:
Unfortunately many changes have taken place since the Conservancy hasacquired the islands:
1. They now only allow two boats to anchor in the lagoon at any onetime. If there are already two in there when you arrive, then you mustanchor outside the reef until someone leaves.
2. They do not allow you to anchor in the nice area by the runwayanymore, but instead you have to anchor in a very limited area by theold seawall.
3. If you chose to go ashore then you will need to use one of theirguides to take you around a very restricted area.
4.You are no longer permitted to visit the old hospital or the smallerislands.5. They do not allow fishing within the protected waters, you must beoutside of the reef line.
6. There is no diving allowed, lobsters and crab are not allowed.
7. I have been told that there is now a charge of between $75-100 perday to anchor in.
8. The old yacht club house has been taken over and is off limits, themain island has now been cleared of all bushes from the lagoon side allthe way across to thhe other side, you can no longer use the old watercatchment and adjoining bathtub,Rogers two dogs have been put down,therunway area has been periodically poisioned to hold down the birdpopulation so their private plane can fly in with weekly provisions,there are several small fishing boats now there for the conservancypeople to use to take out the doners fly-fishing, in the afternoon theyhave been used for water-skiing so the large man-a-rays and dolphinshave been chased out of the lagoon.
9. They now have constructed 10 bungalows, a professional size kitchen,full shower facilities and heads for their fund raising guest, an icehouse, new maintance facilities, an electric generator facility.You get the picture, they have under the ruise of eco. tourism created avery private and selective retreat to entertain wealthy people willingto pay substantial money in the form of donations. ( I spoke with one oftheir long term pilots who recently quite over safety concerns about thesupply planes leaving Honolulu over permissable weight and he personallysaw a wealthly .com big wig write a $1 mil check over dinner while onthe island and hand it over to the officials there.
Afraid that at this point it has been all but ruined for the cruisingcommunity, you are better off going to either Christmas and/or Fanning(although Fanning now gets a cruise ship from Honolulu once a week for 8hours.
The comments on Palmyra that Bob B. has been posted have been veryaccurate based on everything I have seen and heard. Hope this helps....
(Wed Jun 26, 2002 - 1:39:41 pm)
