Only moments after sending in the last Captain’s Log about getting to Palmerston Atoll and being at anchor in the lee of the reef, the starboard anchor lost its hold and slid off the shelf into deeper water. This happened at the 0800 muster and I could hear it make the jump. Soon this navy stockless anchor of about 1,000 pounds and its 200 feet of 1 1/4″ anchor chain were hanging up and down from the bow. Nothing to do but haul it back as Picton Castle drifted downwind away from the reef. I called the island on VHF 16 and said “gather up all the crew, we are going!” Soon Spring and the watch onboard consisting of half the crew had the chain hauled back and anchor secure up in the hawse ready for sea. Nate fired up the main engine and we maneuvered with Liam at the wheel back close to the reef out of the sea-swell to get the crew back aboard from the Palmerston boats. These are large aluminium outboard utility craft quite suited to getting through the narrow twisty passes near Home Island. And they know just what they are doing too. No surprise there.
The winds had shifted overnight from east, even south of east, to northeast. The ship was still in a good lee, but the northwest winds brought some swell around the north end of the atoll to where we were anchored and this had the ship jerking on the chain. A nice steady wind, even a strong wind from the east or southeast, now with swell, we could manage, but as soon as we started making a little shock load on the ground tackle I had little confidence we could stay anchored for long. Sure enough, the anchor, hooked on a narrow coral ledge, popped off in a surge and off we went. This isn’t “dragging ” in the conventional sense where you can give an anchor more chain to make it catch, or add a second anchor. Nope, the anchor may just as well been thrown off the ledge, hanging up and down in 2,000 feet of water. No “dragging” at all… Some pretty sad faces when I told them it is likely that due to these conditions we are just going to sail onwards.
By the time the boats got out to ship, with the anchor up, winds were moderating. So I figured to heave-to for awhile to see how it would go. Only half the gang had been ashore, it would be a shame if they could not get thir toes in the coral sands of Palmerston. And I knew the Marsters of Palmerston had plans for doing things with the crew. Lots of plans. Lots of things. I did not want to disapoint my old friends either if it could be avoided. By midday, with wind laying down but still in the NE, it seemed as if we could just heave-to, keep the ship at sea, and do a crew change so the others could go ashore. Faces perked up quite a bit after that. I did say that the rotation of crew aboard or ashore would not be fair as for some reason we were only given 72 hours to be there by the authorities in Rarotonga. Nevermind, some better than none.
So the port watch piled aboard and took over the ship while the starboard watch, with great enthusiasm clambered into the Palmerston boats to head ashore to find out what this legendary atoll was like. Much thanks to Bob, Edward, Tikiroa, John and Arthur for being so cooperative and flexible – and gracious. We will meet some others later in this narrative. Streaming away from the ship the boats made a parade in single file in through the Small Boat Pass and turned into small dots against the white beach next to the shimmering turqupoise lagoon waters. With Dirk at the conn, the ship set a main topmast stays’l and pointed her bow away from shore. With the Alpha main engine shut down all was quiet and calm aboard. Way nicer than being nervous about the anchor and the reef. Weather looked like it would remain steady for a couple days. We will see how this would work. But the main thing was that all were safe and both watches would get a taste of atoll life at Palmerston.