Today marks our 20th wedding anniversary. It also marks 20 days at anchor. In the same place.
This is a record for us since we moved onboard. We have always moved anchorages every couple of days, sometimes because we had to because the weather changed, for example, or sometimes because we felt there was ‘something better’ to see or do.
We promised ourselves that when we got to Tonga we would take it a bit easier, and Foa island has been the ideal place to kick back and appreciate island life. The SE trade winds seem to be in full force, so we are tucked in just in front of Sandy Beach resort. A protected anchorage in a turquoise blue lagoon with a white sand beach.
There are two small resorts on the island, Sandy Beach and Matafonua lodge and we have been made very welcome at both.
We have spent our days diving, snorkelling, swimming, exploring uninhabited islands, making new friends and meeting up again with old ones.
Our time has been well spent.
We have been to Pangai a couple of times to re-provision and had a lovely meal at Mariners cafe.
did a quick run into town for supplies last Saturday.
We started kite surfing lessons with Dan at the Matafonua resort. For now we are going to focus our energy (and money!) on our diving. There is only a finite amount of room on the boat for all the toys, and diving is our happy place.
We have done 4 dives with the Sandy beach crew – Zoe, Tim and Kate! The 35+ visibility here is awesome. Yesterday in the surface interval we saw a turtle come up to breathe and whales in the distance. We went over in the dive boat to take a look, but they did not want to play yet. We have also taken our own boat over to bennys – a site about 5 minutes north for a lovely meander through some bommies at about 15 metres. Some nice schools of fish, rays and leopard sharks kept us company.
Snorkeling in front of the matafanoua resort is lovely, and there are 4 resident leopard sharks in the deeper passage between the islands.
A walk around Nomuku (The kings island) taking in the ‘pigeon mound’ was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
We are hoping that the whales will arrive in better numbers by the weekend.
‘Happy hour’ has been exactly that. We feel like part of the family and it will be very hard to leave. Might head up to Vava’u in a week…