We had a nice leisurely morning waiting for the sun to climb. To get out east one needs to navigate the pass a mile or so south east of Tapana. To maximise visibility this needs to be done around midday. Our timing was pretty spot on as we made it through the zig-zigged passage just a few minutes past. Our destination was the tiny island of Fetoko where Ben and Lisa, two of the regatta organisers, live. Our Ben had made good friends with them and Saturday evening was their post regatta wind down to which they’d invited a few of the folks involved. We actually anchored slightly to the south off the island of Ofu as we thought we may go ashore to explore.
In the end we stayed on the boat for the afternoon going ashore shortly after 6pm. We had a pleasant evening with Ben and Lisa and their friends, most of whom we already knew or at least recognized. At one point they played some video taken of the regatta and mostly of the Full Moon Party which gave everyone a good giggle. Maybe it will go on YouTube one day.
Our Ben stayed on the island for the night and we returned to Dignity. Disaster. Our dinghy had gone. Quite unbelievable we hadn’t properly secured it and it was no longer there. Ben (island Ben, not ours) took me out for a while to try and find it but we had no luck. The search would have to continue in the morning. He had lost his before and it turned up ok. Downwind of us it is all land and reef so hopefully it will turn up somewhere. Now it’s the morning I’ve been out and scanned with the binoculars but cannot see it. I’m feeling pretty stupid for not properly securing the dinghy when we left it. It was not as though I could even give the lame excuse of having had a few beers at the time as we’d laid off it.
Fingers crossed we’re not facing a big bill and a lot of awkwardness.
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