Anchored Position 11°35.211 N 123°21.008
South Gigante Island, Philippines
As we continue our movement to Port Carmen, Cebu Island we are taking a rest today and enjoying a peaceful anchorage here on the island of S. Gigante. Our passage here yesterday was a short 26 miles from an anchorage on the south end of Masbate Island. The weather continues to be calm with little wind still from the east to the southeast our direction of travel. the traveling days continue to be of the motor sailing variety.
Our arrival here yesterday corresponded to some sort of fiesta with lots of activity around this particular bay even though there is not a village in the immediate area. Several of the local banca's stopped to visit mainly with teenagers who had been enjoying swimming and leading off a large rock. They spoke little English but we were able to understand it was some sort of fiesta day and they were having a good time. They seemed to mainly want to just stare but really enjoyed having their photos taken.
Today has been mainly relaxing. We did a clean-up this morning then a float to cool off. Since then it's been reading or a movie. No internet or even phone service here.
Tomorrow we'll be off again, it's 46 miles to Malapascua Island uor next stop.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
MOVING
Anchored Position 12°16.245 N 122°37.546 E
Sibuyon Island, Philippines
We have finally made our departure from Puerto Galera enroute to the boat yard and lots of projects in Port Carmen on the island of Cebu.
We departed early on Thursday, getting underway in very little light but enough along with our electronic charting tracks to make our way clear of any reef areas. Our destination was the island of Maestro de Campo a distance of approximately 70 nautical miles. As we are now in the extremely light wind season here we knew the trip would be made under power from the faithful "Miss Perky" our 64 HP Perkins engine. She is old, has lots of hours on her, leaks oil but just keeps running along. Another reason for mostly relying on "Miss Perky" was for most of what should be 7 to 10 daily hops through various islands and anchorages is our course going southeast and the current winds being mainly from that direction. The dreaded noserly.
Our first day thirteen and a half hours of motor sailing arriving in the anchorage 12°54.272 N 121°42.486 E just prior to dark. We dropped anchor in 72 feet with just a scope of 3 to 1 but felt OK due to the calm predicted conditions.
Day two found us leaving before our intended time as we were awake and figured we may as well just get going. Another motoring day to the island of Romblon. Here the anchorage was even deeper 90 to 100 feet but the local Romblon yacht club has installed some moorings and we were able to get a free one for the night.
Today, day three, was another early start. It seems we get up with the sun at 0500 hours, so after some coffee you may as well get moving and then relax in the afternoon when anchored. Our first four hours we hummed along at almost 6 knots over a smooth glass like surface. We then could see a disturbance on the waters surface and within 5 minutes our speed dropped to the low 4 knot range and we had 18 to 20 knots of wind on the nose. Thankfully there was only a few miles to our intended anchorage but the question was would we truly be able to anchor in the charted thirty feet of water and how much protection would the small point of land at the end of Sibuyun Is. really offer. On arrival we were happy! The anchorage, 12°16.245 N 122°37.546 E, depth was indeed as shallow as we had been told, the point of land offered plenty of protection and the wind speed dropped to about 10 knots.
A positive as we have been moving along has been the connectivity of our newly acquired "smart phone" allowing us to receive internet weather along with mail and Kathy's Facebook. It seems if there is a cell tower in sight we're able to connect, that is until I tried to write this blog edition and include google earth photos of our anchorages but hey Kathy's Facebook is working.
Tomorrow we continue on, for now it's time for my ration of rum.
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Sibuyon Island, Philippines
We have finally made our departure from Puerto Galera enroute to the boat yard and lots of projects in Port Carmen on the island of Cebu.
We departed early on Thursday, getting underway in very little light but enough along with our electronic charting tracks to make our way clear of any reef areas. Our destination was the island of Maestro de Campo a distance of approximately 70 nautical miles. As we are now in the extremely light wind season here we knew the trip would be made under power from the faithful "Miss Perky" our 64 HP Perkins engine. She is old, has lots of hours on her, leaks oil but just keeps running along. Another reason for mostly relying on "Miss Perky" was for most of what should be 7 to 10 daily hops through various islands and anchorages is our course going southeast and the current winds being mainly from that direction. The dreaded noserly.
Our first day thirteen and a half hours of motor sailing arriving in the anchorage 12°54.272 N 121°42.486 E just prior to dark. We dropped anchor in 72 feet with just a scope of 3 to 1 but felt OK due to the calm predicted conditions.
Day two found us leaving before our intended time as we were awake and figured we may as well just get going. Another motoring day to the island of Romblon. Here the anchorage was even deeper 90 to 100 feet but the local Romblon yacht club has installed some moorings and we were able to get a free one for the night.
