And so the rains came and came and came. We're now into day 3 of rain. It started back on Sunday afternoon with a good dump of heaven only knows how much water. It cleared off for a bit in the afternoon(oh my goodness, the humidity) and that was the last of the sunshine since. The clouds came back after only a few hours and rain started again early Sunday evening. It has rained virtually ever since with just a few minutes of let up while it gains more moisture to start again. Roads have washed out and even some banks in the smaller towns have announced that they would be closed since the roads have gotten so bad. One thing we did get accomplished before the rains came was our laundry. Nice to have clean clothes again.

We, on the other hand, took off for Lautoka yesterday, rain or no rain. We needed to pay our Vodafone internet bill as the last day for payment was yesterday. We waded out to the bus stop and waited standing under umbrellas. We now each have one. It arrived just a few minutes late but at least it was running. Much of Lautoka sidewalks are covered as a great deal of rain falls in this lush green country so getting between stores along the street was no problem. Up came the umbrellas when we crossed any streets. We ran numerous errands to store to get resupplied since we had run out of many of our staples when we were out at the islands. I'm just glad we decided to come back on Saturday, the last sunny day.

It's still raining and I'm continually changing out the towels around the boat as water slowly leaks through the assorted holes in the deck. The worst is behind all our electronics at the navigation station. I change out the towels inside that cabinet about every 30 minutes as they get filled with water. I've been using "Shamwow" towels and they seem to absorb the most water. The micro fiber towels do well but are too small to do a great job. Ah, the things you learn while boating.

So here we sit, waiting for it to stop raining so we can get back to projects. I know I started this flood by writing that I had planned on going up the mast on Sunday to fix and install some things that needed attention up there. Once that was out, well, Mother Nature was set to slow that down. If I had known all this was coming, I'd have gone up on Saturday when we got back. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Floods are rampant around this side of the island with Nadi, just south of us is flooded with roads washed out and homes flooded and people evacuated. The radio news just reported that all roads to Nadi are now closed due to the flooding and that the rain is expected to continue for the next 24 hours. Well, this is the rainy season. Glad we have our umbrellas as well as good foul weather gear for when we venture out to escape "cabin fever". We stuck out our bucket on the stern yesterday. As of now, there is about 5 1/2 inches of water in it. How's that for a downpour. No wonder everywhere is getting flooded.

More to come as the rain continues.