Imagine that you share this island with 60 people, all part of your family ... brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and their respective spouses.
Imagine the only food available is coconuts, chicken and fish.
Imagine that to get off the island you need to wait for a passing boat to stop in and agree to take you to another island which is at least two or three days sail.
If you can imagine all that, you have arrived at Palmerston, Cook Islands. Palmerston is at the west end of the Southern Cook Islands. Everyone on the island is a Marsters or has married a Marsters. And the Marsters are all descendants of William Marsters who arrived here in 1863. He had three wives, 17 children and 54 grandchildren when he died in 1899.
We arrived here yesterday morning and were greeted by Simon, one of fourteen children of Toaini Marsters and a great great great grandson of William. Segwun was carrying 40 kilos of sugar, 45 kilos of rice, 45 kilos of flour, a box of cookies and a couple of duffle bags of personal items to be delivered here. Not a little unlike her namesake, the regal steamship RMS Segwun of Gravenhurst who used to deliver mail to the northern outposts on the Muskoka Lakes. The delivery we made was on behalf of Yvonne Marsters who we met in Rarotonga.
Yvonne was in Rarotonga for a medical visit and when she saw our yacht in the harbour she asked if we wouldn't mind to bring some goods to Palmerston if we were headed that way. We were happy to oblige as it is quite often the locals who are helping us so it is nice to have an opportunity to return the favours. Yvonne is the principal of the school and is originally from New Zealand.
Simon was our delegate for the duration of our stay at Palmerston. It is a tradition for them to adopt visitors into one of the families, providing an island tour and shuttle service to and from the island. Palmerston is surrounded by a reef after which the depth drops like a cliff down to more than 2000 feet. You can't sail into the lagoon as it is too shallow and too crowded with coral heads. Instead, they provide mooring lines for visitors and prefer to come and collect you to bring you to shore.
Simon brought us around and showed us the school, church, Telecom office, Palmerston Administration office and his home. We met his Mother and his younger brother who is the only policeman on the island. Yes, I know. You are probably also quite surprised to know there is a policeman on an island that is in fact one big family and of the 60 residents about 30 are children attending school. As we got to meet and hear about the others on the island it appears that many are holding some sort of Government job. I suppose this supplements their main income from fishing.
They depend on a supply boat which comes by every four to six months for many of the necessities. So good planning is crucial to a varied dinner menu I would think as there is no corner store for that one thing you need. Without good planning and a well stocked pantry it would be back to the coconuts and fish diet until the next supply boat showed up. Actually, you can add chicken and pork to that. We learned that chickens and pigs eat coconut so there are plenty of chickens on the island and a few pigs being fattened up for a Christmas feast.
It has turned out to be a unique adventure, from meeting Yvonne in Rarotonga to making the delivery here in Palmerston. The icing on the cake was the humpback whale we saw yesterday. He was about five meters off the port side of the boat when he first surfaced and as he swept around the back of the boat we saw him surface two more times before he left us. Wow oh wow oh wow. What a sight.
Photos below:
1. Arriving early morning to Palmerston
2. Making the delivery. On board is the island Nurse and the government official for Agriculture and Customs (Simon's brother)
3. The church and graveyard where William Marsters is buried. Simon and Jens following.
4. The original home of William Marsters
5. The Telecom office and phone booth.
6. The school.
7. Simon and his Mother at home.
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