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Approaching
Palmerston Atoll
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Coral
reef surrounds the lagoon. Look carefully in the center of this picture
to see the sailboat Akka's two masts. They are moored at the
site toward which we are headed.
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From
our mooring site we watched our hosts return to the motu (island) through
the channel into the lagoon. The larger motor boat is used to travel
quickly over deeper water. The small boat in tow is used for fishing
on the shallower reef waters.
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We
moored right next to Akka. The mooring sites are provided
by members of the Marsters family. Normally we anchored or moored
inside an atoll lagoon, but here we are just outside of it, on the oceanside.
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View
of the main motu from our mooring just before sunset.
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A
spectacular sunset from the Larabeck cockpit on our first night at Palmerston.
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One
of the paths between the beach and the family homes.
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Lunch
with Edward's family. Edward is at the head of the table and his mother
is at the opposite end; his brother Simon is seated on Sharon's left.
Akka sailors are on the right--Andreas and Andrea. Edward's
wife, Shirley, is behind the Akka folks.
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Michael, Grandma
and Sharon
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Andrea, Grandma
and Sharon
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Edward
and Sharon play some country music. We started with "Blue Skirt Waltz"
and moved on to Kenny Rogers.
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Main
Street
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Mainstreet,
another view
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Edward
showed us the grave of the family's founding patriarch, William Marsters.
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View
of Larabeck (left) and Akka (right) from the motu.
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Edward
expertly navigated between the coral heads as he shuttled us to and from
the motu in his motor boat.
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We
took a walk around the island. This is a view of the lagoon with
a couple more motus on the other side. Some of the family members
said they take vacations on these islands.
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Another
view of the lagoon as we walk along the shore.
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Michael
finds a palm tree that suits him and takes a break to think about work--NOT!
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Looks
like we've almost walked around the whole island -- we can see Larabeck
and Akka in the distance.
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This
part of the lagoon is very shallow. The exposed coral heads are interesting
shapes. Larabeck is visible just on the other side of the
reef in the deep water.
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When
the kids got out of school, we went fishing. We all crossed the lagoon
in the larger boat, with this smaller boat in tow...
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...and
they let us off on a very small motu while they walked on the reef with
the small boat to fish. Here is Andreas checking out the shallow
waters around the motu.
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Another
view of the small motu we explored while the fishermen were busy.
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We
found some friends along the way--a small crab watches us from his coral
recluse.
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Remnants
of a ship wreck on the coral reef. One can see that the piece of
steel is old by the rivets used at the seams instead of welding.
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Today's
fish catch.
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The
catch is brought to shore.
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More
family members assist with filleting and skinning the fish. They
deep freeze the fish and use for trade. We took some home for dinner.
It was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
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