We left the North Minerva Reef this morning at about 11 am.. North Minerva is more of a perfect circle. When we arrived the lagoon was completely calm and it looked as if boats were floating in the air inside it. We dropped anchor and deployed our kayaks for the first time which was great fun. We are going to have to learn how to get back into them a bit more adeptly when they are in the water though

Storyteller and Harmonie joined us for the evening and record amounts of spirits and alcohol were ingested so the boat is a lot lighter now. Storyteller provided some fish which we cooked on Lady Kay, so the meal was a co-operative effort. We discovered that as high tide approaches the lagoon gets quite bumpy and uncomfortable and it was noticeable even on our boat.

Leaving the lagoon was quite exciting as the wind was blowing strongly into the entrance as the tide was taking the water out. This meant that the water was quite bumpy and wavy as we left . We were sailing until late afternoon in a pleasant breeze but have had to put an engine on now as the wind has dropped to 5 knots. We should be in Tonga in just under two days all being well.