06/11/09, South Minerva Reef
We left South Minerva today at 1100 hrs in good south easterly winds @18-20 knots. We are making good speeds (8.3 knots on the GPS) and we haven't even got our genoa out as we figure we don't want to stress LWC and break anything on this our last leg home. Our friend Mike on Arielle is beside us to the east and a boat is on our track, behind us so we'll have lights around us tonight...something we are not used to at sea. Forecast is for lighter winds tomorrow so we want to make the most of the air while we have it. Could be a patchy trip with boats ahead of us doing quite a bit of motoring.
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04/11/09, South Minerva Reef
We had a great sail today from North Minerva to South Minerva Reef. A beam reach and we flew....shame the weather forecast doesn't have this for the rest of the passage home otherwise we'd be tempted to just carry on. We had a spectacular dive on the outside of North Minerva Reef yesterday...clear visibility, stunning coral, heaps of fish variety along a steep drop off but interestingly no sharks or large pelagic's. We are watching the weather very carefully and think we'll be heading south in the next couple of days...the Highs in the Tasman, combined with a deep low to the east of NZ promises strong head wind off the coast of northland in a few day which doesn't make for good sailing into New Zealand. We would rather wait a couple of days in the hope they dissipate before we get there.
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04/11/09, North Minerva Reef
We are enjoying this special and amazing place...yesterday on the midday low tide we went to explore the reef. Quite surreal. The reef was rising about 2 or 3 feet out of the water with water running across the top of it causing a waterfall back into the atoll. We anchored the dinghy and stepped up onto the reef and walked mid calf deep in water across to the weather side where the waves continuously crash onto the reef. Small fish scatter under our feet and try to hide in the shallow pools. This reef is quite different from how we remember South Minerva Reef which dries completely leaving large deep pools containing a variety of fish life. This reef is almost a symmetrical circle and is relatively clear of bommies right up to the inner edge, whereas South Minerva has an area of shallows with coral outcrops.... prefect housing for crayfish. Apart from seeing a crayfish shell, we haven't seen any live crayfish here, but they must be somewhere, possibly more visible at night...but we are not keen on getting in the water and hunting at night in this place. We are going to dive outside the reef today by the entrance which should be a memorable dive...we'll keep you posted.
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