Yesterday at 4:30 pm local time we made our close approach to Palmerston Island. It's always kind of amazing when after seven hundred miles of sailing you hit the bullseye and land appears right in front of you. It's a big ocean, so it's always a nice pat on the back that you're doing something right.
The island, which is really a big atoll with many palm covered motus built upon a reef with a central lagoon, anyway - the island(s) were green and covered in pals, and no point of land probably exceeded 20 feet above sea level. Lots of sea birds wheeled in the sky above the atoll. One Booby kept coming about three feet from our boat - much to the kid's delight.
The wind was out of the north, so taking one of the moorings on the west side of Palmerston proper was out of the question, as the wind needs to be out of the east to keep the moored vessel off the reef. So we took pictures and sailed on by.
Another Green Flash at sunset. A very bright one.
Overnight the winds picked up and shifted direction and now we are booming along in 15 - 18 knots of steady trade winds. Yeah us. So all is well. Proceeding westward.
Owen
S 18 02.26
W 164 18.5422
21:00 Zulu time
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