september 2 2004 : mo’orea, society islands, french polynesia
I thought after our 24 day passage across the Pacific that everything after that was going to feel like nothing. Now it seems that a one day passage completely wipes us out. We actually left two days ago with the intention of sailing down here. The weather was pretty good for sailing, and we had everything done that we wanted to. So we left the north side of Ra’iatea in the early afternoon and began cruising around the east side. It was about 12 miles to the last pass leading out of the lagoon. By the time we got to the pass 3 hours later we both realized that we were feeling exhausted and were in no mood to sail overnight. So instead we pulled in to a nearby bay and dropped the anchor for the night. I’m not sure what our problem is but we both have just felt out of it lately. Like we can’t find the energy to do anything. Maybe we’re just lazy but don’t want to come right out and admit it.

So yesterday morning we woke up refreshed and ready to finish off the last 90 miles of the trip. Of course now there was no wind whatsoever. We motored out through the pass and continued motoring all day until about midnight when it suddenly piped up to 15 knots and we were able to raise the sails and shut down the engines. We pulled in to Cook’s Bay right after the sun came up and it promptly began to rain, which seems to happen more times than not when we are about to anchor.

Mo’orea reminds us a lot of the Marquesas. The anchorages are cut deep into the surrounding tall mountains. Mo’orea has a ton of shops and restaurants scattered all along it’s coastline for miles, so tomorrow we are going to head in and rent a car to take in the island a little bit.

september 3 2004 : mo’orea
Big news last night. A little while back I read a letter in the Seven Seas Cruising Association bulletin asking for people to contact the editor of a sailing magazine if you were interested in submitting articles to them. I wrote him and just told him to check out our website and to let us know if he thought he would be interested in getting an article from us. So he did, and he got back to us and asked me to write an article about our Bahamas experience. I threw together an article and he said they really liked it, he just had to run it by the rest of the staff. Anyway, last night we got an email stating that they want to buy it. Buy? I just thought it would be cool to get our picture in a magazine, I didn’t know they would actually pay us for it. It’s not a lot obviously, but we’ll take it! So as soon as I find out what issue it’s going to be printed in I’ll let you all know.

Today we rented a car. This time it was a brand new Ford Festiva, no super tiny Fiat this time. As we drove away we were both commenting on what a nice car this was and how it even had a cd player, air conditioning, etc. etc.. Then we suddenly realized we were talking about a Ford Festiva! Man, you can tell we have only driven three times in the last ten months or so if we are starting to talk about a Festiva as being cool. First stop was up to the belvedere. It offered a great view of both the bays.

The rest of the day we just circled the island. The most amazing thing about the island was that in 40 miles there must have been at least 400 restaurants. Perfect for the two of us but I can’t imagine how most of them could make any money. Unless locals like to eat out as much as we do. We also stopped at a bunch of stores where we got some Christmas shopping done. Ya, that’s right, Christmas. We figure since we are going home for the holiday’s this year we better bring some good stuff back with us.

One shop we stopped at was a whole bunch of local pottery and they had a big garden in the back with the pottery all over, and tons of birds and flowers. As we were walking back in the store I noticed a sign that said it cost 500 CFP ($5 USD) to take pictures and to leave your cameras at the front counter. It was nice and all, but $5 for pictures. We didn’t mention to them that we had just taken a couple pictures. Rebels aren’t we? Taking free pictures of pottery and flowers. We jumped in the car and I popped the clutch leaving a patch of rubber for 50 yards behind us. Just kidding, come on, it’s a Festiva.

september 4 2004 : mo’orea
Today was set aside for another internet search. This island has quite a few internet places. Usually these include two computers set into a back room of a grocery store or a fabric shop. We went to one place where, as usual, the internet was down for the day. Then we dinghied across the bay to another place which was the nicest place we have found in all of French Polynesia called Maria Tapas. After a painfully slow two hour upload, the website was updated. The nice thing about the place was that it was also a bar that had a wide selection of imported beers. Ali set a new Bumfuzzle record by dropping $11 on a big can of Amadeus from somewhere over in Europe. We had to disqualify the record though, since it wasn’t a local beer. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

One thing we have found a little strange here was how much the locals seem to hate the people from Tahiti. Yesterday we were talking to a guy from the car rental agency about how nice the island was. He then explained to us this was because they have government workers whose only job is to go around picking up garbage around the island. Then he added that “those people” come over from Tahiti on the weekends and just sit around drinking and throwing their beer bottles on the ground. Ya, I haven’t seen any locals doing that.

