Minerva Reef
The Minerva ReefThe Minerva Reef
It was with great interest and concern that Bob and Judi heard the report, as these vessels were about 300 leagues ahead of us and we were going in that directio. We were near a place named North Minerva Reef, so they chose to go to the reef and waited for the conditions to change further southwards.
and I thought, what on earth do you think now? Will they try to put me in the centre of the sea - where is the isle? As Judi was watching, Bob drew out an old map and headed us through the opening in the reef.
As they were dropping the anchor, the fishermen' s ship crews came to exchange 2 huge lobster for some of my owners' rums. I was fortunate enough to make the deal and Judi began to cook the saucepan for supper. We were a little spooky because we were actually moored in the centre of the sea, with a wreath of corals to protect us from the big waves of the sea, but the little ones were able to pass at high water.
With my anchors up and we drove carefully to the other side of the reef, while Judi was carefully looking for "bommies" at the foredeck. Lucky for them, they found a beautiful sand shelves to put the anchors on. Rack dropped off quite a lot, but the anchors seemed to be buried when we retreated with the motor, so we thought we were well.
And then we got used to it and waiting until my boating companion "Pacific Voyager" arrived when they too arrived to await the weathers. Neither of the two vessels were in agreement to stay on an anchoring spot because the night was very cold and there was no point of orientation because there was no landfall.
When Bob went to Pacific Voyager, I could hear him screaming: "The anchors are pulling - we're on the move! We were all very relieved at the time, but the risk was not over when the gusts moved on and we had no clue when or if we would begin pulling again.
It was Bob and Judi setting up an "anchor watch", with Bob setting a small anchoring range on our radars and both taking turns to make sure we were still in that range, although I don't know what they would have done if the anchors had come out. It was a long evening, but at first sight the gusts had disappeared - actually there was no film now.
We are cautiously moving forward as Judi picks up the anchoring group. Then we all saw how near I got to the reef - only the tip of my anker was trapped in the tip of a cuticle.
Back on my boat they went to Pacific Voyager and let my CQR and Danforth moorings drop, this year in a 40-foot piece of sandy, free of all corals. We were all relaxing carefully, snorkelling and waiting another 3 nights until the storms between us and New Zealand were over.
In Minerva Reef we were waiting for 5 whole nights before we were on the way again. DON'T let the armature fall onto a flat rack that falls sharp into deeper depth. If you are at a dangerous place, consider using two bolts. If they hadn't been there, we would have had no way to visualize where the reef's rim was.
Don't drop anchor alone in a dangerous place. If the Tongan fishermen' s vessel hadn't been there, we didn't want to go to the reef. On their departure our mates on Pacific Voyager came to us and we both remained together until the wheather improved. Wherever possible, you should always use snorkelling equipment to inspect the anchors.
Pulling the tie was a flaw in our mooring technology, not in our choice to stop. You can use GPS (now that selected availabilty is switched off) as the timekeeper. Had we not been able to stop, we would have tried to lift to our current position until the storms disappeared, and after first making sure we would be drifting away from the reef, we had enough space at the shore as we were about 100 leagues from the next country.