We had a nice crossing from Palmerston to Beveridge Reef. The first day we had one of our better days of travel. We were at a broad reach (winds at 90 degrees to the boat) with our mainsail double reefed and our genoa out, which is the "fullest" sail we can do at this point due to issues with our track, etc. The wind was 20-25 knots and it was new, so the swell hadn't built up huge yet. We moved nicely despite our anchor being down (see Courage's explaination for this). The wind was slowly dying and coming around behind us yesterday and today, so our travel wasn't as fast, but we made it nicely in.
We caught a fish just outside the reef. As soon as we heard the reel go, we ran back, slowed down, and pulled it in. Apparently we only caught a head! Who knew!! It looks like we caught a jack and it was eaten by a shark before we got it. We tried again, and this time we pulled in a large red snapper (we think). This time, we got the whole thing!! It was great, we had it for dinner. Inside the reef, we also caught a tiny little jack that we threw back.
We are now in Beveridge Reef. It's interesting and very nice. Just a reef, only has land at high tide. At low tide, just surrounded by waves. We are anchored in sand about 10 feet deep just off of a shipwreck on the reef. It's a fishing boat named Liberty I think. The boys went and checked it out and LOVED it!! Integrity climbed on the roof, etc. But it's filled with sea urchins, so exploring inside it is less desirable. Cassidy and Courage went out snorkeling in 3 different places, said it was great, saw a HUGE puffer fish, and found a very old sunken wreck that I'll try to snorkel on tomorrow. I'm a little under the weather with a cold, so I stayed home and made dinner and cookies while they explored. There are 3 boats here, one came yesterday, we arrived from Palmerston today along with another boat. There was a third French boat traveling Palmerston to Beveridge, but they should have been here by now. We had a nice visit with them on their boat the night before we all left, we are assuming they chose to go to Tonga while there are still winds.
The boys (and Cassidy) also fed the fish remains to the local sharks. They tie meat and bones onto a rope and "catch" the shark, play with it until it eats the meat. They even were able to pull a couple of them completely out of the water. Got some good shark pictures I think.
It's been interesting at the reef so far, and we have a few more days here. The other boat here got a weather information that there's a trough passing over the area Sunday - Wednesday, which makes the wind blow onshore to Nuie, which is not ideal. So, we weren't going to stay that long, but we may if the weather isn't perfect for Nuie. We also heard on the net this morning that Nuie is going to pull up all but 3 of their mooring balls for hurricane season. Not good, it's deep to anchor and coral with not good holding. The other boat here emailed them, told them 3 of us are coming this week. They wrote back that they have 5 boats there now and a supply ship coming Sunday. But their SCUBA divers who pull up the moorings which are 100+ feet deep are going on vacation so have to do it now. They said they'd try to leave more of their shallow moorings in. We shall see . . . Courage is thinking that those 5 boats will leave if this is really a trough coming and lasting through Wednesday, they'll be miserable. We will wait and see how it works out. Sounds like an interesting island with caves, staligmites, staligtites, etc. rather than sandy beaches. Different than we've been seeing.
That's it for now. Palmerston was interesting too. Will have to sum that up for you sometime also!
All is well for now,
Shannon
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