With some assistance (thanks chasps) managed to get the furling gear off and broken down into manageable 'chunks'. There were two apparent failures, firstly the pin attaching  the wire/Norseman fitting to the mast head and secondly the wire itself had pulled out of the fitting (almost unheard of). As the pin which secured the whole 'shooting match' to the masthead must have been at least 14mm, something smells of fish in Denmark. I could order a new wire forestay, Norseman fitting & pin from NZ and assemble them myself here, or I could wait until I get to NZ and have the whole lot professionally replaced.

Now, I have to say that in my extensive, albeit unwilling, research into the merits of 'professional yacht mantlers' in the Pacific I haven't been particularly impressed. However, it's unlikely that I'll be needing a light-wind sail to get to NZ and the cost of shipping the parts out via Fedex is probably more than the labour costs in NZ. As the outer forestay is not necessary to hold up the mast (a fact checked with Broadblue) I'm inclining towards leaving the repair and saving myself the anxiety of waiting to see if the bits actually arrive, and whether the right bits have been sent. This means I could get on with cruising around Tonga and hopefully start enjoying life again.

Another annoying thing is my phone won't work here, despite 'topping up' minutes, and of course the phone charger has decided to fail. I could probably locate a new charger, but of course it will have a local plug and naturally I have UK to local adaptors but not t'other way round. I could rewire the charger, but guess what? The phone has been feeling poorly anyway, the screen is probably on it's way out and a new phone might be the cheaper option (but not here, although you can get a cheap one for about £20). Decisions decisions.

AND YOU THOUGH CRUISING WAS ALL RUM PUNCHES AND DOWN-WIND SAILING EH?