16 Jun - What a difference a day makes

Hello

The main subject of discussion on Fluenta right now is our water supply, but it seems like we have a way-ahead. We will join the migration of kid boats west from Fulaga on the weekend. If our water maker hadn't acted up, we would likely have stayed here while everyone left (and the lagoon, while lovely, would have seemed very empty). Instead, we will island hop to Nadi (sounds like "Nandy") where we think we can get our Clark pump fixed. After that, we are not sure what the season will hold. The nice thing is that no matter what, we are in Fiji, so it will be beautiful wherever we decide to go :)

We used our satphone and called a Fijian company today, and got the sense that *of course* they could fix our pump (ie what a ridiculous question - this is what they do! [of course we need balance expectations as much of the marine industry is happy to appear confident to take on work and then charge an hourly rate to figure out if they really can fit it. Max]) We used our old feed pump for several hours this afternoon (bright sunshine had topped up our battery voltage, so the pump was happy) and by some miracle [okay, perhaps not a miracle but rather physics - the new pump burnt out its pump head as the Clark pump problem was causing the pressure to spike so high that the cut off switch would open. The old backup pump is not strong enough to reach the cut off point so it appears safe. However, it is too weak to get good quality water (less than 500 ppm TDS) unless the voltage is high enough. We have sufficient gasoline to run our little Honda generator to keep the voltage above 13.0 when the sun is not shinning or the wind is not blowing. We also have a spare old pump buried in a deep locker. Max] , we made water instead of burning it out like we did the other pump. It seemed like the needle on our gauge moved ponderously slowly, but at 2 to 3 gal/hour we made some progress (our usual rate is 8-12 gal/hr)

During my yoga practice this morning, I found out that two friends whom we thought were both leaving today had elected to wait a few days for a different weather window - hooray! By the time they go, we think we will be ready too, so it looks like we will have friends in our anchorage for another while :)

On the subject of yoga - we are anchored next to a sand spit that creates a 90 deg angle with the rest of the beach. At low tide, we can practice right on the sand. I have done yoga in some lovely places over the last three years, but I think this is the most beautiful yet, and today was especially spectacular, because the sun finally came out and coloured the sand white and the water turquoise. Photos to follow once we have internet!

Max, Jesus, and the kids dinghied over to the pass in the afternoon for a (likely) last snorkel before we go. Max & Jesus went spearfishing [the band on my new to me but quite old spear gun broke so no fish. I did see a large formation of inqusitive eagle rays and a big sea turtle. Max], while the kids snorkelled with one of three boats that moved over to the pass anchorage. Benjamin slept the entire time they were gone, and I had a welcome break to get some chores & baking done (we are almost through the stock of bananas ... today we featured banana oatmeal muffins (regular and mini), of which I think Benjamin ate 6 after he woke up). We capped off the day with a sunset fire on the beach. Johnathan found himself invited to Nirvana for dinner and a movie, so the rest of us had a quick meal of chicken/rice/veg before the boat went quiet. I am getting used to washing dishes in salt water!

Short and sweet. Nice to feel like we are back on an even keel and we have a plan :)

Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 6/15/2015 8:43 PM (utc) SV Fluenta was 19°09.03'S 178°32.51'W
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At 6/15/2015 8:43 PM (utc) SV Fluenta was 19°09.03'S 178°32.51'W

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