We had a bit of a wild, windy night in the anchorage last night and appreciated watching the lightning on the horizon. Decided to delay departure for Palmerston until Wednesday, partly because of the weather but also because we're going to be carrying a significant amount of vegetables to Palmerston. We now have two orders for families there (Joseph & Edwin Marsters) plus a couple of other boats who were unable to get to Aitutaki would like whatever we can carry. According to boats in Niue, there is very little in terms of veggies to be had there either, so we'll stock up for Tonga.

It's starting to look like we'll miss out 'New Potatoes' due to time constraints, which is a shame but the festival in Tonga beckons. This weather system should blow through in about 24 hours or so, fingers crossed for a nice 15-20kts 'up the chuff' en route to Palmerston, a distance of some 204 nm which I reckon should take artound 36 hours (or less). Apparently we should be able to get into the lagoon as opposed to being on a buoy, but a boat enroute who knows the Marsters family of Palmerston from a visit three years ago, is checking that.

Part of the pleasure of cruising is contributing something to the communities you visit along the way, more common in the Pacific than elsewhere I suspect. I had an interesting conversation with a 'lady of a certain age', Martha, the other day. She was telling me that most people in the islands tend to think of themselves as Polynesian first and citizens of the individual islands second. There isn't exactly a lingua franca, but Cook Islanders whose language is very similar if not the same as NZ Maori can just about understand Tahitian and vice versa. Fascinating stuff.