Author: richwest3

November 1, 2012

Rich got some beautiful close-up pictures in the Coral Wonder, and like the Coral Garden close-ups, I’m giving them their own post. -Cyndi

November 1, 2012

After a long swim to get out there, we finally found ourselves at the Coral Wonder. It was much like the Coral Gardens, full of fish and coral and so beautiful. As we had heard, there was more “plate” coral here, coral with a large, flat surface area that looks like a giant mushroom. The biggest difference, though, was how large this area was—it covered a lot of ground. As we snorkeled, some friends of ours had arrived but had gone way out beyond us. When we went to see them; we found it was even better out there!

People had told us that of the two areas (the Coral Gardens and the Coral Wonder), the Coral Gardens is better. I suspect they didn’t make it out far enough to see the best of the Coral Wonder. I think both are equally impressive (although Rich slightly prefers the Coral Gardens). -Cyndi

November 1, 2012

Aside from the Coral Gardens, there is another big snorkeling attraction near anchorage #16: the Coral Wonder. It, too, was rumored to be spectacular and featured more of the large “plate” coral. It’s on the south side of the “C,” and like the Coral Gardens, you have to swim over a large coral shelf to get there. The good news: the waves are smaller and gentler; so while it’s actually a much longer swim, it’s easier to get to overall.

To get to the Coral Wonder, we needed to motor our dinghy out of the bay and around to what is called “the Day Anchorage.” This is an anchorage between southern tip of the C and an small island just off of it: Langito’o Island. The anchorage looks exposed, but it’s actually protected by a reef between the two islands. It’s beautiful, and while the Moorings people have deemed it a day anchorage (meaning you should move your boat someplace more secure at night), everyone who anchors there stays put. It is one of the most popular anchorages in Vava’u.

Luckily for us (as our dinghy doesn’t have a big engine), there is a small beach where we could put our dinghy and then walk over to the south side of the island. When we emerged at the south side, I was amazed at the beautiful beach there! With all we’ve heard about the Coral Wonder, no one had mentioned this beach–I suppose it gets overlooked as it falls into the “something nice on the way to somewhere else” category. In fact, we didn’t spend much time there ourselves as we wanted to get out to the Coral Wonder while conditions looked very calm.

We made our way to the end of the beach, put on our gear, then made our way into the water. Soon, we were swimming through some small waves, then over a large coral shelf – about an eighth of a mile to the Coral Wonder. -Cyndi

November 1, 2012

One morning, I woke up very early, just as the full moon was giving way to the predawn light. I grabbed a cushion and went to sit up on deck. It was a warm, windless morning, the water in the bay still and glassy. The combination of a full moon, clouds, and light from the soon-to-rise sun made it unusually light for this hour giving it a dream-like feeling. The only sound was from the birds onshore, much like soundtrack from a tropical rainforest CD. It was so calm and peaceful, one of my special moments from this cruise. -Cyndi

October 31, 2012

Anchorage #16 looks like one very large bay on the chart, but the shoreline is such that it is divided into three separate areas, each with its own beach. There’s the beautiful white-sand beach near the Coral Gardens, a long beach east of that, and then the beach where we were anchored near the bottom of the “C.” Other boats seemed to prefer the white-sand beach; so we pretty much had our area to ourselves. Our beach was long, but more narrow and thickly lined with trees, and the water near the shore was a beautiful green.

There was one particular tree on our beach that was fascinating. It had a thick canopy that went all the way to the ground, like a giant mushroom. We went ashore to check it out and see what was under that canopy. We found it was much like a banyan tree, with shoots from its branches going all the way to the ground. It was the only tree of its kind here and a favorite spot for the birds.

After checking out the tree, we explored the beach. It may not be the wide white-sand type, but sometimes there’s nothing more beautiful than the green and tan colors of a beach like this one. -Cyndi