Anchored position 12° 01.3 N 119° 58.9 E
D'Pearl Cove, Busuanga Is.
Our Christmas surprise came in the form of a weather change. Being here in the Philippines where tropical storms and typhoons occur on a regular basis we make sure to check the weather reports and forecasts several times every day. We had been watching an area of low pressure off to our westward in the same area where typhoon Bopha had formed. The weather check Christmas morning had the low moving in our direction but with winds in only the 30 knot range. In the tropics things can change rapidly, Christmas evening the low had now turned in to tropical storm Quinta. We were now looking at the possibility of quiet a bit more wind and that Quinta could further develop in to a Typhoon. The good news was that the system was still a good distance away giving us the opportunity to check forecasts the next morning and then make a decision on either staying in Coron or moving to a more secure location.
Boxing Day arrived and Quinta was still on course to pay us a visit. With winds of 40 plus knots and higher gusts we decide to move to here in what seems to be called D'Pearl cove. The trip from Coron was made in calm seas and the 16 miles took about 3 hours. There are two resorts here one "Vista del Sol" has installed a number of moorings that are free to use. Your payment for the mooring is in the form of patronizing the resorts restaurant. Here we saw very little of Quinta, some rain and gusty wind but nothing more.
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Friday, December 28, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
UP AND RUNNING, SORT OF!!!
Anchored Position 11 59.7 N 120 11.7 E
Coron, Busuanga Island
Our broken computer is once again up and running with a new 500 GB hard drive. Rather than taking two weeks to get the hard drive it took only four days. Of course that was only the beginning! Mark, the local computer repair technician installed the drive and Windows XP but said that we could load the necessary drivers either from a disk that came with the computer or the internet. It turned out that we had no disk from when we had purchased the computer and trying to figure out the drivers and load then was near impossible. Back to Mark. This time he deleted the XP that he had installed and re-installed a version from a disk that had been given to us by our friend Phil in Thailand, thanks Phil. I explained the driver problem to him and he went through and installed all the necessary Toshiba drivers, except for sound, that was left for us.
The next day I began with the sound driver. I located it on the internet. The download only took TWO HOURS!!! We now had sound and it was time to then load our navigation program, radio email etc. The process was slow, thankfully I received help from an old friend, Dave on the sailing vessel Lightspeed, and finally managed. Anything such as Picasa or a security program that is necessary to load from the internet takes hours at the speed we receive here. Kathy now wanted to work on her Itunes music. Thankfully she had her whole library on her Ipod, now to get it also on the computer. As one would imagine this has not been a simple process and one in which she has spent the last three days trying to figure out. From what we understand Itunes only allows you to do this with music you have purchased, all the music we have has been loaded from disks which we still carry about. Kathy is now trying various solution from the internet but once again we are running in to two hour download times and then after installation told we also need something else. Any comment on a solution would be welcomed.
Being here in the land of typhoons we keep a daily weather check and are now watching a system though very disorganized at this time that is moving toward us. The weather gurus are not predicting a typhoon at this time but some weather models say we could have 30 plus knots of wind here as the low pressure system passes. There is a very sheltered anchorage about 15 miles away to which we may move tomorrow.
meanwhile we're just sort of hanging out and watching the little green bars move as the downloads continue.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Coron, Busuanga Island
Our broken computer is once again up and running with a new 500 GB hard drive. Rather than taking two weeks to get the hard drive it took only four days. Of course that was only the beginning! Mark, the local computer repair technician installed the drive and Windows XP but said that we could load the necessary drivers either from a disk that came with the computer or the internet. It turned out that we had no disk from when we had purchased the computer and trying to figure out the drivers and load then was near impossible. Back to Mark. This time he deleted the XP that he had installed and re-installed a version from a disk that had been given to us by our friend Phil in Thailand, thanks Phil. I explained the driver problem to him and he went through and installed all the necessary Toshiba drivers, except for sound, that was left for us.
The next day I began with the sound driver. I located it on the internet. The download only took TWO HOURS!!! We now had sound and it was time to then load our navigation program, radio email etc. The process was slow, thankfully I received help from an old friend, Dave on the sailing vessel Lightspeed, and finally managed. Anything such as Picasa or a security program that is necessary to load from the internet takes hours at the speed we receive here. Kathy now wanted to work on her Itunes music. Thankfully she had her whole library on her Ipod, now to get it also on the computer. As one would imagine this has not been a simple process and one in which she has spent the last three days trying to figure out. From what we understand Itunes only allows you to do this with music you have purchased, all the music we have has been loaded from disks which we still carry about. Kathy is now trying various solution from the internet but once again we are running in to two hour download times and then after installation told we also need something else. Any comment on a solution would be welcomed.
