Friday 4 September Diesel and dinner

Pa(n)go Pa(n)go is a commercial fishing port. The tuna boats that unload their catch here, and there are at least 6 in port at any one time, have nets that are one mile or two miles wide, powerboats that will put to sea when the nets are in the water, a tall lookout tower rising from the deck to give the skipper a view across the ocean and some have a small helicopter on the foredeck which they use for spotting the schools. The tuna cannery is owned by a Korean concern and as they fish out the tuna stocks they are starting to go after wahoo instead. And the smell is horrible, think overcooked oily fish. When the wind blows down on us I wish I had a cold. That's how unpleasant.
I digress. PP is a commercial port and diesel is sold to yachts duty free if you get permission from the port captain. Yachts go alongside at the main wharf and use the small craft hose and nozzle. The tuna boats use a bigger line and nozzle capable of delivering 5000 gals an hour. Stuart on Imagine had a slot booked for today and David and Ed from A Capella went along as crew to help with lines and to fill our jerry jugs. We got a nasty surprise when we opened our rear lazarette to get the jugs. We discovered one of the jugs had leaked and now we had smelly diesel sloshing around including soaking into the bike bags. Nasty. When David got back from the diesel dock we rolled up our sleeves and set about the clean up. Our secret weapon is washing up liquid, a brand called Joy which happens to lather in saltwater. Joy is such a good universal cleaner I buy it in 2.5L bottles.
I didn't mention we started the clean up at 5.30pm and we were due to go out for dinner at 6pm. We did it. Had superfast showers to clean diesel off us and were in the dinghy 10 minutes later. We arrived at the mexican restaurant at the same time as the stragglers from the main group. One of the cruisers had suggested we all go for a Mexican-Samoan buffet. An odd sounding combination and an odd mix when we got there, but it was so cheap it wasn't worth cooking. The token Mexican dish was a crab meat chimichanga, not sure on the Samoan unless it was the sausage and gravy, but the Hawaiian pork was delicious. A good evening was had by all.