The best laid plans of mice and men!

After a good sail back from Aitutake, the ship then hit bad weather. We were due to meet them at the Port on the morning of the 29th, but a quick look at the other vessels in port the previous night gave us no confidence we would see them there in the morning. We were right. We collected Russell's daughter Chloe from the airport with her friend Kate the night before, and the next morning we set off on the anti-clockwise bus that went round the Island. We got to the South side just by the Rarotongan Hotel and lo and behold spotted a tall ship, looking for all the world like a sigh from the previous century, battling just outside the reef. We had our VHF with us and made contact. Turned out that the port was closed and they were bobbing around until the weather improved. However two crew needed to come ashore - Sam because he was flying out that night, and poor old Chris who had a bad tooth and a dental appointment. We managed to established they were sending the Zodiac ashore at 1230 and we went back to the beach to meet them. Chris had her tooth extracted and Sam came back to our hotel. It was a lot more pleasant there by the pool that battling the surf outside the reef.

Finally the next morning we made contact again via cellphone. The port had improved sufficiently for them to come in. However in the meantime, they had blown the lower tops'l and also need repairs to the windless which was broken on the reef. They finally made it to port around 1300 on Saturday 30th, so there was no chance of leaving before the weekend.

Today is Monday and the shops are now open. Repairs are being made and and laundry has been done (managed to use our Hotel's industrial laundry facilities for a modest donation - saved heaps of time) and we are just doing the clearance paperwork. We expect to leave tomorrow morning first thing.