Bob playing with Bill Marsters' pet Booby

Ann goofing with Bill's kids

Bill built the Palmerston Yacht Club (seen here), but alas, he ran out of beer a little over two years ago!

So, we’re not leaving just yet. We had squalls all last night with rain and wind and decided, “We’re not in a hurry to get anywhere, so why go ‘out there’ and get clobbered?” So, we’ve delayed our departure a day. More if needed, until the wind/waves get a bit tamer. Actually it’s not so much the wind. It’s really not much windier than when we sail in San Francisco Bay. It’s the waves. They have built up over thousands of unobstructed miles and are pretty sizable right now. The GRIBS say three meters, but that’s just an average and it means we can easily see waves in the 12 plus foot range. Again, it would be OK if were headed straight downwind more or less, but the present wind/wave combination is more like 100 degrees to our destination which means we’re cutting across them making for a wet uncomfortable ride. Let’s see- wet and uncomfortable, or stay here and lay in a hammock reading a book. OK, I’m staying. Just one more day though, I think, then the wind is projected to lay down a bit as well as back to a more favorable angle and the waves will follow.

So, today we had our usual morning whale show while sipping coffee. Then we went ashore for a delightful lunch as always. Ann then gave “our family” a “Farkel” game and showed them how to play it. There were howls of laughter-delightful to hear- as they played their first game. Lisa from Orcinius came back to their boat a couple hours after we came back and called us on the radio to tell us that they were still playing into the evening. Yay! (Bob is saying “Yay” because he didn’t have to play with me! I was a generous teacher and took unnecessary risks so that I might lose. I came in second.)

Oh, I almost forgot. I got to play with a pet booby. Yep, Bill Marsters-on the other side of the island from “our family” has a pet booby. It’s a red footed booby and is actually very cute. Ann took a picture of me holding it and then Bill said, “Put it on your head”. OK, so I tried and he (the booby) sat there- so we now have a picture of me with a booby on my head. Can’t wait to post that! Probably in a week or so when we get to Niue.

So, that’s our day.

Little John escorting Ann to church (note all the women have to wear hats so Ann and Lisa were loaned a couple

After church with Reverend Tere Marsters

Sunday dinner complete with coconut drink

Sunday dinner

Sunday dinner

That was my impression at church this morning, but more about the service in a bit.

We got up early since Simon was coming out to the boat to get us in time for the 9:30 AM service. Ann wore a long dress with a shirt to cover her shoulders and I had to wear, ugh, long pants. All the women also wore straw hats and “our family” loaned Ann and Lisa very intricate straw hats they had woven on the island.

So, the men and women in their Sunday best filed into church. Lots of white button down shirts on the men and boys, very colorful, old fashioned island mumus with straw hats on the women and girls and as everyone filed into church there were those similarities with “the mainland”, but there were also the differences; everyone had bare feet, the church was built on coral and there were palms swaying in the gentle breeze outside with the ocean just a stone’s throw beyond.

And the singing! While the service was in English, most of the hymns were sung in traditional Maori and done with fantastic harmonies, no instruments accompanied them. The older women were leads and sang in a nasal, high pitch sort of chant while the younger women would start a harmony that the men would then fill in as well as add a baseline and beat. And it was loud. The church was literally bursting with the joy of their singing! Quite a service and afterward everyone shook everyone’s hand and the older women made sure to kiss everyone on both cheeks. We came away feeling very much part of the community here. Very welcomed-the minister even prayed for our continued safe passage. Of course now that we’ve been here almost a week, we’ve met almost everyone on the island in our explorations and have had time to chat with most of them.

After church and a walk through the coconut palms back to our hosts, we sat down for a delicious noon meal that included; chicken, rice, taro, meat stew, coleslaw and a wonderful coconut milk to pour on the rice. Each of us also received our own coconut with the top cut off to drink. Very refreshing! At this point in the day, most everyone retires for a nap before the next service. Most of the island goes to multiple services on Sunday. We went down to the beach and intended to read our books in the shade by the water, but I fell asleep in a hammock slung between two coconut palms on the beach and Ann struck up a conversation with Andy-a nice gentleman who is sort of stranded here until the next boat heading back to Rarotonga in about three weeks (his is a long story, so I’ll leave it with that). That’s how we spent the afternoon until it was time to get a ride back to the boat.

Once back on the boats, Orcinius and we decided to go for a snorkel on the outer reef. We’re anchored in 30 or so feet right on the edge of what literally looks like an abyss. There’s a sudden drop off right under out boats and all you can see is deep, dark, indigo blue water. The atoll just plunges off a cliff. But, from our boats, it’s only 50 or so yards over to the outer reef where it’s very shallow-as little as one foot and the waves are breaking. So we swam over into about the ten foot depth to avoid getting smashed on the coral by the waves and enjoyed the view and water clarity. We saw tons of parrotfish, some groupers, some “aquarium fish” and a white tipped reef shark. We decided if more showed, we would retreat, but with only one or a few we’d continue.

