Ha'apai group, Foa island 19:42.6S, 174:17.0W

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Sat 7 Oct 2017 04:55
After a quiet day on the mooring in Hunga Haven we paid our dues and got ready to depart. The dinghy, which has been in the water for about three weeks, had a good growth of weed which had to be scraped and scrubbed to remove it. We must remember in the future not to leave it afloat but to go back to lifting it each night. An early supper and we departed out through the , narrow/shallow entrance to the lagoon, this time we found a minimum depth of 3.4 metres.

Our overnight sail was pleasant as we had a full moon, unfortunately behind cloud, but it never fully got dark. One long tack took us slightly west of the northernmost islands of the Ha'apai group which we then sailed between to look for a suitable anchorage. This area was a bit exposed to the SE winds so we have come across to the East side of the island group where we are anchored on sand protected by the island and the reef beyond it.

We have seen whales close too today, breaching and then surfacing behind Serenity while we were sailing between the islands, but were to slow to get any photos, maybe next time.