Kathy's Weekly Recap Log Sep17-Sep23
02 October 2008 | Niue
Kathy
Sean's note: We sustained some damage on the way to Niue. We got hit by a rather large squall. Everyone is well and we're safely on a mooring ball. We have some damage to our rudder but we haven't had time to ascertain the extent of the damage. It's raining in Niue today so it'll have to wait. I'll post a blog soon telling of our ordeal. And now, for something boring...
Wed, Sept 17 We arrived at Aitutake at 2am. Wolfgang from Sleipnir called us on the VHF to tell us where to anchor. We don't usually come into an anchorage in the dark, but we had decided to risk it this time because we were anchoring on the outside of the island. It's on the lee side of the island, so protected a bit from the larger swell. The map contours show the ocean floor going from 450 feet deep to 100 and then rapidly 60 feet. Very soon after that, you hit the reef. We don't like anchoring so deep, but Sean and Stan had added some chain to our anchor so we now had about 280 feet, which should be enough for a 60 foot anchorage. Wolfgang told us that the holding was not good in the anchorage because it is all coral and no sand. He'd been dragging anchor and that's why he was awake when we were coming in at 2am. He said that when we dropped our anchor we shouldn't pull back on it to set it because it would just drag. We should just throw out all our anchor chain and hope it's enough weight to hold our boat in place.
So, we pulled into place, dropped our anchor and all our chain, and then, because we have a superior Rocna anchor, Sean told me to back down on it to set it. It wouldn't set. Sean told me to cut the engine and see if our boat would stay in place. It did. So we set our drag alarm and went to bed. We laid awake, listening to the waves crashing on the reef next to us and feeling the boat rocking uncomfortably from the swell. We were both afraid that we'd drag onto the reef, and we didn't know how far away from it we were. Thankfully, the wind was blowing us off shore. I ended up stay up in the cockpit for the rest of the night to do an anchor watch. Sleipnir was in front of us, so I also wanted to be sure it didn't drag into us. It was too rolly to lay on the cockpit seats, so I put a cushion on the floor and laid on it with a blanket over me. I was miserable and tired, but glad to be at anchor.
When Sean woke up in the morning, we were about to jump into the dinghy to find a better spot to anchor when the drag alarm went off. It didn't look like we'd moved much, so Sean reset the alarm and told the girls to call us if it went off again. Sean and I were quite a ways away from Adventure when Casey called us on the VHF because the drag alarm was going off again. We looked back at Adventure and she was really far from our original anchor spot and moving fast. We rushed back, jumped aboard, and I started the engine. Sean went forward and started pulling up the anchor. A minute later, he yelled for me to push the man overboard (MOB) button. I looked around and saw quickly that everyone was on board, and also noted that the MOB button was below on the GPS and I was driving the boat. Sean ran below and pushed the button. When he pulled the anchor up, only about 100 feet of chain came up and the anchor and the rest of our chain were laying at the bottom of the ocean. One of the chain links had broken. Sean was sure it wasn't the one he and his dad had put on recently, but thought it may have been an extender we put on at the beginning of our trip.
So now we were driving around the anchorage with no anchor and only 100 feet of chain, and were in a 60-foot deep anchorage. We couldn't even attempt anchoring here without at least a 3 to 1 scope, which meant we needed about 200 feet of chain. There are placid waters inside the reef, but our boat draws a little more than 6 feet and the entrance channel and lagoon are just 6 feet deep at high high tide. Catamarans go in the channel and barely scrape through...for them, the depth isn't a problem, but the channel's 40-foot width is the limiting factor.
