Saturday 24th May
We reach Rarotonga
before dawn so slowly meander our way in as the sun rises. It’s a small
harbour but clearly marked and accessible. There’s an wrecked trawler
parked on the reef at the entrance – apparently there since one stormy
night last year when the skipper was the worse for wear ! We tie up stern to on
the harbour wall with the help of a local man who catches our lines. It’s
a grey drizzly day, but the town is slowly wakening up and is soon busy –
the local market is nearby. Everyone who walks by greets us and we get the
feeling we’re going to like this place…
Into the Blue and Andante of Mersey are not far
behind us – Tallulah Ruby radio to say they’re a few hours away.
Stewy and Brian stay aboard for a rest. Ian and Annie go ashore to the market.
There’s lots of stalls selling handicrafts, pearls, fruit, vegetables,
flowers, coconuts, marinated fish, fresh fruit juices and various hot meals.
It’s thronging with chat and activity – everyone is very warm and
friendly - and talking about the weather – it’s now torrential
rain! Ian and Annie return to the boat laden with fruit, then sit in the
cockpit watching the world go by until the rain goes off. Ian and Stewy then
head ashore to get their Cook Islands Driving Licences from the local police
station (always handy to have a spare!) and organise a hire car for a couple of
days. TR arrive and park beside us singing Guantanamera, oooh,
Guantanamera ooooooooh, Guantanameraaaa…… – they’ve won
the fishing competition hands down of course – and have just caught a
huge tuna on the way in! When the car comes back we all head to the popular
local bar – Trader Jacks - right on the seafront. A full Saturday session
ensues……. we meet a few Kiwi holiday makers, there’s lots of
high jinx, then 19 of us eventually move on to the local Indian restaurant.
When we’ve finished there we’re wondering where to go next when we
realise the wind has veered round to the North and is blowing straight through
the harbour entrance. We get back to the boat asap to find an alarming surge
and swell with the boats being driven against the harbour wall. TR appear to be
almost hitting the dock steps, and all the yachts are swinging violently. Warps
,fenders and anchor chains are adjusted to try avoid potential disaster.
We’re in danger of colliding with TR – we each take in 3m of anchor
chain to pull us further away from the concrete harbour wall and decide to
start the engine so if we need to make a sharp exit , we can! Ian and Stewy stay
up on anchor watch ,Annie goes to bed. Three quarters of an hour later
Brian returns from the Banana Bar with platted legs. As he comes down the steps
towards the dinghy, Ian and Stewy realise that a catastrophe is about to
happen; Brian launches himself towards the transom of the dinghy (with the
continuing surge and swell!) which he misses completely. Instead of heading for
the steps as any sensible person would do, he decides to swim to the boat,
which is rearing up and down ! Realising he is totally unable of climbing up
the stern, Stewy decides to take control of the situation and tells Brian
exactly what to do, while Ian gets out the boarding ladder. Meanwhile, as TR
Paul calls over “I told you so – he always falls in the water!”,
Brian is bobbing up and down like a cork blowing bubbles. Eventually he’s
aboard - amid the hysterics there’s considerable relief but he is also
told in no uncertain terms that the whole fiasco WILL be recorded in the log!!