Wednesday 19th September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

We both slept like logs and woke up feeling on top of the world. It didn’t last long as we ran out of water in the port tank whilst Gerry was in the shower; we still had a full starboard tank so it wasn’t a disaster. We emptied the water jerry can that we had on deck into the port tank to begin the refilling process. The harbour here doesn’t look like a place where we want to run the water maker so we are going to have to cart water back from the dock each time we go ashore until the tank is full (that means at least 5 trips as the tank is 30 gallons and the jerry can holds 5, remember we have already emptied the first 5 gallons into the tank).
Gerry offered to take us ashore for breakfast – who am I to refuse that offer, it beats having to cook! We left it until around 08.00hrs, not being too sure what time breakfast was served and then dinked into the club taking 3 bags of laundry with us as we were running out of fresh clothing plus the water container from on deck to fill up. To our horror the breakfast service didn’t start until 09.30hrs, we had to wait and we were starving! Gerry filled the jerry can with water and took it back out to the boat whilst I sat waiting in the club – if I’d gone back out to the boat I would have ended up cooking breakfast, I wasn’t stupid! Eventually Gerry came back ashore; he had spent the time out on the boat taking the front casing off of the generator. We ate breakfast and dropped the laundry off and then we both headed back out to the boat. The jobs of the day were to take the generator apart and get the frame into the workshop for duplicating and remove the hydraulic cylinder and take that in for resealing. Both of these jobs are one person jobs as the space to work in is very tight, of course the other person (me) had to be the ‘gofer’. As is always the case when any job is under way the tools were spread the length and breadth of the boat, add into the mix that we have to tear the nav. station apart to get the generator out and stash the shelving etc. somewhere whilst we work – well you can imagine how the boat interior looks until the work is completed. Incidentally, thanks Steve for making the nav. station fittings so simple to remove and reassemble, it certainly makes things as easy as possible when we are working on the generator (that’s at least once every 6 weeks!) By lunch time Gerry had the generator apart and the frame ready to go ashore; he then started on the hydraulic cylinder whilst I prepared lunch. Once we had finished with lunch it was time to take the bits in for repair so off we went in the dink and then by car to the machine shop. Everything looks hopeful, they say they can do the work – we shall see in due course! The biggest problem is that we have to lug all of the generator ashore to fit it onto the new frame and then lug it back out to the boat once it’s done, the generator weighs around 160lbs – not exactly lightweight for transporting and manhandling in and out of the dinghy and car. Having dropped off the bits for repair we took a drive around town so I could get my first glimpse of the place, it is on similar lines to Papua New Guinea and brought memories of that place flooding back. Following our drive we returned to collect our laundry, filled the water container once again and made our way out to the boat where we stowed the laundry and emptied the water container into the tank (3 more trips to go). For the next couple of hours we read and relaxed amongst the debris onboard, then we dinked back ashore, (forgot the water container!) took the car into town and ate at an Indian restaurant that had been recommended to us. The food was VERY spicy – it even made my eyes water! Once we finished eating it was back to the yacht club for a couple of drinks, which turned into a few more as it began to rain and we weren’t going out to the boat in the rain. In fact it poured down for a good hour – we were captive in the bar! As soon as the rain stopped we dashed to the dink (now known as a swimming pool) bailed out enough water to prevent us from drowning on the way and hurriedly returned to our boat where we found that someone (I will leave him nameless) had left open the hatch over the galley and the stove, pots and pans and counter tops were awash with rain water. I mopped up the mess whilst Gerry helped by watching. Not long after that it was time for bed; with all the hatches closed it was going to be an uncomfortable warm, humid night.


PS. have finally got to an internet cafw and loaded photos for Tonga - have a look