Hunga Island

 I departed Nuapapu Island early morning for a short sail to Hunga Island.  This island has an almost completely enclosed lagoon with just a very narrow entrance.  The entrance is made more difficult because there is a large exposed rock in the middle of the entrance and then coral bommies just under the water straight ahead.  In order to enter safely I needed to steer close to the southern side of the entrance and then turn about 30 degrees to the south as soon as I passed the rock to stay in the deeper channel away from the bommies.

Hunga Lagoon entrance

Closeup of the entrance with the rock in the middle

I successfully passed through the entrance with about 4 feet of water under the keel at the shallowest point.  Once inside a searched for a shallow location to anchor since the lagoon is 200 to 300 feet deep,in most places.  I managed to find a good shallow location between two small islands to anchor.

The anchorage has high cliffs on all sides providing excellent all-weather protection.  There is a town on the northeast side and a closed fishing lodge on the north shore.  At the south end of the lagoon there is a shallow reef which exits out to the south.  The dinghy can pass over the southern reef at high tide when conditions are settled.

Once anchored I took the dinghy out over the southern reef, scaring many turtles from my path as I went.  Once outside the lagoon, I met a woman paddling a kayak.  We chatted and I found out she is from Australia and has a holiday house on the shore.  She invited me to their house for tea and to meet the others.  They had just arrived the day before and were getting things put away but we had a nice chat for an hour or so.  I had to leave then because the tide was goi g out and I needed enough water to get over the reef back to the lagoon.  Once back at True North I spent the rest of the day completing the cleaning of her hull bottom.