Position: 19 degrees, 40 minutes south; 168 degrees, 25 minutes west
Some squally weather
That’s what I just heard. The boat rolls really hard, you can hear the water above your head gurgle over the side and onto the deck, then the boat rolls the other way and all the water that is inside the scuppers now works its way through the drain on the cockpit coaming and across the cockpit seat. That’s when you hear Ann swear as the river “roars” across her cushion and, well…you get the idea. Tayana River! (And now Ann has a wet rear end!)
As you might surmise, we’re underway again and it’s rough. Seas are about 3 meters and the wind is in the low twenties. We’re flying the jib only and doing our usual 6 knots or so. It’s been squally most of the day. Mostly wind in the low teens but then a big squall sneaks up on you and before you know it it’s raining and the wind is up suddenly to 25 knots. Keeps us busy.
We left Beveredge Reef about 1230. What an amazing experience that was. We were anchored there for three days and other than our friends on Orcinius who came with us, we didn’t see another boat. We don’t know of anyone behind us planning to go either. It’s a little out of the way and not charted, therefore not often visited. But it’s one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen in terms of the stark beauty and the amazingly vivid shades of blue. You have to like blue because that’s all there is other than a tiny bit of coral occasionally visible where the waves break on the reef. Wow, we feel privileged to have been able to go there. It’s not “free” though. There is some anxiety getting in and out. Today there was a three knot current and some whitewater coming out the pass and the pass is not very obvious. At most other atolls there’s some indication of where the pass is since there’s land and you can see a break. Not so at Beveredge Reef. There’s no land, so you have to discern where there are fewer waves breaking and turn in there. A leap of faith at that point-you hope you were right.
Anyway, tomorrow, if the wind keeps up, we’ll be in Niue. We’re looking forward to going ashore after being on the boat for the last five plus days. Scooters! Internet! Maybe we’ll be able to post some pictures. We hope to stay at Niue for a week and just wind down before heading further west to Tonga.
Stay tuned.
I showed mom where you’ve been via the Google Earth app. She said, “That’s as far as they’ve been? How long have they been gone?” I then showed her how close to New Zealand y’all were and I think it changed her perspective. Cindy Miller is a tough woman to impress. 😉 For the record, I think it’s amazing.
I’m sorry to hear that you got kicked out of your bathtub. Personally, I find it extremely hard to climb out of the warm, comforting, suds. I do understand, that in your case, the tub was getting a little agitated. However, it does sound like you’ve gone from the sudsing machine into the agitation machine of the deep blue. Keep all the lights together, and the darks together, and it’ll all come out OK.
After the rock ‘n roll of your little dance across the seas I hope you get to slow dance on arrival at Niue, followed by butts down, feet up, and a calming libation of your choice.
May the gods re-set the agitation for delicate and the winds blow fair.
Giants lead their division by 4.5 games.
There is a youtube video about Beveridge Reef – so now I can picture what it looks like. Out in the middle of nowhere!