Then today we were in a black pearl shop talking to the lady there who was more interested in hearing all about Bumfuzzle than she was in selling us a pearl. We told her we were going over to Tahiti tomorrow and she seemed to pull back and say, “It is very dirty on Tahiti, your boat will be covered in dirt.” Alrighty then. Funny thing about all this is that yesterday when we were driving around the island we came around a corner and found hundreds of cars parked along the side of the road and filling two large parking lots. Turns out these were all the locals from Mo’orea taking the ferry over to Tahiti to work. Guess they don’t hate Tahiti so much that they won’t work there.

september 6 2004 : tahiti, society islands, french polynesia
We left Mo’orea yesterday and headed out for a quick motor over to Tahiti. We radioed harbor control on our way in to get permission to enter the harbor. “Okay, no problem.” Then we made our way over to Quai Bir Hakeim which is right along the main boulevard through the city. I had read that spaces were often hard to get here since this is where all the visiting yachts like to tie up. Well as we rounded the corner it was immediately obvious that we are now running very late in the season. There were only four other boats along the quay.

We lined up where we wanted to tie up and dropped a stern anchor, pulled forward to make sure that set, then inched forward towards the wall where a helpful neighbor came out and caught our lines and tied us up. We got off the boat and I spent the next half hour or so trying to get the lines tied up correctly so the boat would stay straight. I couldn’t get it right though, and it seemed like the back anchor was moving. So we untied the lines hopped back on the boat and pulled up the anchor to try again. As I pulled up the anchor it seemed extremely heavy. I finally got it up and there was a huge rope caught on top of it which I had pulled up as well. Obviously the anchor had gotten stuck on this and that’s why it didn’t set. Anyway, the second time was the charm and we were safely med-moored.

Now first things first. We were in search of food. We walked along the boulevard and saw some kids at a playground with McDonald’s cups. We knew we were close. As we came around the next corner it appeared, like a mirage in the desert. And not surprisingly, even the locals were lined up out the door.

Back on Bum we did a few things to get ready for the night. When we got here our neighbor told us that the boat two down from us had been robbed the night before while they were onboard. It seems that the trick is to make sure you keep your boat far enough off of the quay that they can’t just hop on. We keep ours about ten feet away, but then have to use the dinghy to get back and forth. So we chained up the dinghy, put some little luggage locks on the outside lockers, and made sure there wasn’t anything on deck that would tempt them. I even tied a little fishing line to an empty can and rigged it like a trip wire. Seems a little dorky and overcautious but since we were getting the information first hand instead of through the grapevine we knew it was true and it seems like a couple small precautions should help us hang onto our stuff.

september 8 2004 : tahiti
The talk around the quay between all the cruisers continues to center on the robberies around here. It seems a German boat got robbed a few nights ago and the guy fired off a warning shot. He says next time he’ll shoot him. Maybe the dumbass should just pick up his boat a little bit and not be such an easy target in the first place. All these cruisers who are getting robbed have their decks cluttered with everything imaginable and then can’t seem to understand why they get robbed. It’s like always leaving your garage door open and then being shocked when your lawn mower is gone. Anyway, cruisers love to talk about this sort of thing, while we find it incredibly boring and stupid. Like when our gas tank was stolen. We told one person on the boat next to us, then he goes and announces it the next day over the radio on the South Pacific Net.

september 10 2004 : tahiti
Well we either just thwarted our first robbery attempt or at least postponed it. We were out this afternoon and as we were walking back to the boat we noticed a teenage kid just hanging out on the pier in front of Bum. Obviously trying to act busy, just kind of touching things and wandering around in circles. We thought, hmm, he looks suspicious. As we approached he kind of drifted off down the dock away from us. Then we noticed three other teenagers standing next to a pickup truck about 50 yards away just standing around too. So we watched the one guy just kind of mosey on down the dock and when he got to the truck all four of them piled in it and drove off. Hopefully that’s it now.

This morning we finally completed our most important boat project. Getting the screecher back up. Yesterday we got the new halyard run through the mast but it was too windy to hike up the sail. Today the wind died and we were able to get it up. Feels good to have that sail back. Even after all the bad things we say about it when we can’t get it furled nicely, we really missed it. And with all the sailing we have to do in the next few weeks we really are going to need it.

