involvement with the Blue Moon Restaurant in Hamilton.

Mrs. Kathy D'Estelle Roe, 36, and Mrs. Lesley Hoskins, who is in her mid-twenties, owe a total of $100,000 to several creditors on the Island.

They could have declared their holding company, Viper Holdings, bankrupt, which would have resulted in many smaller creditors not receiving a cent.

But Mrs. D'Estelle Roe said yesterday: "We decided this wasn't the right thing to do. Instead, we're going to pay everybody in full.'' She did not want to become involved in a situation like that of Bill and Wendy Meade, the former owners of the Blue Oyster Restaurant who fled Bermuda recently owing about $250,000.

"Bermuda is our home and we want to continue to live here,'' she said. "The only way we can do that and still be able to look people in the face is if we pay everything that we owe.'' The two women bought the Blue Moon for $265,000 in April, 1988, from private detective Mr. William Black. They paid $80,000 in cash and borrowed the rest.

But four years later they have sold the losing business for just $60,000 to Mrs. Betty Ricca Compagnon.

Mrs. Compagnon ran the restaurant for 13 years before selling it to Mr.

Black in 1986 for a sum thought to be in the region of $115,000.

She has held the lease on the restaurant's Bermudiana Arcade premises for several years.

Mrs. D'Estelle Roe, 36, claims the terms of the lease, which still had another four years to run, turned off several potential buyers.

She said Mrs. Compagnon refused to renegotiate the lease.

"When the economy turned, the lease became a liability rather than an asset,'' she said. "Nobody was prepared to take it on.'' In order to pay her debts to the bank, Mrs. D'Estelle Roe had to mortgage a piece of waterfront land she owns in Somerset.

During their ownership of the restaurant, both women have split up from their expatriate husbands, Irishman Mr. John D'Estelle Roe and Frenchman Mr. Yves Joseph Billalonga, who are both chefs.

Mrs. D'Estelle Roe said both men ran the restaurant while the women continued in their full-time jobs.

"The restaurant was their idea,'' she said. "Lesley and I only became directors of Viper Holdings because we were Bermudian.'' She said her husband had left Bermuda and was currently "on a fishing boat in Costa Rica with three dollars in his pocket''.

She said he had not met any of his financial obligations regarding the business.

Mr. Billalonga, on the other hand, agreed to meet his third share of the repayments on the $185,000 bank loan, she said.

But he is not responsible for any of Viper Holdings' direct debts because he did not own any shares in the company, she said.

Mrs. D'Estelle Roe said her experience had been a nightmare.

"My feelings now are that, as a Bermudian woman, I would never sign anything for anyone again unless I was taking a direct role in the business,'' she said.

"It's just not worth it. You're leaving yourself open to risk and responsibility that technically isn't yours. I would never again offer temporary or permanent security for someone else.'' Mrs. Compagnon, 54, said she had been approached by Viper Holdings about buying back the restaurant.

"I initially said no but thought about it and decided to get back into the restaurant business because I love it,'' she said.

She added: "This restaurant was the best investment I made.''