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.