About 250nm south of the main island of Tongatapu lies the last bit of Tongan territory. Minerva Reefs are a pair of coral atolls, completely submerged at high tide but with ~3’/1m of exposed reef at low water.
While it may seem a stretch to consider an area with no permanent land "territory", that doesn’t stop Tonga and nearby Fiji from arguing about control. Nor did it stop an attempt (ill-fated, it seems obvious in retrospect) to form the new libertarian country of Minerva in the 1970s.
We’d hoped to stop, just to say we’d been there, but with a good forecast in hand and 800nm to cover between Minerva and NZ we made do with sailing by at 3 in the morning. Minerva will have to wait until next time.
All’s well onboard.
Day Two
24 26.8S 179 12.4W
179nm
