“All roads lead to Rome” as they say.Now we have a new maxim. ” All winds and currents lead to Niue” A few readers may be old enough to remember R.L.Ripley’s “Believe it or not.” series, so how about this true story. Late last year the crew off “Dosia” sailed into the sheltered waters of Beveridge Reef and met up with another yacht already anchored there, for drinkies and dinner. Later in the evening “Oops who didn’t tie our tender on properly” as there was no sign. It was dark and a futile search took place within the reef. A further sweep outside the reef in the morning produced nothing and Dosia sailed on towards Niue in the hope of buying a replacement tender here. Nothing was available, and so on to Tonga, tenderless. Ten days after Dosia left Niue and 120 nautical miles later Ape (Ah Peh) a local fisherman found the missing tender, upside down and 50 metres from being shredded on our reef. He righted it, towed it back to shore, rinsed out the outboard, dried it it “fired up” and it kept running. Dosia’s captain was notified and offered a reward for its return. All was achieved with the help of the Captain of Gillarro – hence the tender tender reunion. It is also a tribute to the resilience of the Caribe brand. “Believe it or not!” Strange things happen at sea.
