So this morning we had a local mechanic over to check out the situation. He proved it was the transmission and not the drive shaft or associated equipment. This is not good since it means the transmission must now come out of the boat completely. In Suva we only removed the reduction (rear) housing to change the oil seal.

The people in Suva swear there is no way the current situation could have been caused by anything they did - they haven't even seen it yet aaand are going by what I described I guess. I said bull to that and told them to send me the money I paid them and to his credit the guy (the owner's son) kept his cool and insisted he have a chance to either proove or disproove the proposition. He claims that if they find it was in fact their fault they will fix it for free now. I was very skeptical, having little reason to trust him given the current situation, but the bottom line is the cost to us will be over US$3,000 and if the Suva people will do it for free we ought to let them. And if they can show it was not their fault then I cannot fault them and will be happy to pay them. The problem is that I am not a mechanical expert so how do I judge if they have proven or disproven anything? We shall see.