Finally a promising forecast tempted us to leave the lagoon, and we eased away from French Polynesia vowing to return again - next time around the world. After a slow start, the weather gods decided we had had too much easy sailing this year, and decided to test us with big seas and brisk winds. The waves were big enough to roll Do It from rail to rail, scooping up several buckets of salt water on each roll - much of which would be deposited in the cockpit. At least the numerous rain showers rinsed off the salt.

During the 500 mile trip, I made my debut as a "net controller". During long passages, it is nice to check in with other cruisers on the SSB long-range radio, confirming your position and weather conditions. One cruiser volunteers to be the co-ordinator for a few days, and logs all other yachts' positions and fields any queries. A perfect part time job for a control freak like me!

We made landfall on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands at first light, anchoring on the outer edge of the reef as the pass into the sheltered lagoon was too shallow for us. Once the anchor held, we were too close to another yacht, and decided to lift the anchor and reposition ourselves. This is normally a 5 minute job - unless the anchor has become wedged under a coral rock, the wind is howling and the anchor winch breaks. Our one piece of great good luck was that the force of wind on the boat finally dislodged the anchor, and we were able to rig up a series of ropes and hooks which allowed us to slowwwwly recover the chain and anchor. By the time we were tidied up, we had drifted a couple of miles offshore, so set the sails and pointed at Palmerston. Adios Aitutaki - I wonder what it was like?

After the anticipation of landfall, heading straight back out to sea again for another two days does not raise your spirits. However, the boat was safe, we were safe, and it was only another 240 miles to sail…

And what an exciting two days it was. The wind continued to blow strongly, building up impressively large seas. How can I describe the feeling of being perched on the top of a wave, looking down into the yawning trough beyond? Scarey? Exhilarating? A bit of both? During the night watches, there was no moon and clouds covered most of the stars, resulting in a black, black night. In these conditions, you can no longer see the seas approaching, and just hear the hiss of the breaking crests and feel the hull rise gently over the wave. Do It isn't the fastest boat on the Pacific, but her motion in such conditions is sufficiently gentle that we always feel in control.

Finally, Palmerston Atoll appeared as a green smudge on the horizon - in common with the Tuamotus, Palmerston is a ring of tiny islands, joined together by a coral reef that completely encloses a shallow lagoon. Luckily for us (without an anchor winch), the locals have recently installed a series of mooring buoys. We were extremely happy to finally be able to stop.

Palmerston is famous/infamous for it's unique social structure. The first European settler, William Marsters settled on the atoll with his three local wives - each on a separate island. Strict rules were introduced to control marriages between extended family members. Today, all 75 inhabitants live on one small island, but the dividing lines between the three families are still very much in place. On an island that you can walk around in under one hour, there are three graveyards.

Each of the mooring buoys is owned by one of the families, and that family becomes your host for the duration of your stay. Our days started around 9am when our host brought us through a tortuous, twisting, shallow channel through the fringing reef to the shore. In return for providing lunch to the visiting cruisers, the hosts encourage you to spent the morning contributing to the community - a great way to actually get to know the families. A range of skills was available amongst the cruisers, including a carpenter, a doctor, and a web site creator. Angus' test pilot skills weren't directly useful, but he did manage to resurrect a water pump and two washing machines!

I spent my mornings helping out at the school - where two teachers look after 25 children ranging from 5 to 15 years old. Palmerston is one of the few islands in the Pacific where the population is actually increasing. The children all use a home schooling system, but study in the very well maintained school building. I had a lovely time listening to the younger kids practice their reading aloud - a nicer bunch of kids would be hard to find.

After lunch, the cruisers were free to wander around the island, snorkel, or just sit and chat with the families. Even on this tiny 300m by 400m island, there was a division between living in the "town" and the "bush". The Main Road passes by the original 1800s home built by William Marsters, created from shipwrecked timber weathered to a silver grey, and riddled with wormholes you could put your finger through. One enterprising family has created the "Palmerston Island Yacht Club", complete with hot showers, laundry facilities. The only drawback is that the supply ship (which only calls 3 or 4 times a year) didn't deliver any beer last time round…

The snorkelling within the lagoon was disappointing, but snorkelling on the outer reef by the moorings was another world. In the space of 50m, the water went from a few centimetres deep on the reef, to hundreds of metres deep as the coral dropped off into the abyss. This deep water close to the atoll encouraged the pods of migrating humpback whales to pass tantalisingly close to the moored yachts. Almost every day, there would be a call over the VHF radio to alert everyone that another pod of whales was passing by. What a spectacular sight.

