Safely anchored in North Minerva Reef

Our timing was impeccable. We arrived at the reef at 10.00am just as the wind swung around to the North East and we've anchored in lovely clear water so we could see the anchor hit the sandy bottom 12m below us. When we arrived there were already 8 boats here and a further 4 have since pulled in with yet more on their way.

 

The screen-shot from our plotter shows you the reef as Maunie approached the entrance on the north-west side – you can see a couple of grey triangles inside the reef which are the AIS signals of two anchored boats. What the picture doesn't convey is that, because we arrived at high tide, much of the reef was submerged or just awash so its extremities were only marked by the breaking surf from the ocean swell; it was impossible to take a photo to convey this.

 

Inside the lagoon the boats are bobbing about gently to a little wind-driven chop but as the tide recedes the reef will give us more protection. The sun is shining and the water's invitingly warm so a swim, a siesta, a beer and some lunch are next on the agenda. Not sure about the order of these yet.