Ile Uvea: WALLIS ISLAND
After a rather long voyage, we have made it safely into a true paradise. No joke. We slowed down last night and then hove-to so that we could find the passage through the reef in the daylight and also pass through at slack low tide. THAT was incredible!! We couldn’t really see where the opening was until we were pretty much directly lined up – this is an island that springs up out of 2000+ meters with almost no warning and is totally surrounded by reef. Adding to that stress, the guidebooks all said that the island was actually 3 nautical miles east of where it’s shown on the charts!?!? A bit scary, but good ‘ole CMaps (the software that we use on the boat) was bang-on and after all of our double checks with paper charts, measurements, our eyes we found the first markers and with me on the bow and John at the wheel, we navigated through no problems. Amazing though to just come in through a narrow break in the reef! Being French, we should have known that things would be well marked, and all of the markers were very clear once we came inside. The passage was something else. I couldn’t stop trying to take pictures back over the crashing reef that we’d just passed through and the unbelievably beautiful islands we were passing inside the reef.
We navigated around various coral, all very well marked from the south passage up to the northeast side. Unfortunately we have anchored in the wrong bay and must move around the island a bit more in order to clear customs. Too bad, it’s lovely to be here and we’re really tired.
Well-it’s now morning and our “naps” turned into a LONG night’s sleep. We’ll move along to customs after coffee and hope they understand our derelict French and won’t be too cross with us for not coming around yesterday. We almost literally just dropped anchor and went to sleep for about 20 hours! John just exclaimed that a ray jumped out of the water right next to our boat!! This is a super beautiful place and I’ve already taken LOTS of pictures. Indescribable really. We can’t wait to explore – too bad we don’t have dive gear because it would be incredible. We’ll see what options are available, but even snorkeling will be great and the beaches are truly touches of paradise:)
9/28/2010
We’re planning to set sail at about 2pm this afternoon for Fortuna, which should get us there between 10am-2pm depending on the winds. It’s about 125 nautical miles from here so we figure about 20 hours +/- of passage making. Should be fairly calm, although we’ll likely get some horrific rain squalls. Right now it’s absolutely lovely outside and the boat is gently bobbing on the waves. It’s a beautiful spot we have here with a view over a long narrow palm treed island with white sandy beaches and lovely multi-hued turquoise waters and the sounds of the surf pounding against the surrounding reef outside the lagoon. 
We are really enjoying the snorkeling here, there are so many different corals – big brain corals, fans, branches with some very vibrant colors of yellow, orange or purple against striking white. Thousands of tropical fish surround each coral head -some super tiny with strikingly bright colors and of course the parrot fish and angel fish and lots of different basic yellow, white, blue fish. I had a small white and black striped fish following me the other day trying to bite at the moles on my legs!?!? He was very aggressive and funny. He’d stop every time I turned on him and then continue nipping when I swam on:) John and I found an octopus and that was lots of fun to watch and try to harass out of his hiding place. Our friends swam with a turtle yesterday – unfortunately I didn’t see it. We’ll go for one more swim and snorkel before we leave today on the slack low tide.
9/29/2010
After snorkeling, walking the beach and then my swimming back to the boat(25 min swim,) we’ve all decided that it’s just too lovely to leave this place – today. So, we are now looking toward leaving at slack, low water tomorrow for the same trip to Fortuna. It really is idyllically beautiful here and we have the entire outer island of Faioa and the lagoon that we’re anchored in to ourselves. I had everyone over to our boat for Mexican food last night, so Michael and Suzan are on for steaks tonight:) Life is good in paradise. Wish you all could share it with us too.
ALOFI/FORTUNA
We just dropped the anchor among sand and coral at the small anchoring spot on the uninhabited island of Alofi. It’s once again very beautiful here, although we’ll probably switch into the bay nearer town on the main island to anchor for the night. This spot is full of coral heads, currents and unpredictable swell. Lovely to just rest for a bit though:)
Another lovely spot, although not as magical as the last place and because we’re anchored just beside a major channel between two islands, the boat really gets to rocking during the tide changes and also there is quite a current in places when out snorkeling/swimming. I’m trying to do a bit more open water swimming to get in shape – which John accommodates by trolling the skiff near by in case I need assistance. So far, no problems, but I really appreciate the peace of mind in knowing he is there should I hit currents that are too strong – sometimes they are such that I hardly make any progress despite my efforts. A good workout though. Need to start getting in shape for skiing- right?