Minerva Reef

We are safely anchored in a tiny atoll on our way to New Zealand. Minerva Reef (23 37.8S 178 53.6W) is literally in the middle of nowhere and except for a few rocks at low tide, without any land. The reef itself creates a barrier to the seas, and so it is relatively calm in here even when the wind is blowing hard...

We are anchored in 40' on a lovely sand bottom. This morning I went snorkeling to catch some dinner and within 5 minutes I had a 2 lb lobster! It made a wonderful meal. We are holing up here waiting for a weather window to continue to New Zealand.

It looks like the next one may come on Monday or Tuesday next week... It is tough being stuck in paradise...

Shelley had been baking like mad to use up all the things that New Zealand won't allow in... nuts,fruit, seeds etc... She has also prepared a bunch of meals and we have frozen them so when we are underway in rough seas, meals will be a little easier.

We hope to arrive in New Zealand 7 or 8 days after we leave here and we will update our position every 24 hours on the map on the right... We are told this is some of the trickiest sailing we will encounter... So far all has gone well, but we never underestimate mother natures fickle moods...

We will update the blog again in a weeks time or whenever we arrive in New Zealand, whichever comes first...

All the best,
Kyle and Shelley

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