So, all in all a nice and varied day. Tomorrow is our last day in this paradise. We’re moving west again, this time to Beveridge Reef, a fairly uncharted reef on the way to Niue. It is about 280 miles, so we’re leaving around 1900 and expect a 2 and ½ day voyage. Beveridge Reef is literally just that. Some of the informal hand sketched charts we’ve seen say it’s hardly even visible-just maybe some waves breaking. We have a sketch-kind of like a treasure map-that shows a narrow, but reasonable entrance to a lagoon where you can anchor in sand, protected from the waves by the reef. We have three navigation resources as well as our official chart and each has the reef in a slightly different place. You can be sure we will approach it very carefully and only in daylight. But, it sounds like it might be fun.

One paradise to another. We’ll very much miss the wonderful people and beauty of this spot on the map, but are looking forward to another new one. The adventure goes on.

The Crab Whisperer

So, it turns out I have a new talent that the folks on Palmerston taught me. I can get hermit crabs to come out of their shells by gently whistling to them. It’s hilarious. You pick one up and he (it?) tucks into its shell. Then I start gently whistling and out it comes, eyes wide open looking around for the pied piper. Just another of many of my newly acquired talents.

But, lest you think this is totally unique, I will concede that Lisa from Orcinius can also do this by singing. Since she can’t whistle but wanted to try to lure the little critter out, she decided to sing. Unfortunately she chose a Tony Orlando and Dawn song (“Knock Three Times…”). It’s a wonder, but the crab came out. Probably wondering who in the hell would sing such a song in the middle of the South Pacific in the year 2012, but who knows. Maybe they crabs are older than we think?

Other than crab whispering, it was a pretty laid back day. Well, actually the morning started pretty busy. One of the boats who was leaving today realized last night he couldn’t get his anchor up. Stuck in the coral. He asked John if he would SCUBA down and untangle it, which John-generous with his time and effort as he is-promptly agreed to help. I was the snorkel relay. John dove the 40 feet to the anchor. I floated on the surface relaying the; “up”, “down”, “stop” etc signals for those on the boat. Turned out it wasn’t the anchor that was stuck, but a bunch of chain that had coiled around some coral. It was sorted out in about five minutes and then we all got back to our coffee and morning whale watching.

Afternoon brought some snorkeling inside the lagoon. It has been windy the past two days, so the lagoon was a little stirred up and not as clear as it could be. Last night also included a huge rain storm. We were praying it would end while the folks on the island were reveling in the increasing levels of their water tanks. There are always two perspectives. Nice to have a swim though.

A walk around town, dinner with “our” family and a lovely time having dessert at Tere (sounds like Terry) Marsters home where we queried him on admin and political issues surrounding Palmerston as it relates to the Cook Islands and New Zealand. Tere represents Palmerston in the Cook Islands Parliament and is very well versed on the political issues they face getting funding given that they are such a tiny settlement on a small island.

All in all a fun but quiet day. Tomorrow; Church. It will be fun to hear the singing (in Maori). Ann and Lisa have been told they must wear dresses, cover their shoulders and wear “hats”. We think the hats are special woven ones, but are not sure. In any case, our hosts are going to provide them. Also, the islanders are very devout Christians, so no work whatsoever is allowed, so we’re planning to bring books and spend most of the day after church enjoying the sunshine, the beach and a good book.

Lastly, I should mention-several chickens have been captured and are in cages in preparation for tomorrow afternoon’s feast. That’s life on the island.

Position: Still at Palmerston

Here's Downtown Palmerston. Really.

You can walk around the outside of the island in about an hour

This is the main road through the center of the island

It's paradise, but you can't be careless or this could happen. This boat chafed through its mooring two years ago and ended up on the reef.

It was a windy, rolling night at our mooring here. Glad to be on a mooring. We’re only about 75 yards from a very mean looking reef, so glad to not have to worry about an anchor dragging. We do usually worry about old moorings letting go in the night, but this one’s brand new. John from Orcinius dove with SCUBA gear on several of the moorings to help the folks from Palmerston inspect their moorings. He also “found” the one we’re on-it had been lost-and re-tied it. There is chain wrapped around a coral tunnel about 40 feet down and they put brand new rope on it, so we feel pretty confident unlike at some other stops where you look at rope that’s been in the water for a year or so and wonder how much longer before it dissolves.

