In the boat yard

We haven't really been up to much lately...we pulled into the boat yard to get work done about a week and half maybe 2 weeks ago and the labor and everything is so cheap we are just paying everyone to do the work for us. We have had the bottom scrubbed since we picked up a lot of growth in Cebu anchorage....we had to top deck scrubbed really well....we are having someone polish all the stainless in the next couple of days....they are building a new bimini for us at the moment and it's coming along nicely.....I am about to find someone to do our laundry because it is just too dang hot here! We try to do a little bit on the boat every day and try not to die of heat stroke in the process lol...we did take our boom off a couple days ago to have a piece re-welded and to be painted...and we had the grate on our bbq pit replaced and this one is NICE...they do such good work here!!....being on the boat from 12-5 is just unbearable...but we are drinking a lot more water than usual so that's almost healthier right? This is by far the hottest place yet...cooking is a nightmare and it is impossible not to sweat but we are still cooking breakfast and dinners on the boat.....the food here is...different...it all kind of has a sweetness to it like we went out to dinner with some friends and I ordered the steak and mash potatoes...the steak was so thin and cooked well done and smothered in gravy...not terrible but the mash was sweet...not sweet potatoes they were just regular potatoes but they added something to make them sweet....not my kinda taste but ok. I hear the chicken is really good tho :) They eat a lot of rice too...every meal even breakfast is eggs with rice...or chicken with rice steak with rice sausage with rice rice rice!!! It is such a poor country and that is the least expensive and most filling thing they can eat so that is what they have stuck with from what I hear. I have also been told that there is no health care and if you live here and get sick you basically die because you cannot afford the care.....sad that there isn't a way around that yet. We use tricycles for transportation around here which is basically a motor bike with a little housing on wheels attached to it. So far the most I have seen on one trike is 9 people!!! haha 9!!!! I've also seen a family of 5 on one single seated motor bike...these people are so tiny lol.....I must say the Filipinos are very good singers...we have seen several bands play and they either sit up on stage with a few guitars and one little drum with a little symbol and they take turns singing....or there is just one guy with a guitar...and they all like to sing love songs...they almost never sing anything else and it can be a little dull at times unless you request something more upbeat which we normally do lol...but it's amazing how good most of them sound! :)

The before pics of the old bimini 

This guy...

Sunset over Port Carmen

Boatyard mascot has such pretty eyes

Fillin her up!

The fuel station fro the trike...that's fuel in the coke bottle:)

Another use for coconuts!

In the trike

Zeiks boatyard in Port Carmen

Sunset over Cebu

The boys working on our new bimini top...this will go on top of our frame and another piece will go below the frame so you can't see any wiring or stainless plus it will have lights installed that shine down on the cockpit

First week in the Philippines

It's been quite a culture shock after being in the smaller islands of the South Pacific. This city...Cebu City has close to 3 million people living here. The driving is terrifying but I haven't seen any accidents yet. There are a million scooters and nobody stays in their lane. They just roam around until someone honks to let them know they're behind them. They have to be reminded they aren't the only ones on the road I guess. We went shopping the other day at the biggest mall I've ever seen...next to the galleria. The water is so dirty I don't even want our boat in it. The anchorage for the yacht club is in the shipping channel so it's not very pretty. On a brighter note everything is super cheap here! Beer is about $1. A meal is about $4-$7 depending on how fancy you want to get. It's cheaper to eat out than to buy food and cook on the boat. Not to mention the heat when we cook geez it's soooo hot. The yacht club restaurant is nice but there isn't a nice bathroom to shower in or laundry service.  Never take advantage of a clean shower and unlimited running water!! We checked into the country on Wednesday and then everything shut down Thursday thru Sunday for the long holiday weekend so today is the first real day we have been able to get answers on the boat work that we need done. The marine store doesn't keep any parts in stock so it would take about a month for us to get a new alternator from Australia. We could just have the boss bring it with him in that case. We have to speak to the sail maker to have some extra chafe guard on the Genoa. The boatyard that we were planning on going to for the carpentry isn't really taking new boats at the moment because the owner is in the states until the 22nd and he is the only one who can arrange the parts and labor...we just discovered there is another marina across the channel that might be able to help us out so we are going to make our way over there to see what they can offer. 