Being here in the land of typhoons we keep a daily weather check and are now watching a system though very disorganized at this time that is moving toward us. The weather gurus are not predicting a typhoon at this time but some weather models say we could have 30 plus knots of wind here as the low pressure system passes. There is a very sheltered anchorage about 15 miles away to which we may move tomorrow.
meanwhile we're just sort of hanging out and watching the little green bars move as the downloads continue.
----------
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Friday, December 14, 2012
CORON
Anchor Position 11 59.7 N 120 11.7 E
Coron, Busuanga Is.
As the northeast monsoon has returned we are glad to be sitting here rather than beating our way in to the wind. The winds calm at night but return during the day. Currently we have 15 to 18 knots with some gusts in the 20's. We are anchored directly off town with about a one half mile dinghy ride to the "Sea Dive" restaurant where we secure our dinghy while ashore. There is a more wind protected anchorage in a cove nearby but it would greatly increase the travel distance to shore and with the winds blowing make for a wet ride. So unless the wind gets to uncomfortable we'll remain here.
As I said before Coron town is quite small, the main attraction to the area is the scuba diving especially wreck diving. There are at least ten Japanese warships and merchant ships sunk by American planes during WWII in the area. The wrecks vary in depth from shallow to deep, so something for all abilities. As the only diving I still do is cleaning the boat bottom, I'll leave the wrecks to others. As our only real exploration around town was to find someone to work on the computer we're not to sure about the quality of provisioning. There is an open market that we have yet to visit, though we did get some nice mangoes at a small fruit stand the other day. It would be a wet ride to shore today so perhaps manana.
For the past two years we have spent the Christmas season in either a Muslim or Buddhist country where there is not much of a holiday atmosphere. Now back in a mostly Christian country it's nice to once again see decoration and lighted trees. Before leaving Puerto Princesa we got to see the annual tree lighting that included a 45 minute fireworks show. Here in Coron we can see one of the lighted trees from our anchorage. We do carry some decorations aboard Kathy tries to buy a new ornament in the various countries where we have spent Christmas's past. Kathy has our mini tree and others about the saloon and we get a daily dose of Christmas music.
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Our hard drive hookrd up to his computer and he's watching the readout
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Coron, Busuanga Is.
As the northeast monsoon has returned we are glad to be sitting here rather than beating our way in to the wind. The winds calm at night but return during the day. Currently we have 15 to 18 knots with some gusts in the 20's. We are anchored directly off town with about a one half mile dinghy ride to the "Sea Dive" restaurant where we secure our dinghy while ashore. There is a more wind protected anchorage in a cove nearby but it would greatly increase the travel distance to shore and with the winds blowing make for a wet ride. So unless the wind gets to uncomfortable we'll remain here.
As I said before Coron town is quite small, the main attraction to the area is the scuba diving especially wreck diving. There are at least ten Japanese warships and merchant ships sunk by American planes during WWII in the area. The wrecks vary in depth from shallow to deep, so something for all abilities. As the only diving I still do is cleaning the boat bottom, I'll leave the wrecks to others. As our only real exploration around town was to find someone to work on the computer we're not to sure about the quality of provisioning. There is an open market that we have yet to visit, though we did get some nice mangoes at a small fruit stand the other day. It would be a wet ride to shore today so perhaps manana.
For the past two years we have spent the Christmas season in either a Muslim or Buddhist country where there is not much of a holiday atmosphere. Now back in a mostly Christian country it's nice to once again see decoration and lighted trees. Before leaving Puerto Princesa we got to see the annual tree lighting that included a 45 minute fireworks show. Here in Coron we can see one of the lighted trees from our anchorage. We do carry some decorations aboard Kathy tries to buy a new ornament in the various countries where we have spent Christmas's past. Kathy has our mini tree and others about the saloon and we get a daily dose of Christmas music.
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OUR MINI TREE
ORNAMENTS FROM OUR TRAVELS
CORON TOWN
YOUR CHOICE MANGO FARM OR ISLAND
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
CATCHING UP
Anchor Position 11 59.7 N 120 11.7 E
Coron, Busuanga Is.