Anyway, as part of mooring in a place like this there’s a neat trick we learned. Since the moorings are so close to an ugly reef, if anything on the mooring or your own lines breaks you have no time whatsoever to react before you’re on the reef. Solution? Drop you anchor until it’s just a couple feet off the bottom. This way if the mooring breaks and you start to drift in, your anchor will hit bottom as it gets more shallow. Not guaranteed to hold, but at least the racket of it dragging along the coral bottom will wake you up! Also, never, ever use one mooring line from one side of the boat through the mooring “eye” and to the other side. It will “saw” through the line in one or two days (sooner if it’s windy and rough). We have two mooring lines through the eye of the main line. Each goes out from our cleat, through the eye of the mooring and back to the same cleat. That way there’s no friction or rubbing at the eye and if one of your mooring lines breaks you still have the other one tied on.

OK, about the rest of the day; I don’t mean to brag….oh hell yes, I DO mean to brag. This place is amazing. We were sitting at coffee this morning here in the beautiful blue water right off an island and lagoon out of Fantasy Island and not 75 yards behind the boat a couple of BIG whales came sliding by slapping their tails about every 10 seconds. HUGE TAILS. BIG SLAPS. I have pictures since they were close enough for our regular lens. At first I just heard some noise like gunshots and thought; “oh that’s just John (on Orcinius who is moored about 60 feet away) working on his boat”. But I kept hearing the reports and finally looked up to see two whale tails in the air at the same time-right over my coffee cup! Then a little while later while we were enjoying fresh papaya with lime juice (brag, brag, brag…) a group of porpoises swam by intent on their mission to catch their own breakfast. All right off our back porch. Weare getting very spoiled by these whales as they do some kind of show every morning here. We’ve heard on the radio that in Niue-our almost next stop-the whales have been swimming right through and around the moorings. Probably some kind of teenage whale antics. Can’t wait to experience it. The other highlight of the day was after dinner. The family who is hosting us offered to sing some songs in the Maori language and style. Grandma came out for the first time since we’ve been here and led the extended family in several beautiful, haunting, songs. She was the lead and other family members harmonized around her. I can’t really properly describe it as it was part chant, part song and part oral history told in the traditional tongue. All of us guests were deeply touched by the music and all realized we had just witnessed a vital cultural tradition that goes back hundreds if not thousands of years.

We’re probably going to stay where we are for a couple more days. The weather for our next leg is unsettled (Palmerston to Beverage Reef) and it’s so nice right here. Ann’s looking forward to attending the local church on Sunday where they do the service in English, but sing the hymns in Maori. This being a really small island, we’re also met the minister who will be doing the service, so it should be fun. We’ve also met the Mayor (Bob) and the Policeman (Edward-who is one of our hosts). Yes, there’s only one policeman. Not surprisingly when I asked what the most difficult part of his job on Palmerston was, he replied; “domestic disputes”. Not surprising since there’s only one bar on the island-The Palmerston Yacht Club-but they ran out of beer two years ago and haven’t been able to resupply it since. Without beer, the yacht club has fallen into disrepair. Since there are no cars either, excessive drinking and drunk driving aren’t an issue. OK, so I’m being sarcastic here. The reality is that these are wonderful people who are dedicated to their families. We have not seen more happy people anywhere.