Sean assembled one of our spare anchors and connected it to the end of our chain. He and Casey jumped in the dinghy and took our hand-held depth sounder to look for a shallow place to anchor. After driving around a bit while I turned circles around in the anchorage, he saw a guy on a local dive boat. Onu, the owner of the dive boat "Bubbles", took us to the only shallow anchorage spot in the small bay. It was just 12 feet deep, with 60 feet all around it. Our anchor is now in 12 feet of water, after we let out our 100 feet of chain, there's 70 feet of water under our keel. Onu came back in the afternoon with three other guys and dove to find our anchor. Sean had a GPS track of where we had anchored, so they found the anchor in about 15 minutes. He charged us $100NZD ($75USD), but we paid him in US dollars and just gave him $100.
Once we were settled, Casey and I set to making 3 batches of banana muffins. As Casey cooked the muffins, Sean and I went to the village to pay Onu and check into the Cook Islands. It was already 3pm and the offices were closed for checking in. We got money at the ATM. They use New Zealand currency and the exchange rate is .75USD to 1NZD. We walked a short distance to the grocery store and faced our biggest fear of leaving French Polynesia: no baguettes. It had been the topic of many cruiser conversations in Bora Bora, our last French port. We'd had 3 weeks of waiting for good weather to contemplate our fate. What kind of bread would they have in the Cook and Tonga Islands? What would we eat if they didn't have baguettes? They had become our daily staple and had caused more than a few of us to gain a few pounds. Sean and I looked around the store and saw some fresh-baked white bread that looked like five small loves stuck together and then baked. There was also pre-packaged, sliced white bread that had lots of preservatives for a long shelf-life. We bought one of each and hoped for the best.
We chatted with Andrea, the lady at the cash register, who was from Las Vegas. She'd married a Polynesian many years ago and they'd moved to Aitutaki four years ago.
When we got back to Adventure, the girls were excited to have bread again because we hadn't had any in a few days. Tara and Sean grabbed a few slices and ate it right out of the bag. It wasn't as good as baguettes, but it would do.
We met about 20 other cruisers at the Sport Fishing Club, where they sold drinks for about 2.50 NZD ($1.90 USD). It was Wednesday night, so they also had grilled steak and onion sandwiches for $3.50NZD and a really good 3-guy band.
Our only problem in going back to Adventure was that the channel doesn't have any lit markers to guide us out. It has about 8 poles, some with reflective tape on them, lining the channel. But you need a very powerful flashlight to find the first pole and to see the surf pounding in after the last pole. Fortunately, another dinghy was going out the same time as us and they'd dinghied through the pass the previous night. They said they only hit the reef twice on their first attempt, but thought they had a better bearing of where it was this time. We slowly motored behind them with our meager flashlight lighting a few feet in front of us. It felt like we were driving blind. We made it through without hitting anything, but Sean said he's going to bring his hand-held GPS with him tomorrow so we'd have a track to follow.
Thu, Sept 18 We talked with Astra on the SSB radio and they asked if we would buy some supplies for one of the families in Palmerston. The island has three families, each an off-shoot of one of William Marsters' three wives. William had moved to the island and then been granted ownership of the entire atoll, which has a main island and 5 other islets scattered along the reef surrounding the lagoon. The supplies we are to bring are 25 kilos of flour, 2 stocks of bananas, and 7 tins of powdered milk. Palmerston gets a supply ship just two times a year, so they sometimes need cruisers to bring supplies in between.
We all dinghied in and walked to the office to check into the Cook Islands. We paid $30NZD each for our 31-day visas, $50NZD for to bring our boat into the country and $20NZD for our health certificate that said we didn't have the plague...whatever that is. The Port Authority is suppose to come to our boat to quarantine all our fresh veggies and fruit and any trash that has peelings in it. We went to the grocery store and talked again with Andrea. She and her husband, Tuaine, had lived in Vegas for many years, had 5 children (she also has a 16-year-old son from a previous marriage), and decided to move back to her husband's native land four years ago. Two of Andrea's girls are teenagers, so she asked if Tara and Casey would like to come to her house and meet them when she got off work at 4pm. We agreed to meet her at the dinghy landing.
