Palmerston Island
BARONESS
Jim & Christine Lister
Fri 4 Nov 2011 00:43
|
We arrived at Palmerston Island on 19 Sept, where
they had mooring bouys our position was 18.05.10S, 163.11.03W. It hadn't been
too bad a journey, first day or so was calm and we were fishing. Glen has been
catching only tuna and Pat was fed up with it and longed for white fish. We were
sailing together and were not far apart which was lucky as Jim caught a Mahi
Mahi and we managed to get half the fish to them by tying a plastic bag with the
fish in, to a fender which Pat picked up. It had got rougher by this time so it
was quite hairy seeing Northern Rose bearing down on us. Still all worked well
and Pat was really pleased.
The anchorage was very rolly and the weather wasn't
great. Pat and Glen were there a few hours before us and the "Officials" were
going out to their boat about 11.00am. We were greated on the radio by
Palmerston Island and met by Simon who helped us on to a bouy. The problem
with the mooring bouys here is that we had had some pretty bad reports about the
reliablity of them but it was too deep to anchor. Discovery had broken free of
his mooring and found himself someway from the Island. His mooring had failed.
Ri Ri, whom we met in Bonaire and again on Ahe, their line to the bouy broke
during the night and they were washed up on the reef, boat a total wreck and now
on shore on Palmerston Island where Simon has ideas for turning the hull into a
shed. So we were a little nervous.
The history of Palmerston is that William Masters
left Lancashire and went to Palmerston Island. He took 3 wives from another of
the Cook Islands called Penryn. Palmerston is made up of several smaller
islands within a reef and he established one wife on 3 of the islands, visited
them and produced 28 children! The population of Palmerston is now around 70, 35
are children but everyone has the surname of Masters. No one from outside
can live there and they marry within the family. They do have strict
rules for marriage and I didn't see any sign of interbreeding. All the
people now live on just one island but they sometimes go to the other islands
for BBQ's and a camp out.
Just like the song "she lives on just coconuts and
fish from the sea" this is largely true. They have a visit from a cargo
ship about every 3 months if they are lucky and export fish to Tonga and New
Zeland. Their supplies are often increased by us visiting cruisers and building
projects on the island have often been accomplished with our help.
On arrival you are allocated a host family and they
look after you for your stay. Getting to the island from the anchorage is
difficult and can be very rough, not to be attempted in a dingy, so they come
and fetch you and feed you whilst ashore. We wandered round the
island, which isn't that big but it took a
couple of trips to see most of it because you walk so far and then meet someone
and next thing is you are sitting around with the family and "visiting" and time
goes and you've not seen very much or gone very far. They were all so friendly
and welcoming. We had a nice time at the school where other cruisers have also
given lessons which has been very welcome from the children and the
teachers.
Our host family was Simon and his brother Eddie,
Eddie is also the island Police. All the offical jobs have been shared out
amongst the families as the jobs are a source of income. Eddie and Simon have
children but their wives have left. I can imagine that living on the island may
not be everyones cup of tea. The nurse visits the homes and checks up on
everyone but she was seen as a bit of an outsider even though she is also a
Masters, as is the school Head Teacher.
Although the achorage was so rolly and
uncomfortable and being nervous of the mooring, this was made up by the warm
welcome from the people of Palmerston and being able to sit on your boat and
watch hump back whales go bye so close that you can see their eye looking at
you! Also saw turtles. We saw three whales although Paul the fisherman on the
island said he thought there were 5. We do have some pics but needless to say we
missed opportunities as, who wants to go get the camera when you are watching
these magnificant beasts?
Glen, who was very nervous of the moorings left a
few days before us. By this time we knew that we had a very dodgy autohelm. We
had no steering ability whilst the ram was attached to the quadrant but could
manage to make it work on auto. New ram was deffinatly needed so Northern Rose
left for Tonga and we had to head for US Samoa so that we could get a new ram
sent from the US. Before leaving we contacted our trusty friend Jeff in
the States, who ordered us the new ram so hopefully it will be there when we
arrive.
So we set off 26 Sept, just as Mambo and Changing Spots arrived. We got out a few
miles, went to put the main up and as I looked up so I noticed that the rigging
on the small shroud, port side was fraying right where the wire had been
attached to the t-bar!! So we about turned and picked up the mooring bouy
again to scratch out heads and wonder what to do. After much discussion and
thoughts Heinz from Mambo decided that we should be ok if we put our spare
kicking strap from the mast off a halyard to the toerail, not put too much
pressure into the mainsail and hope we didn't have foul weather, we should be
alright to get to Samoa.
So next day we left for Samoa. Auto helm packed in
altogether dispite Jim taking it apart again and "Dr Glen" offering technical
advice via the SSB radio. We had a reef in the main and chugged along at 4k Jim
doing most of the helming during the day and at night we heaved to and went to
bed! The weather was very kind to us with slight winds sometimes no wind so a
lot of motoring, seas could be a bit uncomftable as we were being pushed from
the side.
It took us 7 days to get to Samoa and arrived on 4
October. |