October 12, 2007

Same Old, Same Old…….
It's starting to get tiresome, this weather curse. We've spent 3 days in panic mode, but have the boat nearly ready to go. We found out we couldn't check out Fri and leave the next day if we're going international, so put off leaving til Monday. This morning Curly said the Metvue weather shows a series of lows marching across just north of us, causing strong northerlies where we want to go. They're expected to last til the end of the week, when our immigration visa runs out. An extension would cost $192. We have $76 Fijian left. May have to beat up to Wallis and wait there for better weather. Will probably once again get hammered. Spent the morning trying to make the hatches more watertight when submerged. The rain finally stopped today, but I haven't had a clearing long enough to get the motor apart to adjust valves and replace the timing belt. I'll do an oil change and try not to push it too hard this trip, hope it goes OK to Majuro.
One reason we're on this tight a budget is that I bought a "GPS mouse" from the local computer place for $150 Fijian. It plugs into the USB port and has an active GPS antenna. It feeds the satellite data directly to the laptop for the navigation program, eliminating the need for having a GPS plugged into both the laptop and a power source. Less clutter, and a better signal, for a couple weeks worth of grocery and entertainment money. I do hope we can give Wallis a pass. The anchorage isn't said to be so hot, and it's relatively expensive to buy stuff there. Funafuti, Tuvalu is cheaper, and more out of the zone of changeable weather.
Another reason for our short funds is the cost of stove fuel. The Fiji govt has drastically raised the bar on having a license to sell denatured alcohol, because the locals keep drinking it and dying. So we had to have some shipped up from the other island, then had to take a cab to Labasa to sign for it and supply a copy of the stove manual and a photo of the stove in the boat. The NZ price for the stuff is $3.60 a liter. The 16 liters we got here was three times that price. The cab driver said the fare would be $70. When we got back here , he said that was $70 each way. I wonder if he thought we were going to walk back when he quoted price. Pretty much standard business practice here in Fiji, though. The price is raised at each stage of a transaction, and a contract means nothing. I now doubt we'll come back here.
I have two autopilots functional now, (the old Simrad and the new Autohelm) and by tomorrow we should have finished the windvane steering system repairs. Karen's almost done sewing a fabric cover for the vane, and I have a new trim tab ready to install. So we should have 3 ways to steer the boat without one of us at the helm all the time. My level of confidence is up from last month. I've given up on the idea that we might have a reasonably easy passage, but we've got the boat more ready now. We expect to be away from the Hotmail email account for a few weeks starting about Wednesday, so it's back to Sailmail and Winlink, but I think the Winlink will work better again when we get out of the 'radio hole" of SavuSavu. In any case, we'll keep you all informed of departure, and send daily updates while on passage. Ted