Today, day three, was another early start. It seems we get up with the sun at 0500 hours, so after some coffee you may as well get moving and then relax in the afternoon when anchored. Our first four hours we hummed along at almost 6 knots over a smooth glass like surface. We then could see a disturbance on the waters surface and within 5 minutes our speed dropped to the low 4 knot range and we had 18 to 20 knots of wind on the nose. Thankfully there was only a few miles to our intended anchorage but the question was would we truly be able to anchor in the charted thirty feet of water and how much protection would the small point of land at the end of Sibuyun Is. really offer. On arrival we were happy! The anchorage, 12°16.245 N 122°37.546 E, depth was indeed as shallow as we had been told, the point of land offered plenty of protection and the wind speed dropped to about 10 knots.
A positive as we have been moving along has been the connectivity of our newly acquired "smart phone" allowing us to receive internet weather along with mail and Kathy's Facebook. It seems if there is a cell tower in sight we're able to connect, that is until I tried to write this blog edition and include google earth photos of our anchorages but hey Kathy's Facebook is working.
Tomorrow we continue on, for now it's time for my ration of rum.
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Thursday, April 18, 2013
READY TO MOVE BUT!!!!
Still Puerto Galera
Mindoro, Philippines
Yes, we're still here! We keep trying to head off to a new location but it seems that there is always some reason that causes us to extend our time here for another couple of days.
As many of you know Kathy likes her dresses. She has found different seamstresses around the world to make them. Puerto Galera was no different, though she thinks has been the best yet. Five new dresses, only one of which had to be altered and at a grand total of $35 US. She does provide her own fabric. So that caused us to linger here a bit. We were also told of a dive shop that had wetsuits for sale cheap. It was my turn and I got a 3 mil full suit with zippers at arms and legs for $42 US. Eventually when we return to colder climates I'll get good use from my new wetsuit.
A week ago we were ready to do some final provisioning and Kathy came down with sore throat that turned into bronchitis. She's better but we'll wait a few more days and hope the nice weather window continues.
Meanwhile I get to continue with the day to day boat stuff, little things such as a broken flapper valve on one of the toilets, this caused a gyser to erupt on flushing.( Kathy was the lucky one this time.) Definitely something that needed to be attended to. Rewiring a bilge pump switch. A major repair was fixing a leak in one of the refrigeration systems, got to have my ice cubes. Then today it was repairing one of the ice cube trays.
You can see that we are staying busy, enjoy the photos.
Kathy and I had a great linch at the Coco Beach resort.
Mindoro, Philippines
Yes, we're still here! We keep trying to head off to a new location but it seems that there is always some reason that causes us to extend our time here for another couple of days.
As many of you know Kathy likes her dresses. She has found different seamstresses around the world to make them. Puerto Galera was no different, though she thinks has been the best yet. Five new dresses, only one of which had to be altered and at a grand total of $35 US. She does provide her own fabric. So that caused us to linger here a bit. We were also told of a dive shop that had wetsuits for sale cheap. It was my turn and I got a 3 mil full suit with zippers at arms and legs for $42 US. Eventually when we return to colder climates I'll get good use from my new wetsuit.
A week ago we were ready to do some final provisioning and Kathy came down with sore throat that turned into bronchitis. She's better but we'll wait a few more days and hope the nice weather window continues.
Meanwhile I get to continue with the day to day boat stuff, little things such as a broken flapper valve on one of the toilets, this caused a gyser to erupt on flushing.( Kathy was the lucky one this time.) Definitely something that needed to be attended to. Rewiring a bilge pump switch. A major repair was fixing a leak in one of the refrigeration systems, got to have my ice cubes. Then today it was repairing one of the ice cube trays.
You can see that we are staying busy, enjoy the photos.
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| LOOKS LIKE A SWEAT SHOP |
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| NEW CLOTHES |
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| MAYBE I NEED THE XXX |
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| KIDS READY TO GO |
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| CRACK REPAIRED AND READY TO MAKE ICE CUBES |
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NOW THERE'S A DIVE SUIT  |
Saturday, April 6, 2013
GET SMART
Moored position 13° 30.3 N 120° 57.2 E
Puerto Galera, Mindoro Philippines
That was the title to an old TV show, what I ought to have titled this is GOT SMART! We have moved into the modern electronic age and gotten a "smart phone"! If you figure that I never owned a computer till 2004 and still whenever we get a phone it's always in Kathy's name this was a big move. Heck I never could really operate the simple little Nokia.
With that said this was all caused by a little swim that I took while trying to board the yacht club service boat after the first race last weekend. No it wasn't the phone that was in my pocket and died but what at one time was our "waterproof'" to 10 meters camera. In years past the old Olympus had no problem getting wet and took many underwater photos, perhaps it was the shock of the two and a half back flip in layout position and not the getting wet. No matter the camera no longer would work. Now we have two older digital cameras but on putting in new batteries neither worked. Traveling the world you need a camera especially so my loyal blog readers, that's you, can view our adventures. So a phone with a camera was a logical step. This was especially true as no stores here carried digital cameras.
We were limited to what was available here, everything but Apple. There are lots of phone stores but many carry knock-offs of every brand, we were told that the Samsung store was real so after first looking and doing some internet checking we, well Kathy, is the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S. Now learning how to "drive'" it is a whole different matter. The salesperson was a bit shocked when we showed him our old phone and told him we knew nothing of touch screen or swipping. Once out of the box we got a first lesson and today a second.
