And now we are eight. Allan looked out from the bow this morning where he was mopping dew from the deck and called "Incoming marauders!" Sure enough, a small fleet of boats arrived, making this place in the middle of nowhere look like it was definitely somewhere, and the place to be. One of them joked that we could now form the Beveridge Reef Yacht Club.

We gave them all time to get settled, and then hopped in our dinghy to say hello, passing out bunches of welcome bananas from Gloria. Several of them we had met previously in Tahiti or Moorea; we knew they were headed this way at some point, another was a boat we'd heard of and were looking forward to meeting, and two were new boats. We hoped that one of them would have the secret method for diving the reef safely. They didn't, and in fact, were eagerly hoping we'd figured it out. So we put our heads and dinghies together and, after some scouting and assessing the ocean current we all agreed it would work fine to anchor the dinghies just outside the pass.

In all, 5 little boats loaded with divers and gear headed through the pass, anchored to the 20' bottom, bobbing in the sea with dive flags flapping, while we explored the reef below. Sadly, it was a bit of a disappointment. Although the terrain was my kind of fun, with long, narrow canyons and sharp ridges, so I could play low-flying airplane, the coral was gray and lifeless, and there weren't a lot of fish. Allan hypothesized that we should have been diving on the other side of the reef; that perhaps the down-current side we were on was where the sandy by-product of disintegrating coral was layered on the reef. We were also curious about the north side of the pass, so we zipped across in the dinghy, stopping every 20 feet or so for Allan to hang his head over the side and take a look. He did see a large school of gray reef sharks, which he was hoping for, and some huge grouper "the size of a Volkswagen." But the waves and swell were much larger, making anchoring the dinghy precarious at best. So we satisfied our curiosity by doing the head dunk, and enjoyed the gorgeous colors in the water.

Depending on what's on the bottom; sand, coral, rock -- and it's depth; the water looks pale green to brilliant turquoise to rich sapphire blue and every color in between, in large chunks and streaks. It's truly amazing, and I'm hoping some of my attempts to capture it on my little camera will show the magnificence. If not, you'll just have to get in a sailboat and come out here someday.

It's Michael's birthday. Michael, Gloria and I were all born in 1958 and he's the first of the three of us to move into the next year, so we celebrated on Paikea Mist with lamb chops and pasta salad and tomatoes with artichokes. Steve and Melva from Mary Powell brought Steve's Famous Meatballs, and Gloria made a luscious cake with whipped cream, mandarin oranges, and mango jam. Michael got 2 t-shirts and a machete for his birthday, so he's ready to chop through the jungles of Tonga and Fiji.

We've decided to leave tomorrow, sooner than we'd hoped, because the wind is forecast to pick up, making life inside the reef much less comfortable. So we'll take advantage of the wind, which will again be pushing us from astern, and make a quick 24-hour dash to the island of Nuie, where more clear water, limestone caves, and fragrant frangipani await.