Thursday 27th September

Suva
Fiji

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

We woke today expecting this to be our last day here, With a couple of things still to be done we set off in the dinghy as soon as we had finished breakfast. As we no longer had a car we caught a taxi and asked the driver to take us to a place that Gerry had heard of- he wanted to buy a bilge blower and the "marine store" at the yacht club didn't have one. The bilge blower was to put into the exhaust system for the generator to help cool it down faster and hopefully to extend the life of the generator by allowing it to run at a cooler rate. We spent the next hour chasing all over town for this bilge blower, going from one recommendation to the next, in the end we were unsuccessful, nowhere had one and most places had never even heard of them! West Marine- all is forgiven! At the final stop we paid off the taxi driver and went and bought some new fishing hooks and trace to beef up the lures that we have got in the hope of landing one of these monster fish that keep slipping the hook. We then detoured to the internet cafe and wasted half an hour there answering mail and I tried to type yesterday's blog- not very sucessfully as the computer shut down before I had finished it- I gave up! Next it was a stop at the Indian resturant for our last curry before leaving Fiji, the place was packed but we did manage to eat. We thought we would have a last look around town and as we did so we stumbled across a free music and dance show being performed in the park, we watched for a while but stupidly had not taken the camera ashore so there are no pictures. next stop was the handcraft market where we perused the locally made carvings and basket ware- we didn't buy a ,thing they appear to be mass producedalthough each stall owner professes to make them! Our final stop was the pot authority; we needed to check out before leaving the place. After filling out numerous forms(in triplicate) we were finished with immigration and just had customs to go; there came the stumbling block-all the officers were in a meeting-"come back tomorrow". What can you do?
We got a taxi back to the dock and went for a drink at the bar followed by dinner in the Wok on the water-our last Chinese meal here.

Wednesday 26th September

Suva
Fiji

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

Today was the day for reinstalling the generator, that meant it was the day for me to make myself scarce from the boat whilst the re installation was underway. Of course we woke to pouring rain - not the ideal weather to go wandering around the streets window shopping. I bagged up all the dirty laundry and amid the pouring rain took the dinghy into the yacht club where I deposited the laundry. Next I took the car into town and after finding a vacant parking meter made my way to the internet cafe where I spent the next hour loading the blog and looking at our emails - I even answered a couple! Having finished with this I made my way back to the car, it was still pouring down, and then headed to the only decent supermarket that we have found. I shopped till I could fit no more into the trolley, it was quite good not to have Gerry peering over my shoulder as I perused the shelves. Once I had finished I loaded the car up - not much space left for anything else, and made my way back to the dock. I then rearranged the shopping into fewer bags and then began the trudge backwards and forwards to the dinghy, loading it with the shoppping. 4 trips later the dinghy was full and in I climbed. I had to bail it out before going anywhere as there was about 4 inches of rain water in the bottom, once that was done I was off and running back to the boat. Gerry came out tied the dinghy up and helped me to unload the shopping. Whilst I had been away he had managed to fit the generator back and had just done the first test run - all seemed to be running well. I didn't ask too many questions about how it had gone - I really didn't want to hear all the problems! Just as Gerry began fitting the casing back into place he dropped a spanner down the back of the engine - to retrieve it would have meant taking the whole Generator out again, needless to say the spanner is still down behind the generator! We stopped for lunch and then Gerry took the hire car back to the office whilst I stashed the groceries away. On his return there were a few more minor ajustments to make to the generator before he was happy with it. We were going to go ashore and collect the laundry at 15.45hrs however the heavens opened just as we were about to take off and it bucketed rain for the next couple of hours, we finally made it to collect the laundry an hour and a half after they were supposed to close, they too were caught by the rain so we managed to get the laundry after all. As there rain began again we had a drink at the bar and then fish and chips in the Wok by the water. As soon as the rain got a bit lighter we bailed out the dinghy, loaded up with the laundry and made our way back to the boat for the night at least we could run the generator and have the fans etc on tonight.