Now three days into the modern ages, the "smart phone" is acting as our router while Kathy works on our laptop and I write this blog on our notebook. We have dozens of "apps", Kathy takes photos and then immediately posts to her facebook, we can track weather as we wander the streets and who knows what we may learn tomorrow. To think this was all caused by a misstep and a little swim.
Puerto Galera, Mindoro Philippines
That was the title to an old TV show, what I ought to have titled this is GOT SMART! We have moved into the modern electronic age and gotten a "smart phone"! If you figure that I never owned a computer till 2004 and still whenever we get a phone it's always in Kathy's name this was a big move. Heck I never could really operate the simple little Nokia.
With that said this was all caused by a little swim that I took while trying to board the yacht club service boat after the first race last weekend. No it wasn't the phone that was in my pocket and died but what at one time was our "waterproof'" to 10 meters camera. In years past the old Olympus had no problem getting wet and took many underwater photos, perhaps it was the shock of the two and a half back flip in layout position and not the getting wet. No matter the camera no longer would work. Now we have two older digital cameras but on putting in new batteries neither worked. Traveling the world you need a camera especially so my loyal blog readers, that's you, can view our adventures. So a phone with a camera was a logical step. This was especially true as no stores here carried digital cameras.
We were limited to what was available here, everything but Apple. There are lots of phone stores but many carry knock-offs of every brand, we were told that the Samsung store was real so after first looking and doing some internet checking we, well Kathy, is the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S. Now learning how to "drive'" it is a whole different matter. The salesperson was a bit shocked when we showed him our old phone and told him we knew nothing of touch screen or swipping. Once out of the box we got a first lesson and today a second.
Now three days into the modern ages, the "smart phone" is acting as our router while Kathy works on our laptop and I write this blog on our notebook. We have dozens of "apps", Kathy takes photos and then immediately posts to her facebook, we can track weather as we wander the streets and who knows what we may learn tomorrow. To think this was all caused by a misstep and a little swim.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
PUERTO GALERA REGATTA
Moored Puerto Galera
Mindoro, Philippines
We have just about recovered from our stressful three days of racing along with the usual after race yacht club activites. We had one race each day of from 16 to 25 miles long and 19 boats entered in the regatta. Here they use a pursuit format with what is supposed to be the slowest boat starting first and the fasted last. Now this is all based on a rating system for each individual boat. If the ratings are accurate and the boat is sailed well the finish should be close.
Our ride the Santa Cruz 50 "X" was rated the fasted boat in the fleet getting to start one hour and eight minutes after the first boat and 12 minutes behind our closest competitor. The first race was a windward leeward windward course of about 25 miles. We had a total of eleven on the boat though 3 were just ride alongs. Some on our crew had raced here before and had some local knowledge.
After tacking around we began the downwind leg in about 15 knots of wind. As we continued along the wind shifted and velocity increased and next the chute was exploding. We finished the race but there was no passing of other boats.
Day two found different conditions. 25 to 30 knots of wind and very rough seas. "X" no longer carries it's compliment of racing sails and we were very overpowered with only the large headsail now on board. Rather than risk any more breakage of equipment David decided to abandon the race soon after our start. Therefore we had a bit of relaxing afternoon before the yacht club activities.
Day three provide lighter winds and a shorter course. We did manage to pass a couple of boats but not enough. Trying to establish accurate handicaps for boats of varying sizes especially ones that have been turned from racers to cruisers is a difficult proposition. The most importent thing was everyone involved had fun.
Mindoro, Philippines
We have just about recovered from our stressful three days of racing along with the usual after race yacht club activites. We had one race each day of from 16 to 25 miles long and 19 boats entered in the regatta. Here they use a pursuit format with what is supposed to be the slowest boat starting first and the fasted last. Now this is all based on a rating system for each individual boat. If the ratings are accurate and the boat is sailed well the finish should be close.
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| AN 8 METER BUILT IN 1928 OFF TO RACE |
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| CAPTAIN / OWNERDAVID |
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| READY FOR A DAY ON THE WATER |
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| WHAT I DO BEST SITTING ON THE RAIL |
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| VERY PRETTY |
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| DOWNWIND BEFORE THE CHUTE EXPLODED |
Day two found different conditions. 25 to 30 knots of wind and very rough seas. "X" no longer carries it's compliment of racing sails and we were very overpowered with only the large headsail now on board. Rather than risk any more breakage of equipment David decided to abandon the race soon after our start. Therefore we had a bit of relaxing afternoon before the yacht club activities.
Day three provide lighter winds and a shorter course. We did manage to pass a couple of boats but not enough. Trying to establish accurate handicaps for boats of varying sizes especially ones that have been turned from racers to cruisers is a difficult proposition. The most importent thing was everyone involved had fun.
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| WE HAD A GREAT TIME |
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