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flamboyant trees were in full bloom. Banks of wet looking cloud blanketed the mountaintop and drifted past at sea. The water temperature was so warm that it was practically blood temperature --- exactly the right conditions for spawning cyclones. There was no wind. However, wind or no wind we knew we must leave in the next couple of days or we might cut things a little too fine!
But before we set out we needed to have our water tanks full. Two days before our intended departure the heavens opened; rains came in a deluge. Just as the downpour was at its worst with the shoreline invisible, a voice shouted a greeting. From the gloom a young man emerged like an angel, hoisting a heavy basket of fruit from his canoe, just in time on the eve of our departure!
On Thursday we stowed gear in readiness for afternoon departure. Then we headed ashore for a last farewell to Afia and her family, thinking we would be back smartly. However, Afia invited us into the fare where grandmother had just started weaving yet another beautiful pandanus mat. After we were seated, she signaled her daughter to fetch something. It was grandmother's finished mat! We were bowled over and felt at a loss over how to respond to their generosity.
"I can only repay you a little with some photographs!"
For the next half hour I took portrait shots of each member of the family from Grandma and Grandpa on down to the smallest dirty-faced toddler!
It took an escort to get us back to the dinghy though, for they also loaded us down with papaya and pineapples!
On the way back to the dinghy we noticed that a wind had sprung up ---- the first wind in more than a week! The surf was rising on the pass into the bay. We lost no time in powering up the motor as soon as we returned to Sea Quest, and then hauling up the anchor. The pass is an awful experience. Michael took the helm and keeping the leading marks straight behind him, made a run through the massing swell that broke close on both sides. It was like running a bar --- something I swear not to do often!
The wind carried us through the first night but on the second day it blew only lightly out of the north, forcing us to tack and tack again with almost no gain. "We did 10 miles in the last 12 hours", Michael informed me. Three days of intensely frustrating sailing followed until the wind grew too light to sail at all. After that we motored until enough wind blew to move us ---- though only at 2 or 3 knots! The last 24 hours was glassy, so we made a bee-line to Kanton, arriving after 7 days having motored half the distance.
Kanton, Kiribati.
Today, Kanton, and the other islands are part of the independent nation of Kiribati, known. Kanton is the largest island of the Phoenix Group. It is an atoll about 14 miles long by 4 miles wide with a double passage on the western side separated by Spam Island. The passage is sufficient to take medium-sized ships. Archeologists have found remains throughout the Phoenix Islands that suggest they were once inhabited by Polynesians, who by the time Europeans arrived, had abandon them. The fact that the U.S. collected guano from some of the islands until it was exhausted, in the 1850's, gave it a vague claim to the territory. Kanton and Endenbury became useful as stopover points for the new seaplane "Cipper" Trans-Pacific air routes between Fiji and Honolulu. Pan American airlines used the islands for stopovers during the 1930's, expanding the operation by clearing coralheads and building an airstrip. Britain
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