401: TWENTY-ONE Hours at Beveridge Reef Before OUTRUNNING a Storm to Niue

In this episode we've got just 21 hours at Beverage Reef. Enough time to rest, explore and get ready to go because behind us is a low pressure system we're trying to outrun. After a rough squally night in big seas we finally reach Nui but the relief is short-lived. The weather is still coming for us and we're not sure how long we'll be able to stay. We have sailed to one of the most unique places in the world, Beverage Reef, a sunken reef in the middle of the South Pacific. There is no land in sight but it is a wonderful place to drop anchor on a sandy shelf and take a break from the passage west. The sunken reef, just enough protection to provide calm conditions on the inside. But the clock is ticking on our time here. It's deceivingly beautiful in that conditions can change rapidly and no forecast can accurately judge the weather in this area. But today is perfect and it feels like we could stay forever. Beverage Reef is known to have one of the largest gray reef shark populations in the world and we have a very short window to get out and explore this beautiful atoll. The wind died and it is low tide so it is perfectly clear, flat calm. It's just amazingly beautiful, hard to even fathom how beautiful it is. And we are going with our buddy boats over to the main pass to snorkel the main pass. So that's the plan right now and it's time to get going. Beautiful isn't it? We dropped into the water inside the lagoon and began our first drift dive along the north side of the pass. The current carried us effortlessly like a conveyor belt through a stunning underwater world of coral canyons, huge schools of fish and plenty of resident sharks. With visibility of more than 100 feet it felt like we were flying through the reef. Unfortunately not everything we saw was pristine. This reef has been impacted by a major bleaching event and the effects are still visible today. While some areas were heartbreaking to see, there were also encouraging signs that the reef is beginning to recover. We loved the drift so much that we went back for a second run, this time along the south side of the pass. Here we encountered a school of beautiful chevron barracuda and a group of cheeky trevally. The fish were completely undeterred by our presence, boldly swimming right up to us. The underwater landscape was entirely different on this side and so was the marine life, but it was every bit as fascinating and beautiful as the first drift. On our way back to the boat we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit one of Beverage Reef's most recognizable landmarks, the wreck of the 45-foot steel fishing vessel called the Liberty. While no official accident report appears to exist, cruisers visiting the wreck have noted fishing lines still tangled around the propeller. The prevailing theory is that the vessel fouled its prop while fishing near the reef and was unable to gain control before being driven onto the coral. The captain and the crew reportedly survived the accident, but the Liberty did not. So you don't have to be good fishermen, you just have to travel with good fishermen. Look at those, look at those reels, oh man, look at, oh you guys are so amazing, thank you. That's amazing. All right, game on. Game on, we'll share, it's been a magical day here at Beverage Reef. We're really sad that we're going to leave tomorrow, but we've got to go. We don't really want to be here for the next storm system that comes through, so catch in our final sunset and then go to bed. We are so tired, we're like walking zombies right now, cannot wait to go to bed soon. Wow, definitely getting covered by this huge system, dark clouds, winds are not huge right now, but definitely see the movement of the system coming up towards us. Now we need to figure out if we're actually going or not. So potentially we've got a little bit of an issue coming up in a week that turns the wind to the west, there it is, and we just don't think that we're going to be able to stay in Nui during this. Maybe we are, maybe, but I don't think so. So we've got to figure out what we're going to do, if we're going to actually leave here, if we're going to stay here, or if we're going to jump straight to Tonga. Some decisions need to be made. Anchor is up and we are out of here. Queen's Dream is joining us, we're not sure if Baidarka is, hopefully they will be, but they're a little concerned with the wraparound swell in Nui and being kicked off the mooring balls and then having to just sit behind the island to wait out the swell until it calms down, because it is going to be 11 feet, so we're going to take the chance. We're not liking what we're seeing back there, a lot of lightning, big storm system, it's just not pleasant at all, so we're out of here. That is the direction we are going and that is what we are running from. Let's hope we can run faster than it. Wow guys, we're doing eight knots. We're a few hours into our trip to Nui and so far we don't have any wind and we are just motoring. I think we're going to change our classification to motorboat, but we're making progress, that's all that matters. The big storm is behind us, doesn't look so menacing now, which is good, but you can see all of that system. Well, we're coming this way, so we've got to get into Nui by tomorrow. So eating during passage is kind of