Category: Voyages

Dear F&F,
29 July 2010

The island of Niue is in free association with New Zealand, one of the many islands of the South Pacific that without outside aid would economically collapse. Most native Niueans have emigrated to New Zealand in search of higher paying better jobs. More Niueans live in New Zealand than Niue by about 5 to 1.

Niue is a lovely high island and has virtually no outlying barrier reef. The exact opposite of Beveridge Reef. The sail began slowly, but during the night, the wind picked up in the 20+ knot range and we were making excellent time. We slowed down as to arrive around first light and once behind the islands leeward side we were treated to calm seas and high island views. We were really looking forward to the diving here and the most unusual way we \”boaties\” had to get ashore.

We pulled into Alofi Bay to discover \”the crowd\” had beat us in. Not only were there the seven boats we\’d been with at Berveridge Reef, but an additional 10 other boats. The anchorage area in Niue is quite deep, so the Niue Yacht Club offers moorings for visiting yachts at a very reasonable fee. We went ashore to do our check in and some brief exploring including \”almost real\” markets. Commodore Keith and his wife Sue administrate the Niue Yacht Club which is hosted by Mamata (pronounced \”mama-ta\”) at her ice cream parlor and eatery. We soon were able to get on the internet, shop, buy a few nice bottles of Kiwi wine and arrange to go diving.

First I should mention that as Niue is a young island and has no outlying reef, it also has no sand beaches and no harbors. This makes getting ashore an interesting proposition. You take your dinghy up to a large crane hoist at the wharf. Passengers disembark, you hook up a bridle to the crane and step out of the dinghy. Sometimes a bit of \”wave timing\” becomes important lest you go for a swim. Then with an electric winch, your dinghy is lifted up to the height of the dock and swung over the concrete wharf where you can wheel it away or put in on a dolly (provided) and move it out of the way. It was pretty weird looking at up to 15 dinghies all lined up on the wharf as if in a parking lot. See 08 – 2010 Niue TOPSIDE Photo Gallery (which will be posted this week – January 2011).

Along with the diving, Niue is well noted for it\’s hikes along the rugged coast into huge stone caverns and tidal pools.

We arranged for our first days dive at \”Snake Gully\” and wait till you see these pictures of CINDY HANDLING SEA SNAKES….. SEE: 07-08 – 2010 Niue UNDERWATER Photo Gallery…..posting this week, January 2011….

Go to the contact form at the homepage or drop us an email on this exciting event. We\’d get to hear lots of humpback whales and swim with dolphins too. Hopefully some video of the dolphins and sea snakes will make it on the site soon…..
KIT (keep in touch),
Scott and Cindy

Dear F&F,
27-28 July 2010

After moving to the South East side of the reef for comfort and protection from the \”twitchy\” entrance pass, we deployed the dinghy and started to explore the INSIDE of the west lagoon. First and most notably was the wreck of a small Niuean \”long liner\” (fishing boat), M/V \”Liberty\”. At only around 50 feet, it wasn\’t spectacular as wrecks go, but in pretty good shape and the single most notable land mark on the reef. We took lots of photos, Cindy snorkeled around the wreck and I went aboard for some photos being careful not to get cut on the rusted hulk. We understood that this was a fishing vessel out of the Island of Niue and had been there for several years. See Photo Gallery Beveride Reef…..

On the way back (about a 1/2 mile) from \”Beach House\”, I noticed a strong dark line under the dinghy in about 10 feet of water. It seemed to run for 100\’s of feet and was worth a second look. I turned around and stuck my head in the water with mask and BINGO, an old anchor chain that looked like it was from an old sailing ship at least 100+ years old. Cindy and I returned after a quick snorkel and found turn of the century motor pieces (that would be early 20th century by the way!). A big bonus was that we discovered two anchors awash on the reef. See Photo Gallery of Beveridge Reef UW. This was remarkably similar to the wreck of the \”Seeadler\” we had discovered on Mopelia in French Polynesia. As the added bonus of the day, despite the very shallow water, the lagoon here was in fantastic condition and the fish life abundant. We did a two hour shallow dive and were well rewarded; disappointment dissolved!

We got some great photos and I even snorkeled out to both anchors which were heavily awash on the western outer reef. Oh, if only the wreckage could speak!

We continued back to \”Beach House\” and discovered a second wreck only 150 yards in front of the boat. This was clearly a more modern fishing vessel and we found lots of refrigeration equipment in the shallow water inside the reef. We got the impression that if we had enough time, we\’d find several more wrecks all around the lagoon.

By this time, s/v \”Na Maka\” had upped anchor and began the 130 mile trip to Niue. The entire rest of the 7 boat fleet had done so as well. The weather was predicted to turn for the worse in the next few days and prudently they high tailed it on to the far better roadsted on Niue\’s protected eastern side. We felt that the risk was still low regarding the weather predictions and wanted to enjoy one night at this magical spot in the middle of the world\’s largest ocean all to ourselves. The night sky was clear, the wind building and the stars seemed close enough to collect by hand….

