Mariner's Cave

0800 Position 18-43S 173-59W. On a mooring off Tapana Island, Vava'u, Tonga

Yesterday afternoon we headed out of Neiafu to do some more exploring. Our first stop was the infamous Mariner's Cave on Nuapapu Island. This huge underwater cave has a house sized air bubble trapped inside it. From the outside the cave looks like an eight foot diameter black hole in the underwater cliff five feet below the surface. It is extremely disconcerting to dive into that hole, holding your breath, not knowing with certainty what you will find at the other end. Fifteen feet into the hole the ceiling opens up and you can rise up and surface in a completely airtight chamber. The inside of the chamber is barely illuminated by what little light enters through the same opening you just swam through.

Rob, Doc and I got in the water while Renee powered Van Diemen around off shore. You can't anchor off of Mariner's Cave. The water is 200' deep 100' from the island. I had been in the cave in 2014 so I dove in and out a few times to put the boys at ease, then all three of us went in and surfaced. There was a small swell running and each time the swell surged our ears pressurized in the chamber and a fog formed. As the swell receded the fog and pressure on our ears disappeared. I got some great GoPro video of the boys swimming in and out of the cave.

The weather forecast called for increasing easterly trade winds, so we needed to find a place where we would be protected for a few days. Tapana fits the bill there. It's not a volcanic crater, but it looks like one. The half mile diameter circular bay is completely landlocked except for two wide channels on the western side. Most of the rest of the bay is bordered by the steep cliffs of three islands.

When we were cruising here in 2014 we found a mooring field tucked right up under Tapana's eastern most cliffs. Those moorings were installed and managed by Sherry and Larry who also ran a floating art gallery moored there, "The Ark Gallery". The gallery, built on a forty foot barge like structure that also served as Sherry and Larry's home, featured the work of local artists and sold primarily to visiting cruising boats. We heard in Neiafu that the moorings were now being managed by someone else, but when we arrived and picked up a mooring yesterday Larry came alongside in a dinghy to say hello. He and Sherry have sold the gallery and moorings but still live on another boat moored there. Unfortunately, the new owners of the gallery got into some kind of a tax dispute with the Tongan government, abandoned the gallery, and left the country. The gallery barge is still on a mooring but it is shuttered.

The winds came up last night as forecast. This anchorage is not quite as protected as Hunga because the wall of land to windward is only forty feet high. We can hear the wind whistling through the rigging at the top of Van Diemen's mast, but down on deck it is calm.

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