We had to hurry back to Adventure because we saw our friends on Ogopogo coming into the anchorage and we'd told them we'd help them find a shallow spot near us to anchor.
After Ogopogo was anchored, we went to greet them and Jeffrey offered to climb our mast for us to fix the halyard. Sean decided to do it himself so he could look around for any other potential problems while he was up there.
A few hours later, Wolfgang, Jeffrey, and Jan came over to hoist Sean up the mast. It was nice because it's really difficult and I didn't have to do it. Another benefit of having other cruisers on our boat was that Sean was nicer and didn't freak out when he was on the top of the mast. Once he was hoisted up, Casey came out with a tray of banana muffins and told all the guys to come into the cockpit for a snack. I told her that they'd have to wait because her father would probably be upset if he looked 50 feet down to his support team and saw they were all down in the cockpit eating muffins. It took more than an hour for them to re-run another line down the mast. Jan kept disappearing below when we weren't looking and sneaking muffins and soda from Casey.
When I took the girls in to meet Andrea and her daughters, Andrea asked if I wanted to come too. I hadn't planned on it, but Andrea said she missed talking to another American. I called Sean on the VHF and told him I was going with the girls and he should be ready around 6:30pm to go to the fire dance at a local resort. All the cruisers in the anchorage decided to go because the owner of the resort had been at the Fishing Club the night before and said we could skip the $50 meal and just buy a drink if we wanted to see the show.
Andrea drove us to her house in a truck that had a large platform with bench seats and a metal cover that spanned half of the platform. Her house was much like that of the other island homes we've seen in the South Pacific; crumbly walls and ceiling, much open to the elements. She explained that it took her some time to adjust to this type of home, but since many family members own the home and land, no one wants to foot the bill to fix it up. Most of the homes and land are paid for and repairs only happen if absolutely necessary, so all the income is spent on automobiles, food, and necessities. Medical and dental is free, although Andrea thinks the doctors are suppose to charge a nominal fee but don't. A couple of huge flying roaches dive-bombed us and Andrea crunched one under her shoe. She left it on the floor and in about two minutes thousands of ants were dragging parts of it away. "Here comes the clean-up crew!" she said. She told us that sometimes the ants actually carry the entire roach away. "All part of getting use to living here..." she said. Soon after, swarms of mosquitoes attacked us. We were still in the kitchen. They lit a mosquito coil, which deterred a few of them, but we were still getting bit. We talked as we munched on chips, hot dogs (we hadn't had these in many months), and cookies hot out of the oven. We'd noticed that there were no dogs in the places we'd been and asked Andria about it. She said that about 80 years ago the islanders voted for a no-dog law and all the dogs were shot. Since then, no dogs have been allowed on the island.
Andria took us back to the dinghy landing, where Sean and other cruisers waited for us. It started to sprinkle and Sean hadn't closed the hatches. He and I jumped in the dinghy and motored full-throttle to Adventure. We were soaked in a deluge and so was the inside of Adventure.
We closed the hatches, wiped up the wet floors, hung our wet sheets near a fan, changed into dry clothes, and then dinghied back to the landing. We walked a short distance to the Fishing Club to have drinks and talk before going to the fire dance show.
A taxi van to pick us up to take us to the dance show and bring us back to the landing for $10NZD each.
We got drinks and waited for about 15 minutes for the dinner guests to finish their meal. I tried to buy bottled water, but the bar tender said it was free and gave me glasses of iced water. So the show ended up being free for us. In addition to the typical women-hula-like moves, the dance included a bunch of really buff guys in loin cloths, dancing with weapons and double-ended fire sticks. I'd pulled the long pad from a lounge chair had set it on the ground where the dance would be and we ended up having front-row seats. When the front guy dropped his fire stick near me, I could feel the heat (although the heat could have come from the close proximity of the buff, half-naked guy who was scrambling to pick his fire stick up). There were about 11 guys twirling fire sticks and they ended up standing on each other to form a fire-twirling pyramid. It was awesome! We all decided it was the best Polynesian dance show we'd seen yet.
