At low tide, the inner lagoon is about three feet below the reef, which results in a 'waterfall' all along the reef, as the tradewinds keep pushing water over the windward side of the reef. The reef, which is about a quarter of a mile wide, completely submerges at high tide. Virtually all of the crews showed up with beverages in hand. The highlight of our stay in Minerva was a Reef Party at low tide on the afternoon of the 19th. It was an amazing amount of activity for one of the more remote anchorages. In addition, a New Zealand Air Force Orion did a flyover and roll call for Customs and Search & Rescue purposes. We were later joined by a Tonga Navy patrol boat, probably to protect us from those pesky Fijians, who also claim Minerva. Bob McDavitt, the New Zealand weather guru, thought that 29 boats at one time was a record for Minerva. Anchor watches on all of the boats made for a sleepy Minerva Reef Radio Net the next morning, but none of the boats in this experienced group dragged or suffered any damage. The wind in the lagoon blew up to 50 knots, so we had our entire anchor chain and rode deployed. The reef, which is all but awash at high water, is 800 miles along the 1,100-mile path to Fiji or Tonga from New Zealand. A week later we, along with 29 other boats, stopped at Minerva Reef to wait out a low. Most of the fleet, ourselves included, departed on May 9 or 10. Initially the weather didn't cooperate, much to the benefit of the Opua Cruising Club bar, which had become the yachtie gathering point. The fleet included two groups from New Zealand's Island Cruising Association, one headed for Tonga, the other for Fiji.
With reports this month from Hana Hou in New Zealand and waiting out a low at Minerva Reef from Moonshadow in the Sea of Cortez from En Pointe, a rare cruising trimaran, in Vanuatu from Tamasha in the Eastern Caribbean after a circumnavigation from Cirque on cruising the Caribbean side of Panama from Shindig in the Sea of Cortez and Cruise Notes.īy May 1, the official end of the tropical cyclone season in the Southern Hemisphere, a large fleet of cruising yachts had assembled at Opua, northern New Zealand, ready for the sometimes-rough 1,100-mile trip back to the South Pacific Islands. Missing the pictures? See our July 2014 eBook!
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