Tuesday 25th Septmeber

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

Yes we are still here and we woke up to glorious sun shine this morning. First thing today we went to the machine shop – everything was supposed to be ready for assembling today. Gerry went in whilst I waited in the car, about 45 minutes later he appeared and said I might as well go off and do something whilst he stayed to “help” them. Things weren’t looking good if he was going to help! I took off and spent the next hour and a half searching for some new fishing lures without any luck, the parking was difficult in town and I couldn’t find the shop that we had seen on a previous drive by. When I returned to the machine shop the frame still wasn’t quite right and I felt that I was rescuing them from Gerry’s wrath by taking him away for lunch. We went back to town and to the café we had found a couple of days ago – the bad dog where we had a delicious pizza for lunch. Whilst we were eating it began to pour with rain – who ordered rain it wasn’t us! Our next stop was the internet café – just to get our daily fix of email and internet then it was time to return and see if the frame was ready. Well it was ready but not quite right; Gerry waved his arms about and suggested things they should do - a few more adjustments had to be made so we made ourselves scarce whilst the guys did the work. Eventually we returned to the shop and the frame appears to be done, the fitting it to the casing will be our next obstacle but that will be on the boat so the guys in the shop won’t hear the names that they will be called. We loaded the entire generator back into the car and took it back to the dock. For once the gods were smiling on us as the rain had stopped and the tide was at its high point, making it as easy as possible for us to transfer the generator into the dinghy and then from the dinghy onto our boat (it weighs enough to cause a back injury if everything isn’t just so) . Anyway the good news is that all the parts are now back on the boat awaiting reassembly tomorrow. The bad news is that the screw holes for the frame don’t line up with the previous ones; I’m going to make myself very scarce tomorrow by going off and doing the grocery shopping whilst Gerry reassembles the generator! We decided that we needed to go ashore for a drink and some food at the Wok on the water before returning to the boat and retiring to bed.

Monday 24th September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

Another wet day – who would believe it? We began our day with checking on the progress of our frame for the generator, only to be told to come back in the afternoon and it might be done – yeah right! Our camera decided that it was going to play up and not zoom in and out so we thought we would try and find a service place to see if we could get it looked at. The camera, a Sony Cyber-shot is only a year old; we had bought it in Perth especially for this trip. Anyway we headed into town and made our way to the largest store we could find advertising Sony cameras, we asked the sales clerk about servicing and she gave us an address where Sony equipment is sent, it was pretty close to the yacht club so we drove there and Gerry went in to ask the questions. It was only a few minutes before he reappeared – not a good sign; sure enough we had the right place but they didn’t service cameras there, all the cameras were sent to a different place near the airport. We gave up; the problem seems to be intermittent so hopefully we will still be able to take pictures of the rest of our trip. Having gone through this wasted exercise we thought we deserved a cup of coffee so we found the nearest Republic of Cappuccino, which turned out to be the local version of Starbucks. We ordered coffee and cake at the counter (the biggest difference was that we didn’t get asked if we wanted Tall, Grande or frigging gigantic – it only came in one size, imagine that!) and were directed to sit down – ah a soft fairly comfortable chair, bliss! The coffee and cake was bought to our table and we wallowed in the comfortable chairs whilst slowly polishing off these frothy, cream topped, freshly ground beans made over into unpronounceable beverages and decadent chunks of gateaux. That was lunch out of the way for the day! Our next stop was the internet café where we checked our email, answered the ones that we really couldn’t ignore and posted the latest blogs. By the time we had finished there it was absolutely pouring down and it was not going to be any fun wandering around the shops as we had planned, we did try to chase down a new camera – just in case but didn’t actually find one in the end, all the duty free shops must be at the airports as we didn’t find any in town. We did however manage to find the jewelers and bought me a new wedding ring to replace the one that I managed to loose overboard just as we were leaving Tahiti. I’m happy with the replacement but it still feels a little strange and after 29 years of the old one I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise. We thought we would test the camera to its limits and then drove out to the parliament building gates so that I could get a photo of the guard in a skirt. I had to jump out of the car for the picture as there was no parking in front of the gates and I took a couple of photos from the far side of the road, I then crossed over to take a closer photo and was hailed by the 2nd guard – in combat fatigues hiding in the sentry box. I politely replied and invited him to stand along side his traditionally dressed counterpart for a photo; he was obviously pleased to be asked and stood to attention next to his mate for the photo – see the traditional and contemporary guards in the photo! Having got my photos we decided that it was a perfect afternoon to spend at the museum – out of the rain. We drove there and spent the next couple of hours wandering around the exhibits, learning all sorts of interesting stuff about Fiji and its inhabitants; it was definitely worth the visit.
We also did a quick tour around Thurston Gardens, in which the museum is set; they are quite lovely gardens and I think that in dry weather they would be a great place to spend some time.
With a couple of hours left until it was dinner time we headed first to the machine shop – there is progress but the frame isn’t ready yet and then back to the boat so that we could run the engine and top up the batteries and run the fridge (it will be so nice to have the generator back in working order so that we don’t have to keep doing this). Between rain showers we returned to the club and had a drink before setting off to an Indian restaurant that we had seen and fancied trying. The food was very good and we made pigs of ourselves with a banquet style meal. Full to bursting we returned to the boat for the night.

