We stayed at Manihi one night longer than planned. This was because after spending all afternoon at the remote Pearl Lodge Resort enjoying a lovely poolside lunch no one felt like leaving! Ordinarily the resort's restaurant does not get many walk-in customers and is not really prepared to accomodate anyone not staying at the resort. We saw their launch come into town and asked if they could take us for lunch or dinner at the Lodge. They cannot operate the launch after dark because of the hazards to night navigation but called the manager by cellphone to see if we could come for lunch. After checking with the chef that they had enough food, the manager found out they did not have enough staff to serve our party of ten (including the SAMSARA crew). At this point a woman sitting nearby who had overheard our conversation came over and said that she is a server at the restaurant and that it was her day off work but she would be willing to come to work for the afternoon so that we could come for lunch! Once again we were amazed at how friendly and helpful everyone here has been and thoroughly enjoyed our long luncheon. The resort has a beautiful infinity pool and the girls went swimming while we finished our last bottle of wine.
That same afternoon GLAMOROUS GALAH arrived at the anchorage and we all took a late afternoon walk around the town. The SAMSARA crew went to bed early after having stayed up too late the previous night on their sleepover but the GLAM crew came over for drinks and dinner and we had a great time together.
This morning all three World ARC boats departed for Rangaroa but not until each of us cleared our anchors which had fouled on underwater rocks and construction debris. We helped each other one-by-one but finally had to get assistance from OCEAN LADY who came over with scuba gear to wrest GG's anchor from the debris. OCEAN LADY is on the same general itinerary as we are and we have seen them from time-to-time in different ports.
We plan to sail overnight and arrive in Rangaroa at dawn. We understand that quite a few World ARC boats are there and look forward to seeing everyone.
BRIZO Crew