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Palmerston Island


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the cook islands gov. should know

 

http://www.palmerstonisland.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=478:visitng-by-yacht&catid=82&Itemid=444

 

When you are preparing to go to Palmerston it is best to stop first at Aitutaki or Rarotonga. These are official ports of entry for the Cook Islands and they will provide you with official permission to visit Palmerston. Without this permission you may still stop at Palmerston but you may be asked to limit your stay to just a few days. You may call Palmerston radio ahead of time on sideband at 1830 utc on 4038 MHz. This is not quite an official marine frequency but it is what they use to talk to Rarotonga so jump in and tell them you are coming. It is best to do this before you leave Aitutaki or Rarotonga so they may request needed items or ask you to carry mail or even people if you don’t mind. We arranged for our friends Buddy and Ruth on Annapurna to carry someone from Rarotonga and, though we didn’t know it at the time, he was the mayor of Palmerston and they were treated to a big feast when they arrived.

It is a good idea to bring things for the people on the island. Once there you will be so overwhelmed with their hospitality that you will be happy you have a lot of stuff to give them in return. The best things are clothes, staple foods like rice and flour, gasoline (as much as you can carry), VHS movies and educational tapes and toys for the children. Don’t bring alcohol, firearms or ammunition but do bring fishing tackle and line. As you get close to Palmerston call on VHF 16 any time of the day or night and they will come out to meet you and show you where to anchor.

 

http://www.santotoday.com/gowestsf/palmerst.htm

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What an utterly fascinating place!  

 

I'd never heard of it before but now on my bucket list.

 

3 wives eh?  Just as well he took Confucius wisdom and gave each one their own house...

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Came past in April this year, didn't stop as can't enter the lagoon, same with Aiututai but we would have if we had the time and less draft

We did 930nm from Maupihaa to Niue, I'll attach a pic of the route, it goes right though Palmeston

Maupihaa was a very special place to have been privileged to visit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maupihaa

image.png

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No we entered the lagoon

One of the scariest passes I've done though,

We are 5m beam and had about 2 to 3m either side,less than 1m under the keel plus the pass is out on the chart with a dogleg at the end, also the markers are no longer there.

But luckily it's mostly out inline with the pass, so when the plotter had us in the centre on the way out we were actually clear out to sea.

If you call Hio on 16 he will come out and lead you in which would have been good in hindsight.

I'll add our track in and also Hio's details as if anyone's heading this way please call or email him and see what you can bring them, they only get a supply ship when they have harvested 25 tonne of copra which is about every 8 months.

The water was pouring out through the pass at about 5kts so I came through at 2500rpm which should give us 7.5kts over ground but we were doing just 1.5kts, I'll add also a closeup of our track.

image.png

image.png

image.png

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2.35m

Shallowest point was 3.5m but only briefly, mostly between 4 to 5m

Had one man on bow and two of us in cockpit with sonar, chartplotter, depth sounder, and iPad with Navionics plus fingers crossed and spare undies waiting.

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2.35m

Shallowest point was 3.5m but only briefly, mostly between 4 to 5m

Had one man on bow and two of us in cockpit with sonar, chartplotter, depth sounder, and iPad with Navionics plus fingers crossed and spare undies waiting.

nice one :)

 

I agree this looks like a seriously beautiful place to visit and rest a few days.  When leaving French Polynesia, can you check out from near here? You say you went from here to Palmerston so did you check out and then pass through here?

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We left here and passed just to the north of Aiututaki ( which we could just see ) then south of Palmeston ( which we never sighted )

Cleared French Poly in Papeete ( didn't ask for permission, so weren't denied it )

Headed directly to Nuie and picked up a dodgy made mooring

Here's a pic of a 60kg yellowfin we landed just prior to Nuie

image.jpeg

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