Beveridge Reef

An Anchorage in the Middle of Nowhere

Hi Everyone! It's Thursday, August 18, 2005 (Happy Birthday Janet!) and we are sitting solo at anchor in the middle of the Pacific! We are at Beveridge Reef, a reef in the middle of the Pacific, hundreds of miles from any island. There is no land here, just a kidney-shaped barrier reef two miles wide with a pass allowing boats to enter and anchor. It's amazing to be anchored in the middle of nowhere in 30 feet of water!!! We are also surrounded by beautiful turquoise water! Similar to Fakarava in the Tuamotus, when we put food overboard we have fish swimming up to our boat to catch a nibble. We arrived on Tuesday morning, August 16th, after a three day passage from Palmerston. The 24 hours prior to arriving here we experienced a deadening of wind and had the choice of bobbing or motoring. We took the second option! The water was like glass in some areas and we saw yellow fin tuna jumping out of the water on several occasions…right next to our boat. We didn't bother fishing because we have a freezer full of fresh parrotfish given to us three days prior in Palmerston. As we approached the pass to Beveridge Reef early Tuesday morning we saw more jumping tuna and large flying fish. We then saw dolphins and then Humpback whales! This is apparently the season when they migrate and we got quite a show. We saw a group of them breaching in the distance. They appeared to be dancing and playing. Even from a distance their splashes were HUGE! It was quite a welcome to the Reef.

Coming through the pass we saw our friends on Tin Can and one other boat. We visited with them for a while and then, true to form, they were off to Niue. I say “true to form” because we have a joke with Tin Can that whenever we arrive to a new place they are just getting ready to pull up anchor! The other boat also pulled out so Sam and I have been alone enjoying this anchorage for the past three days. We've unfortunately spent all of our time on the boat as we arrived just before a system hit and we've been experiencing 20+ knots of wind and rain. As I'm typing we're listening to Don from Summer Passage, who is located in Oxnard, California, giving a report over SSB as to the current weather situation. Depending on wind direction, strength and rain we may remain here, head on to Niue or up to American Samoa. There is currently a tropical cyclone over Fiji with winds between 50 and 60 knots of wind. We're happy to be here!

I'm sure by the time we get this sent off you’ll know which direction we went since we can't send any emails until we reach either Niue or American Samoa.

“Talk” with you soon!

Sincerely,
Sam and Sally
s/v Moana
Written on August 18, 2005 while in Beveridge Reef

Beveridge Reef — part 2

Our first four days at Beveridge Reef we were anchored all alone. It was a strange feeling being anchored 100’s of miles from land and with no other boats in sight. The nearest continent is Australia, which is more than 2,000 miles away. We felt like we were in one of the most remote places on Earth. After four days alone at Beverage Reef, two other boats joined us. Sam and I were sitting down below talking and suddenly we see a big mast come by the window. It was nice to have some company and we enjoyed getting to know the Danish and Canadian boats. We even managed to squeeze in a dive before leaving as we finally had sunshine on our eighth day there. After nine days of mostly bad weather at Beveridge Reef we finally worked our way towards Niue.

Beveridge Reef Anchorage:
08/16/2005 – 08/25/2005
20 degrees 00’ South
167 degrees 46’ West

Next: Niue -->