It was tricky going home in the dinghy at night, but Sean had his GPS track to follow back out the pass. Ogopogo followed us out.
Fri, Sept 19 We got up late and puttered around and finally went to rent motorcycles around 11am. It cost $20NZD for a 24-hour rental. The girls weren't old enough to rent their own, so they rode on the back of mine and Sean's. Jan saw us at a hamburger stand and joined us for lunch. The hamburgers had coleslaw, a fried egg, and sliced beets on them. Jan asked if he could join us in touring the island, so we set off to the South. We ended up on a dirt road, pulling to the side to take photos along the way. With her hair blowing in the wind and a smile on her face, Casey was having the time of her life. She said, "I would have never thought that I'd be in the Cook Islands, riding on the back of a motorcycle that my mom is driving!" All I could think of was that we didn't have helmets, I had to constantly remember to drive on the left side of the road, I hadn't driven a motorcycle in many years, the road had loose gravel on it, Casey kept unbalancing the bike as she shifted around to take photos of Jan in front of us and Sean and Tara behind us, we were only wearing flip-flops and shorts...there was danger lurking everywhere and Casey was oblivious to it.
We had a half an hour to get back to the dinghy landing to meet Andrea's daughters, so we tried to take short cut road back. We took the wrong road and ended up going around the whole island. But, since the island is small, we still made it back in time. We picked up Lydia and Felicia and I dropped them off at Adventure while Sean and I went to Stream Spirits for tea. Sean only took a few sips of his tea before the girls called and said Felicia was getting sea sick and we needed to pick them up. Sean ended up taking them snorkeling in the lagoon while I finished my tea and then went to go buy the supplies for Palmerston. Andrea was about to get off work and said she'd drive me around to get the best prices for the supplies. Her store was the largest, but I should only buy flour there. The powdered milk and meat were cheaper at other stores. She said I may have trouble getting large stocks of bananas because the plantations were mainly owned by people who were Seventh-day Adventists and they were on a religious holiday. She called around to some people she knew and a guy said he'd go look at his trees to see if they were ripe. Andrea ended up driving me to three other stores to get the best prices. When we were driving back to the dinghy dock, we saw our four girls walking down the street to their house. They came with us to the grocery store and I bought cheese, bread, and drinks for the girls to take back to the house make grilled cheese sandwiches. Andrea dropped me off at the dinghy landing and then the girls went back to the house. Sean and I were at the Fishing Club when the girls and Andrea came back that night and they asked if they could have a sleepover.
Andrea also had picked up the bananas. There were five large stocks of them and it cost $30NZD. There is no way I can hang them all on Adventure, so I'll have to part them out to other cruisers who are going to Palmerston.
The girls spent the night on land while Sean and I went back to our rolling boat. We successfully dinghied back through the pass using the hand-held GPS, with Ogopogo following us through.
Sat, Sept 20 Sean and I went by Ogopogo, Stream Spirits, and Camissa to deliver the final batch of banana muffins. When we got to the dinghy landing, Andrea and the girls had just gotten there. I gave Andrea a bag that contained aspirin, a Costco bottle of ibuprofen, and other pain killers and inhalers that I'd gotten from Mystere. I had asked Andrea what items she needed that were difficult to get on the island. We also gave the girls a bag of books. They said that the school has the only library on the island and it has mostly little kid chapter books, so we gave them books more appropriate for their age.
We rented the motorcycles for another day and went to a resort restaurant with a beautiful white sand beach for lunch. Jeffrey tagged along with us and we were the only ones there for lunch. There were about eight local boys playing and swimming near us. It became clear that they were interested in showing off for Tara and Casey, but the girls ignored them.
We went to Spider Internet Cafe to get our email and found that it cost $18 per hour. We each took a short turn and used about twenty minutes worth.