John with the frisbee we gave him

Little John with a very accurate (in a couple years) tee-shirt

Palmerston Yacht Club

So I ended yesterday with the promise of telling you about my new friend, John. John is four years old and is visiting/living in Palmerston for the first time ever. He has heard about Palmerston and talked to family members (yes, they have telephones) all of his life. His Aunt Fiftieth always promised to take him some day. Well, some day came and John got his wish. He sailed over on a boat (cargo ship) with Fiftieth and her daughter Sami. He did very well, except when the diesel spilled and the fumes made them all sick. So my little friend now lives thousands of miles away from home and is loved and cared for in such a way that he has yet to be homesick. I think he has been here about six weeks. (My 12 year old son was homesick after 6 days – even though he too was with his aunt!) John is a vivacious happy little boy who wore a shirt yesterday that said, “Hide Your Daughters”. If it weren’t Palmerston I would agree! We brought John a Frisbee (thank you, Lat 38 and the Baja Ha Ha) and he has been involving everyone in his Frisbee games. When we first met John he was on the boat that came with the Customs official. He immediately greeted us and asked how our trip had been. I was smitten from the start. John now has a special hello and runs to greet me when we arrive. So cute. The world John now lives in is so simple. The house he lives in has no doors or windows. In fact, the kitchen and the bathroom are totally separated. The bathroom is in the back of the house, like an outhouse, but it flushes! The kitchen could be mistaken for a chicken coop and is across the front yard. The chicken wire is to keep the animals out. There is a sink and counter space under shelves for the dishes just opposite the stove. The whole area is only about 8 feet square but very productive! Every evening (and times vary a lot for the evening meal) we have been treated to a feast that is spread across a table in the middle of the yard covered from rain overhead by a tarp – the dining room. The meals always start with a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing of the food and the participants. The front porch includes a chair where Grandma sits all day watching her clan. She smiles and waves and loves to talk if you slow down and join her on the porch. The porch includes a bed covered by a quilt that Grandma handmade – a girl after my heart! The road to town has a round-about complete with benches to sit and rest on. Some coconut trees have initials carved in them as evidence of ownership from earlier days when there were more inhabitants and food could be scarce. The road is lined with palm trees that touch fingers overhead and create a lovely palm frond tunnel. The roads are coral/dirt but the school kids rake them on Saturdays to keep them clean for Sunday services. There are not many roads and we have only seen a few ATVs and a few scooters. Most people walk. The town has the old church and the new church. A grave yard that was there before Marsters and the current Marsters grave yard. However each family now has their own grave yards closer to their property. Their houses are constructed of available wood, whatever is salvageable that washes up on the beach and tin roofs, often rusted in many areas. Some of the houses are on cement bases, many are not. The school is quite modern with study areas for each of the students, a testing center and some computers. Their windows are chicken wire. The playground for the little kids includes a jungle gym, trampolines and a seesaw. Looked like fun. There is a volleyball (pronounced walleyball) court for the big kids.

There is even a Palmerston Yacht Club. Bill, the apparent proprietor, apologized for the lack of beer but proudly talked about the mahogany bar and extra large table. He said yachties could sleep on them if they needed to. Each piece is made from one huge tree. This kind of mahogany is not available anywhere in the world. It is African Mahogany and has been over cut and you can’t find trees like this anymore, yet they have a number of these huge trees still standing on the island. Apparently when the island feels it needs some extra money for a community project, they trim one of the huge trees, take the wood to New Zealand and sell it. The simplicity of this life abounds as you walk around the island (it only takes 45 minutes to walk the whole perimeter along the beach). A few beach balls had Bill’s four children playing “walleyball” with us over a clothesline! The game full of giggles ended with hugs and kisses goodbye from children we had only just met. I also promised to share the reactions to our gifts. Of course we brought some basics in an effort to restock their pantry for all of the food they are feeding us. We brought sugar, flour, powdered sugar and some rice. We also brought a few items that really excited them. As requested we found some extra finger nail clippers on board and brought two pairs – they squealed with delight. I pulled out the Nutella and Fiftieth’s eyes went big and she handed it to her daughter, Sami, to hide! Quickly! We brought some notebooks for young John who has been writing in the sand with us. I asked that they hide it until his birthday in September. (We brought balloons to help make the event more festive too!) We brought more cake mixes to help the celebrations. Then they pulled out the nuts: walnuts, pine nuts and almonds. They about fell over and quickly ran to hide those too. But first they gave one bag of walnuts to Grandma. Enough of the food stuff. We brought Bob’s last two cigars from Mexico for Edward. Apparently Edward asked about them the next day and we heard that the ladies were claiming them. I think he won. And finally I couldn’t bypass my quilting friend, Grandma. So I went through my quilting supplies and found some thread and some needles with a needle threader. Bob suggested I include some “reader glasses” to help her vision on the close up work. She immediately put them on and was quite pleased. Finally I gave her a two yard piece of sunflower fabric I had on board explaining that she could use it to make many quilts for her family. She smiled and said, “Or a lovely dress for me!” Silly me, of course these people who have such simple needs wouldn’t waste that much fabric on a quilt! Quilts are made from leftovers! I am humbled but thrilled with her smile. (From Bob: Grandma was so appreciative of Ann’s gift and friendship, she gave Ann a beautiful decorative container made from a coconut. This won’t do justice to its glory, but it’s a deeply burnished coconut, made a lustrous dark brown. The top has intricately woven decorative coconut husk with cowrie shell accent on top and a woven handle. It’s quite beautiful and we will treasure it for both its beauty the effort that must have gone into making it and the spirit in which it was given. Thank you Grandma!) We went back to Bob’s (the Mayor) house where we enjoyed a cool drink and parrotfish the first day we were here. We brought them some fish hooks and beaded necklaces (still aboard from the Ha Ha send off) and some balloons for their kids. And then we taught them to play Farkle. Their kids range from 21 to one (we know she isn’t ready to play yet) and were all very interested. We played an abbreviated game with Mom, Dad, Goldeen and myself to help them learn the game. Mom was a very quick learner but they all seemed to get it and enjoy it. As we left we decided that we could see Bob, who we found out today is also the mayor, might just pull rank and declare himself the winner. Hopefully his family will keep him honest! Palmerston – simple ways.

