Palmeston Island

Position 18 degrees 39S, 165 degrees 55W. 224 miles to Niue.
Still having good strong winds 20+ knots on the beam, so all well,we are romping along.
Back to our experience on Palmeston. We arrived the same day as the diesel delivery and the fish pickup, so it was a busy day for the island. We didn't get ashore until the next day as the swell in the pass was too high after they had finished with the big boat.
It's a very labour intensive operation, as the big boat can't get through any passes and has to be worked outside in the big swell, and deliveries taken on to the beach - there is no harbour.
Our hosts eventually picked us up at 11.00 hrs. Prior to this we were like little kids in an orphanage, with faces pressed to the window waiting to be claimed!
Once claimed we were taken onto the only inhabited island (Palmeston Island) the other motos are for holidays, wood, food collection.
After meeting almost all the 62 residents (30 of them children) we had lunch in the thatch house of our hosts, Tere & Yvonne; we had lovely lamb chops, sausage, rice potatoes, coleslaw followed by jelly and ice cream.
The island holds the title for the most freezers per head of population in the world, and they are everywhere - in thatch huts, in garages and houses etc. They order their food every few months from Rarotonga, and have it shipped in. Also they fill the freezers with fish to sell when the big boat comes.
The day was very interesting and we were shown around by Yvonne, who is the school principle, and Shekinah (age 12) There are still 3 parts of the family descended from one father and 3 mothers. Unfortunately there is a lot of politics between the 3 clans, which is sad. We were surprised to see most tools and equipment locked up, which is very sad on a 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile island hundreds of miles from its neighbours.
The school was interesting and the level of education very high. Healthwise there is a nurse who runs the clinic, and a Dr. comes very infrequently - most times a passing yachtie Dr. runs a clinic, and the dentist comes about once every 5 years. There is no airport or helicopter available, and if someone needed the hospital it would take 48 hours for the boat from Rarotonga to reach them (they would send a Dr. & nurse) then 48 hours to get back.
We did notice how healthy everyone looked, and the graves on the islands all contain old people.
Anyway we were happy to be adopted for the short time we were there, but still like our original families.