19:02.96S 169:55.5W

G'Day All where ever you may be on reading this….. It is now the 9th October and we are on a mooring outside the village of Alofi on the island of Niue, located some 240nm east of Tonga. 

We left Bora Bora on the 26th and it took us 9 days sailing to reach our desired destination of Beverage Reef.  A good sail with the trades working well.  I think we motored only about six hours the whole leg.  The good weather and fishing made this last 'large' leg go quick and smooth.

Beverage Reef was everything and more than what we had read about and hoped for.  In the middle of no ware this reef, a little over 2 nm wide and no island or dry land at all, has remained seemingly untouched and because of that so very magnificent.  In truth the reef is visited by many yachts every year and it does have a wreck of a fishing boat on it… but otherwise it is still amazing.  The reef had the bluest water and the best visibility we had seen since the Tuamotus, and the snorkelling was fantastic.  We snorkelled in the pass on the second day and it has been a while since we had seen so many large and diverse numbers of fish that are usually fished out, such as large and docile groupers, yellow fin tuna (swimming under us with no care) and quite a number of inquisitive, large and seemingly well fed reef sharks.  When we arrived there were two yachts on the reef.  One cruiser and a large sailing yacht called SY Silvertip.  We met the crew who were on their way back to NZ after a charter season in the Tahiti area, and subsequently had a lovely sundowners and BBQ onboard.  They left the next day (hopefully with as sore heads as ours) for NZ but not before hiding over a parting gift of yellow fin tuna they had just caught …. a great bunch of people that helped me remember that super-yachties are not all that and ;)

We had the reef to ourselves for the next few days which was wonderful.  A 360 view of the pacific was hard to take but with everything there had to be a time to go and continue west.  If it was not for our dwindling supply or essentials, which included rice, potatoes and beer …. but obviously not fish!, I could have stayed weeks.  So we sailed on the 7th and made an overnight sail to Niue where we are now.  We have read a lot about Niue with its caves, diving and whale watching, and hope to get as much in as we can over the next few days… we shall see I suppose.

Until then… stay safe…. Matt, Didi and Aldo.

PS…. Photos… they are on there way.  I need a decent connection to do this and maybe that will be in Tonga in a weeks time???