Palmerston  -  Sarah

September 26, 1998

Palmerston Island

 This place is one of a kind, what a unique experience, in many ways like Pitcairn, but also very unlike.  We had heard about the place on the radio enough, it has the reputation of unsurpassed hospitality.  The history of the place is curious in itself.  William Masters arrived to set up a coconut plantation in 1872, accompanied by his Polynesian wife and her two sisters.  He married all three and had 20 children.  The island, 11 km across at it’s widest,, was divided between the three families.  These divisions still hold and I understand intermarrying among families is carefully controlled.  The islanders still refer to themselves as being either an East, Middle or West family.  Today there are 38 people on the island, down from the 200 or more that islanders remember.  The youngest member was only several hours old when we stepped onto the island for the first time and were invited into the living room/bedroom/birthing room to visit with our host family.

Our connection with Palmerston started on Rarotonga.  We were hitching a ride and were picked up by this friendly couple in a pickup truck.  On dropping us of by our boat at the town pier in Avatiu they offered us a large stalk of bananas.  We invited them onto our boat and told them if they knew anyone with family in Palmerston we could take some stuff for them.  Next day working on the boat we heard the hail “Margarita, are you going to Palmerston”  “I’ll bring some stuff ov er, what time do you sail?”  Pretty soon we had three families bringing stuff.  I had just rowed a precarious load of boxes over to unload on our boat when another car arrived.  “you will be well taken care of” they said, as they unloaded bread, eggs, vegetables and clothes, all carefully packaged up into boxes and labeled

 We were glad to arrive at Palmerston two days later, after a boisterous sail caused us to snap our whisker pole in two in the middle of the night, and snarl our Genoa around the forestay in a horrible tangle.  When we pulled behind the lee of the reef at least the seas calmed down but the wind was still blowing 30-35 knots.  “Palmerston radio Margarita is three miles away from the anchorage”  “OK Margarita, come on in, there will be a skiff waiting to show you where to drop anchor, and help you, Welcome to Palmerston and Welcome Home!”  What welcome words after a difficult sail.  Little did we know that on seeing our boat a race was on between the different families to see who could be the first one out to our boat so claim the right to be our hosts during our stay.  And this is no small undertaking, because while a yachtie is there the islanders home is your home and you are part of their family, for meals, celebrations, everything.  Les, James and Melbourne were waiting for us in their skiff, they came alongside and Les jumped aboard to see if he could help with the anchor, and we followed the skiff to the reef to drop anchor in 40 feet, about 30 feet from a 250 ft drop off!  We were soon joined by another boat with another family to see what goodies we had brought from Rarotonga.  After a lot of laughs, we declined the offer to go ashore for the day as we were sleep deprived, but arranged to be picked up the next day.

 James and Les came a little late the next day, and dead pan James explained he had been midnight fishing on the reef and he also had a new baby.  How old we asked “Six hours” he said, he hadn't been to bed at all.  These people are incredible.  On the beach we were greeted by George, the mayor and were then taken to Aka’s House, Aka being  one of the matriarchs of the island.  We were greeted warmly with hugs and kisses from Sarah, and ushered  right in to the living room were three women and two babies, one born six weeks ago, lay on the floor on mats resting.  We were overwhelmed with the warm openness of the family, all wanted to give us hugs and kisses, and they refused to hear our attempts to leave them in peace but made us sit down and spend an hour chatting and visiting, as we watched the love and care of the extended family all working to care for mother and baby.  Les, being a sparky 15 years old laughed and teased, but James quietly worked, cooking, doing laundry and cleaning.  Les then took us for a walk around, and we stopped in on Bill, the middle family, maintainer of the Palmerston yacht club.  We were invited into his home to sit down and visit, and he gave us T shirts as a show of friendship towards yachties.  On we went afterwards across the coconut covered sandy atoll, around the beach back to the Blue house and our host family to join them for a feast, fresh fish, pasta, rice, deserts.

 After dinner, all the islanders gathered to play volleyball, and we were welcomed into the game with great friendliness, even though half of the Margaritas had trouble serving the ball over the net.  Every game the teams change around and bystanders get a turn, there was much ribbing and laughter and the party continued until it was too dark to see.  Then James and Less drove us out back to our boat through the tortuous narrow reef pass in the dark

 We had been told the next day was George the mayors 40^th birthday, so we stayed aboard in the morning to make cakes,  and a card.  We called ashore when we were ready, and James and Less came out again with big friendly waves and smiles.  Once again they had a bad night because the older baby had a cold, and some of the other children were sick, and when we  got to the house the family was resting so we went on to explore, past the pig pens, down and sandy path, and found ourselves at another house.  A man appeared and invited us in to come and sit down and visit.  We spent a happy couple of hours with Simon and his mother, struggling to understand how the people we had met were connected and whether they were west, middle or east.  We also learnt that all was not as harmonious as one might have wished, and like most families there was tension and rivalry, and a power struggle going on.  “According to Simon this was a fairly recent development.  Some families bloodlines were not being adequately represented in the counsel, some families held there children back from school, so that the teacher was withdrawn, and now the two school aged children had no school, except what was offered now and again by visitors.  We felt we could spend a week with each family and  then maybe understand all the people and politics.  It seemed like a great job for a mediator.