Who shifted the wind?!

Kokamo's Pacifc Meanderings
Tom and Rachel
Sun 9 May 2010 03:25
22:36.1S 177:41.4W
 
North Minerva is certainly an unexpected and surreal place.  After six days of nothing but ocean, with the feeling that the boat is bobbing in the middle of the same disc of blue - dark below, light above - we strained our eyes for evidence that we had actually travelled some 800 miles.
 
How people ever found the place before GPS I have no idea.  Nothing at 2 miles, still just rollers at 1.5 miles.  Then at a mile off the bizarre sight of masts of boats at anchor in the middle of the ocean - a mirage in this wettest of deserts.  Only at half a mile could we make out the breakers on the reef, just below sea level.  Not a speck of actual land to be seen. 
 
Cautiously following the reef along, we struggled to see the only 150m break in it's length which would allow us into the calm of the lagoon.  The only chart of the reef dates from a survey by Captain Denham RN in 1854, and doesn't correlate with the modern datum used by GPS.  But it was all we had, so we took faith in the Royal Navy's finest and turned to where we thought the pass should be.  After a few nervous moments, we caught sight of the gap in the breakers, motored hard against the current exiting the lagoon, and we were inside.
 
After cooking up the steak we'd been saving for the occasion, we spent the night at anchor surrounded by about 20 other northward bound yachts also taking respite from the last couple of days of 30 plus knots of wind.  The waves we'd been pounding through for a week spent their energy on the coral just a hundred yards to windward, allowing us to get some proper sleep at last.
 
We woke yesterday to find that the forecast had changed for the next few days, with the wind backing into the North East.  This means that we, and a good few other boats, are tackling the final 270 miles to Tonga by beating straight into the wind.  We are now one day in, and are finding the going frustratingly slow - what would have taken us 2 days, will now take four. But we're still in good spirits (apart from when meals and cups of tea launch themselves across the galley), Kokamo is going well.  and we hope to arrive in Tonga on Wednesday morning.
 
On the stereo: the Ministry of Sound 'Uncovered' compilation album - some cheeky, quirky covers of great tunes to keep us happy.
 
PS.  Last heard on the General Election: Cameron and Clegg in talks, but perhaps we'll learn more when I download emails.  See, we are interested really...