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harsh tropical glare.
We set out in for Penrhyn, 600 miles to the west in a light northeast wind. A haloed full moon sailed across a sky hung with filmy high cirrus. By next morning a heavy cloud bank had accumulated to the east of us, but the wind held steady. Later rain squalls formed ahead and astern that sucked away what wind there was. We motored.
Michael called me on deck to watch a large whale about a mile to the south lolling on the surface. His plume blew high and then with a mighty heave of its tail, he disappeared.
The next evening we set the geniker and only dropped it hours later when wind squalls began to develop. The convergence zone had settled in around us and never left all the way to Samoa! We played a game of dodge 'um with squalls that packed about 20-30 knots.
On this trip we noticed more boobies, noddies and tropic birds than before. A flock of them appeared from what I had taken to be empty reaches of sky to converge on a shoal of Skipjack tuna. Michael cast out the line and caught the first bonito about ten minutes later. The sea teemed with life. There was a great undersea mountain nearby causing currents to push nutrients to the surface. We hauled in three more bonito, a sail fish and a barracuda on that trip. The barracuda and the sailfish were liberated, the sailfish because it was young and the barracuda because they are, in many place, subject to ciguatera poisoning.
On the morning of the 22nd November dawn reflected red color from the high banks of cirrus, while gray fortresses towered on all sides. The morning radio report said a low lay 250 miles to the south.
With Penrhyn now 45 miles away, and the wind gone, we motorsailed the rest of the way.
Penrhyn, Cook Islands
23 October 2002
Penrhyn is an atoll 12 by 15 miles long set with a string of motus along its reef edge, heavy with stands of coconut palm as lovely as the natural pearls men still dive for in this remote lagoon.
Two hundred and fifty inhabitants people this atoll, which is the northernmost of the Cook Islands. They have a treaty of free association with New Zealand, which basically means that the country is internally self-governing but its link with New Zealand allows it millions of dollars in "aid". Further, Cook Island citizens may freely travel to and live in NZ, yet the arrangement for New Zealanders is not reciprocal. This "free association" arrangement is the envy of nearby French Polynesia. Penrhyn has its own elected mayor and a council of four who make and enforce the local laws under which the community lives. They are staunch, and one might even assert, sanctimonious Christians.
The customs officer came aboard, and in his official capacity, inquired about our liquor stores. Then he told us
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