Tuesday 26 June 2007

Still in Tagbilaran!!

Yes, I know I said we would be leaving today, but Phil and I went shopping for ice this morning and took advantage of a couple of hours on our own away from the boat and the girls(and boy).
Any way there wasn't much wind so we took a walk into Tag.We found the local museum, which was very interesting and we are having tea at the mall, which will give me a cooking free evening. I bought fabric this morning so I nrrd to get my sewing machine out and make storage bags for our clothes.
Hopefully tomorrow we will mae it to Cabilao.

Monday 25 June 2007

Tagbilaran again!

It is Monday and we are back in Tagbilaran. I did a mountain of washing and left it hanging up to dry on the boat while we came to the mall. We watched a film and caught up on emails, and now we need to start stocking up ready for our trip to Palau. We had a lovely few days at Alona, big news- Hannah and Dan are now engaged! We definitely need to be back in the UK for their wedding!
Tomorrow we will leave for Cabilao and more swimming and fish watching. Dan and Hannah fly back yo England next week, so we will be back in Cebu to see them off.

Thursday 21 June 2007

Back to Alona!

It is now Thursday and we are back at Alona beach, but this time with Pumpkin!
We left Cebu Yacht Club on Saturday and sailed for the Camotes Islands where we anchored off Santiago and had a lovely day swimmimg on Sunday after family worship.Monday saw us on the move again to Bonoon, than on to Ubay which is a bit off the beaten track so we were a source of great interest to everyone. Dan celebrated his birthday with a visit ashore in the evening for a drink and a song or two on the karaoke machine! Last night was an overnight sail all the way to Alona beach so we are all a bit sleep starved. We plan to say here for a couple of nights to enjoy the beach and the swimming.

Friday 15 June 2007

Going sailing!

Hannah and Dan Durdin have now spent their first night on board with us. It was very hot and very noisy as the restaurant next door to the Yacht club has live music every evening including karaoke! I think tonight we might just sit in the bar with a cold drink rather than try and sleep in the heat listening people murdering various songs!
Dan has bought a guitar and Lydia has her clarinet, Phil has his piano accordion, so we could probably make quite a bit of noise ourselves!
Tomorrow we leave the yacht club to do some island hopping, cool breezes, sea to swim in and sandy beaches! Lovely!

Wednesday 13 June 2007

We are back in Cebu today, Wednesday 13th June, moored in the yacht club ready to pick up Hannah and Dan Durdin from the airport for a 3 week stay on Pumpkin.
We arrived this morning after an overnight sail from Cabilao where we had picked up a buoy near the reef. We saw dolphins and flying fish, and Phil and the girls snorkeled. It remains very hot but once we get out sailing again it will be more bearable.The chance to come to an internet cafe is very welcome!

Thursday 7 June 2007

I have just realised that these posts are UK time! It is actually 5.55pm here in Tagbilaran!
Today we left Mond See Land resort (after having our last swim in the pool), and moved on board Pumpkin! We all swam in the sea and Phil climbed the mast.
Tonight we sleep afloat for the first time! We all got lots of sun today,probably too much, so we have invested in more sunblock.
There is still more to do on the boat but hopefully we will have a sail soon.

Wednesday 6 June 2007

Well here we are on Wednesday 5th June and we are here in the Philippines at Alona beach.
As you would expect it is VERY HOT and we are very grateul for the air-con and the swimming pool outside our chalet.
Pumpkin is looking good but there is a lot of sorting and tidying to do, so the first few days when we move on board won't be very relaxing, but once we get sailing it will be great (I hope!)
The shops,cinema and internet cafe are a haven of coolth, we even saw 'Shrek the Third'!

Friday 1 June 2007

Well we are finaly packed, just about! Still too much stuff but Hannah can bring some for us in a couple of weeks. We now need to buy a clarinet as well as a guitar when we arrive.
Everyone is a little tense at times, but as Phil says this time next week it will all be over and we will be there on Pumpkin!
Said goodbye to the Ryders yesterday and to the Hackers today, and Hannah comes to the airport on Sunday to wave us off and take the car back to Portsmouth. Departure time approaches! Wah!!!!