The girls and I went back to Adventure so the girls could take showers, while Sean went for a ride around the island alone. I got my last three weeks of blogs together on a USB stick so I could go back to Spider and post them.
That evening, Andrea took us on a ride around island. Jan and Peg came with us too. We went to the island's highest peak where we could see our boats at anchor, the pass, and the small harbor with a few catamarans, as well as the other side of the island where there are 4 or 5 motus (small islands inside the lagoon) where Survivor Cook Islands was filmed. It was beautiful, but there were mosquitoes everywhere. The girls and I ended up putting on three different types of bug repellent and they were still swarming us. I was a bit concerned because elephantiasis is still a problem on this island and is carried by mosquitoes. We then went to the beach where Survivor had built its shipwreck where the councils were held. We drove past the barracks of the film crew for Shipwreck, a BBC reality show that's currently filming there. It was now dark, so Andrea drove us back up the big mountain to have dinner at a restaurant near the top. It was off a dirt road; in a place you'd least likely find a restaurant. It had great food. Sean and I split the pork curry and rice and the girls split a huge burger and fries. Twane and his son, Dwane, had just gotten back from fishing and came to join us. Andrea took us back to the dinghy landing, where we said our goodbyes. Lydia held her arms out of the window and yelled, "I forgot to give you a hug!" Jan started walking toward her with his arms open. Lydia said, "Not you...I was talking to Tara!" Jan held his head down and walked away. The girls all giggled. We made the dangerous trek back to the ever-rolling Adventure to get ready to depart the next day.
Sun, Sept 21 At 10am, we went to the oldest church in the Cook Islands. It is a Christian church and the singing and half the sermon is in the native language called Moti. The singing was beautiful and we found out later that the choir was not singing today. One woman said that they sound much better with the choir leading them. After church, they had a reception for visitors with lots of desserts and egg sandwiches. The lawns of the churches on the island are crowded with tombs for the pastors who have died because they don't have family land to be buried on. All the rest of the people are buried in their family's yard, with concrete crypts that rise above the ground and marble tomb stones, many with etchings of the person's face on them.
We drove to Andrea's home to drop off all the dried beans I had on board and some from Peg. Andrea said this was another thing that she can't buy on the island. We returned our motorcycles and then walked back to the dinghy.
At 4pm, we pulled the anchor, which came up without a problem. Ogopogo had to call Onu to dive to get their anchor and chain untangled from the coral. The seas were smooth and there was no wind, so ended up lowering our sail and motoring all night. Our batteries and water were depleted, so this gave us time to recharge and refill. Camissa had left Aitutaki at 2pm, so were in front of us by about 6 miles and Ogopogo in back of us by about the same. It is a 200-mile journey to Palmerston, so it will be a two day trip.
Mon, Sept 22 It was an uneventful night of watches and we slept well with the drone of the engine blocking out the sleep-interrupting groans, bangs, and creaks of the boat.
Sean put up the jib once last night when there was a bit of wind, but it wasn't enough to keep the sail full. We're now really tired of hearing the motor. The seas are picking up and we're rolling a lot, but we don't want to put up the mainsail, which would help to stabilize us, because it will flop back and forth without wind in it.
In the afternoon the swell calmed down. The girls did some school work while I made a triple batch of banana muffins. The Aitutaki Port Authority never came to our boat to confiscate our fruit and veggies, so I needed to use the last of my very ripe bananas from Bora Bora.
We motored all day and finally got 10 knots of wind in the afternoon, but it was coming from directly behind us.
Casey complained about a sore throat and looked a bit feverish. When Sean went to sleep he said he thought he had a slight fever. I'm hoping he's just projecting Casey's fever on himself, but it may be that we picked something up in Aitutaki.
Tue, Sept 23 - Day 1 at Palmerston Atoll "Wake up. Wake up, Kathy, you caught a fish." Sean's voice broke through my rough sleep. He'd put out the jib and turned the motor off and had been fighting a losing battle of keeping the sail full. There was enough wind, but it was too close to our stern and he didn't want to turn so much that we'd have to tack back and forth. The swell had picked up and, without the mainsail up to help stabilize us, we were being tossed to and fro like a cork.