whenever you're hungry, you eat. Brown eats double what he normally does on passage and I probably eat half of what I normally eat, because I'm just not hungry. A lot of times we get the munchies and want to indulge, and yesterday I found something really amazing. Something we love, we both love, is this bag of pistachios, but if we are not careful, the bag will go in one sitting by one of us. I won't say who. So every day I've got the portion scooper and every day I put that into a bowl for Brown and that's his allotment for the day. And I do the same for me. Some days it's a third of a cup, some days it's half a cup, just depends on which measurement I pulled out. Today it was a third of a cup. Now that's for things that we both love. For munchies that are just his, like this bag of potato chips, those are strictly his and I won't eat them. He eats them exclusively and he can eat as much as he wants during passage. But my bag is these sweet potato chips and I have the same ability to eat as much as I want. So just the pistachios that are actually divvied out in portions. So I don't know if it's the same for all of you out there on boats, but you have to manage your stock, especially when passages can drive you a little insane sometimes. So you have to have the things that are really fun and kind of feel good to get you through them. Of course I'll do a heaping load for me. Just kidding, just kidding, I'm fair. Got a little rain, we got some storms ahead of us, but still no wind. Thought it might bring us some wind, but maybe after they pass. We're moving right along, under 100 miles to go. This is exciting, nice short, very short passage, but the winds that we were expecting have not really amounted to anything. We are getting a little bit of wind to be able to fly the jib to help us motor sail, but that's about it. Unfortunately it's been a no-show on the winds, but the sea state is pretty good. We've got some big swells, probably 10 foot swells coming, coming through. They're on our hind quarter or behind. When it's behind it's nice, hind quarter not so much. But we're making progress and we're going to be there in the morning, so that's the best news of all. Can't wait to get to Nui. Well it's 5 30, almost the end of my shift and we've got this pretty big squall. I have just diverted to try and miss it. Our sails, we just took our sails in just to make sure we don't have any problems at all. It is just one of those nights with conditions that are pretty wild and unfortunately I don't think it's going to get better. So we're taking the conservative route. We're just motoring right now and we'll put a sail out again if it gets better, but not sure if it will. We've got 90 more miles to go. We've gone all this way west and we haven't changed the clocks yet. We've got one hour time difference in Nui, one hour back, so it'll be seven hours from eastern standard time and one hour off of French Polynesia. This thing is a slow moving storm and we're going to be in it for a while it looks like. The storm is just about past us to our starboard side so it's good. Winds have returned to 13 during the squall, got up to 25, but back to 13 so I think we'll put the jib out again. Wow guys, good morning. It's 1 a.m. I've just taken over and we are moving along beautifully here. We are only about 30 miles out which is amazing to the island anyway. We're averaging six knots and unfortunately the wind is still dead downwind. Real sailors would be jibing this but we're anxious to get in before the storm. We really don't have the extra time to sail it so we're just doing run line with the engines. I know you're probably all thinking that is so lame. It is, but we're okay with it. One thing that I'm excited about too is that diamond right there means that we get off of ocean mode with Starlink so we're not paying two dollars a gigabyte and throttling down everything that we do. At that point we are going to be within 10 miles of land. It's actually 12 miles but we did it at 10 just to make sure and internet becomes normal again so really excited about that. It's been over a week now that we've been off of normal unlimited access internet. We're only like 10 miles off of the coast of Nui and we've got this crazy system that's coming from both the port and starboard side. Oh I cannot wait to drop anchor. Finally! So exciting. Why did you say the the diving was so good? The diving's so good because of the unique geological structure of Nui the island. The island instead of being the traditional volcanic with soil on top and vegetation it is instead porous limestone. So what happens is when it rains the water seeps into the island and gets filtered and it does not flow off of the island like it does in most countries where you have pesticides, you have agricultural runoff like we would see in Tahiti and so many places that would cloud the water. Here that doesn't happen because it's basically goes straight down into the island and is filtered by the island. There's no runoff. Plus it's out in the middle of the south pacific which makes it more clear. These seas have been tough at least 10 footers maybe only a 10 second period as well. There she is! I'm really hoping on the other side it's very protected because we need it. It's impossible to show how rough it is out here. You can never capture it on camera but it is so rough. Oh I wish you could smell