We also changed the oil in both engines. I bought a drill pump from Shurflo, which you connect to a cordless drill and is basically like an impeller that sucks the oil in one end and spits it out the other. I thought it would be a lot easier and cleaner than the handheld pump we use now. My mom brought it with her when she visited. I gave it a try today and it didn’t work at all. So we were back to the old pump again.

We also fixed our leaky two front windows and made a couple new straps to replace our velcro ones that keep all the lines from slapping against the mast and making all sorts of annoying noise. After all that boat work (about two hours worth) we figured we had earned a beer break. Maybe not, but we took one anyway. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Big Burger drinking Hinanos and people watching. There was one guy who clearly has schizophrenia, who was a lot of fun to watch and kept us entertained for hours.

I also wanted to mention the crosswalks here because I have been so amazed. Here in Pape’ete they don’t have walk signals like back home, they just have these brick paved crosswalks all over the place. The amazing thing about it is that you could approach one in rush hour traffic, close your eyes and walk across it without getting run over. As soon as you approach one, the cars come to a stop and patiently wait for you to cross. Might seem like a little thing to you, but back in Chicago if you don’t wait a full five seconds after you get the walk signal you will get run over by a car blowing the light. Here they don’t even have lights, just polite drivers. Ah, the simple pleasures.

september 12 2004 : tahiti
So today after six days safely tied up along the quay we suddenly found the boat loose and trying to smash the wall. The wind was blowing pretty hard and had shifted around to the north instead of the south where it had been all week. I was sitting on the couch when I felt a little bump and looked out the window to a totally different view than I was used to. Ali and I quickly jumped up and got the engines started, luckily the starboard hull had just gently eased up to the smooth wood wall and rested there. Ali jumped off and started tossing the lines off so I could pull the boat out of there. The anchor somehow had started dragging. Now I realize that it must not have been set, it was probably just tangled up in one of the hundreds of lines that seem to be lying on the bottom here, so while the wind was blowing the boat one direction it was fine, but as soon as it came from the other side we were loose.

We then spent the next two hours trying to get settled again. Ali was stuck on the quay while I was trying to re-anchor the boat and back us in again. I tried at least ten times to get the anchor to set and each time I was dragging. Every single time I brought the anchor up again I had at least two or three thick lines and some miscellaneous garbage tangled up in it. I cut at least half a dozen of these off but I still managed to get more the next time. Eventually we ended up putting the anchor out about twice as far as should be necessary and it finally held. By then we were muddy, sweaty, and sunburned. Not a nice way to spend the day. I guess we should be happy that we were on the boat at the time though. After all that we were off to McDonald’s again, where we have become addicted to Oreo McFlurries.

september 13 2004 : tahiti
Today is checking out and running around day. This morning we brought in some laundry to have done, we bought a couple more gallons of oil, we visited immigration, customs, and the port captain, where we paid for tying up to the quay (about $20 per day). After getting our clearance paperwork done we went to the bank where we got our bond returned to us. Then we went to the market again to grab some fresh vegetables and a beer. We made another trip to the grocery store to pick up some hamburgers and fresh bread.

Our next destination is Palmerston Atoll, which is a tiny little atoll with about 50 residents, about 750 miles west of here. We’ll rest up there for a few days and then we are heading to Tonga which is another 750 miles from there. We’ll rest up there for a week or so as we wait for a good weather window to make the 1100 mile passage south to New Zealand. We are in kind of a race against time now since cyclone season officially begins on November 1st. We need to be in Auckland before then for sure.

Tonight we went out for a snack at the roulettes, which means caravans in French. These things are famous here and some of the vans are pretty amazing, one even had a fish tank. I had a calzone which was excellent and Ali chose to stick with dessert and got an Oreo cookie crepe with vanilla ice cream, also excellent. There were a few locals there but the place was crawling with tourists. We decided that it was the highest concentration of white people speaking English that we have seen since the Bahamas. And there wasn’t even a cruise ship in port last night.

september 14 2004 : en route to palmerston atoll
What a long day today. We woke up early this morning in anticipation of getting underway. First thing on the list today was one last trip to McDonald’s, for breakfast this time. After that we had about $25 left in Pacific Francs so we headed over to the grocery store and picked up some pop. After that it was back to the boat to give it one last good wash. It felt great to have a hose with unlimited freshwater to wash with, the boat feels cleaner than it has in months. While I was doing that Ali found another 5000 CFP note in her wallet ($50). Better now than tomorrow.