From Bob: I would add a couple things that have made this visit thus far memorable. First off, the meals. They are all huge feasts. Of course these for the most part are big people so they like to eat. Tonight we had fried parrot fish (delicious!), sautéed wahoo, fried donut things (my best description), rice, cabbage/pasta salad, and the special delicacy-lobster fresh caught last night on the reef. Wow. Last night was similar and included boiled taro root (think potato).

Dinner is usually at about 4 o’clock. That way everything is wrapped up in time for sunset. Why? They have to run a generator for electricity and don’t want to waste the availability. It’s only on from 6AM to Noon, then 6PM to midnight-and that’s only while the diesel lasts. Once it’s gone, they have to wait until the next supply ship. They only problem-they are never sure exactly when it will show up.

After dinner, we’re back on Charisma by about 6PM. Tonight we could see a lone figure about 75 yards away on the edge of the reef catching fish. They use a simple pole with a piece of line as a feather lure to catch small reef fish which they drop in the bay slung over their shoulder. Sometimes they will use a net and sometimes come out in their boats (about 18 feet with outboards) to troll for wahoo, tuna and mahi.

This island comes the closest to what I expected the South Pacific to be of any island we have been at yet. Simple, beautiful, peaceful and unimproved. It’s all here. We’re staying a few more days to enjoy such a unique environment and wonderful people and amazing hospitality before moving on.

And lastly, to answer my daughter Christine’s question about the gene pool here. Technically they are only allowed to marry “beyond” the third cousin. That’s their law. In reality it seems a fair number of the current residents have met their spouses as they have travelled outside of Palmerston when as young adults they left to “see the world”. For example; our host Edward, met his wife Shirley (who we believe is New Zealand Maori) while working as an engineer about a ship on which she was travelling among the islands.

The first settler, Bill Marsters in the late 1800's. All of the families here are descended from him

Here’s our host family on Palmerston:

Eddy

Sam (foreground) and Fiftieth

Shirley

Simon

David

Little John

...and Mama

(From Ann today) Before we share stories of life at Palmerston let me share with you what the guidebooks say:

“The island’s inhabitants have a unique history. They are the descendants of a patriarchal figure, William Marsters, a Lancashire sea captain who settled here with three Penrhyn Island (an island in the Northern Cooks) wives in 1862. He fathered 26 children, divided the islands and reefs into sections for each of the three “families” and established strict rules regarding intermarriage.” “Visiting yachts are given a warm welcome especially since the supply ship comes in only once every three or four months and families take turns to host the crew. Yachts are greeted and “adopted” by islanders, who may be quite competitive in seeking to guide them to “their” mooring buoy or anchorage spot. The family will discuss landing arrangements and will host them during their stay. (This means they feed you every night!) …the hospitality is offered with no ulterior motive. I t is courteous for yachts to return the hospitality with gifts of staples such as flour, fishing gear, outboard fuel, fresh produce or school supplies. The islanders have refused offers of an airstrip or visits from cruise ships as they treasure their self-imposed isolation. Parrotfish fillets are the island’s only export and for a major component of the local diet. ”

So now you have the back ground and we can share our experience thus far at Palmerston.

As Bob said in last night’s blog we arrived at 2 am and hove to until daylight hours. As we neared the island we were greeted by Edward who was out fishing. He informed us that all of the mooring balls were full but that he could direct us to a spot to anchor. We were a little worried when the spot he chose was in coral but apparently it is coral or coral. Not much choice at anchor so we anchored.

Edward explained that he would be our host and that Customs would be out in about an hour. And they were. Edward’s older brother is the Customs Officer who looked through our paperwork and charged us $10 for our stay at Palmerston – no matter how long you stay. It is really just a processing fee so that we are listed on their tally of what boats are coming through.

Later Edward came back with a boat load of cargo from Orcinius and two available seats to take us to shore. They recommend not using your dinghy to go ashore here due to the small passage and amount of coral in the lagoon. They are not kidding! But Edward skillfully threaded us through the maze following sticks that sometimes appeared in the water to direct us to the channel. Really amazing to see them maneuver through the channel. We arrived and were able to help unload the goods into waiting ATVs with wagons that needed pushing to get traction in the sand to get all of the goodies back to their homes. And everyone seemed very excited about all of the cargo. Lots of soda, lots of onions, potatoes and bananas. We helped them move the sodas into the house so that the kids wouldn’t see them as soon as they arrived home. Kids go to school here until about 2 in the afternoon.

