[radioactiv]

[position] 23 35.321s 178 54.811w

[status] Yesterday, once the sun came out we headed to the reef at low tide, and walked to an old anchor, that seems to be one of the few remains from an old shipwreck, the coral has anchored it to the reef. Walking on Minerva reef is like walking on a wet-Mars – red spongy coral gives under your feet, and rock cod dart away from you with every step. Brightly coloured clams are dotted all over the place in less than 20cm of water – it’s such an unfamiliar place – but the best rock pools Sasha had ever explored! (yip Pappy, even better than your magical mystery tours to Takapuna rockpool heh heh). Yesterday evening we hosted twelve people for drinks and nibbles; the crew from Remedy (Greta, Dave and Drew), Fusio (Lanye & Warwick) and Kiapa (Irene, Lionel, and their two lovely crew who’s names escape me). Fusio bought with them fresh yellow fin tuna, that a near by catamaran had gifted them, and Remedy bought fresh crayfish they had caught at midnight on the reef the ni
ght before. MALibu bbq’d up the Tuna, and it was perfectly cooked. The feast was plentiful and delicious! It was nice to be able to host the Kiapa crowd before we headed off in different directions – they are off to Fiji. Afterwards the boys watched The Dark Horse (and NZ film), and Sasha hit the sack. It was a windy night, with gusts up to 35knots, but the wind settled down to around 12-13knots this morning so it was time for the Moonfish Crew to up anchor and continue on their adventure. Sasha just checked out Satellite Phone credit and we have over 178 minutes left, I will check the credit remaining after sending few emails and find out how much each of these updates is using – as currently I have zero idea – which for our emergency communications tool is probably a little naïve on Sasha’s part – there is however nothing stopping us emailing the boys at Wright Comms and getting more credit added. We are all so grateful to have had such a fantastic time at M
inerva, it should be classed as a ‘Wonder of the World’. This is not ‘goodbye’ Minerva, it is only ‘see you later’, as you are too magnificent for us not to visit you again – not to mention we did not kitesurf here, and the spot we found yesterday was made for kitesurfing, we WILL be back!

[speed] 8.1knots

[heading] 019M

[weather] 85% cloud cover, 12 knots of WSW breeze, a few rain showers – but nice and warm.

[END]