Sunday 23rd September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

We woke today to a small amount of blue sky – hooray, we were beginning to think that it had all gone away for ever. The morning was spent doing nothing special, just relaxing and reading our books. We had planned to go to Yum Cha at the Capital Palace restaurant in town (it is apparently quite well known here for the weekend Yum Cha) as Gerry hadn’t been feeling too well when he went to bed last night I didn’t push to go but just before lunch he suggested that we go out, stopping for Yum Cha on the way. So we dinked ashore, drove to town and were lucky enough to find a parking spot right outside the Capital Palace. We made our way inside and sat down, the only white faces in the place, everyone else was oriental – a good sign in a Chinese restaurant we felt. The Yum Cha was unlike ones that I have been to in the past in that this was a buffet style where you had to go up to the table and decide what you wanted and they then bring it to your table; every other one I have been to you sit at your table and waiters bring out trays of food and circulate and you take what you want as they go around. Anyway we made our choices, the food arrived at the table and we pigged out on the food. It was very enjoyable and I was glad that we had got there. Once we had finished eating we thought we would have another try at finding the road that we missed yesterday and go for a drive. Map in hand (upside down and back to front to see if it made a difference) we headed up a side street, we found what we thought was the road and began traveling on it. Eventually we hit the first ‘big’ town; yes we were on the right road – yippee. The road was a little better than the one we had traveled on 2 days ago but it still didn’t seem like a major highway to us. The pot holes were less but we think this was because the road was less used than the one to Sigatoka. We continued to drive all the way to Korovou, about 50 kms; there was little to recommend the journey, no spectacular sights and pretty mundane scenery after the first few kms. Instead of driving alongside the ocean we were following the Waimanu river which turned into the Rewa river; there wasn’t even any river activity to keep us amused! When we reached Korovou we elected to return to base, we had had enough driving around. Back at the yacht club we dinked out to the boat and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon before heading ashore for dinner. Gerry although feeling a little better didn’t want to go far so we ate at the club again – we have almost gone through the menu once so it must be almost time for us to leave here! The good thing about eating at the club, well 2 things – it’s cheap and there are always other people to chat with and share sailing stories with. Then it was back to the boat to run the engine and charge the batteries before bed.

Saturday 22nd September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

The day started with a division of labour, Gerry went ashore to the machine shop to see how they were going with the frame for the generator whilst I stayed on board and swept out the interior of the boat and cleaned the shower sump etc – all the fun jobs! Gerry returned to the boat just as I was about to sit down and type the blog, he had gone via Micky D’s and bought us breakfast (even though we had already eaten toast before he left); honestly he is a junk food addict and just couldn’t go past a Macca’s without going in. So would the frame be ready today? Of course not, did you really expect it to be done when they promised – it’s now going to be ready on Monday, I’m not taking any bets on whether it will be ready or not. This had kind of thrown our plans for the weekend as we had planned to do the re-installation all day tomorrow, then the final stock up for our onward trip on Monday morning before returning the car on Monday afternoon; now we have to have the car for an extra day to make sure we have transport to get the generator back to the marina, ho hum! After eating the Mac whatever they were we dinked back ashore, deciding to go for a drive around to see if we could locate the road that heads north towards Rakiraki and go for a drive in that direction to see whatever there was to see. We headed towards the center of town which was teeming with people, everyone and their dog was out shopping and milling around the town center streets. We followed several roads out of town always ending up back where we started – the map isn’t particularly good and the roads have few indications as to where they end up; despite it not being our intention we saw pretty much all the streets in the center on town and enjoyed the bustle of the city. We also managed to find our way out to the big football stadium, drove along the water front road, saw the parliament buildings with the guard in his traditional Fijian uniform (we though it would be quite difficult to take a guard in a skirt seriously, but he does have a rifle slung over his shoulder so I guess we wouldn’t laugh in his face); found the historic buildings of Suva – the library, the Fintel building, the old town hall, the Grand Pacific hotel (a shadow of it’s former self from what we could tell)

