NEW CREW MEMBER

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Once again it's been quite awhile since our last update but when there is little to report on I just don't get to motivated to write. Today we added a new crew member so I am somewhat inspired. About a week ago two perhaps 4 to 5 week old Tabby cats were abandoned here. One of the other yachtie ladies took to feeding them and today Kathy brought the female, as yet unnamed home to the good ship Po oino Roa. The male has been adopted and taken home by one of the yard carpenters. So once again we have two cats. The old lady of the crew "blue Cat" is not to happy as yet but with a bit of time we believe they'll get along.

Back to other news we have made two overnight Cebu trips for grocery shopping with the long bus ride we prefer to go in one morning shop stay in a hotel shop again the following morning before returning to the boat. It's nice to have an air conditioned room and meals out. It's affordable with the room at $40 US and meals from $10 US for breakfast and lunch to our extravagant $30 US for dinner for 2 which includes Kathy's wine and my beer. The grocery items consist of the ones we are unable to get here locally.

Boat work has continued but at a some what slow pace. I was a bit lame with some sort of stomach difficulty for a little more than a week. I have managed to finish the re-build of the forward head new parts in the toilet along with several coats of new bright white paint. The toilet work was so much fun I also did a cleaning out of the hoses and joker valve in the aft one.

The folks from Hyde sails have been making their weekly trips working on the bimini enclosure. We have had only one small drawback as the clear window material that we have been carrying around for the last ten years had become defective with bubbles in the laminate. Luckily Hyde was able to supply us with some.

Things continue to progress along. Kathy has even scheduled her trip back to the state for visiting and shopping in the land of plenty. She'll be off on the 12 th of May for a months stay while I'll stay and take care of the cats and continue with the everyday boat stuff.

One further note as I've said in the past the Philippines is the land of typhoons and tropical storms, we have just had another near miss. We have watched for the last week as a system built and started to move our way then only to dissipate from a tropical storm yesterday. It's still to the east of us and over warm water but regeneration does not appear favorable.

What follows is a varied selection of photos.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

NEW CREW MEMBER

BLUE CAT IS NOT HAPPY

BENDING TRACK FOR BIMINI ENCLOSURE

NOTHING LIKE A LITTLE HEAT

TRACK INSTALLED

THE ENCLOSURE

WAITING FOR THE BUS

NO HELMET LAW HERE

THIS IS THE PLACE

$40 US PER NIGHT

A STREET SCENE

ALL BAGS ARE CHECKED ON ENTRY

EVERYTHING A NERD COULD WANT

SOMETHING FOR ME

18 PASSENGERS @ $1.25 US PER SEAT
WE BUY FOUR

TRYKE SEATING

THE SPOILS OF A CEBU
SHOPPING TRIP

A CAN OF WORMS

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

It's the start of another month and here is a bit of a catch up on the activities aboard Po oino Roa.

We have now finished the cockpit cushions. There is still lots more sewing to be completed, some back cushions and throw pillows also for the cockpit along with new sun shades for all around the new hardtop. This week we have an appointment with the folks from Hyde Sails to discuss the building of the enclosure for the cockpit. Kathy says it's to big of a job for her to undertake.

Sometimes it's the simple routine repairs that lead on to a much larger project. What started as spending some time repairing the toilet in the forward head has now led to a somewhat major undertaking. After removing the toilet itself I discovered one of the mounting bolts broken so I decided to remove the wooden base and rebuild from the floor up and repaint the entire area. So this along with the usual things has been keeping me busy.

As I've said before this is a land of fiestas and recently we were invited to our friend Min Min's house to enjoy a party there and then visit the village where she lives which was celebrating some sort of holiday. We enjoyed a wonderful roast pig and a host of other local foods then a walk through the crowed streets.

Tomorrow we are off to our monthly shopping trip to the city of Cebu where we can stock up on some items that can not be found locally. We bus to the city, shop, spend the night in a hotel, shop again and return to the boat. Always a nice break in our daily routine.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

SOON TO BE DINNER

READY TO EAT

MIN MIN SETTING THE TABLE

THE MOTHER OF OUR DINNER

KATHY BUSY WITH HER DEVICES

MY TOOLS READY FOR WORK

THE WORMS WERE IN THAT EMPTY SPACE

A LOOK BACK

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Here aboard Po'oino Roa the work on small jobs continues. We're still working on the new cockpit cushions, it's been slow but we are moving ahead. There are also lots of routine jobs that just always need doing. As my pension last check came in we finished paying our yard bill for all the paint, varnish and fiberglass work that has been done here. We have been taking a break from workers except the girls who are here today doing both the inside and outside cleaning.

