[password] caesar

[position] 19 08.912s 178 33.945w

[status] 0640 hrs 9 September 2018. First, I thank all of you who sent Leilani B-day wishes. She really appreciated them.

Two days ago the main village threw an island-wide (encompassing all three villages) food and dancing extravaganza. A 79' luxury yacht arrived last week and brought the village a new generator for the school, and donated $5000 to the school. In appreciation the villages put on a great feast, including roasted whole pig, lobster, fish, clams, root and green veggies. A formal sevusevu ceremony was held for the yacht owner and his crew. All topped off with traditional female dancing, and even male warrior dancing. The fly in the ointment was it poured down rain - the first time in our 3+ months in Falaga. No one seemed to mind. That's just the island way. Rain or shine, everyone has fun. It was one of the top festivities I've attended either last year or this in Falaga. However, I did note we did not get the same royal treatment for delivering 1000 bras and 700 sunglasses.

Yesterday, as you know, was Leilani's B-day. It was dampened by our watermaker going on the fritz. There are various systems that can go down, and we can soldier on without. But the watermaker is not one of them. We carry 570 ltrs (150 gal) in our tanks, which are full. Our Dutch friend who is traveling with his 92-year old mother has offered to give us 20 lts per day to keep us going. At that rate, based on our consumption, we could conceivably last about 30-days. I doubt we'll wait that long before returning to Savusavu. In the meantime, I'll be communicating with my watermaker mechanic in NZ to determine just what is wrong with the watermaker, and whether it can be fixed in Fiji. I think I know the problem, and there is a place in Fiji which advertises it deals in my matermaker brand, so there is hope. I'll keep you posted. However, I'm already not looking forward to leaving.

Sototale
John & Leilani

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