a quick trip to the new anchorage. There were approximately 5 other boats anchored here and I dropped my anchor in approximately 75 feet of beautiful clear water. Many of the anchorages here in Tonga are quite deep, in contrast to much of French Polynesia. I do not mind this as I have plenty of chain, and a very stout windless.

The next couple of days I caught up on some maintenance work on the boat, and did some snorkeling. Although the coral was not very impressive, there were lots of beautiful tropical fish, many of which were different to the species seen so far in the Pacific. Some friends on another boat whom met in French Polynesia arrived in the harbor, so the next day Dane, Karl and myself took my inflatable dinghy and went over to Mariners cave. This is on another nearby island and aided by GPS coordinates, despite the entrance to this underwater cave approximately 6 feet below the surface. Diving down these 6 feet and an approximately another 10 feet into the cave, you ascend to the surface inside the cave. The light entering the entrance lights up enough of the cave and is quite unique. There is a second entrance visible some 20 or so feet further down. As the ocean swells surge against the cliff, the air in the cave is compressed and decompressed causing a momentary misting and then clearing off the air. Very cool.x I you will a you and you are in your aer 10 minutes of playing around we exited the cave and then took the dinghy over to Swallow's cave on a different island. The entrance to this cave is accessible by dingy, and one enters into the large cavern with stalactites hanging from the ceiling above. In the aquamarine water below, schools of fish lie suspended moving gently.

The next day I decided to move on to a new anchorage, and another short trip brought me to a bay on the north side of Vaka'eitu Island. A beautiful golden beach lies at the base of this jungle covered island. I met some folks from a boat that had also been in Neifu Harbor there, and that afternoon Mark and I went for a snorkel on the outside of the reef. Here the reefs is fairly narrow before it drops down into the ocean depths. The abundance of fish here was even more impressive than before. I came across an area of rock and coral that was carpeted by a sea anemones with at least 30 different damsel/anemone fish drifting above it. Very beautiful. A small black tipped reef shark swam into view but fled once it saw us. The following day Mark and his wife Jude had to return to the main harbor, so I spent the morning doing boat maintenance and also cut down a large piece of shade cloth and hemmed the bottom with some nylon webbing. This makes a perfect shading in the cockpit for when the sun is directly behind the boat. I then went for a snorkel by myself, and explored a different area of the reef. I returned to anemone patch to take some photos and video. Whilst doing this, I heard some strange noises that I soon realized were whale songs. These carried on for quite some time and it was easy to imagine the female talking to her calf, as it is the calving season right now. The whale watching boats here take guests to the whales and carefully allow snorkeling with them. Sailors on their boats are forbidden to approach whales or swim with them unless you are part of one of these guided tours. One more great experience of the dive was the appearance of a large Napoleon fish or humpheaded wrasse which glided into view giving me quite a startle. This one looked to be about 60 - 100 pounds, and they are known to reach sizes of 400 pounds. He glided around the area and seemed somewhat curious about what I was doing there. When I reviewed some of the video footage I had taken during the dive, I discovered to my delight that the whale song was in the background of one of the videos.

David, the man who lives here on this island came by on his kayak a few minutes ago to see if I would want to join a party having a Tongan feast ashore tomorrow. I explained that I was moving on today but would return in the weeks to come with Sandra to enjoy his hospitality.

The sun is high enough in the sky now to make moving about in these reef strewn waters easy, so I am going to up anchor and explore one more anchorage. In a couple of days time I will need to return to Neiafu to stock up on some supplies once more.