Nuku Island

Nuku is a very small island off of Kapa Island south of Port Maurelle. Anchorage #7 is listed in the guidebook as being nearby off of Kapa Island, but we chose the north side of Nuku as our preferred anchor spot. Off of the east tip of Nuku there is a wonderful beach that provided a playground for hours of fun for the kids. Our first evening anchored there, Steve (Lady Carolina) and Brenden circumnavigated the island on foot at low tide. The other boys didn’t have shoes on, so they just hung out at the beach. I was able to dinghy over to Kapa Island for a run, picking up the trail that goes by Port Maurelle. As I was running past Port Maurelle I noticed a boat that I thought looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite make out the name on the side. So, in stalker fashion, I took some photos and then zoomed in on the image, and sure enough, it was the vessel Dafne. They are a kid boat with 3 girls that we met way back in Tahanea in the Tuamotus. I stayed in stalker mode until I got back to Exodus, and then I hailed them on VHF, but got no answer. Sudoeste responded though, and confirmed. So, Nuku turned out to be a great bonfire beach, and in addition to Dafne and Sudoeste, we met two more new kid boats: Moxie and Elena.I went on several solo snorkles along the shallow reefs at Nuku Island, but just a little further away is the island of A’a, and Tim and I took a short dinghy ride over to check it out. The coral was steep to along the island making for much more interesting snorkeling if I challenged myself to go deep enough.