Around ten we were on our way to the marina a few miles away on the west side of the island. We got over there around noon and filled up our tanks with duty free fuel which cost closer to $2 per gallon as opposed to the normal $4, so that was a nice savings. I still don’t understand the reasoning behind the whole duty free thing though.

Pulling up to the marina we saw another McDonald’s right next door. Well seeing as it was now lunchtime and we had some extra cash we decided we’d better make one final stop, whether we were hungry or not. And at last, at 12:30 we finally left Tahiti and French Polynesia behind. The winds have been light all afternoon and we are really happy to finally have the screecher back up.

september 17 2004 : en route
Right around midnight of our first night out from Tahiti the wind died. We had completely flat seas for the next twenty-four hours which we spent motoring the entire time, despite the fact that our diesel needs to cover the next 1500 miles to Tonga.

So after a very long, hot day of motoring the wind finally kicked in on our second night. Since then it has been blowing 15-20 knots from behind pretty steadily. We have just continued on with the screecher up despite the fact that if we brought it in and raised the main we could probably pick up a little bit more speed. It just doesn’t feel worth the effort.

I also got seasick yesterday for the first time in months. Not sure what brought that on, but it definitely kept me laid up on the couch all day and night. Ali has been having trouble the last month or so with seasickness too, though she is doing good on this passage. Seems weird that we each got a little seasick our first time out in the boat but then were fine for thousands of miles only to get sick now in relatively calm seas. Oh well, at least the wind is blowing and we are halfway to Palmerston.

september 19 2004 : en route
Yesterday the wind slowly diminished, along with our speed. We continued to sail though, at just under 3 knots. Not much progress being made. We spent the day playing Monopoly, which we have decided isn’t a very fun two person game. We have been moving so slow that there is no chance of us catching any fish so we have been eating our frozen hamburger patties, which don’t taste very good, like most frozen hamburger patties. We did have some of Ali’s now famous potato salad but that’s all gone now. We are so sick of the food we have onboard that we find ourselves discussing in detail the magazine advertisement with different recipes for macaroni and cheese. “Oh, if we just had some bacon bits and a tomato, or chicken breasts and broccoli. Man would that be the best!”

Today is looking much like the picture from the last log. The wind has almost completely disappeared and we are motoring again. Problem is, with 300 miles to go on this leg of the trip, and 750 miles on the next one, we can’t possibly motor all the way to Palmerston. Soon the engines will have to be shutdown and we’ll be at the mercy of the fickle winds. I can see how the Pacific got the name.

Later in the afternoon, as if to prove my earlier statement wrong, we caught a nice big mahi mahi. There is still no wind though, so we continue to motor for now. It was 95 degrees and with no breeze, it felt like it. So we stopped the boat for a little while so I could take a little deep sea swim.

september 21 2004 : en route
Under 100 miles to go now. All day yesterday we were motoring in perfectly flat seas again. Then out of nowhere the wind appeared blowing twenty knots. It’s held out so far through the next morning so now we are on schedule to get in tomorrow morning. Eight days at sea didn’t feel like anything to me this time. I think even Ali would have to agree with that though she is definitely ready to be there.

Haven’t been doing much during the days, Ali has been reading about a book a day, and I managed to fix something that has been driving me absolutely mad for a year now. In each hull there are a couple of built in fiberglass stairs that you use to climb up into the forward bunks. The doors that lead into these rooms have a wood molding around them. Well, the wood would rub against the fiberglass every time the boat flexed, which is almost constantly, making this horrible creaking noise.

Anyway, I could never tell for sure where it was coming from because there is also a wood wall panel that butts up to the steps. So the other day I finally just chipped the wood back on the door panel a quarter of an inch so it would not be touching the fiberglass any more. Instant quiet onboard. I could feel my sanity slowly slipping away every time it creaked.

september 23 2004 : palmerston atoll, cook islands
We finally arrived yesterday after a very slow passage. A couple nights ago the wind did finally pick up and we were scooting along pretty good with just the screecher out. However we found that at our current speed we would arrive around midnight at Palmerston. Since we didn’t even have charts of the atoll this was out of the question and we decided that we would need to slow the boat speed down to 3 knots to arrive at sunrise. Meaning of course that we would need to furl the screecher in 20 knots of wind. Which by now you should know is nearly impossible for us. We spent an hour battling the stupid thing and couldn’t get it. The top section just does not like to roll up like the bottom section. Eventually we decided to try raising the jib to try and block some of the wind from the screecher. Surprisingly this did the trick and we were able to finally get it in. It wasn’t wrapped up pretty but at least it wasn’t flapping wildly in the wind anymore.

