[password] grace40

[position] 16 46.698s 179 20.015e

[status] 1500 hrs 11 June 2019. You must be wondering, what the heck are we doing since I last reported our arrival in Savusavu on 2 June. We're doing was cruisers do most: sailing from port to port to buy parts. Since arriving I noticed our house batteries would charge up, but would not hold the charge. As it turned out, I made a calculated mistake by trying to massage another cruising season out of them. They're 8 years old. While that's a good run, the mistake not replacing them in NZ is costing us about 40% more to purchase the batteries here. They've been ordered from Nadi, the western side of Fiji (we're on the eastern side). I expect them to arrive via ferry probably early next week. And that's why we're still in Savusavu. Fortunately the batteries are Trojan T-105's, a model that is available pretty much throughout the world. I need six of them. In order to protect Fiji's own battery production, US made Trojans attract a 30% import duty. So much for free-trade agreements.

Other than food shopping, and eating out at the small hole-in-the-wall restaurants, we haven't been doing too much else. The weather hasn't been exactly flash. Been raining a lot. That makes for hot, humid days and nights. My sweat glands have been working overtime.

The hatch and companionway mosquito netting I bought in NZ has been great. Around 5pm every evening we put them up, and don't have to spray the boat with repellent. Can sleep throughout the night without mosquitos buzzing our ears and us slapping ourselves silly while half-asleep. Of all the years I did that, I don't think I ever hit one mosquito. But I woke up looking like I went the distance with Mohammed Ali.

If you'd like to communicate with us, we have internet. So you can send us emails to our land email addresses.

Sototale (see you later). John

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