Niue is a small island in the South Pacific Ocean, to the east of Tonga. The Beveridge Reef, now called a drying sand-bar reef, is located some 130 miles east of New Zealand's Niue Island. A small part of the reef is only visible at low tide; most of it is under shallow water. This island, composited by sand and coral, is about 100 by 40 yards in area, and rises up to 4 ft at high tide. Beveridge Reef is a submerged atoll located in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Niue. A small part of the reef is only visible at low tide; most of it is under shallow water. It has been the cause of several fishing boats running aground. During the past twenty years, the Government of Niue has sent several fishing boats to Beveridge with local fishermen on board. The most recent of such trips was on the Tahitian cargo vessel that came to Niue as part of the Tahiti recovery assistance following Cyclone Heta. Commercial fishing boats licensed to fish in Niue waters now frequent Beveridge; however, in 2006 another fishing vessel ran aground, despite the licensing provision that fishing vessels are supposed to stay at least one mile away from the reef.
The "Nicky Lou" of Seattle is a fiberglass hulled fishing vessle that ran aground on the reef. It is mostly intact and above water. We take our wonder in small bits. Although there is no land here, the flat portion of the reef is as wide as a two-lane highway, with less than an inch of water over it at low tide, so it's really fun and interesting to walk on. On a calm day one stands facing the breakers crashing at your feet. Because the fish are so unafraid it's easy to get up close, and we see tiny fish that normally hide in the coral. The colors of the fish here are so intense - there's a pretty black fish with a clear bright orange spot on its tail. Another fish is chartreuse with a vertical blue, white and red stripe bisecting it. They brush past us self-importantly as we walk on the reef, and sometimes they have to swim on their sides to get from one pool to another at low tide. Enormous sting rays - they look like hover-craft - cruise the sand looking for clams and worms to eat, and one or two fish follow them around to catch the leavings as they rise up again to continue their hunt for food. White-tip reef sharks also cruise around looking for clams and other good things to eat. In general the white tip sharks are quite shy - they'll slither into a coral hole and just sit there, and if you go down to look more closely at them they'll swim away until you leave. And a special wonder here: as we snorkeled we noticed individual fish, like drums, about one to two pounds in size, hovering over the sand, barely moving, but they didn't look like they were guarding a nest. What was so peculiar about them was that they'd suddenly disappear. Since the visibility of the water is between 50 and 100 feet, we couldn't figure out where they were going .... we were sure we'd see them if they swam away, no matter how fast they might be. But we never saw one swimming away. A mystery. So we kept our eye on one as we swam toward it, and were amazed to see it bury itself into the sand in an instant, leaving no trace of itself. We assume that it is a choice shark meal and thus the burying defense - now you see it, now you don't.
Peter says that I've told too many people how wonderful Beveridge is - since we got there seven other boats have used our coordinates to come in, and others are on the way. An Australian from the States and a single-hander from Hyannis, Mass., both of whom we had instructed about this place by radio, brought us fresh fruits and tomatoes. As Peter says, visiting yachties bringing the "natives" gifts (I gather we've become rather notorious with the other cruisers out here - we stayed in Beveridge for almost a month - nobody could believe it, [or understand it, I think]). We had fun. Between wreck salvage, shell collecting, snorkeling, and puttering, we kept pretty busy. We hadn't the heart to shoot the fish in the lagoon, they're so tame that it's no sport at all. Also, the sharks seem to feel that the fish in this lagoon are from their private pantry and confiscate those fish that others have shot. We aren't interested in tugs of war with sharks. Unfortunately, for some people the need to kill things is too necessary to their self-image to be suppressed even in this benign place. We finally left Beveridge with the sour taste of the carnage being visited upon it by one of the yachties, who would go out with spear gun to shoot something just because it was too tame to hide from him. Out of boredom one day he and some friends started "monster" fishing, catching and, necessarily killing, one of the reef sharks just for the hell of it. Big fish (wahoo, tuna and dorado) sit outside the lagoon pass and are easily caught by the yachts as they enter the reef. These big fish are too much food for any one yacht, so it has been shared with all boats in the anchorage, obviating the necessity to catch the reef fish. So the fellow killing the groupers and sharks did so out of blood lust, not a need for food. It was with a great deal of regret that we left Beveridge Reef, but we were running out of some necessities, such as toilet paper and butter (rather embarrassing to have allowed ourselves to run low), so we finally, after three days of saying good-bye to the other boats in the lagoon, set sail for the island of Niue, of which we had received some good reports. Only 135 miles west of Beveridge Reef, it was a perfect sail, and we arrived the next morning ready for civilization. We had the fishing gear out earlier, but the only interested party was a Tropic bird that kept dive-bombing our lure. Every time it did we all screamed as loud as we could at it, since fried Tropic bird doesn't sound that appealing. If the wind holds, we should be approaching Beveridge reef (S20 00 W167 46) by Tuesday morning. All well aboard S/V Confetti on a dark, cloudy, but wonderful night!
Beveridge Reef in the South Pacific is an undersea mountain capped by a coral atoll 20º00S 167º47'W. It encloses a lagoon about 4 nM long in a NS direction and about 2nM wide. Apart from breaking seas, the reef is not visible (Pacific Islands Pilot, 1984). As reported by W J Gleeson of the Odyssey in July 1996, Beveridge Reef only barely extends above water, offering shelter to boats who can negotiate its 7m shallow entrance sill. The reef is rather large, about 5 x 4 nM or 9.5 x 7.5 km, about half the length and width of Niue and one quarter it's area. Please note that the sketch on the right is a hand-drawn chart, not suitable for navigation, but its GPS co-ordinates are more reliable than those on present nautical charts. A later report (2004) mentions that the trawler wreck has become invisible. Shallowest part of entrance: S 20º 00.06' W 167º 46.62'. Unlike Niue, Beveridge Reef does not emerge like a raised atoll. Its rim and lagoon are still being built by coral organisms that need to stay submerged in order to grow. This suggests that Beveridge Reef is rather young, from after the last ice age, as the waters rose to what they are now, some 14,000 years ago. Confetti is 200nm west of Rarotonga. That's right, west! We had planned to go north to Suwarrow Island, but the wind was on the nose, and forecast was to remain that way: NW 15-20 knots. So we said, "Let's go west instead!" We are currently en route on a course of 280-degrees true to an uninhabited atoll called, "Beveridge Reef." It is about 125 miles east of the island, Niue, where we intend to afterward go. We may still head north to Suwarrow, after Niue, before going to American Samoa. But we will see what the wind dished out for us. The last 20 hours of sailing have been absolutely delightful, close-reaching and beam-reaching in 15-20 knots today, moving along at an easy 8-knots. In fact the sailing has been the easiest and most lovely sailing of our whole trip. Knock on wood, but with no pressing repairs or big projects I actually sat on deck and read for hours today - a first in a while. It was particularly nice because the air is cooler at this latitude, and the sky has been completely cloud-covered. Not great for the solar panels, but really welcome relief on the skin. Riina also enjoyed a good book, and Matt and Dan did what I suspect they've been doing for much of their 20+year friendship, and talked, chatted, discussed, ranted! It was a great day and Matt is now harnessed into the galley (since we are on starboard tack, heeling away from the stove) cooking us up a good meal.