So yesterday morning we pulled up in front of Palmerston. As we approached we found two other boats anchored outside the lagoon. This was a little disappointing to me since I was under the impression that virtually nobody stops here. I eventually found out that they probably see about 20 boats a year. When we got close we got a call on the VHF from Edward (I should mention that they speak English here) who said he’d be right out to show us where to anchor. Edward came out in his skiff and had us follow him and showed us right where to drop it. He told us that at high tide he would bring us inside the lagoon. So I jumped in for a quick swim and quickly saw about a dozen white tip sharks cruising around along the bottom. The bottom was pure coral so anchoring is just a matter of your anchor and chain snagging on a piece of it.

After a little while Edward came back with two other people who were to clear us in. They had one piece of paper for us to fill out and then they jotted our passport numbers down in a notebook and they were done. Around three o’clock Edward came back and said it was high tide and we could go in now. He came on the boat with us while Paul and his son John led the way in their skiff. This was quite possibly the scariest place we will ever go through on our boat.

The pass was about 50 feet wide (we are 21.5), there was coral heads everywhere, and at one point the depth was just barely 4 feet (we are 3.5). But Edward stood up front and gave me hand signals while I steered us through. All we could do was trust that they knew what they were doing, and they did. They steered us through about a quarter mile of coral heads and right up in front of their beach. There they had a couple of mooring lines chained onto coral heads. We threw John and Paul a couple lines and they tied us off. After a little adjusting we found ourselves floating perfectly centered between three coral heads, a hundered feet in front of a beautiful palm fringed beach.

Everybody joined us on the boat where we hauled out our stash of DVDs for them to go through. We were like a floating Blockbuster Video. Then we went ashore and walked over to Edward’s house. We met his wife Shirley and son David. After Edward chopped open a couple of coconuts for us to drink David took us for a tour of the island. We were surprised to find three volleyball courts set up for an island with only about 50 people on it. But it seems that is their favorite pastime, and David quickly challenged me to a game. One on one volleyball against an eight-year-old. I was pretty sure I could use my height advantage to win, but David took the game 15-13. After that we called it a night and went back to the boat for our normal post passage twelve hour sleep.

This morning was a big morning for the island. The supply ship was here for its once every four months stop. The islanders place their orders with family back on the bigger islands of Rarotonga or Aitutaki and they fill it for them. To pay for all their stuff they catch parrot fish and ship it back to them. The family sells the fish, tells them how much they got for it, and that’s what they get to spend for the next ship. The ship also delivered a body. Seems a lot of the islanders that grow up here and then go off to live somewhere else want to come back here to be buried. So tomorrow there will be a funeral, followed by a big picnic.

september 24 2004 : palmerston atoll
Today we went to a funeral. It was for a priest who lived on Palmerston as well as Rarotonga and New Zealand, and whose body had arrived on the supply ship the day before. He had twelve children, forty-nine grandchildren, eighty-nine great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. The funeral service was amazing, held in their small church with walls of windows opening up to views of the beach and the sound of breaking waves.

The hymns they sang were eerie, sounding to our ears like Native American chanting, and led by a very old woman whose voice was like nothing either of us had heard before. After the service we all gathered outside the church where he would be buried. Three men lowered the body into the grave, fired up the cement mixer, poured the cement over the casket, and proceeded to quickly fill in the hole. Back home they usually leave that messy business until after the family has left, but here it was all part of the service.

After the funeral the whole island gathered for a picnic. Ali and I were quickly engulfed by all the children and spent the next couple of hours with a dozen kids climbing all over us. It was fun watching the little girls warm up to Ali and ask her to lead them in all sorts of games. One funny moment was when we were all sitting down and eating lunch they started to ask us our full names, and the names of all our family members. They asked Ali what her father’s name was, and when she said Alfred, they burst out laughing like it was the absolute funniest thing they had ever heard. They would repeat the word Alfred and just start crying they would laugh so hard. Sorry Al.

