I read on a blog somewhere that every paradise needs a little grit, and we’ve found the grit in Fulaga. On our first few trips to the village, we had been warned about the mosquitos but they were non-existant. However our last trip was insane. They were everywhere, and continue to be! Anchorages which were safe, now get mobbed. Even down at our anchorage we get the odd one that makes it out to the boat. The beach is a war zone! I went ashore to get a few coconuts and got nailed many times through my t-shirt.

We’re also fighting a few little boat problems. Plumbing is my least favourite task on the boat, and the hose for the outside shower broke. It had been failing a while - plastic in the sun never last long and this has managed 10 years. The tap on the beer brewing tub also broke. Fortunately, neither of these are serious and our Australian friends are acquiring spares to bring when they come to visit later this season.

The harder problem was our port engine battery. It had gone flat whilst the boat was in Australia - but charged fine and seemed to work ok. That was until we arrived in Fulaga where it started to lose voltage. Eventually, it couldn’t start the port engine without lots of charging first. I got cables sorted ready to jump start it when required, but fortunately Chris and Lynda came back from Ogea and had had the same problem in Denarau. Chris has kept one good battery back as a spare, so has lent that to us until we get to Denarau. Very kind of him, and makes things a bit easier for us until then. I’d already swapped the engine batteries over as the port battery starts the generator, so we really wanted that one working.

We’re now getting the SPCZ weather - intermittent light rain sprinkles and plenty of wind. Monday sees the wind drop off, and we’ll move to Ogea then. Reports from Chris and Lynda are that its lovely (but alas the best anchorage isn’t available to their 3m keel), so we’re looking forward to that.