Waiting on the Weather Window - 6 October

Family and Friends:

We're still amazed at our luck in getting into Minerva Reef before the weather closed in on us. The high winds and heavy rains lasted most of the night giving "Moonshadow" quite a pressure washing. The front moved off early this morning while we were all snug in our berths and today has been pleasant with partially cloudy skies and gentle trade winds.

The lobster dinner Todd promised was rained out and postponed till this evening. He and I took the dinghy out to the edge of the reef and did some snooping around in the tide pools and large cracks on the seaward side. We managed to bag six good sized "bugs" during the low tide, so we'll be enjoying a few of them for dinner tonight!

North Minerva Reef is an awesome geological formation. The barrier reef dries out at low tide, but has millions of little pukas or pools that provide homes for fish, clams, urchins, crabs, sea slugs and numerous other sea creatures. In places there are large rocks strewn across the reef, creating sort of a wet moonscape. There are also scattered remnants of some of the vessels that found the reef unexpectedly. On the outer edge are numerous cracks that may be as narrow as a foot or two wide, but go up to 15 feet down, making some interesting watery passages for the many beautiful reef fish of the area. Since there are no rivers or human pollution, the water is crystal clear.

There are no other boats here yet, and as we wait for a weather window for the passage to Auckland, we get to enjoy this un-island paradise all by ourselves. At the moment, its looking like we will depart tomorrow (Thursday) early in the morning, but we are waiting on some more weather information before we make the final decision..

More later, George & crew