Another 3 weeks has gone by and we are still here in Palau. When I last updated the blog we were actually receiving the edge of another typhoon which was heading northwards over the Philippines and we had several days when we could not leave the boat as we needed to be on board in case we dragged which we did and had to do the re anchoring in pouring rain. There is a Chinese lady, Charlie, who comes to Sam's tours with fresh vegetables etc. for sale and also provides the supermarkets with vegetables so one day which happened to be in the middle of this terrible weather we went with her, along with another yachtie, Ariana to visit her farm. On the way to shore in our dinghy the heavens opened and we got soaked, even though we had rain jackets on but by the time we got to Charlie's farm the rain had stopped but we sloshed our way around the farm which probably covered an area of 100 acres in total, although not all planted. The soil was volcanic and everything looked very healthy. All work is done by hand and most of the workers are Philippinos, although she has a brother and a cousin who work for her as supervisors. She pays all the living expenses as well as food for the workers and they get paid $US300 per month so there are no living expenses to come out of that wage. If they stay a second year they get an increase in pay. Charlie grows cucumbers, eggplant, local spinach, long (snake beans), pumpkin, water melons, sweet corn, okra, chill peppers, pineapples and also has papaya and bananas. Charlie is married to an American here who has a charter boat business so when they have a charter Charlie goes with him as the cook and also the dive instructor. She said when she first arrived in Palau she could not even swim and she came here as a school teacher. When the bad weather finally cleared up a group of us (9 altogether) finally did a dive trip with Sam's Tours to the German Channel where all the others, except me as I don't dive, went and dived near what they call the mantaray cleaning station where they all come in and get cleaned by the little cleaning fish. There were also big grey tipped sharks cruising past plus various other fish. I just snorkeled over the coral at the side of the channel and the coral was beautiful along with all the fish life and also a turtle. The channel was dug about by the Germans when they owned the country as a short cut through to the lagoon. From there we anchored off an island and had lunch which was provided on the trip and then we went out to the outer reef for the divers to dive what is world renowned, the Blue Hole and then drift dive down to the Blue Corner on the outer reef. I snorkeled along the top and followed them and it was an amazing sight watching them but then they hooked on to the wall to watch all the fish life, which included various species of sharks and numerous other varieties of fish, but of course I kept drifting down so then the boatman came and picked me up. There were two dive masters/guides with them and they were great. All very professional and Sam's Tours is one of the few dive companies here in Palau that has never had a fatality. All in all a great day out and I wish I had an underwater casing for my camera. However I put some photos up on facebook that one of the other divers took. I pay $US50 per year to be able to put photos up on our blog and the $50 was due at the end of May and is automatically paid by Paypal, and charged to Dave's credit card but as his wallet etc. was stolen in China, and even though I have loaded the new credit card it won't accept the payment, so as we are on our way home and will not have internet for several months have decided to forgo the photos on the blog and I just put them up on facebook as I think that most of our friends who read our blog are joined to me on facebook. If not my facebook website is www.facebook.com/joanne.booker The new Autohelm computer arrived on Monday so is now installed and we had to get the alternator rewired so we were without a motor for charging for a week so were in power conservation mode! We are presently waiting on the raw water pump parts and repairs and then we will head off to the Rock Islands for 10 days. Since leaving Australia in 2008 our motor has done thousands of hours of motoring so it is only natural that things like alternator, raw water pumps etc. need rewiring etc. Most centre cockpit yachts have big generators and it appears to us that they cause no end of problems - friend Mark here has had to spend over $4000 on his here and it is only 2 years old! Most yachties actually find that getting parts in from the US is great with the US postal system and certainly miles cheaper than using the likes of DHL, FedEx etc. if one has somebody that can send parts on. To non yachties it might appear that we have lots of problems but compared to most ours are only small. Reading other friends blogs makes us realise how lucky we have been. In Palau you get a cruising permit for a month which cost us $40 ($20 for a 12m yacht), $20 for months fishing license and then to go diving or snorkeling each person has to have a permit which is $25 and if you include Jellyfish Lake it is $35 and this permit is for only 10 days. All visitors (except US citizens) get a months visa, with right of renewal for another 2 months, so we had to go and renew it for another month which was $50 each plus another $50 for the boat which expires on 2nd August and we will have left by then. Americans get a 1 year visa which includes the boat but if it is registered in another country they have to pay $50 per month for the boat. Last Friday morning we went and got our cruising and fishing permits and before we got out of the building the heavens opened - I have never seen rain like it, along with cracking thunder and lightening - scary stuff. The ranger very kindly took us back to the Yacht Club where we met up with Pauline & Mark and once the rain stopped the four of us got a taxi to town and went to the Taj restaurant for their Friday Indian smorgasbord special. That was the second time we have been there and it is great food and is one of the better eating establishments in Koror. We seem to eat out 2-3 times a week, depending on what's happening and meal prices range from $9 - $15 a main. Monday was 4th July so most of us yachties went to Kramers for a special American Independence day barbecue special for $20 per head plus free beer until it ran out. It was well patronized and was a good night but we were home by about 9.30pm as it started at 5pm but Dave reckoned he heard some of the yachties arriving back at 2am! Tonight we are having Pauline and Mark and a Canadian father and daughter (Derek & Janet) whom we met on Monday night, for dinner. Derek & Janet are in Palau for 3 weeks, ostensibly for diving. I think that about covers the news for the time being.