One thing we have found here that we are having a hard time getting used to is the separation between men and women. Yesterday Edward and Shirley had us over for lunch. We all sat down to eat but Shirley just sat up on the porch and watched us. When we were finished the table was cleared and she went in to the house where she sat and ate her lunch by herself. Then at the picnic today it was really clear. Men are to sit in a circle off to one side, and women are to sit near the food and attend to those matters. Needless to say Ali doesn’t like it one bit. But we aren’t here to judge, and I’m sure things will be ten times worse once we reach our first Muslim country.

We also met another couple who are here on their boat. We got to talking to them a little bit about where we had been and where we are going. At one point the lady looks at us and says, “You guys aren’t real cruisers.” To which we replied, “Thanks, we get that a lot.” I guess you can’t enjoy fast food or big cities and be considered a “real” cruiser.

september 25 2004 : palmerston atoll
The adventures in Palmerston continue. Today started out normal enough. I dove under the boat and removed the prop so I could try and fix the zinc that has managed to wiggle itself loose and therefore just rattles the whole time we are underway. Then Ali and I went for a walk around the island. That circumnavigation took about half an hour.

Around noon David started yelling to us from the beach, “Come on, we’re going to the birds!” We didn’t have a clue what he was talking about but figured he meant we were having lunch. We asked if we needed to bring anything but he just yelled excitedly, “Come on!” We headed ashore and walked over to his house. Where his mother told us they were picking birds, as she could tell we still hadn’t a clue what everyone was talking about, she told David to bring us down there to see. We walked down to where we had the picnic the day before, still assuming we were going to some sort of lunch. As we got closer we could here a strange noise. It sounded like pigs squealing. A pig roast for lunch? Then we saw it. All the islanders were gathered around a net with dozens of squawking birds in it. Little fuzzy Boson birds.

Every month, from June to October, a few men go to a nearby motu to gather the birds. They leave the mama birds behind and collect their babies, who are six weeks old and too young to fly. A total of six hundred birds a year.

This month there were forty-three birds. I’m not sure how they divide them up, but Edward had a clipboard and told each family how many they would get. When he gave the word, all of the kids that were gathered around the net jumped in and started grabbing the birds, throwing them into their respective family’s wheelbarrow. The kids thought it was great fun, while we just sort of stood around stunned by the whole scene.

Afterwards we went back to Edward’s house. The entire family was already hard at work preparing the birds for tomorrow’s feast. I figured that if I was going to eat any Boson bird I’d better help out, so I grabbed one of the squawking birds, gave his neck a good snap, and started picking feathers.

Once they were picked clean one of the children would take a machete and chop off the wings, then hand them to mom who would shove a stick in them and hold them over the fire to singe off the remaining feathers. Next it would get sent over to grandma who was in charge of gutting them. One of the kids told me I was lucky they didn’t get more birds today, usually they get around 100 and it can take until dark to finish all the work. Ali not knowing if she was going to eat any Boson bird or not, kept busy once again with a few of the little girls that are hanging off of her at all times.

After all this was done we had John out to the boat where we burned a couple of music CDs for him. We showed him the website on the computer and he proceeded to tell me how much bigger his fish are. A true fisherman.

Tomorrow we have a full day planned, with church at ten, the bird feast at noon, and an invitation to come to the “yacht club” at three for ice cream. We are definitely getting the full experience of life on Palmerston. Ali and I were joking that we will have spent more time in church here in one week than we have in our entire lives.

Just as I was finishing writing this log, Edward and Paul showed up with a boatload of ten kids. It was time to play Blockbuster Video again. They cleaned us out. They love movies more than us I think. We noticed two new television sets delivered on the supply boat the other day. Since they don’t have cable I guess it’s DVDs or nothing.

september 26 2004 : palmerston atoll
This morning we woke up and went to church. Our souls are now saved and from what I could gather we will indeed be going to heaven. Before church we went to Edward’s where we found everyone lying around in their shorts and showing no intention of going to church. They said David had just left and they would see us afterwards. So we walked off on our own to church. The service was surprisingly short and afterwards everyone gathered outside. All the old ladies came up to us welcoming us once again and leaning in for us to kiss them on their cheeks. They are the sweetest ladies and it is really cool to see how they are treated in this society. Everyone respects their elders here without question. If grandma says jump, they jump.