Our last entry was as we were awaiting the arrival of typhoon Bopha. Thankfully Bopha turned out to be a non event, at least weather wise, for us in Puerto Princesa. When Bopha made landfall on the island on Mindanao it lost most of it's power and once re-entering the Sulu sea to our east did not regenerate that lost power. In our anchorage we saw only winds to 28 knots.
What the threat of Bopha did cause was for us to make preparations for a major event. We actually moved to one of the Abonico yacht club moorings as in our anchored position we wanted to let out more scope on our anchor rode but due to other boats in the area it was not really possible. Next both headsail's were removed folded and stored. We wrapped a line around the main sail to further secure it under it's cover. All canvas shades were taken down. The outboard motor was taken off the dinghy along with the dinghy cover. To keep the dinghy from flying around it was filled with water. Everything that could not be put below was tied down, we were ready. Next was to sit and watch the various weather reports on the internet and wait. The arrival of Bopha was during the daylight hours of 5 December. We felt fortunate to have missed Bopha's full fury.
The result of the passing typhoon was to allow us to make our way further north to our present location approximately 160 miles northeast of Puerto Princesa without the wind on the nose. After passing the system caused first southwest and then variable winds along the coast of Palawan. The 6th of December was spent getting the boat ready to move again along with some last minute provisioning especially of fresh things.
December 7th we had a nice sail to North Verde Is. and a very protected anchorage. The next day it was back to motoring as we made our way to an anchorage at 10 32.614 N and 120 00.354 E behind a small island that was not even shown on our electronic chart program. There were actually 5 islands in the area not shown. The next day another 50 mile passage under "Miss Perky" power. It was during this passage that our primary navigation computer failed. I fired up our small notebook computer but it only is loaded with a different navigation program that I am not totally familiar with. After spending the previous night at an island that did not even appear on the electronic software we were a bit concerned. We did have paper charts of the area but they were of a rather large scale, useful BUT!! Next was to get out our ten year old computer named "psycho" for all the psychedelic color on it's screen. The screen has been water damaged so we use a monitor. Having not been out of it's case for six months "psycho" was back in service. One slight problem was "psycho" had not been updated with the latest tracks that we were using. Hey the early explorers sailed here with no charts, we should be able to move about with limited ones, you just use the old eyeballs. That night was spent at Cabulauan Is. 11 23.061 N and 120 05.064 E. For our last days trip here to Coron I was able to load the tracks into the anchorage area and we had another pleasant motor boat trip.
Coron is a small town, though the largest on Busuanga Is., after a peaceful night at anchor our first priority was to locate someone to look at our primary computer. Did I mention that most things on it were not backed up!! We were given a shop name by someone from one of the local resorts and dropped the computer off to see what could be done. The technician, Mark, who I would guess was self taught immediately started work on it. He said that he could down load our info and save it and hopefully then re-format the disk. As it turns out the hard drive is corrupted. A new drive has been ordered from Manila and we've been told about two weeks.
For now we'll enjoy some of the things to do around Coron along with the usual boat stuff.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Coron, Busuanga Is.
Our last entry was as we were awaiting the arrival of typhoon Bopha. Thankfully Bopha turned out to be a non event, at least weather wise, for us in Puerto Princesa. When Bopha made landfall on the island on Mindanao it lost most of it's power and once re-entering the Sulu sea to our east did not regenerate that lost power. In our anchorage we saw only winds to 28 knots.
What the threat of Bopha did cause was for us to make preparations for a major event. We actually moved to one of the Abonico yacht club moorings as in our anchored position we wanted to let out more scope on our anchor rode but due to other boats in the area it was not really possible. Next both headsail's were removed folded and stored. We wrapped a line around the main sail to further secure it under it's cover. All canvas shades were taken down. The outboard motor was taken off the dinghy along with the dinghy cover. To keep the dinghy from flying around it was filled with water. Everything that could not be put below was tied down, we were ready. Next was to sit and watch the various weather reports on the internet and wait. The arrival of Bopha was during the daylight hours of 5 December. We felt fortunate to have missed Bopha's full fury.
