We have just left North Minerva Reef and are sailing towards South Minerva Reef about 22 miles away. We plan to stop for a few hours this afternoon, then we will head for New Zealand. We have perfect wind for sailing right now, about 12-15 knots from the southeast and we are headed southwest. The weather outlook is for light to medium winds. Unfortunately there is a big void of wind in the high that is sitting over 30-32 degrees south, that we may have to motor through.
North Minerva reef is spectacular. It is a perfect circular atoll with the reef submerged at high tide and most of it exposed at low tide. The snorkeling and fishing is insane.
On my birthday I went snorkeling and diving and we had a huge party on Nirvana. We had 35 people, 13 of them were kids. The kids ran up and down and in and out of all the nooks in the boat, they added a crazy flair to the party. We had a bunch of appetizers and a lot of the lobster we caught the night before on the reef. Anders off the Swedish boat was also celebrating his birthday, so it was a great double celebration. We had happy birthday sung to us in many different languages, 3 versions in English, once in French, once in Spanish, once in German and a toast in Swedish. Definitely more than anyone could wish for. I got some great presents from the other yachties, lots of rainbow loom bracelets from the kids, a few pictures, some fresh baking, some wine, and a stick of butter (and we really needed that so it was a great present). Gigi made me a coconut cup to drink from. Gary and the kids gave me a painting of a lionfish that I had admired in Neiafu. And Harrison gave me a beautiful whale tail necklace. I couldn't ask for a nicer birthday in a nicer location, this may be impossible to top.
The next day was packed with activities, including snorkeling, diving, spear fishing, pole fishing, going up the mast for photos and repairs, …
I went diving with Hans off Nautilus, who is a commercial diver, so he is a super competent diver and Max off Fluenta. We started our dive by going down in the "blue hole". We knew it was deep, but didn't realize how deep until we got down there. When we were at about 110 feet we were looking down at the underwater cave that light was shining through, so we knew it was a passage to another area that went to the surface. We went down a little further as we prepared to go through it, but we realized when we were at 135 feet that the cave was still another 15-20 feet lower, and Max was having gear issues, so we decided that was too deep. That was the deepest dive I have ever done, although we didn't stay at that depth for very long. The water was so clear that it was deceptive how far away the cave was, and the surface looked so close and clear. We looked up at the surface and light shining through this hole in the coral reef was like the sun's rays shining through the clouds. We swam back up through the coral hole and as you got closer to the surface all the vibrant colors came alive. We continued the dive by descending the outer reef wall where there were giant fan corals.
We have snorkeled and dove on many reefs, but this reef was special as it was so alive and very few people ever go there so the reef is undamaged and the sea life is not afraid of people, some of them are actually curious. The reef is covered in a large variety of corals, mostly hard but many soft also, and a rainbow of colors. There were at least 15 different shades of blue that I saw, from brilliant turquoise, to deep royal blue, to pale baby blue, to indigo, to lavender. Plus colors you would never expect to see in the ocean like neon green and yellow brain corals, flame orange painted rocks, brilliant yellow lettuce coral, deep red soft corals, salmon colored fan corals and stag corals with sapphire tips. Amongst all of this coral swim equally colorful fish. One of our favorites is the abundant parrot fish, very majestic turquoise with the hump on their head and beaks for mouths. Tons of small reef fish in every color combination, Gigi's favorite was the royal blue, orange and white fish. And of course there were plenty of bigger, good eating fish that Gary focused on. Gary's favorite was a 150 pound dogmouth tuna, way too big to spear with his setup. There were also giant Napoleon wrasse and everyone's favorite the sea turtles.
Gary was in seventh heaven spear fishing here. He shot a spotted sweetlips, camouflage grouper, parrot fish, big eye trevally down at 70 feet, and a massive almako jack (about 30+ lbs). He also shot a big dog tooth tuna that dragged him down very deep and very fast, enough that even Gary was fearful of the outcome, fortunately in the fight Gary's spear came out of the fish and he didn't lose his gun, but he was dragged down to about 60 feet. The other guys that were spear fishing also caught tons of fish. Tim on Exodus speared a tuna at 71 feet after being down for 1 minute 55 seconds. These guys are so comfortable in the water, they are like fish.
Harrison went trolling and caught 2 blue fin trevallies. While fishing from the kayak, he hooked up with a tuna, and got dragged around, but unfortunately it got away. Everyone went on the reef after dark on my birthday to get more lobster, Gigi bagged about 5 and they came back with about 30 more both spiny and slipper lobster. We have been eating so well, obviously the lobsters are a favorite, and the almako jack is sooooo tasty, very much like tuna, but all the other fish are fantastic too. Since we caught so much fish, we have shared plenty with the other boats that weren't fishing.
We had perfect weather our entire stay, very light to no wind, very small to no seas and about 85F daytime temperature. The water is colder than other places we have been, but still totally fine with a wetsuit on (about 72F). The isolation of this place makes it so unique, only people with their own boat can visit. It also ensures that very few people will ever visit, keeping it so pristine. This is one of the most magical places on earth. If you ever get a chance to visit, you should, I know it is very to pass by and just want to keep on sailing. We are very happy we made the effort to see this place.
Julie
PS Just finished a snack of lobster tail. So yummy!
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