Mopelia and Palmerston

About a hundred nautical miles west of Maupiti there is a little atoll named Mopelia (=aka Maupihaa). We did not plan to stop there, but the latest Grib files forcast a little more wind than we considered comfortable, thus we decided to wait inside the lagoon until the worst of the weather was over. The pass into Mopelia was the scariest we have done so far. The charts were off, the markers did not match the pilot book and the pass is so narrow, that the reef on both sides looked dangerously close to Bravado (as in a 3 meter gap either side of the boat!).

We made three attempts to enter and went back the same number of times. On our fourth attempt Aedgard (Lariekoek) went ahead of us (he has boat loads of experience, has insurance, draws 3 ft less and has only 1 person aboard). We gladly followed him and made it through. I was shaking and Ewout with his nerves of steel also indicated that he might not have gone in without Aedgard leading the way. Aedgard contemplated that he rather has 40 knots of wind than doing a pass like that. One guide says:
"Narrow Passe Taihaaru Vahine on Ile Mopelia challenges the best nerves". There are two little huts with people on the southern tip of the island, and lots of pigs. We only stayed for 36 hours until the worst of the weather had passed.

A different guide (South Pacific Anchorages) says: "A number who have visited this atoll consider that there was not suffcient compensation for the trauma of entry and exit"...

Lariekoek in high waves underway from Mopelia to Palmerston

On the way out we followed our track from going in. It was still scary, because we had 5 knots of current with us, so everything went really fast. However Ewout was great and steered Bravado safely through. We still had 38 knots of wind and huge seas on our way to Palmerston. We didn't quite hit the 15 knots we did heading down the coast of the US, but still kept up a nice pace and the boat stays very dry and handles extremely well in these conditions. Eltjo and Hein were seasick however, they could not stop throwing up (Jet remarked that she did not think she could ever eat salad again out of our multi-purpose salad bowl). Once we arrived at Palmerston Eltjo woke Judith early in the morning and wolfed down an enormous pancake breakfast to make up for the lost calories.

Alpha Sierra (aka Edward) takes crew of Runnaway Bunny, Lariekoek, and Bravado ashore at Palmerston

The church and William Masters original home in main street.

The anchorage at Palmerston was really roly and the moorings were only a 100ft away from the reef. We had to trust that they were good moorings... (later we heard that the mooring of our friends on Wayward Wind broke within 10 minutes.. However, their ship displaces 70 tons against Bravado's 10 tons.). The visit to Palmerston was very interesting. Do you know that the island was settled by William Marsters from Lancashire, England, who came there with his three Penrhyn Island wives in 1862 and fathered 26 children? All the current inhabitants are descendants of this William Marsters. At present there are 63 people living on this atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, of whom 25 are children. Our hosts were Edward and his brother Simon, who gave us a tour around the island and then drinks of fresh coconut milk.

Kiwi teachers shows Judith and Aedgard the one room school.

Children playing at Edward Marsters home.

Edward serves fresh coconut milk after the island tour.

Palmerston sometimes only gets 2 visits by a supply vessel a year and hence relies greatly on visit yachties for supplies. We took the opportunity to lighten Bravado leaving behind many items we had carried specially since Mexico (diving and fishing gear, fire extinguishers, clothing, cloth, rope, cd players, school supplies, plywood, etc. etc.). After two nights at Palmerston we continued on to Tonga. The weather seemed relatively good, so we decided not to stop at Nuie. We had 25 to 30 knot winds and waves from the side, which made for a rocky but fast passage. We all thought that the 3000 mile crossing from Mexico to the Marquesas was easier than this 1250 mile one.