and the Fiji museum with it’s surrounding Thurston gardens. The worst thing about it all was that there was no where to park so photos were impossible to obtain, we will have to try again before the car goes back; I especially want a picture of the guard in his skirt! What we didn’t manage to find was the road heading north that we were looking for.One thing that I've failed to mention so far is that the Royal Suva Yacht club is directly opposite the Suva prison - if you get too drunk it might be difficult to know which one you are at! Eventually we had enough of driving around and gave up, headed back to the yacht club for a few drinks, met up with some fellow travelers and sat chatting with them until it was time for dinner – what a way to pass the day! We ate in the yacht club as it was pouring with rain and we couldn’t be bothered to go further a field for the evening. Once we had eaten it was back to the boat as Gerry was feeling a bit off colour and wanted to go to bed early. I sat up for while and read whilst the engine was running to top up the batteries then I also went to bed. Good news the pillows are finally dry.

Friday 21st September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

We woke to yet another overcast miserable day, not ideal for drying pillows but a good excuse to use up the last of the lemons on pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast we headed ashore as Gerry wanted to check on the progress of the new frame for the generator. We had to take all the parts for the generator (including the engine) in with us to the shop today so we struggled to maneuver the heavy bits out of the boat, into the dinghy, out of the dinghy onto the dock, into the car and finally into the shop, honest to God I don’t know how we did it but we managed without any injuries; the worst thing is that we have to do the whole process in reverse once the frame is finished – now there’s something to look forward to! When we got to the machine shop they were drinking Kava and offered Gerry a bowl, he declined (wimp!) but it was only 09.00hrs – a little early to begin drinking we thought, and these guys are making our new frame – be afraid!. After dropping everything off we decided to go on a sight seeing drive and headed off along the coast road towards Sigatoka. The road rivaled the Queensland highway from Cairns to Brisbane, it was full of pot holes, infrequent road markings and quite twisty. The scenery also bore a great resemblance to Queensland – lush, green vegetation, palm trees, hibiscus and glimpses of the ocean all along the route. The villages varied greatly from quite well kept to absolute S#*t holes. There weren’t nearly as many churches here as we had seen in Tonga but we saw a few; the biggest difference was the presence of resorts along the way where obviously the rich and famous vacation (Dog’s breath this includes you!). We covered 128kms and it took us almost 2 hours – it wasn’t a fast road, or car for that matter despite it being a hire car! We arrived just in time for lunch which we ate in a small café, it wasn’t anything to write home about but it filled a hole. We found Jack’s – the most publicized souvenir store in Fiji and made a couple of purchases there then we wandered along the main street staring at the shops windows, I have to comment here about the most beautiful saris that we saw in the windows, they were spectacular but Gerry wouldn’t let me spend any more money (boo and hiss). It began to spit with rain so we turned the car back towards Suva; the drive back was a very wet one as the monsoonal type rain fell for almost the entire trip. We arrived back in time to check on the progress of the frame – not ready, possibly tomorrow (HUH!) From there we went to the yacht club for a drink and a little later on we made our way to a restaurant that we had seen along the water’s edge. We were early (would have qualified for the early bird prices in the USA) and enjoyed the peace and quiet whilst we ate; just as we were finishing our main course the place was invaded by a load of very noisy fossils who were there for the seafood buffet, we left very shortly after and made our way back to the boat for the night. Pillows? still not dry, maybe tomorrow! To make matter worse the monsoonal rain had found it’s way under the floor that Gerry has up in the cockpit for the autopilot repairs and run down the interior which is right over our aft bed, one side of the bed is soaking wet, it’s not my side so I’m not saying anything more about it!