The result of the passing typhoon was to allow us to make our way further north to our present location approximately 160 miles northeast of Puerto Princesa without the wind on the nose. After passing the system caused first southwest and then variable winds along the coast of Palawan. The 6th of December was spent getting the boat ready to move again along with some last minute provisioning especially of fresh things.
December 7th we had a nice sail to North Verde Is. and a very protected anchorage. The next day it was back to motoring as we made our way to an anchorage at 10 32.614 N and 120 00.354 E behind a small island that was not even shown on our electronic chart program. There were actually 5 islands in the area not shown. The next day another 50 mile passage under "Miss Perky" power. It was during this passage that our primary navigation computer failed. I fired up our small notebook computer but it only is loaded with a different navigation program that I am not totally familiar with. After spending the previous night at an island that did not even appear on the electronic software we were a bit concerned. We did have paper charts of the area but they were of a rather large scale, useful BUT!! Next was to get out our ten year old computer named "psycho" for all the psychedelic color on it's screen. The screen has been water damaged so we use a monitor. Having not been out of it's case for six months "psycho" was back in service. One slight problem was "psycho" had not been updated with the latest tracks that we were using. Hey the early explorers sailed here with no charts, we should be able to move about with limited ones, you just use the old eyeballs. That night was spent at Cabulauan Is. 11 23.061 N and 120 05.064 E. For our last days trip here to Coron I was able to load the tracks into the anchorage area and we had another pleasant motor boat trip.
Coron is a small town, though the largest on Busuanga Is., after a peaceful night at anchor our first priority was to locate someone to look at our primary computer. Did I mention that most things on it were not backed up!! We were given a shop name by someone from one of the local resorts and dropped the computer off to see what could be done. The technician, Mark, who I would guess was self taught immediately started work on it. He said that he could down load our info and save it and hopefully then re-format the disk. As it turns out the hard drive is corrupted. A new drive has been ordered from Manila and we've been told about two weeks.
For now we'll enjoy some of the things to do around Coron along with the usual boat stuff.
----------
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Saturday, December 1, 2012
WEATHER WATCH
Here is the latest weather that I have downloaded showing the projected track of Bopa, that once entering the Philippines will also be called Pablo. Of course the Typhoon has not looked at what the weather gurus have predicted may decide to deviate. I try to look at the projections several times a day. For us in Puerto Princesa the further north the better.
UNDERGROUND RIVER TRIP
With a bit of luck these photos of our trip to the Underground River will make it to the blog. The internet is very frustrating here. The first views are taken from the web
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| ALWAYS HAPPY WITH A BEER |
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| LIFEGUARD TOWER |
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| WAITING FOR THE TOUR |
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| LOADING A BANKA |
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| OUR CAPTAIN |
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| rEADY TO HEAD FOR THE CAVERN |
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| READY TO BOARD |
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| UNDERWAY |
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
DENGUE FEVER
Anchored Position 09° 45.8 N 118° 43.7 E
Puerto Princesa, Palawan
We seem to have gotten stuck here in Puerto Princesa, having been here now six weeks and still counting. The plan was a stay of about two weeks and move on further north, well it seems that as usual those plans are laid in floppy jell-o.
Our first set back was whatever flu type bug that was affecting the yachtie population when we first arrived. The major setback was caused by a small mosquito bite and my coming down with Dengue Fever. This was not a fun thing at all. Headache, joint ache, fever, chills and a very strange rash which put me lying down for about eight days before I then started to feel better but took perhaps another week to be my chipper self again. I'm glad that is over!!!
We are enjoying our time here. Prior to my Dengue outbreak we took a short road trip across to the west coast of Palawan to visit what is listed as one of the seven modern natural wonders of the world. The Underground River of Puerto Princesa! We made this a two day trip. You first get your permit for the trip in Puerto Princesa. We then had a trike driver take to a tour operator to organize things. The trike driver's reward from the tour operator a five kilo bag of rice for each person he brought in. When your daily wage is 300 to 600 pesos, that's 7 to 14 $US a day those bags of rice were quite important to him and his family.
We were picked up from the Abonico Yacht Club where we left our dinghy and it was a two and a half hour drive across the island to the village of Sabang. Our river tour was the next day so we first found a room for the night and then a walkabout along the beach and through the village. Rooms for two varied from $20 to $200 US per night. Prices in the resorts varied greatly. We stopped at a beachfront hotel bar where a beer and bottle of water were almost $5 US later I bought eight beers, one water and a small bottle of rum for $9 US. Hey the resort hotel did have a nicer view. The room we did get was oceanfront for $125 US with air conditioning and TV. We got to watch the US election results and a replay of a US gridiron game. Hey the first real football I've gotten to see in several years.
