O WNER REPOR T – SEA R O VER
yachts looking for eggs to bake the wedding cake, another is visiting its lobster pots near the reef – just in case Pacifi c spiny lobster fall for Norwegian pots – everyone is preparing something for the Wedding Breakfast and Devala has blown up the 48 party balloons we had on board – don’t ask!
T e couple are married at noon, quite possibly Minerva Reef’s fi rst wedding. Offi ciating are the married couple from another yacht, both of whom have commercial licenses from the US (classroom qualifi cations) which permit them to handle boats up to 100 tons and to marry Americans of any weight provided they are more than three miles off shore! Much of the ceremony is predictable: vows, albeit freshly scripted; the exchanging of rings, albeit cringles, all they had on board; the kiss, the cake, the toasts; and, the sense of occasion. But no family (who still don’t know) just every cruiser in the anchorage, sharing a very special occasion and exchanging stories of what brought each of us to Minerva.
Many of the yachts had taken the ‘Coconut Milk Run’ through the Pacifi c and we too joined it aſt er Easter Island, sailing the 2000 miles north to explore the Marquesas, seeing just one other boat in the slow, 18-day passage. We are so glad that we made the eff ort and see why some call these islands, with their lush green volcanic slopes,
the most beautiful islands in the world. T e topography gives very good radar refl ections which, when overlaid across our surprisingly accurate electronic charts, allowed us to enter some anchorages at night. We spent a month cruising north from our night-time landfall in Baie de Vierges, Fatu Hiva, to the large island of Niku Hiva, perhaps the most memorable island we visited. Like other islands it is surrounded by stunning, steep sided anchorages which you can clearly see are in the middle of the calderas of ancient volcanoes.
Across the Marquesas there are wonderful clues to the culture of the Polynesians that predated contact with Europeans. Many of the marae, traditional social and religious meeting places, still have a very spiritual feel to them with lichen covered tiki set in beautiful wooded locations, of which Iipona on Hiva Oa was our favourite, despite rain and mosquitoes!
Minerva Reef, mid-morning Tuesday. Channel 16 bursts into life with music. T en an apology, “Sorry everyone I know that it is illegal to play music on the VHF but I just wanted to say thank you all for yesterday, it really was an awesome day”, a sentiment that echoed around the anchorage. Somehow it is all of us who should be thanking them for ‘awesome’ memories you couldn’t write!
T at evening the party continues aboard Sea Rover, once again everyone in the anchorage contributing nibbles and drinks, all of us running down our supplies before the Ministry of Agriculture in New Zealand inspects our boats, in their reputedly friendly and very effi cient way.
Sea Rover, wins more admirers but someone expresses surprise that we set off so soon in a new boat, covering over 10,000 miles in her fi rst year. What problems had we had, they wonder. My answer is very few except for our genset, which had been a litany of woes, but thanks to the support and backup from the Oyster Warranty and Aſt er Sales Team these are now hopefully a thing of the past. We have oſt en refl ected where would we be without Oyster’s David Abbott and Sarah Harmer? All aboard know that behind every beautiful photograph, there is another picture of cruisers straining to fi t their heads and tools into small gaps, servicing and fi xing!
Aſt er midnight, when everyone had leſt , we refl ect on the joys of cruising, the enviable places you visit, the cultures you dip into (albeit so shallowly) and the shared aspirations of so many of this small, fl oating brain drain, cruising the Pacifi c! Our boat had been buzzing with guests who we would have relished inviting for supper back home in suburbia and not talking about sailing!
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