At the end of the event I told these words to Kaia and Puna.

It started all with the health and custom inspection. I don’t recall who was the first of these two gentlemen who invited us to the fund raising event for the local school starting at 1600.

We still had to wait for the gentleman for bio-security but decided already to go and see this event.

When bio-security was finished we re-anchored MaRe to get a bit more space to the shore. When this was done with pulling the anchor in the sand even twice with 1800 -2000 RPM, I felt safe to leave MaRe alone and we went ashore.

The little harbor with about 1 m of depth, is an excellent dinghy dock with quiet water and wind protection.

We knew approximately where the building is and walked along the deserted main road. No asphalt, no concrete on the road, just a natural road, comfortably to walk on. That the road was deserted gave me the feeling that almost all villagers are at this event.

When we reached the place and carefully approached it, 2 – 3 people waves at us to come in. One approached us and introduced himself as Alex and welcome us for the event.

We looked at the food stand just beside him. I decide to take a lunch box. Shigeo saw another food stand and bought something there. Standing there with our lunch boxes and thinking where we could possibly sit down, when Alex and a few more offered us to sit down at their table. When we sat down, Puna introduced himself. Puna, is the gentleman with whom I communicated about our arrival at Penrhyn. Thus, suddenly the friendly email-gentleman got a very friendly face and I was happy to meet him finally in person.

The food, rice, fried pieces of chicken and red meat was good. But the salad drew my attention. It was mixture of a green and something else salad. I tried to find out what it is. Potato or breadfruit? “Breadfruit* was the answer I got. Not knowing it at this evening, I was lucky to meet the lady who made it the next day.

A very young man holding a 2 – 3 old girl on his lap introduced himself. A young lady, standing in the background and drinking a coconut came also closer and we got the question “Why did you come to Penrhyn?” I smiled and told her the story about meeting Nora and Ralf on a hike on Mo’orea where they told me about Penrhyn and my decision to sail via Penrhyn to Kirimati Island.

When the very young man and the lady heard “Nora and Ralf”, they were delighted and they told me that they were guides for them during they stay in Penrhyn. What a fortunate coincidence!

So far part 01