Thursday April 20 – best meal out in FP so far

We had a very slow day. The morning was taken up by endless laundry loads, and getting sheets dry in between rain showers. It was very restful and a good catch up on chores.

In the evening Rowan had planned to go out for dinner at the Hirinaki Lounge with all the Arc boats left here, which happens to be the 4 boats with kids – the two Swedish boats, and the Mexican and Argentinian catamarans. The kids were luckily all exhausted so we had an adult dinner which was much more manageable. We haven’t seen poor Simon (Argentinian crew on Mororo the Mexican boat), we hear he is in mourning (he was rather taken with Megan)!

Louise from the boat Sara of Sweden and her husband Jorgen came for drinks before hand, they were curious to see our boat. This is their second circumnavigation with the Arc once when the kids were 5 and 7 and now they are 11 and 13. They got de-masted crossing the Atlantic last year and the Arc fleet created a fuel line to supply them which got them safely into Saint Lucia. Quite an effort. They bought a new boat in the Caribbean and here they are!

We had an excellent meal, lots of succulent grilled Mahimahi and delicious raw Tuna bowls, followed by a scrummy Creme Brulee, all washed down with a few bottles of nice rose wine. So funny all the ladies sat one end and the men the other side, Rowan and I definitely upped the average age! It was a very convivial evening with everyone speaking English as the common language thank goodness, especially as we were the only English couple! They are all having such a wonderful family time. Lots of chat about where everyone is headed to next, the wind has changed to the NorthWest which is quite unusual, so looks like everyone is staying put until Sunday when the the wind dies right down. They will all be heading to Taihiti and we plan to head a bit south and visit some other islands here in the Tuamotus before heading back up to Rangiroa, the biggest of the islands here.

Klaus, Imanol, Annie, Pato, me, Rowan, Flowi, Sanna, Jorgen, Louise

Rowan’s test caught alight! Meghan had used this snuba to clean the hull, until it started smoking. Rowan recharged the battery and tried it out, it is now heading to the bin!