Lautoka run again

 Here's the thing about Savusavu - it's not big, there's limited selection of stuff, but dammit, you can park your dinghy a stone's throw from the market (and the liquor store).  That makes provisioning the boat a piece of cake.

Contrast that with Vuda.  Vuda has amenities, but you have to take the bus into Lautoka for shopping.  And you can carry only so much shit.  The cabbie must share stories around the kava bowl at night...

So I'm trying to rig a switch for the anchor chain wash pump that I can operate from the bow, rather than have to scramble back down into the cabin, move up to the head, and toggle the switch that was formerly the shower sump pump.  (If that's confusing, imagine bringing up a muddy chain in an onshore breeze only to realize that you have to make three full boat length trips to get the wash pump going - meanwhile watching the reef get closer...)

So my idea is to run a lamp cord out through the head hatch with a switch on the end that will activate the wash pump *from the deck*.  Sound reasoning, right?  Sure, Sparky, now just try and find the components in Lautoka.  

I Google 'Hardware Store' and sure enough, there is a Vinod Patel hardware store close to the market.  They're a chain, I was familiar with the one in Savusavu.  I get there and ask for a toggle switch.  Blank stares.  They point at light switches for the wall.  No, no.  Google picture.  Shake of head.  Sorry.  Try the refrigeration place around the corner.

The what?  Refrigeration?  Well, I have nothing better to do, so off I go.  Sign on the door:  "Closed for four hours."  So I wander down the back streets.  Spot a sign that says 'electronics' and head for it.  (By the way, pedestrian crossing signs in Fiji are considered advisory at best.). Girl there shakes her head and points me down the street toward the 'spares'.  WTF are 'spares'?  Off I go.  Turns out that 'spares' are what we call 'auto parts'.  Think Auto Zone, etc.  

First 'spares' store I walk into, the guy smiles and has a switch!  It's not what I wanted, but it seems to have the amperage rating I need, so I buy it.

Find my way back to the market and buy some limes.  Hit the IGA and bought a bunch of foodstuffs.  Prices seem higher than when I was here last March.  The IGA doesn't have a good selection of coffee, ffs!  Bought some frozen chicken parts advertised as for 'marsala.'  Never again - basically they froze a chicken and sawed it into cubes, bones and all.  Added it to a noodle thing I bought and spent all my time picking bones out of my teeth.

Ah well, that that does not kill us makes us stronger, eh?

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