After the beautiful sunrise, we jumped in the dingy and went "ashore" for a look around. I use the quote symbols because it's not quite land as such, but more like shallow coral with a bit of sand on top. We waded in in knee deep water to the highest point which was not quite completely out of the water. The outside of the reef - a sheer drop kilometres deep - had breaking waves and is an impressive sight. The tide was coming in so we didn't hang around and waded back to the dinghy and then went to borrow a couple of jerry cans of fuel off a friend who had plenty left. We put all our jerry cans into the tank and got back up to a more healthy 200 L. (Because if all the motoring, we arrived at the reef with only about 40 L left!). The wind was picking up and the water getting a bit choppy, but we persevered and grabbed our snorkel gear and took off in the dinghy and headed to the entrance. We'd heard the bommies around the entrance were great and they were not wrong! (See Facebook posts for photos). It was well worth the effort and choppy conditions. My prescription mask was fantastic and even allowed me to spot the shark before Steve did. We both floated motionless and waited to see what he did. Because the water was so incredibly clear, he was a fair way off and didn't seen to take any interest in us at all, and thankfully swam away.

We both started getting cold and the occasional cramp in the leg, so headed back to Seaforth. We upped anchor (after clearing the chain from around a small bommie) and moved to the northern side of the reef for some better protection for the forecast front coming through. We battened down the hatches and had an early night. The front came through just before midnight with rain and gust just touching on 30 knots. By morning the wind was back down to 10-15 knots, so we headed out and motored towards North Minerva. We wanted to get a fish on the way so had the trolling lines out. We hooked a fish, but unfortunately he won and took our lure. We replaced it and then hooked something else just coming up to North Minerva, but this time one of the crimps failed and that fish also took our lure. So far the score is Seaforth 1, Fish 2.

It was a frustrating flapping-sails kind of a sail, so loosing a second fish was even more annoying. We had an 'interesting' passage through the pass with 1.5-2 knots of current - we've heard reports of up to 11! We anchored up, made dinner, had some wine, and watched a movie. Hopefully tomorrow would be a bit better.

The next day dawned and after discussions with fellow cruisers about the gribs, we decided to get on our way to Tonga. We had to wait while a yacht with a fishing net wrapped about its prop sailed into the reef entrance with 3 dinghies in the water to assist if necessary. He managed it just fine and anchored up to effect repairs. We headed out to a big swell and lumpy seas, and headed around the northern side of the reef to try and get an elusive fish. Steve was manning the rod this time and maybe he was doing something different than me because he hooked and landed a small yellow fin tuna. Although catching a mahimahi still hasn't been ticked off the bucket list, it was a nice way to start our 3 day passage to Tonga! 😀 We also saw a pod of whales about an hour into our passage. They looked like smallish ones - pilot whales maybe. Now all we need is enough wind to keep sailing! ⛵️