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.