Well the northeast monsoon has come early this year or perhaps our delays in Borneo have now hindered our progress north. It’s our intention to push on further north to some other areas in the Philippines but again we have been delayed with some unexpected events.
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| A mothership with her nest of spider boats |
Firstly after 2 weeks of enjoying PP we were offered the opportunity to borrow a motor bike from Billy our Maggie Is friend who was flying to Manila for a week. The day I was handed the keys I returned to the boat feeling quite ill, thinking it was the food I had just eaten downtown, or an Oesophagitis attack from too much grog the night before. That night I had developed a raging temperature and headache. The temp maxed at 40C and didn’t go below 38 for 3 days and the headache behind the eyes was like a continuous migraine. I was so nauseous just the smell of food made me feel like throwing up. Jen washed me down with ice water bed baths in an attempt to bring my temp down. On the 4th day I broke out in a rash all over my head and upper body, small blister like sores with red blotches, similar symptoms to another yachtie nearby, who, on checking the internet concluded that we both had contracted Dengue Fever. I remembered being stung one night about 8 days prior to getting ill and had commented about my concerns when the sting developed into a blister. Needless to say we didn’t get to use the motorbike.
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| Sunday night roast at the club |
The next 2 weeks were spent trying to recover from the first week, plenty of sleeping and trying to function properly without much luck. A trip to the immigration office to clear-in became an ordeal as we were requested by the female bureaucrats from hell to provide additional photocopies of customs papers, which we had to get photocopied across the road at a tourist shop and when we returned to finalise our arrival stamps we could only find 1 passport, Jen’s had disappeared out of its plastic cover. OH SHIT!!! With tempers frayed Jen raced first, back to the shop and then back to the boat hoping we had left it there and not lost it which thankfully was the case. After an exhaustive search of the boat it was found still inside our photocopier. All in all it took several hours to clear in rather than 15minutes. This event just highlighted how absent minded I was at the time as a result of the fever. Going back to sea was out of the question for a while.
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| Upstream fishing village we found this boat yard, interesting designs |
2 days later we had to return to Immigration to pay for our 1st visa extension of 38 days which was to be added on to our initial 21 days. Arriving with both passports in hand we expecting to pay the money, get stamped and move on to Customs which we didn’t bother with after our previous visit to Immigration. The woman from hell informed me that we needed additional photocopies of our passport with the arrival stamp in it she did 2 days earlier. I told her she was making the rules up as she went and that it was a ridiculous request, she laughed and turned her back, needless to say we obliged her, and with a few choice names for her in private, returned to get our extension. Customs was another matter altogether, very helpful and friendly, nothing a problem even had their own photocopier.
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| Buying rice in Philippines |
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| And eggs |
Another 2 weeks passed recuperating and trying to catch up with boat chores and general maintenance, getting fuel, cleaning the prop and bottom, etc. A major repair job had to be undertaken one day to replace a broken stud on the 240 volt alternator, which had broken for the 3rd time this year, something was definitely wrong?? It took the whole day to remove the alternator from the engine compartment and reinstall again. This time I tapped a thread in the base plate instead of welding the replacement bolt along with tapping the spacer to act as a locking nut. The welding process can weaken the strength of stainless steel and this could have been the reason for the previous failures. The new bolt is a bigger diameter so this should help as well. Fingers crossed all is running OK. It then took 2 days to recover from the physical ordeal my body had gone through in doing the work, in such a confined area of the boat. |
| Busy streets of downtown PP |
A positive event which was enjoyed by all here at the anchorage was Jen’s birthday which although celebrated a week late, was a great night had at the yacht club. Another yachtie, Little John from “Sea Hog” had his birthday as well so a cake was bought along with a tub of ice cream and then devoured after a lovely meal and a few beers.
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| Another happy birthday |
We had a trip to the dentist just after we arrived for a clean and check-up, Jen had a tooth out and a replacement front filling A$100 and has to return in January for 2 crowns and a bridge A$450. The dentist is excellent and could teach the Aussie dentists much about patient care. She also had an ear infection and went to the local hospital for a course of antibiotics and to restock all the drugs which I had consumed during my bout with Dengue. I still can’t understand the logic of why a nurse has to under medicate initially and then monitor a patients pain level, why not eliminate the pain altogether with the best drugs available and move on, no pain and no wasted time monitoring, simple!! I must admit I got 24/7 care with no complaints.
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| Birthday bash at the yacht club |
We met up with another Aussie, Allen who used to live in Townsville in the 70’s after Cyclone Althea, worked as a Civil Engineer with Thiess, moved south and was the Commodore of the Airlie Beach Yacht Club where he built the small dinghy harbour. He has just completed managing the design and construction of a silver mine in Botswana for an OZ consortium and along with his mate a Norwegian Civil Contractor, Lars, they are having a break away on his yacht till the lure of work or his Indonesian family beckon his return. PP is a bit of an out post and the Abanico Yacht Club a constantly changing mixing pot for people from all round the world with amazing stories and life experiences.
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| This is the second freedom rigged yacht owned by a Civil Engineer we've met, it's a bit like the camel/horse story don't you think. |
Just as we were hoping to get moving we were delayed again with the development of Typhoon Bopha as it continued to move west across the Philippines. We were lucky with this one as it weaked during its approach to Palawan, the maximum wind speed we got was 34.9kt, but we were prepared for more as we had set a second anchor in addition to our main anchor, both on the same length of chain in tandem. The biggest problem we had to contend with was the fetch across the bay as the strongest winds which lasted about 6 hrs came from the SW and a distance of about 4nm which caused a rocking horse affect and put additional strain on the anchoring gear.
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| A beautiful evening the day before the typhoon arrived |
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| Typhoon Bopha as it passes us in PP we were lucky to be on the southern side but the eye passed just north of us. |
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| Retrieving the second anchor of the blow |
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