Beveridge Reef and Niue (30 August 2015 – 12 Sept 2015)

Before we left Maupihaa our new friends on sent us off with a rectangular shaped, hand woven palm leaf briefcase. What were the contents you ask? Coconuts! Four boats left Mauphiha within a few hours of each other. Arbutus was the first to set sail and we were headed 815 NM to the middle of nowhere. Our destination, Beveridge Reef, a completely submerged atoll  (except for a small section at low tide) in the middle of the Pacific ocean.

It was a three day passage and we were within VHF radio contact with sv Wairua for most of the passage. We also checked into the cruisers net and knew that sv Khuala were close behind us and sv Tamata were in the neighbourhood. I think it was day two when we saw Andy and Megan on Wairua in the horizon. Later in the day, much to Paul’s surprise they over took us…and then the day after that, much to Paul’s chagrin, Josh and his crew on Kuhala passed us. What happened?!?! We were considered a “fast” boat when we were cruising with friends in the Canaries, but then our boat was a metre longer than our friends…

I don’t remember much about the passage…just that it was uncomfortable and I was seasick…again. I’m like a broken record. We caught a sweet Mahi Mahi on the way which cheered me up.

We had waypoints for the approach into Beveridge Reef and the way points kept us an overly safe distance away from the reef. I jumped to the bow as we entered the pass to have a good visual for any surprise dangers. The pass was clear and we headed towards the eastern side of the atoll near the fishing boat that ran aground. Arbutus was the first boat to leave Mauphiha and she was the last to arrive at Beveridge Reef. Tamata, Khuela, and Wairua were all settled in for hours before we arrived…we thought we would let them scope out the area before we arrived. Haha.

I thought the atolls in the Tuamotus were otherworldly, Beveridge Reef felt both heavenly and imaginary…like this place shouldn’t exist on earth. Trippy. When I had a visual of the ship wreck it grounded me and sent a text message to my brain telling me that I’m NOT floating on an endless crystal clear pond.

We spent a few days hanging out with the other cruisers, snorkelling, and patching up the dinghy.

Paul takes the weather almost every morning and we saw some strong winds in the forecast. Before we went to bed we let out some more anchor chain and hunkered down. We were rudely awakened by the anchoring alarm during the middle of the night because we were dragging. So in the middle of the night we let out more chain and rope, hoping we wouldn’t have to reset the anchor. It did the trick and we went back to bed.

We saw that there was a high pressure system approaching so instead of having no wind to push us 130 nm to Niue, we decided to leave the next day in rough-ish conditions. We had 20 knots of wind and we were flying towards Niue. It was an overnight passage and just before reaching the island we had a whale of a show! A whale was breaching crazy close to Arbutus…I’m probably exaggerating on how close she was... BUT then there was another black rocket emerging from the depths…was there a whole pod near us!?! Cool. We set down the sails and just enjoyed the show.

We radioed into Niue Radio to report our arrival and then to Niue Yacht Club to organize a mooring.

On shore we cleared in with immigration and customs. The process was quick and painless. Something that wasn’t quick and painless was getting ashore! There is no beach just a concrete wharf and a crane. A crane you ask? Yes a crane to lift out your dinghy...cool. Kinda...After seeing the crane we quickly set up the ropeage so the dinghy was attached at three points. I clambered ashore and took control of the crane to drop the arm so Paul could attach the dingy. Then up she went...swinging in the air.

Niue is chilled, relaxed, and beautiful! Coincidently we arrived during Niue Village show day. Such a happy coincidence because the towns people brought in their harvest to sell. There was a great selection of fresh veg for us to nourish ourselves with. We ate great food at the show day and watched the lovely dance performances.

We brought our bikes on land and visited some of the many swimming holes and chasms. We wanted to spend more time at Niue but the weather was pushing us towards Tonga. There was also a nasty swell entering the bay that made the boat roll from side to side so we were ready to see Tonga.