We came to Minerva for repairs but it has been a very cool place to visit. At low tide on a calm day it looks like we are anchored the infinity pool at the Tahiti Intercontinental.

It’s hard to capture the flavor of a place defined by the lack of, well… everything. There’s no real dry land, no plants, no buildings, just 360 degrees of white breaking waves on a 1.5 nm radius with a shallow calm spot in the middle.

The reefs were full of big fish. Schools of large snapper and hog-sized grouper milled around in the pass while other schools of yellowtail, tuna, jacks and, grey sharks sped past the reefy margins. The fish were all smarter than the people of Bint al Khamseen. All we caught after an honest best effort was a trumpet fish that we threw back (though we should have kept him for bait and traded up to a grouper or snapper).  A shark got our favorite “crippled herring” lure.

We’re getting low on good chow and a bit of fish would definitely improve the menu. NZ Agriculture is notorious for making people heave out all their provisions upon arrival, so we’ve been consciously whittling down our stocks in preparation, and our fresh food provisioning in Nuku’alofa was based on a 10-day transit. After an extra week in Minerva we are “getting down to grass hats” as they say in Nigeria. We’ve broken out the vacuum-packed Chinese barbecue pork that’s been in the fridge for 15 months (delicious! it makes good Canadian bacon), the fabulous smokey French dry salami from Papeete is nearly done, along with the 2.5lb brick of NZ cheddar. But most significant is that tonight was the night that we finally opened the ‘06-vintage canned chicken.

It was way better than all the pacific island corned beef that K keeps thinking will improve if he can just find the right brand.  We wish we had a half dozen of these little canned sized birds.

S was a little concerned that it might be past its expiration but K was sure that it was “best before for-EVER”. We put it in a Moroccan tagine and ate it over couscous. So, it’s pretty much beans and brown rice from here on out. It must be time to go.