This one is a hoot. Tom Neale is one of those legendary figures (if you can have a legendary figure who was alive in my life time) of sailing and adventure. If you don't know who he was have a quick read at:
Tom Neale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anyway, my wife was working on her very detailed record of our trip across the Pacific last year during which we spent a delightful time anchored at Suwarrow. It is a really special place that is a national park of the Cook Islands. Each year the CI govt sends two caretakers/park rangers there for six months to collect park fees (you can only get there by boat and something like 100 boats a year go there) and keep an eye on things. When we were there the caretakers, John and James, organized a pot luck for the 5 or 6 boats that were there. They said that the next day was Tom Neale's birthday and it would be a special occasion.
We had a great dinner and someone baked a birthday cake of course. Now my wife is writing it up and she checks Neale's birthday and it given as November 6th - but we had the birthday celebration in the middle of June. I wonder if Tom Neale's birthday happens every two weeks or so all winter when the caretakers are there? I don't begrudge them the little lie at all since they arrive with a bunch of staples, flour, cooking oil, some canned goods, etc. Other than that there is an infinite supply of fish and coconuts so a cake probably seems like a nice extra that having a a regular pot luck might not provide.
If you are cruising the South Pacific Suwarrow should be on your list and if James and John are still there (they seemed to want to come back and one of them said he would love to stay there all year including cyclone season but the govt won't go for it) say hello for Ainia. They are great guys.
BTW, we also chased down a geocache there - must be one of the least visited of these in the world.
A final BTW, my wife checks every detail like this - I don't, too often it wrecks a good story - although here the reverse.
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