Punctuated Passage

Our passage from New Zealand to Fiji had two extremes,
separated by a break at North Minerva Reef.

Opua to Minerva saw our best run ever: a combination of strategy and luck worked so well in our favor that we covered 800 miles in just 5 days. Though we often put 120-140 miles a day under the keel, we expect only about 100 miles "made good"--that is, toward our destination. Flying along averaging 160 nautical miles daily toward Minerva was exhilarating!

Stop.
Rest.

We'd hoped to anchor at South Minerva Reef but wind and swell conditions were too strong, so we revisited North Minerva (its higher reef gives slightly more wave protection). There is certainly something alluring about anchoring in the middle of the ocean!
Our May 2016 post has plenty of photos. A few more:

Anchored in 45' of water inside the circular reef

Though mostly covered at high tide,
it's possible to walk on the reef at low tide

At the edge of the (water)world

Our good friends from Sadiqi and Elysium ended up anchoring nearby;
we shared reef walks, a little snorkeling, and...

...huge crayfish!
We all tried unsuccessfully to catch our own,
but a professional fishing family on vacation
from NZ shared 2 of theirs--
plenty for a feast aboard Elysium

Elysium 
(Wendy)

Sadiqi, Second Wind, Elysium
(in landlubber lingo: Keith, Art, Dave)

There's always some project to keep us occupied--
in this case, jury-rigging a support for the windlass separator

Unfortunately the weather deteriorated, and the enclosed reef
gathered over 30 boats waiting to sail on to Tonga or Fiji
(hence the tee shirts in NZ touting the Minerva Reef Yacht Club)

Finally inching out way out the pass,

and back out to sea

The passage from Minerva to Fiji was the opposite extreme: we motored almost the entire way! We know many people who have ended up motoring across the ocean for days, but we had always been able to wait for reasonably good winds. This time, though, forecasts consistently showed no wind alternating with very strong winds + thunderstorms. Finally tired of being confined in Minerva, boats started leaving--some opting for the strong winds, others opting for no wind. We personally know two vessels who chose the strong winds and ended up with damage (plus some very unhappy crew). We chose no wind, driving most of 3 solid days to Fiji--easy, but not an experience we would want to repeat. We changed our check-in destination from Levuka to Suva, Fiji's capital and closest port, so we could refuel.

That turned out to be a fateful choice, with another experience we don't ever want to repeat...