Here we sit at Musket Cove surrounded by clouds and overcast skies waiting for some clearing so we can do some scuba diving again. In the meantime, the rebuilt DuoGen is spinning merrily on the stern actually making some electricity for our batteries. Now keep in mind that it's also blowing in the high teens to mid twenties which is a big help in making it spin. It's not quite keeping up with our usage but it's much better than it was before the rebuild.

We pulled in on Sunday and dropped our anchor about as far out away from the other boats as we could. With luck, we shouldn't have any boats coming in and dropping their anchors right beside us as they did last time. Now we do have a BIG catamaran in front of us and the big MV Aquarius(all 97 feet of her) off to our starboard side but neither is close enough to concern us. The anchor alarm is on watch(went off at 0610 for no reason that I could find) keeping us safe. We have our anchor lights on automatic so they come on at sunset and two garden lights(one at the bow and one at the stern) so people coming through the anchorage can see us(those that don't look up). They last just about all night.

Monday, we gathered our laundry and headed in to get it washed. They have two washers(only one works) here and a dryer that is under lock and key(has to be unlocked to be used for some unknown reason). Both give more time in their cycles for what they are intended to do so maybe the clothes come out cleaner since they get washed longer.

Our outboard is performing back to normal after the problem of having water in the gas line. Now that it's gone and it had a chance to rest while we were in Vuda Point, she started up on the first pull of the cord. First time she's done than in a long time. Puff(our dingy) is actually staying dry inside the boat. We'd had her fixed back in February and during our first time out a few weeks ago, she still took on some water. Now she is staying nice and dry. I don't have to take a bilge pump everywhere I go and keep things off the floor so they don't get soaked in salt water. A big improvement.

Yesterday was straighten up day for me. I put things away and read some manuals to try and better understand some of our electronics. Tracy spent some time stitching up holes in three pairs of my shorts. We got these from Kohl's before we left the US and over time(and lots of use) the cloth has gotten much thinner and holes are beginning to sprout all over the front(better than the back) of them. She took needle and tread to them and tried to seal them up. She's fix one and test it only to see the fabric right beside the old hole tear again. She continued on and eventually, all the holes were sewn closed. I'll get a bit more use out of them. I guess the next time we're in Lautoka, I'll be hunting for more shorts. Clothes are cheaper out here but so is the fabric and stitching but at least they will have no holes in them.

Today, it's totally overcast and the wind is continuing. Tracy even put up the side panels on the dodger to keep the wind out of the cockpit as it's downright cool(72 degrees) out there. Of course the wind doesn't help. I've got a couple more manuals to read today so I can better understand what we have on board. Gee, what fun.

We had pancakes for breakfast. A treat for us and we've been having the "typical" Fijian breakfast for quite some time. These are "breakfast crackers". Sort of like a saltine cracker only with more flour so it has more body. Smear on some butter and to with your favorite jam or marmalade and you have a breakfast. Not tremendously healthy but it's the norm out here and quite cheap. A container of the crackers runs about $1.35(about .75 cents US). From that container, we can get a good three to four breakfasts. You can't eat much cheaper than that. Cereal is quite expensive out here and is really a treat if you can find some you like. Tracy found some "Grape Nuts" the other day in a big box for a very good price. Normally they run about $15.00 Fijian($8.00US) for a small box. Breakfast Crackers are the food of choice out here.

Well, that's about it. Off to the manuals.