That said today we'll take a look back at this time period back to just after the beginning of our life aboard Po Oino Roa. For those that perhaps have not looked at the start of the blog,our adventure started back in November of 2000 flying back to North Carolina from California to hopefully purchase what we named Po Oino Roa, meaning very crazy in the head. I did not manage to start this blog until November of 2011 and a good deal of water had passed under the keel by then. I've spent the morning looking back at old log books that have been a daily record since the boats purchase. We'll start with this date back in 2001 and progress to today.

9 Feb. 01 we were making our way done the intercoastal waterway on the east coast of the USA. We had been asked what trucking company would be used to transport our boat back to California but decided that since there was a perfectly good canal built through the isthmus of Panama we would use it to make our way back to Southern California where we would do a refitting before heading off again. This also allowed us to make our way through the islands of the eastern Caribbean. On this date we made our way from Titusville to Melbourne Florida.

9 Feb 02 found us making our way up the west coast of Mexico. We were anchored in Zihuatanejo getting to visit with old friends from our previous cruise to Mexico in the 99/2000 season.

9 Feb 03 we were back in our home town of Newport Beach, living on an offshore mooring and busy with the refit work. Having returned from Mexico in July of 02 our hope was to head back to Mexico in November of 03.

9 Feb 04 still on our mooring in Newport, there was just to much to do to manage to head off last November. This date actually had Kathy off in Florida teaching sailing while I was busy with replacing water tanks and new galley counter tops.

9 Feb 05 once again back in Mexico. We had left San Diego with the Baja Ha Ha in November of 04. this day found us leaving Zihuatanejo heading north to Barra de Navidad just a bit south of Puerto Vallarta.

9 Feb 06 we're in Paradise Village marina getting the boat ready for crossing the Pacific. This is termed the "puddle jump" but it's quite a big puddle. we had previously been anchored in the Tenecatita/Barra area but it was time to be in a marina to make the final preparations. We planned to leave in early March.

9 Feb 07 having made our way through French Polynesia, the Cook islands, Samoa we are now back north of the equator in the Marshall islands. Actually it's only I in the Marshall's as Kathy is on another teaching trip, this time to New Zealand. I have been busy sewing a new front shade and as there is a yacht club race this weekend getting ready to be the captain which is normally Kathy's job.

9 Feb 08 still in the Marshall islands with Kathy having a sick day, I cleaned the boat bottom.

9 Feb 09 well were still in the Marshall islands with our planned departure in early March to Fiji. Kathy is busy making repairs to our sun shades and I'm just busy with everyday boat projects.

9 Feb 10 we're in Savu Savu Fiji and waiting for a weather window to head up the coast Vanua Levu with our friends John and Renee of "Scarlett O'Hara.

9 Feb 11 We've moved quite a bit in the last year. Fiji to Vanuatu, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and are now in Thailand. Today anchored off Patong beach in the Phuket area. We spent the day doing some shopping with our friends there Phil and his wife Nuch. It was also a dentist trip for me to have a crown replaced.

9 Feb 12 We're back in Thailand again after having made trips down and back up the Malacca Straits visiting the Singapore area. Today was shopping in the Boat Lagoon area of Phuket looking for boat stuff.

9 Feb 13 We have head east since Thailand back to the Singapore area then across the eastern part of Malaysia, Borneo, and on to the Philippines. Today finds us enjoying the quiet anchorage of Puerto del Sol on the Island of Coron in the southwest Philippines.

So there is a bit more of the history and travels since we began this adventurous and different lifestyle. I'm not sure of the miles traveled but basically half way around the world, covering 200 of the 360 degrees of longitude. Perhaps before my next update I'll try to do a rough as the crow flies estimate of the actual miles traveled.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

STILL HERE!!

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Six weeks since my last post,time sure flies by when you're having fun. Perhaps it has been that there has not been to much really going on or more likely I have just been LAZY! So if I do in fact have any faithful followers I apologize. I follow a number of other sailing blogs, folks like us out here living at least our dream, and some manage to write almost every day; some may disagree but I am just not that wordy. With all of that said let the story continue.

It was a dark and stormy night, no not that one! OK back to where we left off. In a traveling yachties lifestyle Christmas's are a bit different, not so much spent with family but with others who are enjoying this dream. Here we had folks from only five yachts but with some having extended Philippine families a dinner was served to about 30. We managed a traditional meal complete with turkey, ham, dressing, mashed and sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce etc.; this was supplemented with several Philippine dishes.

