Ship Sound Anchorage, Vanuabalavu (17:10.63S 179:00.92W), Northern Lau Group, 6-9-2014

Aquamante
Vries Peter Pons
Sun 7 Sep 2014 02:15

From the village anchorage of Daliconi we moved to the Bay of Islands some 7 nm north, together with Alessandro and Marzia of SY Parmelia from Rome, whom we met just two days before. The first night we anchored outside the enclosed lagoon, called Ship Sound, as there were two Spanish boats anchored there, which is the max if you’re too lazy to put out a stern anchor. With one of them, SY Cap’s III with skipper José we spent quite some time in Vulaga.

 

The next morning we were rudely surprised by jet ski’s racing around our secluded anchorage. Half a mile down from us the 60m MY Senses had dropped anchor, all the toys were out, and the guests had been flown in by helicopter, which was proudly occupying the heli platform on the  aft deck. So much for our illusion of venturing into unexplored territories! Afterwards we met two of those on board, who were peddle boarding where we were snorkelling, a girl from the Philippines and a guy from Tahiti and quite friendly. Tried to get invited on board for a lovely meal as compensation for the noisy jetski’s around, but they were part of the crew, just our luck.

 

Upon departure of the Spanish Flotilla the day after we moved into the Ship Sound together with Parmelia. A bit tricky for a boat of our size, having to jump over a 2.9m threshold reef (at low tide), but well worth it, as it is a truly stunning anchorage, completely enclosed by limestone motu’s.