After a week at Minerva North we said goodbye to our new friends and sailed 17 miles south to Minerva South reef where we were the only boat. We dropped the anchor and not long afterwards the sharks showed up. The water was so clear we could see them circling on the bottom.
On the second day Norwegian-flagged Malisa showed up to keep us company.
At low tide the next day we explored the East side of the reef with Atle and Ann Marie and found it was quite different from Minerva North. There were piles of coral boulders lying all around the area we explored and the reef is about half as wide as the North reef. It was a short walk to get out the outer edge. Once there it was fun to just stand and watch the huge waves coming in from the open ocean. As I stood there they were slowly getting closer to me. The tide had turned and it was now rising. After about 15 minutes waves were breaking a few feet in front of me and I was ankle deep in water. The walk back was in significantly deeper water and took much longer. You have to watch your step because there are many clams, sea cucumbers and starfish in the shallow water. Rich found several "lobster holes" and grabbed a lobster for each boat. He found one spot with many slipper lobsters and he pulled one out briefly for me to photograph.
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| Slipper lobster |
The coral is wonderfully healthy at Minerva South as are the fish. Like Minerva North, there are big beautiful parrot fish in certain spots that are really great to see. And there are always small grey reefs sharks off the stern of the boat! We saw 2 of the largest groupers we've ever seen at this reef.
I included a drone video Rich shot earlier this year that shows the entire Minerva South reef from above so you can get a sense of its size and shape.
