Land again! And excellent it was to see it too. We’d motored all day yesterday, having picked up no wind, right up till midnight, when we’d laid to + all gone to bed. And sitting there in the morning, exactly where she should be, was Rarotonga. Val had done all the navigation after the first 2 days, so obviously she was very pleased that it all worked out so well. And Doug was very pleased for her too. Mind you, it took quite a few hours before eventually she emerged from her cocoon of a bunk, + Doug wouldn’t let me wake her so I could start breakfast, but eventually she crawled out, some time after 9. We had an enormous breakfast to celebrate – kidneys + sauce + potato from last night, cooked up with tomatoes added, along with a pile of scrambled eggs + some bread. Plus tea, of course. Always tea.
Rarotonga was pretty, green + mountainous. Our entry to the harbour was very smooth; no shouting, no panic, just quiet requests. Sometimes we think that Doug doesn’t give us enough to do, but he certainly can’t be accused of being bossy. There were some local guys on the quay to take our lines, + they were immediately both helpful + friendly. And spoke English, of course. We’d no sooner tied up than the harbour master came by to say hello, + then a yachtie came by to invite us to a party the princess(?) was holding tonight. Everything sounded great. The harbour master, Ted, came back + came on board for a beer or 6. He was a Scot, + quite a nice old feller, tho’ a bit of an old woman. We all sat in the cockpit for quite a while, waiting for the health people, + customs + immigration, + drinking quite a lot of beer. Unfortunately, customs never did arrive, so we couldn’t get off the boat. However, Ted managed to obtain special clearance for Doug to go with him to a Rotary Club meeting in the evening. Doug was quite keen to go to renew some old acquaintances, but the bad thing from our point of view was that we couldn’t go to the party, since we had to stay to look after the boat. This made me very depressed, since I felt that once again we were missing out on something. Still, we had a rum or 2, I finished my book – an excellent Stephen King thriller, + then to bed. Dougism – “I think we’ll keep you on….” (as cook, navigator, etc.)
Excellent to see, and reach, land once again. A nice smooth entry, and then a relaxed day, drinking beer. Also seems like our social life could be going through an upturn, even though circumstances forced us to stay aboard today. And I was suffering from FOMO, even before it was a (named) thing.
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