After one week at sea we were thrilled to arrive at South Minerva early on Sunday morning. South Minerva is a reef shaped like a figure 8, but you can only get the yacht into one of the loops, the other is cut off completely. When we arrived, 4 boats had just left and the two remaining boats were getting ready to depart. It was high tide and the water inside the reef was very choppy. It seems that South Minerva does not offer the same protection from the chop as North Minerva. So after a tour around, we decideed to carry on to North Minerva, some 20 miles north. We hooked up a Mahimahi on the way, but it managed to slip itself off the hook, so no fish for dinner this time. We arrived in North Minerva at lunch time. The water was peaceful and calm and 26 degrees. We were in having a swim about 2 minutes after we dropped the anchor! Bliss. As we approached North Minerva we saw our friends on Fusio and Liberation leaving for Fiji and had a chat to them on the radio. A few other boats also headed out to Fiji the same day. That left 11 boats sitting in North Minerva. A few left yesterday and some today, so now there are only three of us here. At least two of us are departing tomorrow for Tonga, so the place will be empty by the time the next wave of boats arrive at the end of this week or in the weekend. Over the past couple of days we have a done a bit of socialising with other yachties and caught up on a few chores. Got the washing done and cleaned up the last bits of tomato soup from the "dinner's on the floor" incident the other day. Also discovered another cleaning job - a cupboard that was swimming with the contents of a bottle of sesame oil. Ah well, if that is the worst damage we suffered, we cannot complain! Karl has been doing the usual mechanical and deck checks to ensure all things are in ship shape for the next leg of our journey. Everything is set for our departure to Tonga in the morning. It is warm here, about 25 degrees right now and getting warmer as the day goes on. We aired out blankets and sleeping bags and duvets in the sunshine, and as I was folding them up to stow away, it seemed hard to imagine that just a week ago we were very glad of all these layers to keep warm! We had an amazing snorkel in the NE part of the reef yesterday. This area has more coral bommies and rocks than the SE part of the reef and also a wreck which has turned into a home for hundreds of colourful fish. Very large tropical fish here, plus a couple of gigantic painted crayfish. We watched the crays for ages, willing them to come further out of their shelter, but they stayed safely tucked away from our reach. The bottom is populated by a multitude of colourful clams. So beautiful! It would be easy to stay for a week or more here, exploring different parts of the reef. For those of you who cannot imagine what we are talking about, Minerva reef forms a rim in the shape of an oval. This oval about 5.5km across at the widest part and 4.5km across at the narrowest part. There is one small opening in the oval, with enough room for yachts to pass through. Inside the oval reef, it is like a lake in the middle of the ocean! The reef has a wide rim, between 500 meters and 900 meters wide, all the way around. This provides protection from the ocean waves. At low tide you can walk on the reef, as it is well up out of the water, like a very wide road running all the way around the lake! Outside the reef, the water is over 500 meters deep and quickly drops away to much deeper than this. Inside the oval reef is a sandy bottom and only 10-20 meters deep. We are anchored in 12 meters of water and the water is so clear we can easily see the bottom. Waves can be crashing on the rim of the reef on the outide, while the lake on the inside is like a millpond, absolutely calm. It is a very special place and we are glad we have come here again. Time for another swim now!
