“If they get silly big, we get back into the boat.”
Reef break.
Before setting sail on our final leg of this epic adventure from Auckland to Nuku'alofa, we set ourselves up for an epic “schhnnnorkel”.
Over the last 50hrs we have been paying close attention to the tides in Minerva Reef. We were confident that high and low water times downloaded before the voyage were accurate within an hour. In remote parts of the sea tidal information can be a best guess at times, with ocean currents, atmospheric pressure and weather conditions often causing discrepancies with reported tidal times and heights.
With Scott in charge of the dinghy, Andreas, Roland, Michael and I got our kit ready to take on the big blue. We timed it 90 minutes after low water so we could eyeball the current, hoping to drift snorkel from the ocean back into the reef. We have been lucky enough to swim with a few reef sharks recently, and thought if they are in here, what’s out there? “Guys, if they get silly big, we get back into the boat”.
The Drift Team.
Out I jumped. The current was ideal and with a light 6kn northerly breeze the conditions were set to go for it! Andreas, Roland and Michael soon followed, straight into buddy formation, two sets of two towing our inflatable horseshoe behind.
As we looked down, a beautiful 2m bull shark was below us. Certainly the largest shark I have ever seen in the water, within crawling distance. Sharks have a real presence under water, moving with side-to-side underlations of the body and a slow confidence. As we tried to calmly debate whether this was silly big or not, Andreas got straight back into the dinghy shouting “that’s big enough for me!”
The three of us carried on in amazement surrounded by incredible coral colours, taking the tide back into Minerva Reefs entrance. The fish were beautiful and we followed many more black tip, white tip, nurse sharks and barracudas. It truly felt like the rainforest of the sea. Roland made his best underwater impression of a fat grouper fish, which had us all in stitches and Michael also managed to see his first turtle.
We went out for one more drift dive on the South side of the entrance this time. Scott and Andreas took turns popping their heads in the water as we were joined by more sharks. Trying to keep our adrenaline under control, and soak in what would be our last snorkel at Minerva reef.
Cheers,
John
Minerva’s depth colour change.