The crossing to Aitutaki was the complete opposite of our Rarotonga crossing with the boat heeled over in the opposite direction and the wind behind us for a change!

The entrance into the lagoon is very shallow and must be attempted at around high tide. We had missed that so had to anchor just outside the pass. On the way in to our first nights anchorage we broke our luck of Jonah and managed to catch two Blue Trevallys on the lures much to Katies excitement so it was fresh fish for dinner that night. The next morning we carefully manoeuvred the boat in through the passage into the lagoon with the depth sounder showing 0.1m under the keel at some points and we dropped anchor in the harbour.

Aitutaki is much quieter than Rarotonga so after we had cycled round the island there was not much left to do in respect of exploring the island. One of the days we decided to head out to one of the deserted motus at the edge of the reef. This was about 4 miles across the lagoon from where we had anchored. There were a couple of other yachts that were making the trek across the water but they were doing it the easy way. They of course had an outboard motor attached to their dingy we we were relying purely on arm and oar power! The small dingy was also equipped with a mast and rudder so we could try and alleviate the pain from rowing 4 miles but just our luck there was either no wind or if there was it would blow us away from the island. Leigh decided that he would row us all the way there and to help him out we took the bikes and cycled to the end of the island so Leigh could pick us up there leaving about 2 miles to be rowed with three of us in the small boat. Many times on the way out to the Motu we offered to take over the rowing. Each time we were turned down. There are only so many times that you can offer before you just have to sit back and take in the scenery so that is exactly what we ended up doing.

The island itself was pretty much deserted apart from an old beach bar that had been constructed at some point for use by one of the 5 star resorts when they ship their guests there on mass for that getaway experience. Luckily there were none of them there the day we arrived. After having a swim in the crystal clear waters and soaking up the 35 degree rays of sun we bundled back into the dingy and rowed out to a coral bommy where we dropped anchor and went to explore in or snorkelling gear. All that was left after that was to raise the sails on the dingy and head back across the lagoon towards Aitutaki. With Katie on the bow of the boat looking out for shallow waters and coral heads, Leigh in the middle it was up to me to take control of the tiller and steer us back trying not to capsize the boat.

One night we decided to put on our gladrags and head up to one of the 5 star resorts for a slap up feast and (in Leighs own words) the chance to see some "local Sheilas wiggling their hips". So in the smartest gear that we could get (clean shorts and t-shirt!) we jumped on the bicycles to head the couple of kilometers up to the resort. Leigh took one bike and I took the other with Katie perched precariously on the luggage rack! On arrival we were presented with fresh flowered leys and enjoyed a nice three course meal of local fish (both raw and cooked) and rich deserts. Then the dancing began. The dancers were entertaining but not exactly professional. It seemed to us that they probably did this at all the resorts regularly and didn't exactly do it with the most amount of gusto. There was the obligatory dragging up of the hapless holidaymaker to make them look stupid. Again we managed to escape this embarrassment and after applauding the fast retreating dance troop it was back on the bikes to pedal home much to the amusement of the locals who pointed and laughed as if they had never seen anyone carrying a passenger on the luggage rack. All that was left for us to do was stock up the boat and take on some fresh water in order for our next location of Suwarrow.