April 13, 2010—The past two weeks have been very busy. Steve has worked with Devin on designing our arch and supervising the building of it. He spent two days up in the shop, and I think that his presence kept the guys on task instead of being pulled off for something else. The arch was supposed to go in last Friday; however, since Steve did not go to the shop on Thursday, our arch was not done, and we were put off until Monday.
In the meantime, Brian from Baobab Marine, who was handling our stainless work, got into a dispute with the marina owner over a tax being levied on all work done by Baobab. Brian’s position is that the tax is not being levied on all contractors equally. The marina told Baobab that they could not work in the marina after 5 p.m. on Monday, so on Sunday night Steve was totally stressed out that our arch would not be delivered and mounted. There are several boats here that are in the middle of projects, and the owners are not happy at all as they are caught in the middle.
Monday morning it was raining, but Steve did get our arch delivered, and we got it installed. Devin said that he would be back this morning to finish some spot welding and polishing, which he was. We are pleased with the work and glad to be done with it. Now if these two men can just work out a solution to a situation that will hurt both businesses and cruisers if it is left unresolved.
Tomorrow we leave for Suva for three days to do some shopping at Cost U Less, which is similar to Costco and to visit the Papau New Guinea Embassy in order to get visas for our stop in the Louisade Islands. We also plan to do some sightseeing. It will be good to get awhile and see another part of Fiji.
Also, the refrigerator arrived late last week, so we were able to install it pretty easily since it is the exact same unit that we replaced. Of course, nothing is ever perfect—two screw holes had been moved, but we won’t complain. We now have cold beer and ice.
In the meantime, Brian from Baobab Marine, who was handling our stainless work, got into a dispute with the marina owner over a tax being levied on all work done by Baobab. Brian’s position is that the tax is not being levied on all contractors equally. The marina told Baobab that they could not work in the marina after 5 p.m. on Monday, so on Sunday night Steve was totally stressed out that our arch would not be delivered and mounted. There are several boats here that are in the middle of projects, and the owners are not happy at all as they are caught in the middle.
Monday morning it was raining, but Steve did get our arch delivered, and we got it installed. Devin said that he would be back this morning to finish some spot welding and polishing, which he was. We are pleased with the work and glad to be done with it. Now if these two men can just work out a solution to a situation that will hurt both businesses and cruisers if it is left unresolved.
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On Saturday the marina put on a small fair for locals and cruisers to display crafts and other nice things to buy. There was a band and food, and it went quite well. At five o’clock Mo, who is the lift operator at the marina, came with his family to deliver Lovo Lovo to us. His village did this to help raise funds for a road to their church. The meal included a whole chicken, a large piece of pork, a fish, a whole dalo and kumala (types of potatoes), and taro leaves cooked in coconut milk. The meal was delivered in a palm frond basket. It was a huge meal for which they asked $20F or $10 U.S., but we gave them $30F, and it was still a bargain. We ended up eating three meals from all the food.
On Saturday the marina put on a small fair for locals and cruisers to display crafts and other nice things to buy. There was a band and food, and it went quite well. At five o’clock Mo, who is the lift operator at the marina, came with his family to deliver Lovo Lovo to us. His village did this to help raise funds for a road to their church. The meal included a whole chicken, a large piece of pork, a fish, a whole dalo and kumala (types of potatoes), and taro leaves cooked in coconut milk. The meal was delivered in a palm frond basket. It was a huge meal for which they asked $20F or $10 U.S., but we gave them $30F, and it was still a bargain. We ended up eating three meals from all the food. Tomorrow we leave for Suva for three days to do some shopping at Cost U Less, which is similar to Costco and to visit the Papau New Guinea Embassy in order to get visas for our stop in the Louisade Islands. We also plan to do some sightseeing. It will be good to get awhile and see another part of Fiji.
Also, the refrigerator arrived late last week, so we were able to install it pretty easily since it is the exact same unit that we replaced. Of course, nothing is ever perfect—two screw holes had been moved, but we won’t complain. We now have cold beer and ice.
.bmp)
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