Two of our cruising friends, who best remain anonymous; let's call them Al and Amy, stocked up in Whangarei today in preparation for their summer, or is it winter, in the islands. Top of the shopping list was...... 36 bottles of gin! Yikes!

"It's a long summer in the islands" said A&A Anonymous. They've spent time in Fiji and Vanuatu and know what things cost so I'm now a bit worried our meagre duty free allowance will see us through........one hard night. We may need to rethink our victualling before we head off especially as we'll have a freezer to keep and make ice cubes.

This stupid freezer project has occupied every waking hour for days now but tomorrow is F-Day. The day we pass the point of no return and bend the freezer plate to shape, squeeze it into the new space, wriggle, push and pull the pipework through into the aft locker and then, another crux, screw the plumbing together without getting gassed. It has all the potential for being aptly named F-Day.

Perhaps we should have given the Jehovah's Witness who appeared at the boat this afternoon a bit more time!