Written Sep 2002

This letter arrived from Ben!
The skipper on Gypsy Soul tells the story about life onboard and about Palmerston. This was written about the same time as Tina's letter that arrived Sep 17. Apparently addressed to his brother and with following attached lines "... as always, with no privacy, sent to others. Another example of my incapasity to be discrete." Expedition Micronesia takes off the hat and publishes immediately. Just as interesting as the story itself is the difference between Tina's and Ben's impressions. Anyway, enough editorial text, let's get on with the letter from our Swiss sailor:

Ed.

Hey bro, if you’re not on vacation.......
or in the middle of some big multi gajillion dollar oil deal, could you check and route some weather for me? My position is S19.18/W162.32 and headed to Beverage Reef at S20.00/W167.46. Ghosting along at 2-3 knots, light and variable winds last couple days, wind picked up this afternoon and been averaging 6.8 kn ever since. Should arrive tomorrow around noon. Beverage reef promises to be an interesting place as there is no land whatsoever and the reef is almost always submerged, but it is an atoll type reef a mile in diameter and a complete coral ring with a pass easily entered by sail boat. Just imagine a sunken volcano 3000 meters/10,000 feet reaching up from the ocean floor, with a crown of coral reef growing within inches of the ocean surface. There's a sandy bottom and full protection from swell and waves, that break to flat calms within. Its like a swimming pool in the middle of the deep ocean, 360 degrees no land in sight (within 100 miles as well) but a perfect anchorage with good holding, 30 ft depth and crystal clear water. Gonna try out my newly fabricated lobster trap, do some diving and spear fishing for a week, so could use a forecast or up date every few days. Probably one of the few places on earth so far away from human exposure to remain pristine although I hear the coral has died a bit, probably from a hurricane in the past few years. So we'll call it semi-pristine, until the sailors have their way with the lobster anyway.
We left Palmerston today disappointed with the local culture, but it was worth the stop because a buddy boat was in trouble, actually two boats as it turned out, and I am now in esteemed favor for being rescuer. Our friends Bob and Hella on "Explorer" managed a blown out mainsail and staysail during a squall, while hove too off Palmerston. Hella suffered a severely bruised hip being thrown into the pointy edge of the companionway hatch and Bob, though a reasonably skilled seamstress, who possessed a sewing machine, didn't have enough spare sailcloth and strong enough machine to make repairs. So he and I glued, sewed and taped the mainsail back whole for two days using my machine, while Hella recovered. During our repair maneuvers, two other boats got anchor chains tangled when one was weighing anchor to depart, both boats with out a dingy in the water and winds kicking up at the exact wrong moment. It appeared the bow sprit of the larger boat was making a good swing at removing the forestay of the smaller boat. I had the only dink in the water so I dropped my job with bob and zipped over to wrestle anchor chain and 125lb anchor between two pitching boats with banging bows, and two distinct screaming languages from 8 different mouths. One chain was sawing against the other and it was like trying to move an anchor over a giant chain saw blade just under water and in 4 ft swells. One of those times one must consider if a boat or two is worth a finger or two. In hindsight, although all my fingers are intact and undamaged, I don't think so, especially since neither was my boat. One of the guys jumped in the dingy with me (the boat owner of the one in peril of dismasting) and the two of us tried, but couldn't get the anchor of the bigger boat over and clear of his chain because it was below the surface, and every time we tried to pull it over, it tried to pull us both in the water. Bright idea,(mine, sarcasm), I told him to sit, ok I yelled at him to sit on my legs and I ducked under water, grabbed the anchor and arched my back and managed to free it, with him anchoring me from falling in to the malestrom of anchor and chain. All aboard got a good look at my bare ass when I got panced by my pal as he hauled me back in by the britches. For my troubles I received a snapped off the throttle handle on my dingy motor by the retreating anchor and chain, and a mild "thank you" from the smaller boat. The larger boat in fault waved and made way to west. A while later, well off shore, appreciation must have set in, or maybe guilt, because they called to find out who I was. Bob took the call, my radio was off, and informed "Ocean Pirate" of my damaged motor for my troubles. Promises were made, we will see.
Aside from "boaters world" I have to note astonishing interaction and enlightenment as to the personalities of the "friendly descendants" of the famously proliferent Englishman of Palmerston. We had been hearing dozens of stories from cruisers being adopted by the families of Palmerston for the duraton of their stays. Descriptions of fancy feasts and sincere comeraderie offered by the Islanders. We arrived to an escort, FIVE MILES miles off shore, by a small aluminum dingy, pitching and in danger of swamping by 10 ft breaking waves in 2000 ft depth of water. It was driven by a young man who, risking life, appeared to be racing another skiff, which smartly rounded about away from the seas in retreat. " YOU FOLLOW ME! NO ONE ELSE!" he yelled across, and we did, to a most uncomplicated anchorage and guided to a uncomfortably close position next to the reef. I was more then confused as to the fuss and control/authority this guy had placed in himself, over us, so we invited him aboard. I had read somewhere that the islanders had been in a constant state of feud, passed down from generation to generation, but the reports from other cruisers completely contradicted the info I had read, which was written two decades ago. So I asked our young guide(and family representative) Rengie, "who was the other boat and why had he and you come out so far to guide a secure vessel through completely hazardous (only to him) waters?" He said the other boat was "the asshole" and they were racing to be first. Wow.

Everybody needs good neighbours...

