It is not every day at sea that you run into a vast raft of pumice floating on the sea surface. But that’s just what Shannon Lenz and Tom Whitehead found as they sailed west aboard Finely Finished from Vava’u in Tonga to Fiji in the South Pacific. Their interesting story was posted on the website noonsite.com and the video above was posted on YouTube.
The encounter brings back memories of the passage I made with my family 25 years ago along the same route. While we were in Tonga we had heard reports of underwater volcanic activity among the seamounts west of Tonga and that areas of floating rocks and pumice might be found. Not wanting to sail through such a mess, we shaped our westward course south of the area of most likely volcanic activity. Luckily, we did not see any volcanic debris. But, the thought of having a volcano erupt beneath us we a bit unsettling. Others that season weren’t so lucky or cautious. When friends we’d cruised with in Tonga arrived in Suva, Fiji, several reported strange floating masses of gray pumice and even floating rocks. I don’t think any of us thought to report the volcanic activity to scientists at the time. Today, that has all changed, largely due to the huge advancement in communications. Tom and Shannon and others reported their findings to New Zealand’s Gulf Harbour Radio and the news was passed along to volcanologists in Australia who asked cruisers passing through the area to collect as much data as possible.