If you have a broadband link, you can see a video of our experiences here.

After a week of rest, relaxation and washing machine repairs, it was time to continue our treck westwards to Niue. Another 430 miles of downwind sailing - how pleasant that should have been. We had heard that the Pacific trade winds are more fickle than those in the Atlantic, sometimes blowing very strongly, sometimes vanishing. On passage we always keep a close eye on the weather, hence during our final night before landfall we had reduced the size of our sails in anticipation of 25k of wind. What we didn't expect was the vicious squall/trough/front that attacked us at 01:30 - yep, these events always happen in the middle of the night. Angus says I mustn't make it sound too bad in case I worry you all - so I'll just say AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

The maximum wind speed was a gust of 57k - more than we have ever seen before. We managed to get all our sails lashed down, then put out a tiny scrap of fore-sail and run off before the wind for the remainder of the night. By the next morning, we were way off track, and facing the prospect of missing Niue and having to continue 300 miles on towards Tonga. Finally the weather gods decided to give us a break, and swung the wind around to give us an easy sail back to Nuie.

The Niue Yacht Club (a great institution) has installed several moorings off the main town - protecting the coral from cruisers' anchors, and protecting cruisers' anchors from the coral. Getting ashore is not for the faint hearted here. There is a fairly continuous swell which can bounce your dinghy through a couple of feet, requiring careful timing of your lurch from dinghy to dock. The last person in the dinghy has to attach it to a sturdy hook dangling over the side of the dock, and quickly scramble ashore. The crew then raises the dinghy onto the concrete pier using the powered crane. Sounds like fun, doesn't it!

Niue is unique in that it is an uplifted limestone platform, completely different to all the volcanic islands and atolls we have visited so far. So far we have only explored a few of the chasms and caves which ring the island. We have hiked through the jagged grey spires of a petrified coral forest, scrambled through caves populated with red, green and cream stalactites and stalagmites, and sat for a while just watching the Pacific rollers self destruct as they smash against incredible rock arches.

We have many emails to catch up with, and a little boat maintenance to attend to, so we will rest awhile here, enjoying this relaxed island community - hanging out at the yacht club with it's free wi-fi, delicious ice creams and cute kitten. Until next month - fingers crossed for fewer "adventures"!

After a couple of months of quiet, the "to-fix" list has filled up this month. Top of the list is the windlass, which requires a replacement nut - hopefully a replacement can be machined in Tonga next month. It will be nice to be able to anchor again, and not be restricted to locations where there are moorings.

A big worry was an apparent oil leak - large amounts of oil were appearing in the bilge, even when the engine wasn't running. Several days of investigations finally identified the source - a split in a new bottle of oil stored in the aft cabin, allowing the oil to slowly seep forward into the engine bilge!

In the middle of a squall en route to Aitutaki, we suddenly realised that the wooden blade of Aries wind vane was snapped in half. Thankfully we carry a spare.

Finally, the sewing machine has been called into action again - a sacrificial strip on the aft edge of the main sail decided to sacrifice itself during the 57k winds. Thanks to the kindness of fellow cruisers on Promesa and Des Anges II, I have been able to repair the damaged area using their spare sail repair fabric.

The diet on Palmerston when the supply boat hasn't visited for a while is dominated by starch and fish. There is plenty of white rice, fresh white bread rolls baked every morning, and more coconuts than all the people, chickens and pigs can eat. The families fish every morning, often catching barracuda or tuna for lunch, however, the island speciality is parrot fish. These wonderfully colourful reef fish grow to a large size on the atoll, and are caught, filleted and frozen for shipping to nearby Rarotonga as the only export from the island.

We will be relaxing in Niue, then heading over to Tonga to scrutinise the weather for an opportunity to dash down towards NZ at the end of the month.