As we chatted , I applied lip loosening Jim Beam to young Rengie, and a story unfolded that is virtually unknown to the 100 plus cruisers who already visited this year. We come to find that they ARE at constant state of feud, and hosting yachties is a pride and family support system applied by the islanders in the most selfish and scamhearted way imaginable in relation to each other. He told us of an incident five years back, where they had a family brawl with clubs, and proudly showed us a nice inch long scar on his forehead as a badge of honor. They literally live off the cruisers and hate each other. Three families, all related, living as a small village but do not interact except in absolutely required circumstances. They race each other out to guide cruisers in, avoid allowing us to interact with the other islanders, tell us the pass is into the village is too dangerous so not to launch our dinks (which it is absolutely not) and play taxi for us as a control mechanism. We found out young Rengie risks his ass because the other, much more wealthy family, because they have a 25 hoarse power engine (he has only 15hp), which explained why the six other boats at anchor were guests of one family while the others had none. Hugh banquets are being laid out for the 25 hp family guest cruisers, food plied from previous boats to current ones, and long sorrowful tales of poverty and isolation are professed with extreme appreciation for the friendships of yachties and their heartfelt contributions. Its a fucking business for them for 8 months of the year!

Our "family" was no better then the 25hp one but I have to give them credit, they got it down, its like Club Med but with the "warm and fussies". Now on their behalf I must say, they ARE super nice to us, funny, kind and ridiculously helpful. They call us five times a day asking us if we want to come in for a visit, I sat drinking beers (mine, shipboard) a couple hours cutting up and making jokes with the guys, who speak perfect English with New Zealand accent (its their first language), and have great personalities and excellent senses of humor. Though with an undertone of annoyingly patronizing humbleness on their part, once one gets a sense of the real scene. It felt similar to when I was back in Cuba, where my skin color reeked dollars, hence the young maidens attentions made me feel like I died and woke up Fabio. I guess I would be more receptive to all the attention, but the guys weren't cute enough.

Who else?
Only Tina made it ashore, I was busy with Bob's sail until the weather turned bad two days later and we were forced to leave a lee shore, and she came back with more astonishing introspect. She spent the day with the women, doing laundry ( yea I know, but mending sails an sewing almost redeems me) and told me about (hey I cooked and did the floors too!) a grandma she met who married into another family and the process of moving into the enemy camp. A neighbor guy had asked her to marry, she said yes, but not unless he took in her Mom as well, and so it happened she did marry. But her and her mom were no longer in speaking terms with their own family, granny's mom is long since dead, and she doesn't interact with her brothers nor her kids, or their kids, kids,kids etc. They fucking live right next door! Their are only fifty villagers total, and their hateful pricks to each other. They do not even allow the kids from opposing families to interact, thus continuing the feud for what has now been, alluded to by granny, more then a hundred years.
Now here's a part I left out, the part where Ben, shortly after his arrival, plied with Jim Beam hisself, sticks his foot in his mouth all the way up to the knee. Our friends KioOrana were on their way in, hours behind us, and young Rengie offers the only mooring because they might arrive at night, and of course its his family's mooring. We confirm by SSb Radio and he makes me promise to keep them in his family (about a hundred times promised) since the other family has so many guests, and they just us. KioOrana calls us later on the VHF and says they are on their way in and are being herded in by a skiff with a guy named Jimmy telling them to follow HIM only, and nobody else. I tell KioOrana, over the radio,"hey your with us and the other family with the mooring, tell Jimmy its covered" . They talk to him over the water and come back sayinghe's verrrrry insistent. I say tell him to buzz off, and explain that if we don't have the same family, we wont get to spend time interacting as friends, will have to take separate boats ashore and go to sperate functions, do sperate things. They say "no way, that cant be true" and I explain its a family feud and though we will get treated kindly, that's not how they treat each other. Meanwhile Jimmy's dad, a big shot "the island governor", who, as they all do, listens to every conversation on every channel, jumps in and chews me out, tells me to leave the island, that whomever Jimmy leads in is HIS guest, and if I cant respect the islands culture, he doesn't want people like me to come here. Yea, I apologize profusely for my big mouth, for my laughing sense of humor of it, but after a few minutes of his yelling, I start to realize that he's more pissed that I spoke the plain truth over the air waves with his other guests probably listening, and I was taking a "guest"/ mealticket away from him, more then any cultural respect issue. So then I apologize to OUR family's elders, guys my age, for causing a problem, but they totally laugh it off and say "see, told you they're assholes".......its all par for the course. Next day I find out that our neighbor on the sailboat "Princess" got chewed out by his host, same guy who chewed me out, because he rode to the island with pals from another boat aboard a launch, but who were guests of the other family, and went in THEIR launch. They have been absolute control freaks over the yachties during our stay.
As you might imagine, I considered approaching the elders as a group and having some kind of mediation to explain to them that though they put on a good show and I believe they are truly nice people (I really do believe this), that yachties aren't idiots and their show will eventually backfire on them, and for that reason only, they might want to re-think their internal conflicts, "share and share alike" as it were. But then I realized, "Hey I'm not here to change the world!" and " Yachties ARE gullible and kindhearted". I have to admit, this crapola could probably go on forever because most Yachties aren't as indiscrete a mouthing off ass as I, hence will probably never choke on their own toes. Hell, IT has been going on forever!
Way too long a missive, thanks for bearing with me, ciao bro, ben.

Updated Oct 3

Click here to view images from Tahiti and Bora Bora