Hoses

Boats need hoses, to wash the deck and fill the water tanks.  At home, when I needed a new hose I simply went to a hardware store, bought one, came home and screwed it on.   Not so in Fiji.  First of all, not all hardware stores carry hoses and the ones that do may or may not have them at any given time.  I was actually looking for an expandable hose since they are much easier to store onboard.  One month they were every where.  The next month there were none to be found and the sales clerks could not even remember what they were. 

But most disconcerting, none of the hoses have fittings on them.  They are just bare pieces of hose.  Adaptors are sold separately and come in several pieces and various sizes.  Apparently the faucets in Fiji  are not standard so you need a number of adaptors to fit the various sized  faucets and I suspect that hoses also come in a variety of sizes further compounding the problem.   Putting the pieces together in the right order to fit your particular faucet and hose is a major production.  And then if you move to a different dock or different marina chances are good that you need a different set.  Of course, none of the boats coming in from other countries carry the right sized hose so there is a constant scramble to find adapters.

Hose adaptor theft in the cruisers garden at Vuda is a ongoing problem.  If a hose is left screwed on to the faucet overnight, chances are good that at least one piece of the fitting will be gone in the morning.  Getting a new adaptor involves a bus trip to town a, a hunt through all of the hardware stores again and most of the day.   The security staff actually has a stash of various sizes but they seem to disappear on a regular basis too.  I finally just got into the habit of taking the hose from the boat every time  I need Ito water the garden  Unfortunately,  the garden faucet is a different size from the one on the dock so every time I take the hose to the garden I have to change the adaptor and then change it back when I need to fill the water tanks

It is always the little things that make travel and life in another country challenging and interesting.

Hot Bread

One of the things I miss most in Fiji is decent bread; sourdough, baguette, olive and rosemary, multi grain, all the wonderful breads that are so common at home.  Crisp, chewy flavorful.  Wonderful bread, toasted with fresh butter and home made jam for breakfast or grilled with garlic butter with dinner.

In Fiji the Hot Bread Kitchen dominates with outlets in every town and village.  Occasionally there are other bakeries but they all seem to use the same recipe.  There is really just one kind of bread, a soft loaf of white bread that only lasts a day or two before it sprouts  yellow, orange and black mold.  You can get it sliced or unsliced.  There is a whole wheat version that is a darker color but pretty much the same flavor.  Sometimes there is a “french stick” that is really just the same dough in a different shape, long and narrow like a baguette but without the crisp crust. .  Sometimes there is multigrain, at triple the price.  Basically the same bread rolled in a variety of seeds so that the “multi grain” looks good on the outside while the inside is the same soft dough.  There is also a cheese bread.  Again the same dough, flattened and sprinkled with cheese.
To make a sandwich, the locals cut an entire life lengthwise and fill it with canned tuna flakes.  Every once in a while I stumble on some real bread in one of the markets or hotels catering to the super yacht crowd and we eat bread 3 times a day until it is gone.

There is definitely a business opportunity for a good European baker here.  Meanwhile I am trying to master sourdough bread making.  Definitely a challenge with no oven and no refrigerator.