Back at Edward’s, after a quick rehashing of the day’s verse and a recital of the Lord’s Prayer everybody sat down for the baby Boson bird feast. I cut Ali and I a nice clean piece of breast meat, while the rest of them cleaned every ounce off the bones. Edward told me the best part of the bird was the fat attached to the skin and then proceeded to watch me closely. With no choice I grabbed a chunk of fatty skin and bit into it. Mmmmm, gulp. Yummy.

The meat itself tasted just like duck and was actually pretty good. They also had chicken which we enjoyed a little bit more. They served all of this with rice, taro, potato salad, and this coconut dish which is coconut meat mixed with starch to make this stuff that has the consistency of paste. You could throw the whole bowl of it against the wall and none of it would fall to the floor. It didn’t have any flavor that I could detect but everybody seemed to really enjoy it. And of course to drink we had chilled coconuts.

After lunch we had John, Marion, and Teina out to the boat to go swimming. All three of them were really nice kids and they had more fun than I would have ever thought possible jumping off the back of the boat into the water over and over again. We gave them pink lemonade, which they called pink lime juice, and a bunch of cookies that disappeared before I could get my hands on any.

We had a lot of fun and then at three o’clock we headed over to Uncle Bill’s Yacht Club for ice cream. Now there is a treat you don’t expect on an island that only has power for a few hours each day. Bill is a super nice guy who asked us to spread the word that he is a full service “yacht club.” Meaning basically that he can fix an outboard engine, he has the only clothes washer on the island, and he will offer you every single item of food that he has. All he asks in return is that you bring him some cheap Panamanian beer.

After that it was time to call it a day. We went back to the boat and had the whole family come out one last time to dig through the DVDs. If you ever visit Palmerston bring them a few DVDs and they will treat you like visiting royalty. Actually, I’m sure they would even without them. We are off for Tonga tomorrow.

Oh, I also got that zinc fixed. After removing it I found that the holes for the screws had gotten worn away so much that the screws just popped right through to the other side. So I mixed up some epoxy and filled in the holes. Once that was set, I drilled new holes for the screw and we were back in business. No more rattling noise for the next passage. Man, the boat is starting to get quiet.

september 29 2004 : en route to tonga
A couple days ago we bid farewell to all of our new friends in Palmerston. At 8 a.m. we had high tide and Edward and Paul came to lead us back out of the lagoon. This time was even scarier for me since it was so early the sun was still low on the horizon making it impossible for me to see the coral heads at all. So Bumfuzzle was completely in the hands of the locals. Once again however, everything went perfectly and by following Edward’s hand signals and Paul’s boat we were quickly anchored safely outside. We then went back with them to visit immigration and say goodbye.

Immigration was surprising. The office was housed in a big steel shed that we had assumed was more of a storage shed than offices, but when they opened the doors, after this long holiday weekend, there was a pretty nice little office area inside with real sheet rocked walls and even a couple of computers. They had us fill out an arrival form and a departure form.

Then it was back over to Edward’s to hand out our gifts. Basically we gave all the men a t-shirt and a couple bottles of beer and Shirley got movies and the last of our chocolate candy. It was fun to see how genuinely happy these small gifts made them. We also gave them a couple bags of food which we knew wouldn’t get used on our boat. Back in Florida we had bought a bag of flour and some rice,”staples” I guess most people call them. We ended up calling them a waste of space. We also gave them a big jar of grape jam which was the surprise hit out of everything. Anyway, it was nice to repay a little of their kindness to us over the last few days. After that Edward brought us back to the boat, we upped anchored and motored off towards Tonga.

By night the wind had picked up enough for us to sail and we cruised along nicely under a full moon that was so bright at times we felt like a ship must be shining a spotlight on us. Since then the wind has been behind us for the most part at around 10 knots and we continue to make slow but steady progress. The only thing of interest the last couple days is that the first night we decided to try out a new watch schedule. Ali slept from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. and I had 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. Some cruisers had told us that you get a better rest since you get six uninterrupted hours of sleep instead of breaking it up. The next day though, I had decided that Monday was the longest day ever, and Ali decided Tuesday was the longest day ever. So Tuesday night we went back to our regular three hour watch schedule.

A funny thing happened the day before we left Palmerston. Another yacht had arrived and we were sitting around shooting the breeze with them at Edward’s house. While talking about how some cruiser was having trouble anchoring here at Palmerston the lady said, “I tell you, some people think that you can just hop on a boat and go. Well I don’t think so, there’s a lot to learn.” Ali and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes.