North Minerva Reef

We arrived on Wednesday and are sorry to be leaving today, Friday. We have been searching for the words to describe this place: surreal, oasis, paradise…none seem to capture what it’s really like here.

If you can, find a minute to Google Minerva Reef, and to see how cool it really is. It’s is a reef, with no real land for hundreds of miles (no trees, no sandy beaches, no tiki bars). Seriously – check it out. Just a calm place to anchor in pretty close to the middle of the ocean.

That last sentence reminds me of when we were leaving to make our original crossing. Many people (who hadn’t thought it all the way through) would ask us if we intended to anchor at night, or just keep sailing. We always smiled at that question. But, maybe the people who asked, knew about Minerva…Well, here we are, anchoring at night.

We arrived to find four other boats and enjoyed sundowner’s on the big catamaran “Margarita” while getting to know everyone. Twas lovely.

Now, the winds and seas are calm, the water a brilliant turqouisey blue, the sky light blue with big puffy clouds. Last night we were in the cockpit and saw many falling stars, some lasted a really long time and turned green before they went out. Exquisite! This place is quite special. We’re grateful we’ve made it here, and look forward to when we return.

For now, we’re preparing for our 3 or so day passage to the Vava’u group of islands in Tonga. We’ll spend a couple months there exploring the places we missed last year, and returning to our old favorites. We’re both very eager to show this bit of tropical paradise to my (Fran’s) sister Liz. And anyone/everyone else who’d like to come visit!

Our ‘at sea’ system of email via SSB radio doesn’t allow for attachments, so we’ll post some photos of Minerva when we arrive in Tonga and have internet again.

Hope you’re all well!

Love,

Fran & Richard