Today did not start on a very good foot. The minute we turned on our wifi connection, we were dealing with the complications of landlubber life. In some cases these proved to be incredulous. For instance, we learnt that the simply activity of a wire transfer for the proceeds of our property sale from the title company is now fraught with fraud, to the extent that we decided it was too risky and then spent time trying to work out what the best option indeed was. At the end of the day, all we wanted was our money to be deposited safely into our bank account. Then we learnt that the cost of the damages inflicted by the tenants of our condominiums will, in fact, be for our account, following which the property management company will work with their collections agency to try and recover the costs, a process that could take years. Fortunately for the first condominium this is an amount just under $1000USD, but for the second one this is expected to be thousands, given the damage.
As hard working, law abiding citizens and contributing members of society we have absolutely no recourse with neither the tenants nor the property management company. There is something very wrong with this picture, where people who have blatant disregard for other people's property, basically get to walk away.
We did, however, try to focus on the more positive aspects of our lives, while enjoying another beautiful day in Fiji. Elaine made pancakes for breakfast, which were enjoyed with freshly chopped pineapple, a blob of plain Greek style yogart and some honey. Delicious!
Then we enjoyed a quick chat to the family in Arizona, followed by a visit this morning from Chris off Trigger, whom we first met in American Samoa and last saw in New Zealand. Elaine also continued her sewing activities, then we headed ashore for a nice long walk, stopping for an ice-cream halfway and then a mid-afternoon coffee once we'd finished. We also got to see the one indigenous Fijian cultural activity we had yet to witness, a "lovo", where various foods are prepared and then cooked in an above ground, open hot rock oven, covered in palm leaves, hessian and soil, then left for a few hours. Unfortunately, on this occasion, we didn't get to sample the results.
On our way back to Paw Paw, we stopped by Blue Summit (Kate and Steve) to pick up their water jerry cans so we could fill them, since their watermaker has stopped working and they leave for Vanuatu tomorrow. Soon thereafter we all enjoyed sundowners together aboard Paw Paw before the inevitable goodbyes. Definitely a feeling of sadness has descended on Paw Paw tonight in having to say goodbye to the last of the WARC Dropouts, since we're not altogether sure we will see them in Vanuatu or New Caledonia before they head back to New Zealand and we head to Australia. A downside of sailing that still takes a little getting used to, even after all these years.
