[password] grace40

[position] 23 38.617s 178 53.599w

[status] 1000 hrs 24 May 2019. Throughout yesterday winds were E 26-29 kts. Around 1800 hrs they piped up to sustained 30-34 kts for more than an hour. Then back down to an average of 28 kts throughout the rest of the night. This morning we awoke to (relatively) balmy 22-24 kts. Weather forecast has winds slowly coming down over next couple of days. According to this morning's Gulf Harbour Radio forecast, Sunday may be a do-able time to sail to Fiji. We're keeping an eye on this.

Yesterday afternoon we had another 2 arrivals; one yacht, and a Tongan navy vessel - which could very well be the entire Tongan navy. Interestingly, both left this morning. I could almost understand the navy vessel leaving. But the yacht? It turned out it had arrived from Tonga, stopped here overnight, and is going to S. Minerva today for a few days, and then on to New Zealand. That's right, going the wrong way for this time of year. Glad I'm not on that boat.

Had the inaugural N. Minerva Reef cruisers net this morning. It turned out to be very informative. Got some good info on a couple of navigation apps I've never heard of. As soon as we get to Fiiji, and internet, we're going to download them. For our cruiser readers, they are: OVITALMAP, and Atlas of Fiji for Mariners. The former is world-wide cover, and the latter only Fiji. They come highly recommended and endorsed by several members of the NMRCN. What more authoritative source than the NMRCN is there? One other app mentioned was Orbit. It tracks in real time the position of the Iridium Go satellites relative to your location, so you know when they are overhead. That can be valuable to know so you can maximise download effectiveness of your IG.

One yachty on the net asked if anyone wanted to dive the pass today. Another noted in these conditions, and the fact throughout the day the tide is going out, if they dived, they'd probably end up in New Caledonia. I believe there was a re-think on diving the pass.

That's it for today. Stay tuned for further adventures at N. Minerva Reef. Cheers, John

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