October 2-30, 2014
We departed Vava’u in the evening and had a slow overnight sail down to Ha’apai, arriving at the island of Ha’ano. The next day we took Exodus on a day trip out to the west to the island of Ofolanga for some snorkeling and spear fishing. We stayed at Ha’ano for a couple more peaceful days and then moved for one night down to the island of Lifuka and the capital city of Pangai to officially clear into the island group.
Quickly moving on, the next stop was the island of Uoleva where we enjoyed the beautiful white sand beach and running into old friends. We stayed at Uoleva overall for about a week and then moved down to anchor off the very small island Uonukuihito, which is part of a chain of small, long, skinny islands connected by sandspits. Here there were just too many flies, so we didn’t stay long.
We made the hop over to the top of the western islands and the island of Ha’afeva, but the wind was blowing hard from the south making this anchorage not too comfortable. So, after a drive by at Ha’afeva, we moved down to the nearby Matuku and had some fun with the village kids for a few days. When the wind shifted back to a more easterly direction, we moved to Ha’afeva where we visited the village, did some running, and had a couple of lazy rainy days.
Next stop was O’ua, where we stayed only 2 nights due to a rolly anchorage before moving on to Nomuka, which unfortunately also had a rolly anchorage, so we landed in a more sheltered spot on nearby nomukaiki for several days. Our last stop in Ha’apai was the best spot of all: Kelefesia. It’s a small anchorage with only marginal protection, but we were glad we made the effort to go there. We said good-bye to Ha’apai early in the morning on Thursday, 30 October bound for the Tongatapu and the capital city of all of Tonga, Nuku’alofa.
Gresham Family Exodus 