During the potluck dinner (our first night here) I had learned that the guy who owns the resort hosting us was making dinner the following night. I knew from talking to a few others that there was interest for this so before the evening was over I talked potential numbers with Manihi the guy that owns/built/runs the place. He had four booked and could do a maximum of sixteen.
First thing after the net I dinghied round to a few of our friends in the anchorage and, including the Jacksters and Anthem who were on their way here, soon had the numbers.
Next John and I went snorkeling in the pass. This was during the outgoing tide and we tried our best to keep to areas where the flow through the channel was minimized. However there were times when we would be caught in a strong current and zip off. We always had one of us hanging onto the dinghy painter all the way through which was our lifeline in case of trouble. The snorkel was fantastic as we saw a great number of sharks including, at one point, about 15-20 all at once. In hindsight we should have had a radio aboard and have a buddy boat with us in case our outboard failed.
Before lunch I spent some time on Imagine helping them out with a software install falling back on skills developed in my past life.
Not long after lunch we were back out snorkeling. As the tide turned and the current started flowing back in practically everyone was out there dinghying out to the cut and drifting back in. For our friends who had arrived the previous day this was their first experience and they were amazed.
After a few drifts we were back on the boat waiting for Jackster and Anthem who were about to arrive. I’d convinced them they had to get in the water on arrival and get one thrill before the light fell. We helped dinghy them out into the cut for a drift in the now quite strong current. They were thrilled.
We now only had about an hour before our scheduled start of evening festivities. We all arrived at Manihi’s red roofed establishment around 5:30 for a meal scheduled to start at 7pm. Manihi had been out fishing to catch the meal earlier that day (what a life) and his wife had prepared it. When it all arrived, nearer to 8pm, we were amazed by the quality of the presentation and even more amazed by the taste of the food. All sixteen of us sat around a grand table set amongst a tiki style great hall. A fantastic time was had by all.
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