While Don was working on the batteries (hooking them back up, reinstalling the hydro-caps, and greasing the connections with electrical grease), I made a last pass through town picking up some things for him and scoring big on the pa'alangi vegetable delivery. Things like broccoli, red and green peppers, and celery are not grown locally, although green beans, eggplant, cauliflower and spinach are. The imports come in now and then by ferry and are priced like gold. In my view there is little worth spending money on more than veggies, especially ones that work well in stir-fries, so our departing fridge is packed as full as it can be.

We departed the harbor on schedule Saturday afternoon, and have been at anchor two nights back out at Lesiaceva Point. We have, of course, managed to miss the easy weather window. A young New Zealand couple we have gotten to know raised their anchor early yesterday to bash eastward to Fawn Harbor. Bashing is not our favorite point of sail, and the high pressure system bringing the strong so' easterlies is liable to hang around for awhile, so we are leaning more and more towards heading west.. Don wants to run the engine with its new alternator and watch the new batteries a while before we take off, anyway. We heard Captain Fatty (Fatty Goodlander, Cruising World writer and friend from the Virgin Islands) on the radio net the other day bemoaning that HIS new Trojans (from New Zealand) are not holding a charge. He now has to deal with the problem in Tonga, one of the worst places we can imagine to be in such a pickle. For once in our lives, we are actually in a position to insist on the warranty should be need to!

However, so far so good, and we are just ticking away at more little projects as we linger. Tomorrow we should be underway.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area