While helping unload we met a couple (Kathy and Andy) that had come to Palmerston from Rarotonga on an exciting little sailing side trip. They actually are from Oregon and vacationing (anniversary trip) in Rarotonga. Unfortunately the boat that brought them here and then attempted to return them to Rarotonga had some weather issues complicated by some critical boat issues (their headstay broke!) so they returned to Palmerston and are awaiting different transportation back to Rarotonga. Of course, since this island is so remote, the next scheduled boat in here is due on September 14th. No problem, Edward and his family have cleared a room in their house that is under construction and the couple is staying with them.

Anyway, Kathy gives us a quick little tour around town. They actually have a few street lights to brighten the dirt roads/paths between homes and the major structures of the town which include the school, the administration building, a clinic, the Telcom station (complete with phone to call home), original church building and the new church. Most of these structures look fairly modern, but the homes and original church are made from miscellaneous parts. Each yard has a fair number of chickens running around and a picnic table where the families are lounging.

We happily wandered down the palm tree lined paths enjoying the sites, including the hull of a sailboat that was destroyed on the reef. The hull was hauled up from the beach and inverted and is going to be made into a shelter of some kind. We even circumnavigated the island – took us about 30 minutes. We were delighted by the number of shells moving quickly ahead of us – crabs running from our footsteps. The beach seems alive! And the lagoon is full of coral and is many shades of turquoise. We will snorkel it and tell you what else we find.

What we did find as we ended our walk was a delightful family welcoming us to their picnic table. As we introduced ourselves, we found the head of the family was named Bob! Bob and his family were busy relaxing as we headed back from our walk. We must have looked parched as they called to us to come have a cool drink. We happily complied and before we knew it, we were also being treated to fresh parrotfish fillets and homemade biscuits too! Bob, his wife and 4 daughters (ages; 18 to 1 years old) and one son – 12 years old, could not have been more welcoming. They listened to our story and we listened to theirs. Bob brought out a colorful parrotfish that he had caught that morning. Beautiful 20 inch long fish literally the colors of a parrot! His oldest daughter shared her adventures on a tall ship that she worked on. She was gone for 9 months and went from Canada around Cape Horn. Amazing. Here we thought these people only knew Palmerston. Most of them have spent time in New Zealand and Australia too. Many travel back and forth to New Zealand spending years in each location. And so this remote life in Palmerston is a choice freely made.

Our favorite comment from Bob was about his chickens. Apparently when he “calls” his chickens which are running free, they come. He says everyone has a different call for their chickens. However, he says that if a neighbor’s chicken answers his call and wanders into his yard, he eats it for dinner! Bad luck I guess. Who knew you could easily identify your chickens from your neighbors! Bob’s chickens are also used to help his compost pile. Very resourceful! And they have a few pigs roaming around to round out the fun.

Knowing that Edward’s family was planning a 4 pm dinner we excused ourselves and continued on, promising to bring back a thumb drive with the family picture that we took of the group.

Luckily we found our way back to Edward’s as the other hosted cruisers started arriving. We learned that this is not a one-time event. They expect to feed us every night we are here! And what a spread it was! We had poisson cru, wahoo (freshly caught that morning before directing us to our anchorage), steak (only served on special occasions), cole-slaw, taro and rice. The best poisson cru on our whole trip!

Dinner was prepared and served by Edward’s wife, Shirley and his niece, Fiftieth. Yes, that is really her name given her by her grand uncle in honor of the 50th year that he had been a missionary/reverend in the Cook Islands, Gilbert Islands and Samoa. At least there is only one Fiftieth. And these women were as warm and welcoming as possible. We had a really fun evening getting to know not only Edward and his family but the other cruisers on Edward’s mooring/anchorages. And of course, the house guests: Kathy and Andy.

Turns out that for Kathy and Andy’s anniversary the ladies and their niece Sami made a cake! Totally decorated to reflect their personalities. How special. The couple was speechless. The cake was yummy!

And then the last cruiser, who was out fixing his headstay with the help of Edward’s brother, Simon, came ashore. This guy reminded Sami of Mr. Miagi from Karate Kid so that’s what they call him-even though he’s Irish and his first name is “Andre”. It also was “Mr. Miagi’s” birthday and these incredible ladies had made him a separate birthday cake. Ever seen a salty sailor cry? I have. He was really touched. Just shows how caring these people are.

So it was 9pm before we returned to Charisma! What a day.

Today was less eventful as we waited to see if “Mr. Miagi” would complete his repairs and sail away so we could have his mooring. Last night was calm, but moorings are much better than an anchor in coral.

