Photo: Taking a break from snorkeling on Malinoa Island with SV Kalliope beyond
With northerly winds blowing very humid air from deep in the tropics, we spent a hot Saturday (July 22nd) with Marisa and Bavo, jumping in and out of a rental car as we all completed our provisioning and fuel top-ups. A quiet day on Sunday allowed us to ensure that Randall was fully back to good health so that by Monday, when the southeasterly winds returned, we were ready to sail north...again.
Having stayed in the Tongatapu Group for 10 days past the date on our original exit papers, I felt compelled to find out if we needed an update. Randall was confident that we could leave without checking but I wanted one less thing to be concerned about. I took the dinghy into Nuku'alofa and was lucky enough to find some other boats checking-out so the Customs Officer, Duke, was at the dock. Once I explained our situation (pointing out that I had come to the Customs Office as soon as we returned but he was not available), he looked at the date on our paper and just said that we could go. I asked for confirmation that the papers would be acceptable when we got to Lifuka in the Ha'pai Group and he smiled and said "Yes". Of course, we are not planning to go directly to Lifuka, stopping first at a final island in the Tongatapu Group and then making our way gradually north through the Ha'apai Islands. So it will be interesting to see what the officials in Lifuka say when we turn-up much later than our exit papers suggest but, at least, I felt that I had tried to do the right thing.
By mid-morning, with Devocean heading to the nearby island of 'Atata and us leaving for Malinoa, we left Kalliope as the only cruising boat at Pangaimotu. Other than visits by boats stopping over to collect or drop crew at the Tongatapu airport, the anchorage would probably be pretty quiet now until September to November, when boats coming across the Pacific and heading to New Zealand might stop by.
Two-and-a-half hours of motoring, weaving our way through the reef-studded waters north of Pangaimotu and Fafa, brought us to the tiny island of Malinoa. On the west side of the island, we found a good sand circle in which to bury the anchor without the chain reaching any coral. Phil on Silhouette had recommended this island and he did not lead us astray.
Looking west to Tregoning over hard corals exposed at low tide at Malinoa Island
At low tide, we rode the dinghy to the southern tip of the tiny island, where we found the only (narrow) pass through the reef to the beach. We were a bit startled to find light-weight volcanic pumice stones in patches on top of the sand and we realized that we had not seen this since a beach on Baja California, deep into the Sea of Cortez. But with so much volcanic activity on the western edge of Tonga we should not have been surprised. It did not take long to walk around the island, noting the extensive amount of hard corals exposed at low tide on the west side. As Phil had described, we also found a pair of graves under the vegetation canopy but if the headstones had ever had any writing, it was worn away and undecipherable now.
Randall with pumice stones (also on the sand) at the south end of Malinoa Island
Randall rowed about in the dinghy while I snorkeled part of the way back to Tregoning and we both snorkeled further along the west side of the island's inshore reef the following day. There was an extensive base of rock and dead coral with many pinnacles that were covered with patches of living corals, and there were quite a few small fish. The visibility was better than at Pangaimotu but it was still not as clear as we had hoped.
One of the simple graves on Malinoa Island
Devocean appeared on Tuesday afternoon and we joined them for drinks in the evening. Apparently it had been very rolly at 'Atata and the snorkeling was pretty murky. Sadly, that night at Malinoa was pretty rolly at high tide when the northwestern swell could come over the reef, and this was compounded by a change in wind direction from southeast to southwest, a direction to which our anchorage was fully exposed. Marisa and Bavo awoke when the wind picked up from the southwest to find that their anchor had dragged a bit, which always adds a certain angst if there is a shallow reef not far behind.
Devocean surrounded by dark coral-heads in the anchorage west of Malinoa Island
As a result, Marisa was keen to get off the boat and join us for snorkeling by mid-Wednesday morning. We first tried a deeper part of the reef north of Tregoning, near the navigation light but it was not particularly exciting. So we moved to the south side of the island where we had seen commercial snorkel groups earlier in day. Having anchored the dinghy in a large sandy spot, we were very relieved to find ourselves surrounded by a beautiful garden of large healthy corals with pinnacles and ridges divided by sandy trenches. The sky finally cleared and in the bright sunlight it was obvious why the snorkeling excursions stopped at such an enchanting place.
Some of the beautiful hard coral formations south of Malinoa Island
Warmed by the sun and enthused by the coral, we swam to the beach to allow Marisa to visit the island. SV Kalliope had just anchored nearby and when Gregg and Deb came ashore in their kayak, we chatted with them about their ferry-trip to spend three-night on the island of 'Eua. They had enjoyed themselves but were not raving about the island, so we did not feel quite as bad about our failure to visit it.
While the snorkelers had been visiting earlier in the morning, a couple had been dropped off to explore Malinoa on their own. As we knew, it did not take long to see all of the tiny island and they sat further up the beach from us waiting for their boat's return. They did not seem particularly keen to talk to us so we wondered if they had paid extra for the romance of having a desert island to themselves for the day...only to have the five of us come wading ashore...opps!