At last!!!! Last night (1930) we made it, but only just. Decks were awash, compressor was going full blast to keep the leaking air bags semi inflated. I even had to pretend to be Dutch and put my finger in a dyke and boy was she annoyed!............now you've thought about that for a second or two I can say that I had my finger over a leak which did actually slow that particular leak down.

We grounded about 20 metres from the hard and today we're waiting for a crane hire company to come along and assess the job. Low water in a couple of hours and I'll start taking 'stuff'' off the boat to get her as light as possible. If the crane can't do the job then we're not too certain of plan B but the main thing is the boat now can't sink (any further than it is already) and can't turn over. Of coure the frustrating thing is I'm now working on 'Island Time' whereas I really want to crack on and get Trouters high and dry to start cleaning up, but with local labour at about £1.20 per hour I might just have somebody get the worst of the reef out of the boat, provided it hasn't washed out already.

So much for the positive stuff, but now how to finance the repairs? Ideas on a postcard, but at least the expertise is here and by going for the 'minimalist approach' as opposed to all the bells and whistles it shouldn't prove too expensive (he said being wildly optimistic).

Had a 'day off' on Sunday and went to a place called Pacific Harbour, the adventure capital of Fiji. Not really worth it, a collection of shops, a backpackers and a mock Fijian village but the bus ride was OK. We had lunch at 'Rik's Cafe', but not everybody came to this Riks, Ingrid Bergman was missing and 'Humph' was nowhere to be seen. No piano player so Sam couldn't play it again.

Computer problems, the screen on the Mac is playing up but luckily I had an old Packard Bell on board which I grabbed as an afterthought and it does the job,

Fiji mobile number  +6799212518
A writer's life for me?
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