Coffee comes w every plate automatically!!

Full moon over the anchorage

Lots of Texas stuff going on here

My backyard view of the bridge that leads to the city. 

Aaaaaand we have Starbucks again!!

Graffiti 

Texas!!

Cebu yacht club

Ciao Palau

We left Palau yesterday....sadly and with heavy hearts...Palau is one of those awesome places that will never be forgotten. We made so many wonderful friends there and every person we met seemed so genuinely happy. And the happiness is contagious! Until you have to leave....:( The island is beautiful and all the rock islands surrounding are gorgeous. We had diving experiences that we've never had before and I'm not sure we will have again. Driving around the island and visiting the waterfall... It was truly an amazing place with the most amazing people. So it breaks my heart to say goodbye but we must be on our way to the next chapter in our journey. 

The wind has been favorable but the swell is a bit confused and actually really annoying at the moment. We are heading north of our entry waypoint at the Philippines border because the current will be pushing us south when we get there. We have to time it just right in order to enter the islands on an incoming tide. 

We watched The Squids 2-3 times a week they are awesome!

Perfect day sailing and anchored around the corner from the yacht club. Love this water!

Hike to the waterfall

This bird made me laugh. Poor guy was having a bad day lol

Our new friends from Texas!!

Picnic on the beach between dives

We made it!!! Took 4 days and we have just the right timing! We came in just as daylight was breaking and the tide was turning to carry us in. It's a well known passage and the timing must be prefect or you will have to anchor somewhere and wait for the tide to change in your favor so it's no joke. We had perfect timing!! 

It really sucked to leave Palau but there's a real sense of freedom and anticipation that comes with entering a new countries waters. Fear. Excitement. Wonder. Oh yeah and all the work we have to do here haha. Bossman wants to get all the wood inside the boat replaced and the interior repainted. He also wants to build a new roof for the cockpit complete with outdoor lights and with dimmers :) we also need the starboard engine fixed. It's leaking fuel into the oil...bummer. Lots of big jobs to do starting this week and we have about a month to get them all done. 

Palau

We finally got to go around the rock islands!! In Palau you must purchase permits for everything....fishing...diving...sailing and all that goes with that. It's quite expensive so we have been waiting for the boss to arrive to take the boat out. The boat has been in great condition some we came back from our visit home.  We had the engines checked out by a real mechanic! Not island style mechanic haha. Turns out they are both fine but we have a to replace the fuel pump in the starboard engine. 

We took a tour around the rock islands and they are beautiful!! We have done a lot of diving this week and have so many great shots!! Here are just a few and more will be added soon:)

Clear water. Coral rock bottom. Soooo pretty!!!

Lil rock corals stickin out everywhere!

Swim spot around the corner from the boat 

Rock islands

My favorite color of blue!!!! This was at German Chanel which is a top dive spot in Palau

This poor lizard was tied up inside an aquarium at a resort :(

Made some friends from TEXAS!!! Jess and Frank from Backwoods Bar and Grill in Cleveland 

Love the colors at sunset here

Lunch on Ulong Beach Inbetween dives

Our dive boat. We dived 3 sites that day. Amazing!!

The Capitol. Which has been built but vacant for a very long time but now I think people work there...

Mysterious rocks...

They don't know how they got here. The rocks aren't from this island. 

Sashimi every day!!!

Our friends The Squids play twice a week and we are happy to be groupies! Their amaZiiing. 

Made a couple bracelets for some friends

Cave Dive

So Ty went for a cave dive here in Palau. Turns out the cave dive the dive company does is right next to where we have the boat moored....so he was able to just tag along when they all came in for the dive :)

Solomons Dive Video

There's not too much going on at the moment. We are still just hanging out on our mooring at Sams Tours here in Palau. The boat is back in good shape. We still need to find someone to take a look at our alternator for the starboard engine to see if it can be fixed or if we should just order a new one. The batteries seem to be working great!

