On the ground we met another cruiser with his boat on the hard who had worked a MOST ATTRACTIVE DEAL at the resort next door. In a small building that used to be the dive shop (from our first visit here three years ago!),First Landing Resort has created four small rooms with bath, fridge, coffeepot and AIRCONDITIONING that they are renting to people in the yard for very cheap weekly rate. It even comes with breakfast! It is less than 100 feet from the boat! Such a deal. So we moved our clothes right back off again. Man did we get a good night sleep last night.

At 5 am when we were up considering the world this morning, we discussed whether our decision not to paint Tackless, made in the gloom of US market worries might have been a bad call. The Fiji dollar has only gained 3 cents on its old exchange rate against the US dollar, and things will never be cheaper anywhere down the road. Business is slow in the yard and willie says he can paint the whole boat in three weeks! Even using the "boatyard factor" and doubing that time, makes very feasible. and our old girl sure needs it!

Then Jim, the guy who hooked us up with the room deal also has a day worker David he uses outside Willie's guys for other jobs. David makes $8F an hour. That's about $5.50! Jim will be leaving in ten days, so we can inherit David after that. Since the painters are working on Jim's boat today, we have David today starting on cleaning Don's tools which have molded and rusted. My job will be to get the galley back in working order so we can eat at least some meals aboard, and then start from the aft cabin and work forward cleaning. Oh joy. But I have an airconditioned room to retreat to in the heat of the afternoon to catch up on my column, a deadline for which is coming up fast. Gotta get ahead, and this will be a good time to do it.

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Labels: 2008 Boatyard Work, Fiji 2008, Vuda Point Marina