Palmerston Atoll, between French Polynesia and Tonga, is a beautiful and very weird place. Part of the Cook Islands, it was populated by a single man and his three wives. William Marsters, an English trader arrived at Palmerston in the late Nineteenth Century. 
He established three separate families on the island with strict rules governing intermarriage.Today, the island is populated with his direct descendants. There are
about a dozen adults on the island and 24 children, 
although based on their complex and formal infrastructure you'd think there were a couple of hundred people on the island. They get a supply ship every 3-6 months and families compete to "adopt" visiting yachts. Our new foster family took complete charge of our time in Palmerston. They cooked our meals every day (including a feast of "Bosun's Bird", which were baby birds of paradise), took us lobster hunting at night, helped us tie off to a mooring when we arrived, and shuttled us back and forth to shore. In exchange yachties provide all sorts of supplies, from cooking oil to outboard parts and fishing gear. 
We had some incredible diving and spearfishing there with some of the most aggressive sharks we've seen. It's the first time I've ever yelled, Everybody out of the water, NOW. Joel and Austin practically levitated into the dinghy.
