We left Subic Bay Friday, May 23, and arrived here in Puerto Galera Saturday afternoon.

Himilo Cove
Two day passage from heaven. The first day was very smooth and we arrived in
Himilo Cove at 3:15 PM after shoving off the Subic Bay dock at 7:00 AM. We
left Himilo at 7:00 Saturday morning and arrived here at Puerto Galera at
3:30 in the afternoon. The water was so smooth at times you could hardly
tell you were on a boat.

We rigged up a sun shade and had dolphins swim Since we spend the day on the fly bridge

with us. We are in the fly bridge the entire trip. bring up drinks and snacks!

This line of banca acted like they would cross our bow. They needed to turn or I needed to turn. We had the right of way and were bigger so they turned.

A floating homestead!

Randal continues…”Sunday I found the dive shack I had been in contact with and signed up
for our diving certification class. I brought home one manual for each of us
and a DVD to watch. Our three or four day class starts tomorrow. We have to
watch the DVD, read the (240 page) book and take an exam, then it’s into the water for
personal instruction from a Brit named Simon who I met yesterday too.
We found a wifi source that reached the boat but we had to go into town and find
the shop and pay them for passwords to use it. It was expensive, 50 P
$1.17) per hour. You get a little piece of paper with the user key and
password. Each piece allows one hour of usage or 125 MB which ever comes
first. It also expires two days after you sign in. Sounds like a westerner
set it up rather than a Filipino. We tried it yesterday and it does work.
They told us it works 24/7 but it is not available this morning and I have a
feeling it works their business hours which are 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. (Correct.)
Today is a study day, we have to read the 240 page book, take the quizzes at
the end of each chapter, and be prepared to take the exam when we arrive at
the dive shop Tuesday. I have a feeling the DVD is a repeat of the book.
Ruth has contacted a lady friend she made when we were here during Christmas
and has made an appointment to go see her. Nancy paints and her and Ruth hit
it off right away. She and her husband have a house and a boat here and Ruth
is going to see her house for the first time. There is a pictures of her and her
husband in Ruth’s email from Christmas. Her husband was wearing a kilt.

There is a big difference from what we are now doing to what we were doing (in Hong Kong and Subic Bay.) Before we were in a safe marina with sea walls protecting you from the waves
of the bay which were naturally protected from the waves of the ocean. We
were attached to a dock and we could walk right off the boat and be on land.
We were attached to shore electricity so no worries about usage; we ran the
A/C all the time. We had a water hose on the dock so no need to worry about
water usage either. Our main concern was getting the boat ready for
cruising.
Now our day is much different. We are very careful of the electricity and
water we use, no waste. We can have no A/C unless we are running the
gen-set. (So very little A/C.) We are anchored out in the cove and have to hail the service boat
on the VHF radio to come pick us up to go to shore and bring us back again.
If there was no service boat, and it is rare there is one, we would have to
launch the dinghy and go where we wanted to go. (We aren’t sure about leaving the dinghy at the pier while we go off, so we aren’t using it to get to town.)We watch the battery monitor and when it gets down to about 60% we will have to start the gen-set to charge the batteries, heat water and make water with the watermaker. This will be the time for doing any cooking in the microwave and washing clothes as well. We can make water, wash clothes, and use the
microwave off the inverter with current supplied by the batteries but they
deplete them so fast that it’s better to do it while the genny is running as
it supplies an excess of electricity than what the battery charger can use.
We can also do all these things while underway ( cruising) since I installed that big
140 amp alternator on the main engine. While underway the engine heats the
water in the water heater by circulating engine coolant through it.
Our plan is to run the gen-set every other day for about two hours. I think
this will do the trick but we will have to experiment to see. The watermaker makes 25
gallons per hour so that means we will be producing an average of 25 gallons per day
and I’m sure we use more than that. Since we can make water while underway, if we
enter an anchorage with nearly full tanks we should be okay if we don’t stay too long. The
water tanks hold 250 gallons.
One of the things I did during our first visit to PG was join the Classic Club. The CC meets
every Thursday for drinks and lunch and the bill is split. No women allowed.
New members and returning members are introduced and there is a lot made
over the fact that this is the 695th continuous meeting, da da da. There are no
visitors because when you attend the first time you are a member. There are
no dues, no bylaws, none of most things associated with clubs and
organization. The guy who owns the dive shop where we will get our
certification heads the thing up and arranges the place where we will have
the lunches. I told him yesterday that I would surely be there this
Thursday. Ruth reminded me just now that Thursday is our anniversary. Oh
well, I’ll have to propose a toast to her for letting me come.”

Randal

(my comments are in parentheses.)

So Randal is off to CC. I am going to spend the afternoon painting and worrying about the Red Sox! I am more worried about them than about having to take off my face mask underwater during our next SCUBA class. You must take off and replace your mask, breathe through the regulator with your mouth and not breathe in through your nose. So far, not breathing through my nose is not a task I have mastered when we are learning to empty our masks of water. I practiced a bit this morning, but I still can’t do it well.

In her book, The House of the Spirits, in the chapter “At Home With the Spirits,” Isabel Allende talks about travel memories. “the person doesn’t bring back the month; the person brings back the big strokes, the brilliant colors, the intense experiences, and in a week you have forgotten how uncomfortable you were and the mosquitoes. You only remember those things that eventually you write about.”

Here is a photo of Tuesday evening.

Ruth Johnson

DoraMac

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