Zero2Sixty

Anchorage at Luahoko Island, Ha'apai, Tonga

by Art on

Information

Rating
Bottom
sand
Depth
24.3 meters
Latitude
19°40.632′S
Longitude
174°23.946′W
-19.6772-174.3991

Another day, another amazing uninhabited island (well, almost...) with pristine reefs, fantastic diving and the best beaches we've seen (even taking into account) our recent anchorages here in the Ha'apai Group of Tonga. It seems each day just keeps getting better. This time we anchored outside the reef in about 25 meters of water (smaller draft yachts could get in shallower water) and jumped in for a dive. We found some of the most virgin reef so far with tons of fish life, deep sand chutes to dive and walls of gorgeous coral. I got some nice photos here (still working on getting my UW photography mojo back) and I'm really enjoying the learning process.

Anenomefish After our dive we got close to shore and tossed out the tender anchor to avoid having to pull the tender (filled with dive gear!) up on the beach. So, we just had to swim into shore and arrived on this picture-perfect beach. Amazingly enough we were greeted by a German fellow who has been in Tonga for 20 years. He has a small resort on the main island and now has taken on the project of building 2-3 small bungalows on this island for the 'Robinson Crusoe' type adventure tourist. Very rustic living for someone who is OK with digging a hole for a toilet, having water brought to them along with food. The benefit is living the life of a shipwrecked sailor for 10 days (or as long as you can make it!). A seriously beautiful island but I like going back to Feelin' Good after the 'Robinson Crusoe' thing wears off for Tracy's Happy Hour cocktails, Carmen's wonderful dinners and a good nights sleep in my own bed.

Giant clam This anchorage is good for benign conditions with winds from north to southeast and we would have spent the night there except for the need to visit with the authorities in Pangai to check-in properly. We'll try to get back there one more time during our explorations here in Ha'apai. We'll hang out in Ha'apai until the end of October when we'll have to reluctantly head south to Tongatapu to provision, refuel and pick up another crew member (Mink!) to come along on the passage to Port Opua, New Zealand. It's about 1100nm miles so not too long but this stretch of the Pacific has a reputation of getting really nasty once in a while so we're going to be super-prepared to handle it safely.

In the meantime, more diving and underwater photography so follow along!

Anchorage Position

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