On Saturday morning we went ashore to get fuel, water and some shopping. We also popped by to see Bill at the ABC store to give him some files on a USB stick he was interested in. There we arranged to visit his gardens in the afternoon.
Once the shopping was done we filled our bellies with pancakes for lunch. We abandoned any ideas of leaving the boat early afternoon and just relaxed. At 3pm we were back ashore and Bill took us round to his family plot in the center of the island where he has been growing trees and plants from around the world. Back in February when the hurricane hit the island Bill’s gardens were pretty much trashed with trees felled and in some cases uprooted and disappeared elsewhere. He’d done a great job tidying it all up and getting things back in order. Plants were recovering well but the abundant fruit he normally has year round was yet to return to normal. Bill had a lot of knowledge of local and foreign plants and in a lot of cases what medicinal uses they could be put to. He did give us some star fruit to take back with us and some ground plants that can be used in a salad.
Today we’ll be visiting one of the nearby churches which has been recommended to us many times. This afternoon we hope to visit one of the atoll islands which we’ve put off for a few days. Right now the skies are blue and the weather perfect for a little exploration.
The current outlook for our passage to Palmerston is for moderate winds to begin with which will soon turn light – all down wind of us. Even though it is just 200nm away we’ll give ourselves 2 days to get there probably lengthening the trip to get a better and more comfortable wind angle. We’re therefore planning to head out on or soon after high tide at 8:30am tomorrow.
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