But first a few updates. John has the starboard engine all ship shape again. New fan belt installed, antifreeze cleaned up, and a temp fix to the engine mount with some JB weld. If we keep our fingers crossed, it (the JB weld) should get us through to the end of this cruising season – another 3 months. Then he will need to find some time to lift the engine so he can properly tap and put a new bolt in. He doesn’t think the 2 incidents are related – the bolt could have been missing for quite some time, and didn’t cause the fan belt to wear out. But losing the fan belt probably caused the engine to overheat – and therefore antifreeze everywhere. He also checked the port engine for potential problems and all looks good.

We also changed our anchor location the next day. Swinging to within 20 feet of a huge barge was getting quite uncomfortable, so once the engine was put back together we hauled anchor. After timing it just right – we had to wait for the barge to swing a bit more to our left – we were able to pick up our anchor (which brought us right up beside them! We could have handed them a cup of coffee!). Now we are anchored closer to shore which makes for a shorter dingy ride into the yacht club, and a very comfortable nights sleep!

Meanwhile, I’ve been going back through ships stores and updating our provisioning list. This took me about 3 hours on Saturday, and another 3 hours on Sunday. I’ve been through every cupboard, settee, and bilge storage spot on the boat. We are running dangerously low on black olives and crackers! But have an extensive amount of dried beans and sauerkraut. We’ll be doing some major grocery shopping in the next couple of days for both ourselves and Bob and Ann on Charisma. They are waiting for us to get down to Fulanga where they have been for about 7 weeks now – and are out of just about everything – including beer and wine! They’ve had one sailboat come down to Fulanga a few days ago with a care package of wine and some fresh vegies. That should hold them over until we get there we hope! We are looking at a weather window on Thursday/Friday that we hope will let us get to Fulanga without too much wind on the nose.

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful! We went downtown to the Hisbiscus Festival for awhile – walked around and tried some fixins at a few of the food stalls lining the street. The festival looked to be 2-3 times larger than the Bula Fest over in Nadi, and just more of the same. Lots of rides, food stalls, stalls with all sorts of ‘stuff’ for sale (jewelry, toys, clothes, etc), and games of chance. Here are some pics from the fest:




Lots of these blow up kind of rides for the kids.




Nothing like a little multi-tasking! Getting laundry done while working the ride.

We were looking for the Hibiscus display – we thought maybe there would be some type of competition for the best grown flower. But all we could find was a stall where some ladies were selling various types of plants and flowers. Not sure if one was a hibiscus or not. So we’re not quite sure why it’s called the Hibiscus Festival? There’s also a grand stand where they have various events throughout the week such as bands, speakers, talent show, etc. So we think we’ve probably seen as much as we need to see of the festival and now it’s time to start focusing on getting ready to head to Fulanga.

Today we head to the immigration office to extend our visa for a couple of months. We are only good until 22 Sep, so we need to get an extention into November. We also met a nice fellow at the festival yesterday that after hearing what we are trying to do for Fulanga, he wants to take us around town to help us find the best shops for sewing materials, etc. (Did we mention in an earlier blog we bought a hand-cranked sewing machine for the island ladies so they can sew their own clothes). So after immigration we will have a full day of shopping – I think I am actually getting a bit burned out on shopping!! But hopefully today we will find more of what we are looking for.

Time to get my teeth and hair brushed and get a move on. All for now,

Lisa