Before our week was up I went to Alefaio, the police officer, and asked if we could extend our stay because there was no wind and I asked if we could wait for wind. He told me he would check and that I should come talk to him the next day.
The next day he said that customs in Funafuti said that I should call them. He said I could call from the telecom office by purchasing a phone card. So, I went to the telecom office, but no one was there, so I waited and waited. Apparently, Jerry was taking a long lunch. Eventually Alefaio noticed me waiting, and without saying anything he just called himself and then he came to tell me what they said. Apparently, customs in Funafuti told him two things 1) it was up to him whether we are allowed to stay (good!) and 2) Nanumea should charge us a fee (bad!). So, Alefaio went to talk to the town council and came back and told me it would be $20/day for us to stay.
It turns out that I had already made friends with the Government Secretary (an office appointed by the Executive government branch in Funafuti), so I appealed the fee to her. I told her that some sort of fee would be reasonable, just that $20/day was kind of high.
I don’t know what went on in the subsequent town council meetings, but she eventually came back to me and said they had decided to not charge any fee. They want yachts to visit Nanumea, and they understood it was unfair to charge us so much money when we were just waiting for weather. In the meantime, I had paid two days of fees, but that was OK, because from that point on we could stay as long as we liked with no fee.
Gresham Family Exodus 