A fish? I shook my head to clear my mind. Oh no, I'd forgotten to take in the fishing line and now that it was 1:30 am, a fish decided to jump on. I wanted to cut the line and go back to bed, but one of our best lures was on the end of it. We pulled in our jib, which slowed us to 2 or 3 knots. I started reeling the fish in while Sean went to look for our gaff. He didn't remember seeing it when he loaded our dinghy this time, so didn't know where it was. I suspected that it had rolled overboard in our last anchorage, which had big rollers hitting us on the side all day and night. Sean went forward to the dinghy and searched for a half an hour while I continued to reel in the fish. I finally realized that the drag wasn't set tight enough and the line wasn't reeling in as I turned the handle. The fish made a run for it several times and then tired out. I reeled some more. About an hour into reeling the fish in, Sean decided to put our jib back up and pole it out so if wouldn't flutter in the wind. He was now completely focused on getting the jib back up. He'd yell for me to pull a line and I'd have to stop reeling and go pull the line. He came back into the cockpit and said, "Alright, let's pull out the jib." There was no way I wanted the boat to go faster while I tried to reel the fish in and made sure he was aware of it. He abruptly grabbed the pole and reeled the fish in the rest of the way. It had huge, bulging eyes, was very skinny, about 2 feet long, with really big teeth, and was dead. I looked it up in our fish book and saw that it was called a daggertooth, under the category of deep sea and ocean fish. We threw it back into the ocean, pulled out our jib, and then Sean went to bed. I must remember to pull in our line before dark from now on!
As dawn approached, we still couldn't see Palmerston. The Palmerston atoll is difficult to pick up on radar because it is barely above sea level. The coconut trees bring it to about 50 feet high. We were still 2 hours away from the Palmerston Island anchorage when we got our first call on the VHF. Sappho, a boat we hadn't met yet, had seen our sail and called to tell us there was a mooring ball available because two boats had left. Camissa had already arrived and had taken one, so there was one left. Ogopogo, who was a few hours behind us, would have to anchor in the coral-bottomed ocean. As we progressed toward the anchorage, we got calls from Camissa, Stream Spirits, Sleipnir, and then finally from Bob, the local man who would help us with our mooring ball and be our host family. When a boat arrives, one of the three families adopts them for their stay on the island. They provide transportation to shore, lunch each day, snorkeling, etc. They don't require payment for these services, but will take food, used clothing, or other items if offered. The moorings cost $10NZD per day, but they'd rather trade for gasoline for their outboard. They get about two supply ships per year that come to bring food and 50-gallon barrels of fuel.
Bob showed us our mooring ball, greeted us, and then said he'd be back with the customs and immigration guys in a few minutes. After we checked in, Bob said they were preparing lunch for us and he'd be back to pick us up. He said they had hot-water showers and would do our laundry too. We thought we had died and went to heaven. Edward, the man we'd brought supplies for, stopped by with one of the cruisers in his boat. They were just coming back from going fishing and had caught a mass of parrot fish. He welcomed us and said he'd be back later to get his supplies from us.
We gathered our laundry, snorkel, and shower bags and Bob drove us through a very narrow, fast-flowing break in the reef. It was a place that required an expertise to navigate and I realized why they didn't want the yachties to bring their own dinghies in. The lagoon is large and beautiful, with every shade of turquoise imaginable. The beauty at the 6-island atoll is raw, with no hotels, buildings, boats, or other sign of human intervention except on the island we went to.
