Kelefesia

[Kyle]We left Lalona early for an all-morning sail to the very Greek sounding island of Kelefesia. This place is pretty much right on the beaten path for most of the boats going through the Ha'apai, so we were expecting to find our first company after nearly a week of solitude. I was pretty surprised to round the island and find the anchorage empty.

It turned out to be a good thing. The entrance to the anchorage at Kelefesia is narrow and tricky. The sand bottom at ten meters is broken everywhere by coral heads that thrust vertically until they just graze the surface. We picked our way in very slowly and managed to find a spot (THE spot) of uninterrupted sand just big enough for our anchor and chain. There was no room for any other boats. When we set the anchor, we backed down good and hard for there was a reef breaking the surface right behind us and we didn't want to take the chance of even moving an inch.

Kelefesia is beautiful. In addition to being the usual palm-studded beach, the island actually had a few cliffs thrown in for effect, which made it seem twice as nice. The surrounding coral made for a nice effect on the color of the water and completely flattened the roiling sea. I was really not sure the difficult anchorage was worth it, but then we jumped in to have a look at the reefs.

Kelefesia Island

Alright, Kelefesia gets our vote for prettiest place in Tonga. We love it! We stayed just over twenty-four hours and spent as much of the time as we could either in the water or hiking all over the island. If we ever go all Robinson Crusoe, this would be my top pick.

Kelefesia beneath the waves
The last pic is of a Nuidibranch - a Spanish Dancer!

Except that someone beat us to it. We followed a narrow path through the trees on the beach and discovered somebody's homestead. They seemed to be gone for the day, but we kept flushing out their pigs as we walked the paths from one end of the island to the next.

We really hated leaving Kelefesia, but the wind was forecast to go a bad direction for the anchorage and then start blowing hard, so we had to leave the next day for the overnight sail to Tongatapu.