Thursday 20th September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

Our day began with rain – it seems like we are destined to have rain where ever we stop! After eating breakfast, once the rain had stopped, we went shore with our pillows which needed washing and the generator (minus the engine) as Gerry thought that it needed new bearings. After dropping off the pillows for laundering the first stop was to drop the generator off and arrange for it to be fixed, they said to return in the afternoon and it would be done – yeah right! The next stop was just next door, where we collected the hydraulic cylinder which has new seals fitted and the shaft was polished as it had a few scores on it which may have contributed to the loss of hydraulic fluid. Gerry then suggested that we go to the internet café and catch up with the blog uploading and read our email; we drove around to the place and there was nowhere to park so I jumped out of the car and went to log on whilst Gerry drove around until he found somewhere to park. The saga of my trying to log on at a strange computer doesn’t bear repeating, enough to say I had to ask the geeky Asian boy who was taking the money how to get into the programs; to his credit he was very patient and didn’t make me feel too stupid! I got there in the end, plugged in the memory stick and nothing appeared on the screen to say it was there – yet another job for Geeky boy, now known as computer God! At last I was set and began loading the blogs for the previous week, as you can see I did manage eventually and even put some photos on too. I was just getting into my stride with the loading when Gerry arrived and began pestering me, he gave up and went and paid for half an hour of his own so that I didn’t have to hurry, however he needed the stuff he had saved to the memory stick “as soon as you are finished with it” – honestly anyone would think we didn’t have a second memory stick that he could have used. Blog loaded and emails read I logged off and Gerry then finished up with whatever he was doing. By now it was close to lunch time so we walked to a nearby café where we ordered an early lunch. Once we had eaten we made a dash to the supermarket, well that’s how it started out however the “supermarket” was no longer a supermarket, it had turned into an electrical goods store. We asked directions to the supermarket and after a very roundabout trip found one – we weren’t very impressed it wasn’t as good as had been described to us - we must have the wrong place! We asked the check out chick if this was the only MH supermarket – Oh no there’s the big one over the hill and far away! We did eventually find it but it was off the main road and easily missed if you followed the direction we were given. By the time we had got the shopping Gerry was keen to get back out to the boat and fit the hydraulic cylinder back in place, we just missed getting wet as the rain began again once we were on board, luckily it didn’t last very long and Gerry was soon able to refit the cylinder whilst I handed him tools and played assistant.

Just before 16.00hrs we dinked back into the yacht club to collect our pillows, we bundled them into the back of the car and took a drive along the sea road to the Tradewinds hotel where we had a late afternoon drink and snack. The hotel overlooks a small lagoon where a few yachts are tied up to mooring balls, it is very picturesque and quiet there and we made enquiries about the moorings and the use of the hotel facilities, including the internet. As it turned out the hotel doesn’t own the moorings and we couldn’t find the man who does, the on duty manager said we could use the hotel facilities if we were moored there (I would stake my life on a bet that if we rocked up having moored he wouldn’t be on duty and the manager of the day wouldn’t let us in!), the internet cost was $12 (Fijian) for an hour as opposed to $3.50 at the café we went to this morning; I’m seriously doubting the value of a move there! Anyway it got around to time to return and collect our generator which we did before heading back to the yacht club for dinner. We ate at the Wok on the water and enjoyed the company of a few fellow sailors for a while there. Between the showers we dinked back out to the boat with pillows in hand but left the generator in the car as it had to go to the machine shop in the morning for fitting on the new frame. I kicked myself when I undid the bag with the pillows in, they weren’t quite dry and there was no way that we could use them; I went to grab the pillows off of the forward bunk to use instead only to find that they had gotten wet when Gerry hadn’t closed the hatch properly a couple of days ago, so now we have 6 pillows that need drying out as well as a mattress protector and who knows what else I will find when I strip the rest of the junk off the forward bunk, and believe me it’s not easy to dry these things on a boat when it’s raining! We eventually slept with just one thin pillow each; hopefully I’ll be able to get them dry tomorrow.

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

Tuesday 18th September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

The rest of the night passed with neither of us getting much sleep, we were both too excited at the thought that the passage was over. We finally dropped the main in the early hours just before dawn as it was flapping around and really not doing very much to help us along and for the last part of the journey we motored. Of note was the sunrise, the sky was full of cloud and as the sun came up behind them a circular rainbow formed which was something neither of us have ever seen before, my photo doesn’t do it justice but I tried!

We motored into the harbour in between the rain bursts and dropped our anchor amongst the boats there (we were the spectator sport for all of 5 minutes with everyone watching us anchor; but as we did a brilliant job of setting the anchor first time we weren’t much fun to keep watching!). Once the anchor was down and everything switched off and stashed away we got the dink off the foredeck and readied it for going ashore. A huge cooked breakfast was the order of the day followed by a hot shower and then Gerry took off ashore to clear us in and hire a car whilst I did some fridge cleaning, laundry gathering, cleaning and re organizing of the lockers. I had just begun to type up the blog notes when Gerry finally reappeared (having been gone for nearly 4.5hrs) We caught up with information and then Gerry had a sleep whilst I finished typing these notes. The lack of sleep during our short passage had finally caught up with Gerry, I had to wake him up in order to go and have dinner. We dinked into the yacht club where there is a restaurant called Wok by the water – serves Chinese food incase you didn’t guess. We ate our fill, chatted with a couple who were just picking up there boat, having left it here for a few months and finally when it all became too much we dinked back out to our boat for an early night.