Another night where the eyes told the body to hit the rack! We arrived in Palmyra yesterday morning for a week of ops. This is an interesting place clouded with folklore and superstition. I read all the articles two years ago when I came here for the first time and found nothing creepy or weird about it. I heard about these islands around the time I graduated from high school. There were the mysterious murders that took place in 1974 of a yacht couple from San Diego in which the husband was a ham radio operator who kept schedules. When they arrived in Palmyra they were never heard from since. Here are links to that murder mystery.
Palmyra Atoll (2010)
The lagoon between the isles is exquisite and resembles a setting of a tropical panorama on posters you would find in cubicles for a moment of escape for the commando who sits there. (Here I go again about cubicles; because you would think either I am jealous of the commando or just happy not to sit in one day after day.) Tomorrow I am going ashore for a barbecue with the scientific party that resides temporarily on the island. I hope to be able to do the rope swing over the water this time. Sometimes I miss out on the fun because I am eager beaver to get home and if I am working time flies by. But what I have done many times in the past was after I got home I would recollect and wished I did this or that. Palmyra is different and the beauty of this place makes it worthwhile to go ashore. In addition, I love swimming and snorkeling in tropical waters. The waters in Hawaii are cold and the beaches overcrowded compared to that of these islands and Samoa.
Inside the Lagoon (2008)
Whenever it gets windy here I notice the breeze around the islands gives it a hazy appearance. I am not a scientist and I am sure there is an explanation or told it happens everywhere. Nevertheless, after going to many atolls and islands in the Pacific I notice this appearance of haze created by ocean breeze is unique to Palmyra. It’s a radical contrast to Jarvis Island where it is a tropical desert. Palmyra has all the makings of a tropical island. The trees, lagoon, birds and marine life as compared to its naked cousin 400 miles to the southeast on the equator as Jarvis had birds (infinite it seems) and of course abundant marine life.
Mama Nesting (2008)
I pulled out my “shellback” card the other night as we crossed the equator after leaving Jarvis that day. Shellback covenant is to never expose what the “crossing the line” ceremony consists of. It is all in good clean fun but some take it as hazing and refuse to participate. That’s too bad because I have a wonderful wall certificate hanging over my fireplace mantle showing I crossed the equator. I am a “Golden Shellback” many times over as I crossed at 0 and 180 on the Ka’imimoana many times but never received a certificate. I’ve crossed the date line too and even made a few ham radio contacts from the dateline.
Welcome to Palymra (2008)
I went through my shellback initiation in 2002 on the Townsend Cromwell. It was a special one as it would be the final cruise for her with a NOAA crew and the last time she crossed the equator to go to her new home in Pago Pago. When I followed up a few years ago to see what happened to her, I saw she was in Auckland, New Zealand at a ship broker’s yard with a “For Sale” sign on her. Cromwell was not the most comfortable ship to live in but it had personality. I crossed decked (transfer of equipment) the ship and sailed with her once on her final voyage but lived on board the ship during cross decking. Whenever I think of that cruise, Jimmy Buffett’s 1978 song, “Son of a Son of a Sailor” comes to mind.
Palmyra Lagoon (2008)
That’s about it for now. Wishing everyone a good day, good night this from Palmyra Island.
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