Ty went on his first cave dive and loved it. I did not go because quite frankly it scares the crap out of me! I will do it soon though. I saw his video from the gopro and it doesn't look that bad :)

I put together a couple of videos from our dives in the Solomons and dolphins we sailed with but the internet here is almost non-existent so I am having to spend a whole day at the yacht club just to upload the video.....
Here is Diving Solomons

and here are some dolphins :)

Starting the 11 month vacation…

It was soooo great to be home finally after 2 years!!! We had the best time and so glad we got to see everyone….well almost everyone…and all the new little ones!!! We certainly are grateful to everyone who opened their homes to us and also those who made a little bit of time for us in the chaos of the holidays. Sad that we did not get to see everyone but there is always this Christmas! We will be back in about 11 months if all goes according to plan with our job.

We are back in Palau and the flight was ok….United Airlines is NOT the way to go in case you were planning a trip….the flight there was stressful since they couldn’t seem to be on time with their own schedules and we missed our connecting flight which almost made us miss Christmas….but on the way back we got this crappy cramped plane that didn’t even have screens with movie options and they didn’t have a plug in for you laptop or whatever device to charge it. They just recommended that if you have a device you download the United app just before boarding so you can connect to their in flight wifi and watch their outdated movies. The only enjoyment we got out of our 40ish hours of flying was the last 7 hour leg from Hawaii to Guam where we got the most awesome stew…she hooked it up! She served us like we were #1 priority (and she may or may not have hooked us up with chex mix and an extra baileys) woohoo! ...anyway she was the only pleasant person we really encountered and she deserves better than United….but we arrived safely so I guess I can stop crying about miniscule stuff.

So we had someone look after the boat while we were gone… nothing major just check the batteries and make sure the bilges were emptied…he also scrubbed the bottom of the boat which he said wasn’t actually too terrible. He did say there was a lot of water under the kitchen sink so he cleaned it up but what he didn’t know was that it leaks down to our cabin where our closet is…so we came home to a fuzzy forest of all sorts of mould on the boat. There was mould I have never even seen before growing in places where I didn’t even know it could grow! He was kind enough to wipe down our cabin and the saloon (our living room/kitchen area) for us before we arrived. I didn’t know mould could grow in the oven let alone the cabinet where our pots are….my cutting board!! cutting board!! is fuzzy!!! groooosssss. anyway we cleaned a lot of it yesterday. We used lots of exit mould and pledge and knocked out a lot of it…just a bit more to do today but I need running water before I can wash all the pots and pans and stuff. oh yeah since the pipe broke we don’t have running water. That’s fun to come home to. We went to the hardware store and got the part to fix it but its not working for some reason. The store is closed for the weekend now so we are going to try to rig it or wait til monday to go back and ask what we should do. I’m sure we will figure it out.

It’s nice to be back. We made some friends before we left and they are happy to see us so it takes the sting away from leaving everyone back home…We are planning some diving for this weekend or early next week and we are getting to know the town and where we can find everything we need. Its hard not having transportation but we are thinking of renting a couple of bikes for 2 months if they can give us a decent price.

They JUST got 3G in Palau!!! lol its funny to listen to people talk because they are all excited about being able to get emails while driving!!! hahahaha …….oooohh I guess that means we would need to be extra careful on our bikes…now that I think about it….

The owner of Sams Tours where we are staying is from Seattle so we will be able to see the Seahawks play…at 5am on Monday morning….gotta love this time difference geez…

We are excited to get out there and actually explore Palau for the next month before the boss gets here. Lots of diving and places to see so we know where to take him. The only thing is that it is pretty expensive at the good places and you can only stay for 10 days at a time. Like this one place where we are taking the boss..we have to pay at least $150 and we can only stay for 10 days…but the boss wont stay in one place for 10 days since he is only in town for 10 days at a time so we will only be there for a couple days max….so I wonder how much they would charge for that… But its beautiful here and fishing and diving galore!

The grocery store has a small produce section so I must find out where all these locals get their produce. The meat is all frozen and flown in which is nothing new to us by now…there are a lot of American products which is good and bad at the same time considering some of the ingredients we try to stay away from but for the most part awesome!! Lots of hot sauces and salsas and bbq marinades and and and ok I need to stop and breath…..

Our view from the RBYC….Sams Tours…Our boat is moored in the back but will soon be moved up closer for more exposure to wind! Its pretty stifling back there….

So here’s where we are in case you were wondering where the hell is Palau?!?!