BLOGDOM RETURNS

Ocean View Marina, Samal Is.
07°11.89 N 125°42.615 E
Davao, Mindanao Is.
Philippines

It's been nine weeks since my last update but I never know how much you really want to hear about my day to day boat maintenance. I am now having a difficult time restarting this entry as just finishing we lost electricity and I lost all that I had written. The marina here is very nice but electric power can be upsetting. The marina has a generator for power outages but it takes a few minutes to come on. This laptop needs external power until a new battery arrives so I lost all that had been written.

As I said we have now been here nine weeks. Our hope was to be underway to Palau by now, then further east to the Marshall islands and then back to the west coast of North America. That's not to be!! On our arrival here due to loose rigging, I did not do enough checks on prior to leaving Cebu we had a spreader drop from it's proper position. I went up the mast to look at things and discovered broken wires in one of the intermediate shrouds. This to go with the lower that I had found prior to leaving Cebu. It has been ten years since the last re-do of the standing rigging, according to the professionals time to re-do it all. Just another little thing on the list.

Our original plan was to have the new auto pilot and other necessary things shipped here by surface freight and then head off east. Now with having to re-do all the wire it will be done in phases. We bought lots of stuff online and had it shipped to one of Kathy's old friends, Lisa, to then forward on to us. Thank you Lisa! Come visit again and remember one bag for you and one for the boat. The same goes for any of you others that want an exotic vacation. Freight shipping takes 6 to 10 weeks and so we will be here for awhile. The good news is it's relatively cheap, a 75 lb. box for $75 US.

On to what we are currently keeps us busy . I continue with work on the cap rail. I finished the starboard side prior to leaving Port Carmen and then started the port side here. Things were going well till my 67 year old back decided it did not like it with me working on my hands and knees for several hours each day. After finding a chiropractor here in Davao I hope to finish shortly. Meanwhile I have been Kathy's assistant in her sewing projects. Other than sewing Kathy keeps me clothed, fed, laundry done and a clean work environment.

The marina here is quite nice. We pay $266 US per month for moorage and now that we have added an air conditioner $56 US for electricity.
We have just added the air conditioner as temperatures in the cabin were 95° during the day. It cooled at night but with the aircon it's much nicer at 80° in the cabin during the day.

This is a very social marina. A BBQ on Friday nights with bringing a pot lock dish to share and whatever for the Barbie. All seem to participate and we have had as many as 40 enjoying the gathering. We have yachtie's from Australia, France, Belgium, New Zealand, Venezuela, USA and even crew from the Ukraine. Quite a mix.

We are on an island perhaps 2 miles from the main Philippine island of Mindanao. The marina runs 3, free, daily shuttles to the ferry if you need to go to what we consider the mainland. Every two weeks they run a shuttle to one of the big malls and transport all your purchases back to the marina.

We'll be here for awhile as I have yet to order the new rigging wire or whatever other needs there are. I will try to do a better job of updates but hey I'm busy!!!!

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