We walked with Bob down a coral-sand road, past many small buildings, shacks, and huts. Past two massive, concrete water tanks that held rain water. Past a newly-built church and old grave yard. Past a empty open-air building that had a sign which read "Palmerston Island Yacht Club", and into a large home complex of several buildings that included a huge kitchen (which had a sign over it that read "Country Club), sleeping rooms, dinning room, laundry room, and showers. Here we were greeted by Bill (who introduced himself as Bill Clinton), his wife Metua, and his 78-year-old mother, Inano. Bob explained that he lived down the street a bit and we'd meet his wife, Topou, later. Bill grabbed my laundry bag and said we'd go see the laundry ladies. He explained that he had two laundry ladies, but one wasn't well. In the laundry room he showed me his two washing machines (aka: the ladies). One was broken. Another cruiser's clothes were in the machine, so Bill said to leave my laundry bag there.
Tara and I walked into the kitchen, and Bill brought us a partially-frozen pineapple-flavored drink that he poured from a large mayonnaise jar. Debbie, one of the yachties from Timshel, was making pizza bread and Inano was just finishing baking some yummy-smelling rolls. She asked me to take them out of the oven for her and then told us to sit down to chat. She brought us hot buns and some margarine. We were in heaven. She kept bring more to the table for us, so we had another. It was 10:30am and we were informed that we had plenty of time to go snorkeling before lunch, which would be served at 1pm.
There were 7 other boats at the island and our host family had taken 4 of them: Adventure, Camille, Timshel, and Ino. Bob said that they'll probably host 50 yachts this year, but some years about 100 yachts visit Palmerston.
Casey and I went snorkeling while Tara and Sean stayed to chat with other cruisers and our host families. Casey and I saw 4 huge stingrays when we first got in the water and then lots of beautiful coral and reef fish. We only saw a few of the big, colorful clams. I found out later that the population of clams had, for unknown reasons, been decreasing over the past few years.
We went back to Bill's house and took hot showers. Bill had already put a load of my dark clothes in the washer. He showed me where to hang the clothes as he put in the load of whites. He'd strung an elaborate set of clothes lines throughout the open-air Yacht Club building, so clothing could still dry during rain squalls, but was pulled up high near the rafters. Metua came and sat at the huge picnic table Bill had made from a tree that grew locally. She wanted to chat. It was apparent as she talked with me throughout the day that she craved a social outlet with a non-island person. She said, "My husband said, 'Why do you have to talk so loud and so much?' and I said, 'What do you like better, to hear someone talking, or to hear nothing all day long?' In case you didn't notice, there is no one here to talk to!"
For lunch, the cruisers that Bob and Bill were hosting sat around a large table, with the island families sitting in chairs outside the dining area. They always feed their guests first and then, only when their dishes are cleared do the island families eat. The meal is served family-style, with three plates of each type of food placed along the table to make it easy for each person to reach. Plastic wrap is placed over each plate of food to keep it warm and bugs out. We had fried bananas, fish cakes that even Casey would eat, pizza, rice, bean salad, couscous, taro root, sticky buns with coconut cream, coconut bread, and more. Our meal was started with a Christian prayer and then Bill started cracking open the tops of ice-cold coconuts for drinks. They also served us the frozen pineapple drink from mayonnaise jars, Casey's favorite.
After lunch, Bob took us on a walking tour of the island. We saw the newly-built church and the cemetery that contained William Marsters' headstone. He was the guy that founded Palmerston. We visited the old palm-leaf-roofed huts where the locals use to live and where the missionary who preaches at the church now lives. They are taking donations to pay for a new home for the missionary, who had gone to Roratonga, the nearest island, for meetings and to raise funds. Bob pointed out the extensive use of the 50-gallon metal drums that the fuel comes in from the mainland. They take the top and bottom off, cut the side, and pound it flat. This is then used for the sides and roofs of buildings, or anywhere else corrugated metal sheets are used.
We walked to the building that contained the island's two large, diesel generators. They were turned off because their supply ship was delayed so they were rationing the small amount of fuel that they had left. They run the generator in the morning until noon and then again in the evening. Each family has its own generators to fill in the gaps.
