Ha'apai Group - Tonga - Back to atolls and palms

An overnight sail took us down to the next Tongan island group, Ha’apai, which is renowned for its pristine marine ecosystems and traditional villages. Our first stop was with Nick and Anna (Dolittle) at the uninhabited Ofolanga Island, where we did some great diving around a huge natural arch in the reef.


We then met up with Conversations in the group’s main town of Pangai on Lifuka Island. Bob MacDavitt, NZ’s weather guru, had announced “The Perfect Weather Window” for running the gauntlet to NZ, so all the yachties were in a departure frenzy. We debated the situation and eventually parted ways, Conversations bound for NZ and Demelza bound for further exploration of this amazing group.

We hooked up again with Dolittle at Uoleva Island, which borders a major tidal channel to the south. The Uoleva Channel is known as one of the best dive sites in Tonga and did not disappoint. We were particularly blown away by the diversity of soft corals clinging to the walls in the strong tidal currents and HUGE fish as we drifted along the north side of the channel…unbelievable!

On our next hop to the western side of the group, we stopped mid-ocean to spearfish on a pinnacle, which was quite rough in the big swell. Once we got to the anchorage at Ha’afeva Island, we hauled in the “meat hook” and found a huge mahi mahi (dorado) being trailed closely by a hammerhead shark!!

We dived on the entrance the next day with Dolittle, but didn’t see the shark. To our surprise, Sergio and Caroline from Ummagumma (photo above) pulled into the anchorage as well and spent some time on board Demelza to debate weather/passage strategy for NZ...again (photo below). Fun-filled days were spent with them and John/Heather (Dancyn) spearfishing, hunting for shells and exploring the small village.