Oct 6 - Ha'ano Island, Ha'apai Group, Tonga

Position: S19deg40.3min/W174deg17.4min We had a leisurely overnight sail down to this northern most island in the Ha'apai group, anchoring at 0900. We've snorkeled the "mushroom rock" here, and passed over some beautiful coral formations and nice fish. We didn't see any big critters, but the boat next to us saw a zebra shark yesterday sleeping in the sand nearby their boat. Tomorrow we'll be going to Ofolanga Is, about 10 nm away to the NW. If weather allows, we're planning on spending about a week in the Ha'apai group before departing for Nuku'Alofa, where we'll stage for passage to NZ. We expect most of our time here will be spent snorkeling and shelling. We enjoyed the Vava'u area; more so the outer island anchorages than being in town. Overall, those islands are higher elevations than those here in the Ha'apai group. These are quite low, and remind us of the low atolls of the Tuamotus in French Polynesia.