We visited the Public Works department, which was a nice building that contained very organized and lightly-used tools, equipment, hard hats, and bright yellow vests. They even have a barely-used backhoe. Bob introduced us to the administrator, who sat under the awning of the building. As we walked away, Bob told us about the governmental structure of the island, with the mayor at the top and civil servants (police, administrators, working crew, generator maintenance crew, etc.) under him. Bob is the mayor. New Zealand provides the island with a few hundred thousand dollars each year to pay for these governmental positions, school, and public services. Most of the island's 20 adults are employed by the government. The school is funded by New Zealand as well. Two or three of the 16 school-aged children have dropped out of school. The oldest child, Goldeen, is 15 years old and hopes to go to New Zealand for school next year. There are 43 people currently living on Palmerston. 23 are children.
We walked to the beach where Edward was feeding the yachties (this is what the local's call us) that he was hosting. We knew them all and there was a loud reception and lots of hugs from our cruiser friends that we hadn't seen in several days. Our friends were so excited because they some whales in the mooring field and said that one was bumping up against our boat. They'd yelled and called us on the radio to let us know, but we'd already left to come to shore.
We walked to the school, which was a newly-built structure with a dirt-floor tennis court, two trampolines, and two ping pong tables. They call the school the Palmerston Lucky School because the yachties have been very generous to them over the years. We then walked to a small, one-room building that sold telephone cards and had a computer and internet service. The phone cards can be used at the phone booth a few steps away. A $10NZD phone card buys one hour of calls to the USA and most other countries. Edward, who had followed our tour group so he could get a game of volleyball going with us, said that the phone booth doubles as a sauna when the sun is shining on it. The first ten minutes of internet use is free.
Some of the group stayed to play volleyball. The rest of us walked by two huge water tanks that contain rain water for the village to supplement if a family runs out of their own rain water. Between the two tanks is a small, one-room building, that is the village infirmary. Marnix, a doctor and captain of Ino, was inside with the village nurse. He had been here for three days, examining each resident of Palmerston. He'd been given medication in Roratonga to bring here and dispense when he did check-ups. He told me that he'd seen several kids running around with lollipops hanging out of their mouths and knew that I'd given the candy to the kids. He called me a "wicked woman" and made me come into the examining room to look at his latest patient's teeth. It was a 10-year-old girl who had obviously-rotten teeth. He said the people had diet-related illness, such as chronic constipation from not eating enough veggies and obesity from deep-frying a lot of their foods. Their teeth were in very bad condition and the candy wasn't going to help them.
When we got back from the tour, our laundry was already hung up on the clothes line and Bill had tea, coffee, and cakes waiting for us. All the people we'd met on the island are kind and generous, but Bill is a host by his very nature. He lives to serve others. Bob told me that Bill learned this from his father, who was just as kind and generous.
Metua told me that a supply ship comes three or four times a year. Each time, her family spends about $5,000NZD on food and $10,000NZD on fuel. Her family has 7 freezers and I saw at least 3 refrigerators in use. The freezers are important because they store parrot fish filets, which the Palmerstonians sell to restaurants and stores for $16 per kilo. The parrot fish are special here because they don't carry the toxin that causes ciguatera, a very serious and potentially deadly poisoning caused by some reef fish in the South Pacific. The parrot fish are very good tasting, but are difficult to find in large quantities and untainted. Palmerston exports about four to five tons of parrot fish filets per year and this is the main source of income for the island. The islanders also make and sell shell jewelry, coconut leaf woven hats and bags, and food to cruise ship people. The National Geographic boat (Endeavor?) comes about four times per year and carries 100 to 150 people each time. They stay just for the day and then leave at night.
Metua asked us to give Bob five DVDs when he brought us back to Adventure. She would watch some that night and then return them the next day. That evening, Jan rowed the dinghy over to Adventure to see if any banana muffins were left and hung out with us for a while.