Our morning did include another visit from the frolicking whales that entertained us yesterday. Today they were 75 yards off of our stern. We forgot how awe inspiring whales are. They returned tonight to as we pulled up anchor to move to a mooring ball. No, Mr. Miagi did not move on but John and Lisa on Orcinius spent the morning in scuba gear, diving to help recover a mooring that had slipped to the ocean floor. Again, Orcinius to the rescue.

Tired but moored, I will close tonight and tell you more tomorrow about the reactions to gifts we brought ashore today and our new little friend, John.

Position: 18 degrees, 02 minutes south; 163 degrees, 11 minutes west

On our mooring at Palmerston

They have six moorings and a reef entrance that cannot be believed. The current is too high to get in with a dinghy so they pick you up. There are only eight moorings here.

A brilliant two and a half day sail culminated with sailing around the reef on the way to the anchorage and having three whales jumping for joy. There are five other boats here and they said they heard the whales singing last night through their hulls. Let’s hope for more of the same tonight.

At first when we got here I was let down a bit. It’s a poor place to anchor and their are only five moorings, so not a good way to start out to find out you have to anchor in the coral. There’s no sand whatsoever, so we’re trusting on benign weather to keep us in place and off the reef tonight. Looks like one of the boats is leaving tomorrow, and we have permission to take their mooring when they leave. This will leave us with a more trustworthy way to secure the boat. As if to punctuate the issue, when we got ashore the first thing we saw under the coconut trees is the hulk of a Valiant 42 shipwrecked here last year when they broke free of their mooring and was driven across the reef in 12 foot waves. What a way to start the day.

Backing up a tiny bit, we made landfall at 0200 last night. Since we didn’t want to come into an unfamiliar area at night, we hove to until dawn about 3 miles off the south end of the atoll. I had the night watch for that period, so I got to just sit and watch some of the most beautiful stars we’re seen on the trip. Then we saw the whales jumping which added a sense of joy to the early morning.

We didn’t know what to expect out of a place like this. As I’ve mentioned, there are only 60 people living on the atoll and half of those are children. They have purposefully shunned many “opportunities” such as an airport and pearl farms in order to keep their atoll pristine-which it is. We’re in the clearest 40 feet of water I’ve ever seen. It’s clear like a cold mountain stream, but it’s warm and incredibly blue (all the shades from ice blue to deep indigo).

But despite all the beauty-and there is a phenomenal amount of it-it’s the wonderful people here that I think we were all unprepared for. By the time we finished dinner with “our sponsor” (each boat here has a family who sponsors them and takes care of them while on the atoll) any care of how the anchor was or wasn’t working left. I literally don’t care. We’ll deal with it, but I want to spend more time with these amazingly nice, sincere and open people. Just walking around today, we were invited to sit down and eat lunch with one of the families. They treated us like long lost friends and we spent two hours under their rusted tin-roofed and rickety tree branch-made outdoor dinning table.

But…we’re exhausted not having slept since I don’t know when, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow night for the description of the evening.

Thanks and good night!

Position: 18 degrees, 34 minutes south; 162 degrees, 36 minutes west

The big blue slide. Up to Palmerston that is. Last night and today have been some of the best sailing on the trip thus far. 10 knots apparent wind with a little over 5 knots of boatspeed. Long period 3 foot swells and blue sky with a few fringing clouds. Charisma is wing and wing and loving it. Gentle sounds of water gurgling past the stern. The only thing we don’t have (yet) is a fish! We’re towing the hand line though and I switched the lure from a hoochie to a rapala in hopes of attracting a tuna instead of mahi (not that I’m complaining about mahi mind you).

We had a spectacular tuna (canned, but good) salad for lunch with half a papaya and this afternoon I used the last of the mahi in the freezer and made a fish chowder to go with some bread we bought at the market day before yesterday that we’ll heat up for dinner.

Ann’s asleep on the foredeck. She went up there to catch the afternoon sun and do some reading, but not long after she went up there, I saw more zzzz’s than abc’s coming from that direction. Life is good out here on the blue Pacific Ocean. It’s even warmed up. The last two days have had SSE wind and the south component brought some chilly weather. We actually broke out socks, shoes and sweaters for night duty. But the wind has shifted and is now out of the east with correspondingly warmer temps. It’s very comfortable and not too hot.

So that’s our news for today. Boring day to read about, but great day to enjoy!

