The Marovo Lagoon
We sailed up the side of the Kolo Lagoon on the East
side of Vangunu Island. This lagoon
is similar to the Marovo lagoon. These
huge lagoons are full of small islands and reefs
with some shallow water and
well over 150metres deep in other parts. There is an inner
ring on narrow
islands protecting the lagoons and an outer ring (also of narrow islands)
outside those. In all, VERY beautiful scenery.
We entered the Marovo
Lagoon through the deep Tongoro Passage. The sailing was quite
good- in
light winds- until a few miles before the passage when we were whited out by
a torrential downpour and strong Northerly winds, which impeded progress
somewhat. We
waited until the rain cleared before entering the lagoon. Once
inside, we searched in
vain for a narrow entrance in the reef which was
supposed to provide access to a
protected anchorage. The GPS position given
by the Cruising Guide and the written
description were of little help.
Finally, Dave took to the rubber ducky while Penny
kept the yacht at a safe
distance. After an hour of searching, it was clear that there
was no opening
in the reef, so we elected to go somewhere else. Clearly the Cruising
Guide
was somewhat inaccurate.
Within the lagoon, we found that the chart is
reasonably accurate but you do not dare
go over anything that is indicated
to be less than about 10-20 metres deep. At one
point we tried where there
was supposed to be over 4 metres depth and had to pull out
when the depth
got to 2.3 metres.
So, we penetrated further into the lagoon than we had
planned, but this was an
excellent result as we anchored off a small island
with sandy beach and plenty of
good coral around. The water was crystal
clear and we had plenty of wind for the
wind generator.
We took the
rubber ducky to explore and snorkel on adjoining islands.
The Marovo
Lagoon proved to be every bit as good as the eloquent descriptions of it.
The rapacious logging of earlier years (and consequent pollution and runoff
into
the lagoon) seems to have abated and so perhaps the World Heritage
assessments will
prove more positive as time passes. We could happily spend
several more weeks in
the Marovo and maybe this will be possible later. This
lagoon areas is huge; just the
East side is about 170Km long, so there is
plenty to explore.
Regards,
The CREW