this aroma! It's amazing! Just like the Marquesas. Wow! Incredible! Getting out of that rough ocean. Really happy about that. So glad to be here! Oh my gosh! We've been moving in this boat. Feels like for two weeks we haven't stopped. Man! It is so good to be here, I cannot tell you. Found the ball and our buddy boats have made it too. Well done by Darca! Queen's Dream's already on her ball. Oh it's so good to be here. All right we got some work to do. Well we arrived early this morning and on Saturday's customs and immigration is typically not open but they are doing us a favor since there are three boats here so we're gonna put the dinghy down. It's now two o'clock. We gained an hour coming here and so we've kind of just had a full day to get the boat back in order and chill. It's been really nice. And we are the only three boats here so we're real early in the season. We hear everybody here is super friendly and they love tourists and we can't wait to get our first face to face with them. They do not have any ATMs on Nui so you have one of two options. Credit card and I think you always get about a one and a half percent charge on the credit card or there's a bank that exchanges US dollars for New Zealand dollars which is what they use here but there's a three and a half percent charge so either way you're getting dinged so if you have the opportunity to bring New Zealand dollars with you you should do that but if you don't then at least you have options. But the great thing is is you're in Nui and it's totally worth it. There's one other challenge that we haven't told you about and that is there is no dinghy dock because this is a rocky island so we have to create a lift from our dinghy that is going to be able to catch a hook at the wharf and then it's going to be lifted up so we got to do that before we get over there. All right we've got a system. It's a four point system. Should work. We're going to test it out now. I think we're going to have to put the hook down a little bit maybe. Dropping it. All right it's our first time using this lift. See how it's going to go. Hopefully I can catch. All right you ready? We didn't pull the engine up which we need to do. Is it okay? I think we need to get that cart. I can hold it. You got it? All right. Yeah but it's probably not in the right place right? I can pull it over. Okay you ready? I was just right here. Hold on. Too close to the ground. It's got to go further that way. Well let me pull the cart. Hold on. I'll pull the cart. Okay I got the cart. Okay. I just don't want the engine to hit the bottom. All right you ready? Where are you at? Up here. I don't know about this. I gotta get. There's no other cart. Okay. Good job guys. Yeah. Kim what I did was I just kind of got on there. Yeah just pull me over and I think I can pull it. That's good. Thank you. Yeah. Oh there's a sea crate right there. Where? Right there. All right. Customs is right here. Got all three dinghies out without incident. Pretty good for the first time. Well we're all checked in. That was the easiest most casual process that we have ever been through to check into a country. They didn't have my paperwork and she still stamped my passport gave me an email address and said resend your paperwork to this email address. So they clearly trust you and it's pretty laid back. So we're going now to find the rental car company and see about a rental car for Monday. Oh here's his team. Oh good. Look at that. That is hilarious. That's pretty funny. Our friends rented a car and the car rental place is closed. Everything's closed pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday and they left the car with the keys in it with his name on the dashboard. It's like we're going back in time. Yeah. We were hoping to get some information from the tourist information center but they're closed. I think they just close when they want to. I guess we're the only visitors so yeah. They didn't get the memo that we're here. That's a cute little courtyard and we found this little store. It's got some great stuff in it. Some frozen salmon. Salmon's from New Zealand so it's 75 for the whole thing. I wonder how big it is. And eggs. Hey do we have enough room for the water? I mean how much are you buying? Well just one pack. We bought all these groceries and we could use a credit card to buy them but they charge a surcharge and it was about probably two dollars for the surcharge. The banks aren't open on weekends so we're a little stuck anyway. All right back to the dinghy. Everyone keeps stopping and saying hello to us I think because we're the first boats of the season that have arrived in Nui so it's kind of cool to be the tip of spear on this one. We were absolutely elated to have made a successful arrival in Nui and ecstatic about finally exploring this much-loved island. A true favorite among cruisers but even as we celebrated there was a quiet sense of unease building. A low pressure system was forming to the west and we knew better than to ignore it. Nui was perfect but the weather might not be. So while Nui gave us every reason to celebrate we kept one eye on the horizon and the other on weather models waiting to see whether this system would pass us by or become something far more serious than we were hoping to deal with. Come back next week to find out if the forecast held steady or if our growing concern was all for nothing.