It is difficult to write about Minerva Reef, because no matter what words I choose, I can never adequately describe this place.
I had started to wonder if maybe I was becoming numb to the amazingly beautiful places we get to visit, but if so, this place really shook me back to my senses. Many times I found myself just sitting in the cockpit and soaking it all in, totally undistracted. It is basically just a ring of coral out here in the middle of the ocean. From a distance you can see that it is there by the waves crashing against the reef. This sort of place was definitely a navigation hazard prior to GPS as it would be virtually invisible at night with nothing to give off a radar signature, unless the surf was really big, I suppose. But since we have GPS and accurate charts and waypoints from cruisers who came before us, we entered the pass into the reef and plopped our anchor down just inside.
We were fortunate enough to be here during very sunny and calm weather, so we felt better about burning all the diesel to get there. The water inside the lagoon is shallow, and it’s like sitting on a giant swimming pool with the most beautiful turquoise water you’ve ever seen. Our first day there we were all entertained by a huge tiger shark that made it’s rounds visiting all the boats as they cleaned their fish, and I didn’t see this, but I heard that occasionally he would get really riled up and start ramming the dinghies. The squeals from all the kids as he was doing this must have been audible from quite a ways away.
Our first night, two of the kid boats went out lobstering on the reefs, and again, the squeals were quite entertaining. Tim and Jack didn’t go that first night, I don’t know, I guess they were tired from the really tough passage we had. Anyway, they collected 75, I’m not kidding, 75 lobsters! They shared them with the whole anchorage and then had a lobster and cocktails party yesterday evening to celebrate Julie’s birthday on Nirvana. It was a lot of fun.
We went out snorkeling and spearfishing as a family, and as soon as Brenden was in the water, he shot a really nice-looking fish. Tim was so excited, he was yelling, in that proud/excited dad way, for me to throw him the go-pro, “just throw it!” Turns out it was a big eye trevally, not so tasty, so after Brenden cleaned it and we realized what it was, he fed it to the shark. I didn’t see this one, but Brenden keeps talking about it, the one that got away. Apparently, he shot a huge Almaco Jack, but it was stronger than him, and it took his spear. I think he probably dreamed about that fish at night. (Spoiler alert: He talked about that fish all summer long in New Zealand, and he WILL redeem himself when we stop again at Minerva Reef on our way back north.)
The snorkeling was pretty amazing. The colors of the coral, mostly hard coral, rivaled anything we’d seen so far, but there were so many more fish. And not just the tiny reef fish, it was like back in the Sea of Cortez where the huge parrot fish and groupers aren’t afraid of you and they just swim right up to you. The only downside is that it was cold. Air and water temp are just a couple degrees cooler here than in Tonga. Alex and Tim and a successful lobstering night our second night and came home with 12 lobsters. Even more importantly, by setting a good example they were able to influence the rest of the fleet to not take the females with eggs. Tim said he shared his philosophy with a couple guys, and they must have talked to others, because by the time they were getting ready to head back in the dinghies, everyone was throwing the females back. I am very happy and proud about this, because it is so important for the health of the population.
We were so grateful for the couple of days we had at Minerva with such settled weather and also to be there with a group of friends that was clearly becoming closer knit. This group of boats that we were with in Tongatapu and now Minerva were really great, and for the first time in a while I was feeling like we’ve really forged some lifelong friendships. Slowly the boats started trickling out over the course of a couple days with Exodus somewhere near the middle of the pack.
Gresham Family Exodus 