Aitutahi & Palmerston Atolls June 16 2006

Hello everyone,Well, We finally got out of Rarotonga with the boat working. Of course,the new inverter did not come so we are having it forwarded to Aitutakiwhere we arrived on 6/5, the Queen's birthday. It was a short overnightsail, assisted by motor, of 140 miles and we got here about 10AM. A bitdifficult to get into, and a stern anchor is necessary in the tinyanchorage.Joe has already checked out the Survivor thing, and, apparently, they havesecurity like Fort Knox. The lagoon is huge, but very shallow. We kissedthe bottom coming in the channel, and hit again trying to anchor, but withno damage. A lot of the larger monohulls can't come here so it's us, asmall sloop and 2 other cats. It is very beautiful, and, we are told, withalot going on as this is a major tourist site for the New Zealanders.Well, we've been here a week and Aitutaki is living up to it's reputation.The Survivor area is all blocked off, but we have rented a scooter andtoured around. The island is pretty primitive, but not built up withtourist places. We're in a quite small anchorage, and coincidentallyanchored next to a boat we had seen in Moorea. Nice couple--he's American,she's Aussie, and they are on their way back to Australia to sell the boatand then buy a barge type craft and tour the rivers of Europe. He made abunch of money in the software business. Another boat with a bunch of Danescame in--about Joey's age, and we have had a few parties here and there.The big excitement was this Sunday. We had all planned to go on a picnic,but the weather turned bad. In such a small anchorage, one must put outboth a bow and a stern anchor to keep from swinging into the other boats orthe reef, so we put our large fortress (like a Danforth, but aluminum) offthe stern. As the weather deteriorated, we watched the wind climb to 20knots, 30 knots, 40 knots--50 knots!!! And then all hell broke loose. Thestern anchor let go and off we went. This, of course then broke out the bowanchor and we were adrift. Okay, we're blowing onto the breakwater, getthe engines on, and try to just hold ourselves off and into the wind. Nodice. The boat won't come around and we're 30 feet from the rocks anddrifting. Visibility is near zero and Joe and I both had to don scuba masksto see. Full throttle on the engines and we still don't come around. Aquick look around shows we've reset the stern anchor and it's keeping usfrom turning. So, we let loose one leg of the anchor bridle--still noluck. I sent Rose to the other side to let go the other leg. Now this ropeis bar tight as the wind and engines are putting a tremendous strain on it.Bam. Just as Rose is reaching the cleat, the rope breaks. Fortunately thebreak was right at the cleat so there was no rubber band effect which couldhave seriously injured her. Once we were free, we came right up and stavedoff a near disaster. The rocks would have totally smashed in the starboardside of the boat. The squall only lasted about an hour, and, fortunately,the other boats had some spare anchors or we would have had to set up ourgiant Fortress storm anchor off the stern. Yesterday (Monday) was spenttrying to find and retrieve the anchor we had dropped to save the boat. Itwas buried about 4 feet deep in the muck, and we could not just pull it out.Poor Joey, deckhand extraordinaire, used 3 scuba tanks finding and diggingit out. It is aluminum magnesium alloy, guaranteed for life and we actuallybent the flukes!!! We think we were originally just hooked on some rock andthe flukes were bent from the force of the wind, releasing the anchor andsetting us adrift. Who knows? but it was pretty scary! Other than that,the weather has been gorgeous with 80's during the day and low 70's at nightwith a nice breeze to keep us cool. We were going to leave today forPalmerston on the way to Samoa, but the wind has dropped to nothing and theboat is in a bit of disarray, so we'll stay one more night and then we'reoff again.Palmerston is about 200 miles due west and was settled by a missionary andhis 3 (yes, 3) wives in the 1800's. Only 64 people live there and all havethe same surname, Marster. Will report further on arrival.Well, so much for Palmerston. There is no really good anchorage there andthe seas weren't quite right so we opted to pass. Right now it is 1PMFriday and we're streaking along at 8-9 knots under spinnaker towards Samoa.Had to replace a seized up alternator this AM, so the problems just mount,but this was an easy one. More from American Samoa next time. We'll arrive there sometime Sunday.Tim, Rose & Joe