23 37 17 S 178 54 49 W

The 250 nm from Tonga took us 43 hours .After a couple of hours of light wind things developed into a 30knt blow that was not seen by the experts including myself . We were joined by another yacht but soon left him behind and infact finished several hours ahead . Not bad since he is bigger than us .

We are now anchored inside Minerva Reef . This is a shallow mid ocean reef with one entrance . The reef dries to 0.9 m at low water but covers at high water . The reef shelters us from the sea but not from the wind . It is strange , surreal to sit here in perfectly calm water  with nothing but ocean around us .The main attraction here in fact the only attraction once bored with the unchanging sea and the Pacific  breaking on the reef is to get some sleep and food before the next leg to New Zealand .

There are six other yachts here . As usual discussing the weather and the pronouciations of weather guru Bob M´cDavitt .He got the weather wrong for for past few days; so did I but I prefer to make my own mistakes .

We may be here for a few days -