Position: 19 degrees, 41 minutes south; 161 degrees, 20 minutes west

We’re moving again. We left Rarotonga last night at 2100. We’re had about 10-15 knots of wind for the last 24 hours and have made about 130`miles. We have 140 to go as of 2100 Sunday night. This leg is about 270 miles, so figuring our average 120 miles/day we decided to leave at night so we can get into Palmerston, hopefully, Tuesday morning (we’ll probably heave to offshore assuming we get there in the early morning hours) . The GRIB files are showing the wind to be nice till sometime late Monday, but on Tuesday it’s going to shut down completely for a couple days. Nice for anchoring, not so good for sailing, so we hope to get there before that happens. Orcinius is coming too but since they are bigger and go faster, they were planning to leave Sunday morning. We’ll hope to catch up with them on tonight’s radio net and see if they did indeed leave.

Speaking of Orcinius-While planning their trip to Palmerston, they sent an email to one of the residents there and asked if they needed any supplies. Since Palmerston is a small atoll in the middle of the Pacific and there are only 60 people who live there, they don’t get a lot of supply ships that come through. They replied it would be nice if a “couple things” could be carried and would have some acquaintances drop them off at the wharf. One thing led to another and Orcinius is now carrying almost a ton of supplies-literally! For two days, folks would drive by the boat and drop stuff off. There’re some fresh veggies, eggs, apples, potatoes, other stuff in heavy sealed boxes and even a new flat screen TV set (they have satellite TV on the island). It was fun watching all the stuff get tied onto a halyard by John on the wharf and swung over to Ann in Orcinus’ cockpit. Lisa worked the halyard and helped unload in the cockpit. Then Ann and I helped form a human chain to carry the stuff down into the port side hull where John and Lisa stored it in the aft bedroom. It filled the bedroom.

This led to the Mysterious Banana Caper. We’re not really sure what happened, but part of the cargo was a huge stalk of bananas. Bananas are notorious for bringing unwanted bugs on board, so John did the logical thing-he tied the stalk to a line and tossed it into the water for the night. We all do this and it drowns any insects that might be in the stalk. The next morning while sipping her coffee, Lisa looked down and saw…the loose end of the rope. No evidence that there was ever even a knot! We looked around for a floating stalk of bananas among the boats at the wharf but no joy. Was it a banana heist? We’ll probably never know. One thing’s for sure though, the island spirit made sure they didn’t leave for Palmerston without a stalk of bananas. When we went to the Saturday Market, Lisa tried to buy a stalk to replace the one that “sailed away”. The vendor didn’t have a full stalk, only broken down ones like you usually see in the stores. But, when Lisa explained what happened and how they were not for her, but to bring to Palmerston, the vendor said, “Be at the wharf at noon”. Noon arrived and so did a whole, huge new stalk of bananas carried on a scooter. This nice person drove back to their farm that was “not nearby” and brought them at no charge!

Island charm, island kindness. One of the best parts of this trip is the truly wonderful people we are meeting along the way.

The market at "Raro"

What a nice place this has been! We had no preconceived notions of what this island would be like, so have been thrilled by how nice it’s been to be here. We’ve been here about a week now and it’s time to move on to Palmerston Island-our last stop in the Cook’s.

Today we did the check out routine. Go to the Harbormaster and check out of the harbor. Pay the fees for the mooring and whatever else they come up with. Then on over to Immigration where you get your passport stamped and finally onto Customs where you pay some more fees and get “approved” for departure. In our case, we’re departing; “For Niue via Palmerston”. While we were waiting Ann noticed that they were promoting $3 bills as a tourist attraction. We had heard they were unique and wanted to have one to bring home. So Ann asked one of the customs guys if they had any. His response was they were available downstairs at the bank, but he would go get some for us while we were waiting. Nice! We are now the proud owners of two Cook Islands $3 bills that we’ll frame when this trip is over. They really are quite unique and beautiful

An important footnote as Palmerston is in the Cook’s but doesn’t have a formal Customs and Immigration department. If we didn’t have the paperwork that specifies “Niue via Palmerston” they might try and charge more fees in Palmerston to exit the country (i.e. the Cook’s). You learn this stuff when you’re cruising.

The other highlight of the day was going to the whale museum. There’s a really spectacular museum here all about whales. It’s very interactive. They encourage you to touch stuff; pick up bones, etc. We both remarked how in other countries we have known, about half of the stuff would have been stolen in the first week of its being open. But we’re here in the Cook’s and no such thing happens here. (Actually there is some crime as evidenced by a hand painted sign nailed to a tree that we saw that proclaimed; “There is a thief in this neighborhood”. An interesting take on neighborhood crime prevention.

Tomorrow we will go to the Saturday market one last time (sadly). It’s a lot of fun and very vibrant and full of music, crafts and food/vegetables. We’ll stock up for the next leg as well as hit the supermarket to replace canned goods, beer and such before having to give up our scooter at the end of the day (sigh). These are a lot of fun as you really “see” the countryside when riding by scooter.

So, getting ready to leave one great place and looking forward to new adventures.