Fonuafo’ou Island

September 15, 2014

Fonuafo’ou is a very small island on the far southeast corner of the Vava’u island group. It was a gorgeous spot, but there wasn’t much protection from ocean swell making it a rolly day anchorage at best. I guess there’s a reason it wasn’t even given an anchorage number in the guidebook. However, we are happy we stopped there, because we were able to take Dad and Karen somewhere really far out of the way, somewhere that you definitely would never get to if you didn’t have your own yacht. We had a great afternoon there. Tim and Brenden spearfished, since Brenden has designated himself as “Dad’s new spearfishing buddy” (since Steve left). They went through a pass to the outside of the reef and came back with a grouper (coral trout according to our Tonga Wildlife Guide), and we had just about the best batch of beer battered fish ever. I went for a snorkel, and I must admit it was mediocre at best. However, I stayed in the lee side of the reef rather than venturing to the outside of the reef where there was likely better coral and bigger fish. There was still a lot of swell and once I learned to just relax and let it push me around rather than fight it, I enjoyed myself more. Dad and Karen took the Kayak and Alex took a paddle board to the beach where they easily circumnavigated the island. Twice. They scoured for seashells, and Karen brought back four nice ones only to find out later that they were inhabited as they started moving around. We went to throw them overboard when Brenden panicked and yelled, “No! They aren’t water breathers!” So, we kept them on board until Brenden could take them safely to shore in the next anchorage.