The next day we met with our tour group at 9 am, they had departed Puerto Princesa at 5 am, we then boarded a local "banka" for the fifteen minute motor to where the underground river is located. The "banka's" are long and narrow with outriggers on both sides. They range in sizes from ten to perhaps sixty feet and are the boats used for pretty much everything here. It was a fun experience to ride in one. Once on the actual river tour we were in a small paddle powered "banka". The underground river itself is basically a river flowing through the limestone mountains creating a scenic series of caverns. It runs about five miles though the tour just takes you a small distance but it was well worth the trip. On return to Sabang we checked out of our hotel and made the return trip with the tour group. We were happy not to have done the whole tour in a single day.
We have lately been busy with some never ending minor projects. We are ready to head north to some other areas BUT!! First we figure it would be easier to get our next visa extension here, so we are waiting for payday, 1 Dec. We don't know if this is just a go in and fill the papers out deal or if it takes a couple of days. It will give us 59 more days though it costs about $150 US per person. The next issue is what is now tropical storm and soon to be typhoon "Bopha". Yes today it's 1800 miles west of us but moving closer as it intensifies. We will be keeping a weather eye open.
----------
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Puerto Princesa, Palawan
We seem to have gotten stuck here in Puerto Princesa, having been here now six weeks and still counting. The plan was a stay of about two weeks and move on further north, well it seems that as usual those plans are laid in floppy jell-o.
Our first set back was whatever flu type bug that was affecting the yachtie population when we first arrived. The major setback was caused by a small mosquito bite and my coming down with Dengue Fever. This was not a fun thing at all. Headache, joint ache, fever, chills and a very strange rash which put me lying down for about eight days before I then started to feel better but took perhaps another week to be my chipper self again. I'm glad that is over!!!
We are enjoying our time here. Prior to my Dengue outbreak we took a short road trip across to the west coast of Palawan to visit what is listed as one of the seven modern natural wonders of the world. The Underground River of Puerto Princesa! We made this a two day trip. You first get your permit for the trip in Puerto Princesa. We then had a trike driver take to a tour operator to organize things. The trike driver's reward from the tour operator a five kilo bag of rice for each person he brought in. When your daily wage is 300 to 600 pesos, that's 7 to 14 $US a day those bags of rice were quite important to him and his family.
We were picked up from the Abonico Yacht Club where we left our dinghy and it was a two and a half hour drive across the island to the village of Sabang. Our river tour was the next day so we first found a room for the night and then a walkabout along the beach and through the village. Rooms for two varied from $20 to $200 US per night. Prices in the resorts varied greatly. We stopped at a beachfront hotel bar where a beer and bottle of water were almost $5 US later I bought eight beers, one water and a small bottle of rum for $9 US. Hey the resort hotel did have a nicer view. The room we did get was oceanfront for $125 US with air conditioning and TV. We got to watch the US election results and a replay of a US gridiron game. Hey the first real football I've gotten to see in several years.
The next day we met with our tour group at 9 am, they had departed Puerto Princesa at 5 am, we then boarded a local "banka" for the fifteen minute motor to where the underground river is located. The "banka's" are long and narrow with outriggers on both sides. They range in sizes from ten to perhaps sixty feet and are the boats used for pretty much everything here. It was a fun experience to ride in one. Once on the actual river tour we were in a small paddle powered "banka". The underground river itself is basically a river flowing through the limestone mountains creating a scenic series of caverns. It runs about five miles though the tour just takes you a small distance but it was well worth the trip. On return to Sabang we checked out of our hotel and made the return trip with the tour group. We were happy not to have done the whole tour in a single day.
We have lately been busy with some never ending minor projects. We are ready to head north to some other areas BUT!! First we figure it would be easier to get our next visa extension here, so we are waiting for payday, 1 Dec. We don't know if this is just a go in and fill the papers out deal or if it takes a couple of days. It will give us 59 more days though it costs about $150 US per person. The next issue is what is now tropical storm and soon to be typhoon "Bopha". Yes today it's 1800 miles west of us but moving closer as it intensifies. We will be keeping a weather eye open.
----------
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