Again, all good things must come to an end and we were looking forward to real shopping, another high island for protection and diving with the sea snakes, dolphins and hopefully humpback whales of Niue. We bid farewell to Beveridge Reef on July 28th with expectations of arriving before noon the next day at Niue.

Stay tuned,
Scott and Cindy

Dear F&F,
23 – 26 July 2010

We left for Beveridge Reef from Palmerston Atoll with a very favorable weather report. As Beveridge Reef is literally a circle of rocks 1500 miles from anywhere (anywhere truly being a relative term!), approaching it in fair weather would be essential.

This tiny coral reef, 2 miles long by 1 mile wide was discovered in 1847 by the British Sailing Brig \”Beveridge\”. Economically it is tied to the island nation of Niue, 130 miles to it\’s north-north west. Please understand. There is absolutely NO LAND here. The coral is either awash completely at high tide or it can be as high as an entire 3 feet above sea level at low tide. Navigators beware!

As we had our lovely \”weather window\”, a small flotilla of us left Palmerston at the same time believing in safety in numbers. Along with s/v \”Beach House\” were, s/v \”Na Maka\”, s/v \”Visions of Johanna\”, s/v \”Curious\” and s/v \”Bubbas\”. A two day and two night passage was planned to cover the 350 miles and have us arrive just after sunrise which would not impede our vision in looking for a needle in a haystack on the high seas. There is a safe entry pass on the leeward side, as deep as 30 feet and perhaps 100 yards wide. After Maupiti, Mopelia and Aitutaki, this should be easy….As long as we can find it!

Our flotilla was slowly approaching Beveridge Reef just after sunrise on the 25th of July. Due to the sailing/cruising coconut jungle information we had acquired from previous vistors and modern GPS equipment, we sited Beveridge Reef almost 8 miles away with our radar. Remember, not even a coconut tree exists here! But wait, it actually looked like there were some coconut trees here?

We got out the binoculars and scanned the horizon and quickly realized…..WE WERE NOT ALONE. There were already 4 other sailboats anchored inside.
We excitedly hailed them on the VHF and were relieved to hear the pass was indeed a wide and easy entry. s/v \”Visions of Johanna\” led the way and soon we were 8 boats all anchored in the middle of the South Pacific about as far away from civilization as you can imagine.

So why did we all come to this pristine atoll anyway? Glad you asked!…….DIVING of course.

We heard that the coral was spectacular, the pelagic (deep ocean) fish including schools of gray reef sharks were abundant. So the first thing we did after anchoring was get ready to go diving. The ocean was so calm, it looked like a lake. We got all the gear in the dinghy and off we went to the reef pass. Anchoring just outside and to the south of the entry pass, we were careful of the current and took the plunge. It was completely different than we thought it would be. First, the reef was not spectacular at all. It, like Aitutaki was covered in sand. There were either no fish or occasional pockets of cool schools of puffers and large snappers. We finally saw a few gray reef sharks, but not the schools we had hoped for like at South Fakarava in the Tuamotus. We were bummed! We got back to the boat, cleaned up and decided we should take a trip in the dinghy up and down the east side (protected from the swell) of the outer reef.

First, it\’s very wide shelf that starts at around 10 feet and goes seaward for 1/4 mile only gradually getting deeper. Many places were less than a 100 feet deep several hundred yards off the coral reef. So no spectacular \”drop offs\” were found which often attract big animals. Also, the entire length of the protected side looked pretty dead. We did see the odd small groups of gray reef sharks, but nothing spectacular. We felt that what was to be perhaps the pristine dive site of a lifetime, turned out to be a bust. Several of the other boats scouted other areas along the entire east side with their dinghies and reported the same.

We returned in disappointment to \”Beach House\” and almost as annoying was that the lagoon was pretty bumpy at high tide. Despite calm weather, the swell came over the reef at high tide and made this an uncomfortable anchorage. As Cindy and I are not fond of these conditions (we were just near the entry pass), I emailed friends Bruce and Alene from s/v \”Migration\” and asked them about their experience here from the year before. We received Bruce\’s email the next morning and the first thing he said was, \”Don\’t anchor near the pass, it\’s too twitchy\”!…. So it took no more than this for Cindy and I to up anchor and move to the reef on the south east side to get protection behind it and get away from the pass.

We crept across the lagoon carefully and quickly learned there we no dangers until you approached the sand/coral shelf which was 8-10 feet deep. The visibility was so clear, you could easily see any rocks, but there were very few. The anchorage was immediately 75% calmer. Jerome & Nat of s/v \”Na Maka\” asked us by radio if we like it better, we said, \”much better\” \”Na Maka\” was next to us within the hour……Stay tuned, things were about to get much better….fast!

Scott & Cindy