Hi Everyone,

Saturday, May 31, 2008

I am sitting in the Rock N’ Roll Bar fighting with my email, my new blog, and following the Red Sox. I could tell you that my lucky red Red Sox ring broke and that’s why they aren’t doing so well lately. But it broke after they started losing. And I did lose my Red Sox hat in 2007 in Sai Kung the day before we left to come to the Philippines; Sox won the Series in ‘07’ so it’s not the fault of the ring.

I am realizing just how spoiled I got when we were attached to the docks at Hebe Haven and even more in Subic. In lots of ways it was just like living at home without TV. And even then we could get one channel with Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and the Gilmore Girls till it ended. We had AC and unlimited water. You stepped off the boat onto the dock and could be on your way. Very different when you cruise. You have to provide everything for yourself.
We have to make our own power, water, and transport ourselves from boat to shore. There really isn’t enough power to run the AC, so we don’t. I don’t mind, but Randal suffers from the night heat. You have to think before you use anything that drains a lot of power, even our electric kettle. We can make enough water fairly easily so that’s good.

Because it is the “slow season” here the service boat has limited hours. Sunday through Friday it runs from 8am to 9am and then from noon to 9pm at night. If you miss it, you swim back to the boat. Remember when Randal missed the last boat back at Christmas time? Only the goodness of a few hearts got him back to our boat that night. Friday it runs from 8 am to 10 pm and Saturday from 8 am till 9 pm. Randal is also dinghy captain and he doesn’t want to mess with it, so we aren’t. We really haven’t needed it yet; our schedule matches the service boats. We have to be in Sabang for our SCUBA class by 9 am so have to catch the early service boat anyway. Scuba class lasts from 9 until late afternoon. Other days it’s nice to have the quiet morning on the boat to read, paint or even swim around the boat area. Randal works on boat things and I do laundry if the genset is running to charge the battery bank.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

After my internet session and after the 10th inning of the Sox Orioles game, Randal came back from getting a shave. It was his turn with the computer so I went off to the town center. It is just about a half mile walk along the main road that curves and goes down the hill to the row of shops and activity. I stopped in one of the little office/school supply shops for a notebook. I have decided to go back to keeping a paper journal; power and wifi being iffy. Just a pen and sunlight are needed for that and no power crashes can lose everything you just struggled to write. There is just something more fun about pen and paper anyway. I ended up buying 3 smallish notebooks for a total of 67 pesos. The last time we checked in Sabang it was about 43.20 peso to the dollar. It has gone up a tad. Not much money to us, but I thought that it would be a luxury to some school kids here to have more than one. Not that most of the kids look “poor.” They all seem energetic and happy and just the right size. Filipino women are my height or shorter than I am. None of them seems to weigh even 100 lbs. I stopped to try on a top the other day and it needed about another half yard of material to fit me. First the adorable “small” Muslim woman said it fit because it was “an extra large.” Then she told me leaving half of my top half uncovered was the style. Not my style…. I was trying it on over a tank top so maybe that was the problem. Maybe I’ll get one for when we are making a passage and there will be no one to see anyway.
At the small supermarket I bought some more amoxicillin, no prescription needed. Randal is taking it for his ear infection. One does tend to self medicate when cruising. Especially on a long 5 to 15 day passage, there is no other choice. He is improving and the swelling on the side of his face is going down. But still no diving today either. I bought some Ritz like crackers and some other cracker that resembles a saltine and some brown bread. It was bread delivery day so it was available. Since it is the off season, bread and yogurt don’t disappear in 20 minutes from being shelved. And the market isles were not jammed packed. Last December, between the heat and the crowds it was quite awful to shop. And truly hard to find bread. I headed back to the pier stopping to find where the post office was located. It was closed with no hours posted. I’ll have to check during the week. As I was walking, I spotted the most pathetic dog. Its hips were rubbed raw and it was very thin. I thought, no pretty scenery or inexpensive trinkets or moorings can make up for how sadly the dogs and cats are treated. They aren’t mistreated, but totally neglected if they are strays. There is no neutering so lots of unwanted pets. Not that there are roving packs of animals. I am afraid to think why that might be. But just too many mangy skinny looking dogs and cats. It puts me off. I couldn’t think of how to rescue the poor dog; we can’t possibly take an animal. So I walked back to the pier and found Randal still on the computer. I left him there, stopped at Brettos for yogurt and caught the service boat back to DoraMac. I finished my painting and wrote in my new journal. When Randal returned it was time for mango shakes. I also started cooking vegetable soup, the best way I know to use vegetables before they can go bad. I even threw in a half cup of rice that cooked as the soup simmered. Pretty good stuff, and healthy!

Jan from south of Copenhagen stopped to visit about sunset. Randal met Jan at the Classic Club Thursday. Jan is an experience diver so after a tour of DoraMac, we talked diving for a bit. Then Jan was off to his boat and Randal and I tested the veggie soup. By 8:30 Randal was off to sleep and I read for a bit more. By 9pm I was ready to call it a day too.