Here's the latest. To anyone following, my apologies for not updating. We've been busy with new crew and fresh challenges.

Our crew, Phil, arrived in good health, carrying interesting stories about his journey from Friday Harbor, Washington. He jumped into helping with enthusiasm and has already proven himself a personable, willing partner.

John arrived yesterday, after a grueling night flight, and promptly made himself at home. As a semi-permanent crew, Phil has the aft cabin, and John gets Conni's closet and clothing drawers but sleeps on the salon settee. No complaints, of course, from John about his sleeping arrangements. He even brought his own sleeping sheet!

We started the engine on Saturday and unfortunately, there was coolant in the oil. We requested that Ritesh the mechanic come by today and we both agreed that the likely source of coolant in the oil, since the oil was a "chocolate mousse" consistency, was faulty head gasket. I do have another, luckily, but it's rusty and not in the best shape. I worked on cleaning the gasket whiled Ritesh pulled the head. We decided to have the coolant passages in the head pressure tested to ascertain a cracked coolant passage in the head. If there is, well, we've got some problems, but we can at least rule out that problem with the test. The engine is in pieces at this point, and the cabin in disarray, but we're moving on the solution.

The head will be ready tomorrow, Wednesday, and we'll re-assemble the engine and test it. We know that the engine needs a rebuild (new main and rod bearings, seals everywhere, and piston rings), but that's not possible at this point. We'll deal with it when we get back to the states.

Friday is our weather window. The weather has been controlled by a large high pressure south of here and that's dissipating, finally. We'll check out of Fiji here at the Marina and leave for Tonga on Friday afternoon. We'll have to fill the starboard tank with diesel fuel after cleaning it: a nasty job that Phil completed as soon as he arrived.

I completed the replacement of the aft head, so we're back to two heads for the three people. It's nice and new, and works smoothly. It was quite a job to install, I can tell you!

Conni leaves tomorrow and boy I'll miss her competence. Of course I'll miss her because she's my spouse, but she's so competent with so many other parts of the boat and procedures. I'll handle things from tomorrow forward as best I can.

We have the engine issues, of course, and a few other tasks to complete, but Conni and the guys traveled to Lautoka yesterday for the last food run, so we're prepared for the next leg or two. We've got water and fuel. The sails are on with all reefing lines and such. Conni and I have reviewed most boat things with the guys and I hope that they're prepared for the trip. We've got the forward-looking sonar working with John's help in supplying the proper MicroSD card. Technically, the boat is in better shape by far that she was when we arrived last year. Sail repair, hull repair, engine work, new electronics, fresh fuel and water are all in our favor.