Early this morning National Geographic Orion was positioned near the Palmerston Atoll. Large swells coming from different parts of the Pacific were crashing onto the reef, making our intention to visit the local village difficult.
As an atoll, the lagoon is enclosed by a continuous coral ring, leaving a few sand islets inside.
There were several small passages through the reef for our Zodiacs, but the swells were strong and conditions weren’t ideal to get inside the coral reef. The tide was beginning to rise, and that only made our chances of visiting the lagoon even slimmer.
Part of our expedition staff approached the edge of the reef to assess the situation. They were greeted by representatives of the Marsters family. There are only 62 people living in Palmerston, and all but three descended from an Englishman named William Marsters. Our friends came to the National Geographic Orion to greet us and sent coconuts and fish for us to enjoy. Afterwards, we left Palmerston and sailed away to our next destination, Rarotonga.
During the day, our expedition guests enjoyed the fresh coconut water from our Palmerston friends and attended an impressive account by Global Perspective Speaker Tim Severin of his search for Moby Dick.
