The southern half of Vona Vona lagoon (Noro to Lola Island has been described in a previous post (XXXX 2008). Travel through the Vona Vona lagoon is well described in the Sieling cruising guide too and the google earth picture below testifies of the guide’s accuracy.
From Lola to the Northern exits, some very shallow bits (2m depth) are encountered so this path is more recommended for shallow drafted vessels! Little damage can be done though, apart from a few bommies (which can be spotted in good litght), the very shallow passages are sand. Of course when the Kuna set off, it was overcast and cloudy. Not recommended to navigate is these conditions, but the light winds were a great opportunity to silently cruise up the lagoon at 3 knots with plenty of time to stop. Good holding is found anywhere along the way.
The first part of the track is the trickiest, one has to wind their way leaving four islands in a row to their right (waypoint S8° 17.543 E157° 08.064), then turn directly north and leave a set of three small islands again to the right (Waypoint S8° 16.594 E157° 06.996). Thereafter, the large island of Vona Vona can be kept to port at reasonable distance and lightly greater depths are found (5-10 m).
Once turned the NE corner, start heading west towards snake island. The channel has a reef on either side. Quite a few anchorages can be found along the North coast of Vona Vona island and people are quite friendly such as in the village of Orokolo (Anchorage 15m S8° 10.951 E157° 01.003). Nosing in towards the beach allows good protection from the SE trades (anchoring in 15-20 m)
Finally the last stretch west to exit the lagoon between the two reefs tongues may be done carefully, heading to the W-SW to round a couple of shallow patches (see photo), rather than going across them like KUNA did on the map below. Waypoints Flags mark the two patches with depths up to 2m: (S8° 10.493 E156° 58.726 to S8° 10.526 E156° 58.526 and from: S8° 10.506 E156° 58.223 to S8° 10.517 E156° 58.135, I marked those on the GPS as we were going along and it was a cloudy day, so take record with a grain of salt but the aerial photograph below shows what can not be seen from the water!
Of course, the Vona Vona lagoon is full of crocodiles but it’s worth the look due to its myriad of small islands, some inhabited, some only visited for hunting.
The larger island of Vona Vona is heavily logged but sediment run off is not obvious because the island is mostly flat rainforest.
Follows a number of cool lagoon creatures found near Lola island
anemone
annelide polychaete
disguized urchin
beche de mer