Since then it has been hard at work or hardly working. I managed to complete some small jobs replacing some of the hardware removed for painting. Together Kathy and I continue to work on the recovering of the cockpit cushions along with the normal daily living stuff. We have been lucky in having two young, 12 & 14 Philipina girls who are part of one of the other yachties extended family, work a few hours a week cleaning the interior and exterior. As our cruising kitty is regenerating after paying for the new hard top and paint job we're enjoying a bit of a vacation.

It's winter here and not to brag but what we consider quite cool. This afternoon as I write a mere 82 degrees. It's been so long since writing I've forgotten the shortcut for the degree symbol. Mel Tubbs HELP! Kathy actually dug out some light blankets for night time use. Another fact of winter here is that you still get tropical cyclonic storms. The latest named Kajiki is predicted to pass over us sometime tomorrow. Winds of only 35 knots with rain so not to much to worry about but this is the land of the year round typhoons so we do keep a close eye on all approaching weather systems.

The Philippines also seems to be the land of festivals and fiestas, most of a religious nature. Last Sunday we ventured off to the nearby town of Carmen for one and these. Sunday we are headed to our friend Min Min's house to celebrate another one. Some are big and some small and you can find one just about every weekend somewhere nearby.

More to follow sooner than later I hope!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

MIN MIN SETTING THE TABLE

READY TO CARVE

DAVID, MELANIE AND FAMILY

DAVID AT WORK

MAKING GRAVY

WAITING FOR DINNER

FOODS ON



READY TO EAT



THE DRUMS ARE WARMING UP



MARCHERS FORMING UP

CARNIVAL GAMES WITH MONEY BETS 

EVEN THE KIDS BET

THE OLD SHELL GAME

FRESH BUKO OR COCONUT DRINK

THIS IS WHAT WE HAD LAST NIGHT

MERRY CHRISTMAS and MORE

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Twas the day before Christmas and finally I have hands on the keyboard and am again updating the blog.

First a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Since the passing of typhoon Haiyan or as it is known here Yolanda things have been quite busy. Thankfully we have been hardly impacted here in this area of Cebu. We do still after six weeks see trucks with aid supplies passing by as the road access for the Leyte ferry goes right past the boat yard. A fellow yachtie here in the yard has a business in Leyte and for now he has moved some of his extended Philippine family here.

Just prior to the arrival of Haiyan we had made the decision to have quite a bit more work done here as the new paint did not match the old and this seems to be one of the last places to find affordable boat work. As of last week a complete paint job except for the non skid was completed. As I read of other's having quotes of 20 to 30 thousand for this kind of a job we were very pleased ours was just over $4,000 US. It was were busy just keeping the painting crew of 3 supplied with dust masks which they pretty much wouldn't wear anyway, drinking water, sandpaper, rags, masking tape etc. The yard has most supplies but would occasionally run out causing either a quick trip to Danao only 10 minutes away or at times to Cebu itself only an 1 1/2 hour bus trip. There are some drawbacks to having work done here. With the painting complete we had one worker stay another week to polish the stainless, finally we are now worker free. Having workers aboard five and a half days a week gets a bit tiring.

Next for us is getting everything put back together and caught up on all the regular little boat jobs that are ever ongoing. Kathy can also get back to her recovering of the cockpit cushions that has been on hold since the painting got underway. I also have a long list of other to do jobs.

Tomorrow, Christmas, Kathy has organized dinner for us and the other yachties in the yard. The menu will feature both turkey's and ham along with all the goodies including Philippine dishes. More on that in the next blog.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

LINES DOUBLED UP PRE HAIYAN



GLAD TO HAVE LOTS OF CLEATS

ALMOST READY

THE WIND IS BLOWING

OUR VIEW FROM THE REFUGE OF THE BAR
WHERE WE WATCHED THE STORM

PO ROCKING WITH A GUST



FIBERGLASS WORK BEFORE PAINTING



SOME WORK ON SCUPPERS PRIOR TO PAINTING

A DIVERSION FOR ANCHOR
WASH WATER

A NEW SCUPPER TOO

LOTS TO MASK OFF

A FINAL COAT ON THE
NEW HARD BIMINI

A FIRST COAT OF GLOSS

OUR STRIPES ARE BACK



Done at last and ready to move on to new projects and other stuff.