8/20/2015 :0600

Palmerston: One of the motus on the atoll is called Palmerston. It's 1/2 mile square. Three families live there. 18 or 50 were present when we landed. You moor on their buoys (there are 4 now) outside the reef and one of the families will "adopt" you, taking you in and out thru a very shallow and fast running pass to the lagoon. It is traditional to offer them gifts of staples and pay $10 a night for the buoy.

They will also check you in and out of the Cook Island Territory of New Zealand. There were $70 US in fees when we were there. Cheap compared to the other Cook Islands and the whole process took us 1 hour at our boat. Exit papers (to be presented to the next country--you gotta have these) were prepared and waiting for us at the Admin Office anytime we wanted to stop by. By comparison, in Tahiti, these papers took 3 days and you had to us an agent to pester the port captain so yours didn't get lost at the bottom of the pile. Interesting factoid: 14 of the 50 people on the island work for the government in some capacity, although they are self-governing.

The area was settled in the mid 1880s by William Marsten and his 3 wives and 18 children. Edward, our host, would be a great grandson, I believe. He was a cop in Raratonga (a main island) for 20 years. Lots of stories; that he wanted to share with "someone who would understand", as he put it. In his generation, he was one of 6 boys and 5 girls. They believe in big families. You have questions? Sure, that's normal, but not polite to discuss them in public. Sorry.

Beverage Reef: Our next stop was a couple of days away in the middle of no where; a reef with no land at all; submerged in the ocean. The reef breaks up the swells and provides a very good anchorage with exceptional clear waters to 100 feet in the pass although the interior of the submerged lagoon allows anchorage in about 35 feet of water on mostly sand. But it is tricky finding the entrance to the lagoon. The gps locations are simply passed from boat to boat. I haven't found them published anywhere. Someone figure that fewer than 1,000 boats have made it here in modern times. Palmerston gets about 40 boats a year and less than 1/2 will go to Beverage; and in some years--zero will go. It's a thrill being here. Go Proing the reef. Wendy and David went out fishing, immediately got 4 hits and 2 fish for dinner along with some parrot fish brought from Palmerston. Then they called in to say they were having dingy motor troubles and forgot to bring oars or an anchor as they were drifting out the pass and into the reef. It all turned out to be a small adventure with many rescuers (the fish may have been a drawing factor)

Tonga: We have some serious weather coming into the area in the next few days which is supposed to last one week. 3 meters seas and sustained winds in the 35 kt range with gusts to 50. So we are running to Tonga to hide out in the Vava'u Group. We will make in plenty of time. Arrive on Saturday with the wind hitting Monday.