On our way from the Cook Islands to our next country, Niue, there is an unpopulated, sunken atoll, called Beveridge Reef, on the way. It is located about one day’s sail before Niue, and is part of their territory.
Not many sailors stop here, as there is little protection if the wind picks up, and there is no land mass here to protect you, either. Only the submerged reef, which keeps most of the waves away from inside the lagoon.
This is a remote location, and although there are sailors passing you to the North every now and then, it is still a place you wouldn’t want to get stuck alone. We were lucky to have a buddy boat for this trip, and sailed together with SV Indioko there.
The winds picked up along the way, and during our last few miles towards the reef, we experienced the worst sailing conditions we have had so far on our journey. We saw up to 45 kts true wind and waves hitting us directly on the side of the boat. We had two reefs in the main sail, and the same in the genoa.
We decided to take down our main, and the admiral went up to the mast to help with the last bit, which normally does not fall into the lazy jack (where the sail “rests” when not in use) by itself. As the last bit of the sail was about to get into the lazy jack, the line holding the lazy jack on the starboard side tore, and the sail spilled onto the upper deck.
The captain quickly took charge, and sent the admiral crawling back into the comfort of the helm station. He then went to the boom, and worked relentlessly in the pounding waves and rain, to secure the sail by fastening it with lines to the boom. After 15 minutes of struggle, he was successful to secure the sail good enough to know that it could not blow up.
Right after we had experienced this, the wind picked up even further. By now, we had closed everything on board, including the main door between the helm station and our saloon. That is a first time. The admiral was sitting inside, while the captain was on the helm station ensuring we moved safely through this rough weather system.
We had a rogue wave crash into us which was so big that it in fact splashed over the upper deck. That means it was more then 5 meters high… We have never experienced anything like this. It felt like the boat did a 90 degree flip to the side, and everything inside turned chaotic. We are pretty good at securing the boat for passage, but the things we had flying through the air have never budged a centimeter before. Now we had stuff lying scattered all over the floors inside.
We still had another 15 nm to go to Beveridge, and were getting less keen on entering the atoll in these kind of conditions. We radioed SV Indioko, who were ahead of us, and let them know we were planning to turn and go straight to Niue, as the weather looked calmer to the northwest.
Iain and Briony on Indioko let us know that they had just entered through the pass into the atoll, and described the conditions inside the lagoon. There was some fetch from the waves coming across the lagoon, but a lot better conditions than we were seeing outside. We therefore decided to continue on to the reef, and endured another two hours of crazy seas.
We were so relieved when we entered the reef, and joined SV Indioko at the anchorage. There were plenty of bommies (coral heads) there, but we were able to find a sandy patch, and dropped anchor in almost 30 kts true winds.
The following three days, we were more or less stuck on the boat, enduring winds up to 48 kts. This is the most we have ever seen, and this without any land mass in front of us, expected the submerged reef. We had protection from the crazy waves outside of the lagoon, but at high tide, we had quite a lot of movement on the boat, and it was in fact hard to stand up.
We noticed on day two that our anchor chain was stuck around a bommie, so we had to unwind it. Otherwise, it might chafe and snap, which certainly was not something we would have liked to experience…
We got help from Iain and Briony, and the admiral dove to move the chain, as the admiral was in the water sending signals to Briony who then let Iain at the helm station know where to go. We were very relieved that we got it lose without much effort. And, the anchor was well dug into the sand, so we were all set again to sustain the hard winds.
On day 3, we were able to swim off the boat, and look at a wreck that was sitting right in front of us. It was a local fishing boat, which had hit the reef and gone over it.
There are quite a few wrecks on Beveridge Reef. Somehow the reef itself has been misplaced by 2nm on most maps, which has resulted in many sad stories. The last one we know of, was from 2017, when a sailing catamaran hit the reef at night, during 40kt winds. There was a family of four on board, which luckily got rescued by a local research vessel that was inside the reef.
The following day, the wind had died further, and we took the dinghies from both boats across the lagoon, and dove the pass. We waited on our dinghy while Iain and Briony dove first, and then we went for a dive. It was amazing, so clear waters, beautiful formations under the surface, and lots of curious shark and fish. They were certainly not used to seeing people, and came straight at us.
We also did a dive right under our boat, on the many coral bommies. We again experienced some very curious sharks and fish, and the admiral worked as a body guard to scare off the sharks as the captain took photos. The big difference we noticed by the sharks’ behavior here, was that they were not afraid of our bubbles, which normally is the case. The admiral found a new practice she tested out, which was making a subtle growl as they approached, and she believes this triggered them to keep somewhat of a distance.
We left Beveridge Reef happy that we made it there, and were able to experience such a remote place. But, we were also relieved that we left in one piece. It is certainly not for everyone, and we are looking forward to reach Niue where we hope to get some sleep on a mooring well protected by the island.
