Greetings from Minerva

Anchored inside North Minerva Reef

23° 37' 0" S, 178° 55' 0" W

Well, the wind didn't die on us and we ended up having a relatively fast sail, getting us into North Minerva at 1600 local time this afternoon. We did have to motor the last 5nm but still averaged close to 6kn on the remaining 260nm, mostly on a beam reach. Now we are anchored here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-23.618083,-178.91675 (Google Earth has an image of the actual reef, see picture above - the pink line is Namani's track into the reef). Tomorrow (Wednesday) is forecast to be windless around here but we hope we can continue on Thursday. There are currently no dominant weather systems around, but lots of weak stuff with constantly moving patches of no wind / good wind. Hence we'll have to "muddle through" to about 30deg south and then try to time our landfall in NZ (Opua at about 35deg south) not to coincide with a frontal passage from there. There are 10 boats inside the reef - very nice and quiet. It seems everyone is expecting to leave again within 48 hours, so nobody is going through the trouble of un- and re-stowing their dinghies. So we can sit under a starry sky at anchor in mid-Pacific and listen to the surf crashing on the reef... All is well aboard, stay tuned...

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