Departing Raro (Update 42)
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Date: Saturday 5th June
Time: 1100 hours Cook Island Time (GMT – 10 hours)
Position: Avatiu Harbour, Rarotonga

Bula Viti kei Rotuma

The Uto ni Yalo crew were in full force at courtside for the Fiji versus Cook Islands netball game yesterday. From the noise in the Telecom Sports Arena, you would have thought it was a home game for the Fiji Netballers.

By the third quarter the Uto crew supported by the local Fijians were making so much noise they were warned by the announcer for stomping in the stands.

The support made a visible difference to the performance of the girls and they started to pull away from the Cooks late in the third quarter in what started out as a very close game with the scores locked at 21 to 21 at half time.

As the Fiji team extended their lead the noise from the Fiji supporters grew louder and louder.

Unfortunately we may not be supporting the girls today for their final game at 2pm against PNG as we are scheduled to leave at 3pm. However things could change between now and then.

A decision was made this morning to leave today as a Sunday departure would not be wise given the strong Christian beliefs of the local Rarotongan community.

Also the wind has freshened considerably to 15 – 20 knots from the South so we have to make use of the wind while we have it.

Yesterday at 1300 hours we farewelled Faafaite, as she headed West under light North Easterlies. It was a sad farewell with many of the Tahitian crew breaking down in tears especially Tauani Salmon who had become very close to our crew.

The Uto ni Yalo crew gathered on deck to sing ‘Isa Lei’ as the Faafaite cast off from our port side. Te Matau a Maui, Hine Moana and Marumaru Atua took locals on board and escorted the Faafaite up to Avana.

We stayed on the dock as Johnathan was busy clearing customs and organising payment of the NZD$55.00 per person departure tax which set us back NZD$990.00 ….. ouch!

The Uto ni Yalo will be delivering the mail from Rarotonga to Fiji for Marjorie Crocombe, wife of the late Ron Crocombe a former lecturer at USP.

We will be delivering mail to Esther Williams, Rajesh Chandra, Morgan Tuimalealiifano and Konai and Randy Thaman. This maybe the first time that mail is being delivered by voyaging canoe.

Again we are being inundated with gifts of food from the local Fijian Community or any Cook Islander who has any friends on the crew.

Many Fijian were visiting the canoe this morning once they found out we were leaving today. Frank Boivert who is here for a few days coaching rugby has also been to visit us several times.

Sacks of oranges, bunches of bananas, cartons of milk, lemons, cassava, kumala, corned beef, dalo, eggs, breakfast cereal, fish, chicken, bele, coconuts, sugar, butter have been delivered to the canoe over the last three days. So much so, that we have to share some of the food with the Hine Moana and Te Matau a Maui.

Last night the Rotuman and Lomaiviti community made a healthy dinner of fish, rourou and bele for us. Numaia from Narai entertained us all evening with his jokes and story telling.

One of the Kai Viti here loaned us a large screen television and Temo from Vanuabalavu who works for CTV here set up Sky Pacific for us so we could watch Fiji play the Wallabies.

We drowned our sorrows around the tanoa till the wee hours of the morning.

It has been a great visit in Rarotonga but we must move on. Samoa is waiting for our arrival late next week and we want to be back in Fiji by the end of June.

It will be sad farewelling the crew of Marumaru Atua and the wonderful people of Rarotonga but many friendships have been formed that will last a lifetime.

We will carry the love and mana of the people of the Cook Islands back to Fiji with us.

Moce

Colin/Uto ni Yalo

Report by Satellite Phone courtesy of DIGICEL