It does not seem like it was 3 weeks since I updated the blog, time just seems to go by and find that the best time to do it is when we are on a bit longer trip. When at anchor there seems to be other things to do. We had a 5.45am start on 22nd April to head down to Port Carmen on Cebu Island and fortunately the tide with us all the way even though we had to motor the whole 47 miles. Going into Port Carmen was a bit tricky and there is a little marina there. Getting in there was the difficult part as all the boats have a stern line out which is weighted but they all seem to go right across from one side of the narrow entrance. We tried to float over the lines but it did not work and in the end Dave had to snorkel down and get us untangled. As it was Good Friday there were no staff on hand to help us, but our friends Cliff and Ruth on Icicle 11 were there to catch lines and help tie us up to a 70ft yacht which we remained tied to for the whole time we were there. So to go ashore we had to climb across that boat and onto a ramp. Quite a different arrangement to normal marinas with all boats having a ramp going from the shore to either the bow or stern of the boat depending on which way they are facing. The marina is owned by an American guy and he has built a lovely yacht club there, where meals and drinks are served. Ruth and Cliff jacked up for us to go to a local resort at Danoa for dinner along with another American couple and we had a nice meal there. Had to go by tricycle to get there and going up the six of us were all in or on the one tricycle. The men all ended up having only one cheek sitting on it!! Coming back we took two tricycles. While there Ruth and I did markets at both the small town of Carmen and Danoa which is a much bigger place but to both one needs to take a tricycle. We had a few meals at the Yacht Club and on the Wednesday after Easter (27th) Ian from Hyde Sails in Cebu came down and picked up our Genoa and main sails for repairs. He also had new sails to deliver there as well. Ian is English and was sent to Cebu from Hyde Sails in England to manage the operation in Cebu. He has since married a Filipino lady and has two small children. On the Friday (29th) Dave and I caught a bus to Cebu which took about an hour and a half because of the traffic, and then we took a taxi to go out to an Industrial Estate where Hyde Sails have their factory. Ian showed us around and what a huge place it is, 5500 sq.metres. At present they are making the sails for 10 yachts in the Clipper Round the world race and each yacht has 9 sails and they have to be very strong as only the skipper and the navigator are experienced with the rest of the crew having never sailed before until they have a short training session before they leave. We saw a Yankee sail which was just finished and it was so heavy and just huge. They employ 250 staff and while all work takes longer to do than it does in England the labour costs are just a fraction of the cost of the likes in England or any other first world country. Last year they made 70,000 sails. Most of their work is all exported. As well as getting our sails repaired we have had them make us up a kitset for me to make a shade cover which will extend from the mast to the canopy at the back. Also ordered 5metres of green canvas (Sauleda) which they are now importing from Spain and is less than half the price of the US sun umbrella and which they have found to be equal in quality. After our visit to Hyde's we caught a jeepney to the Cebu Yacht Club to ascertain what was there and while there had a good chat to an English family who have been sailing around the world and had spent 18mths in NZ and worked in Nelson picking apples as they were fruit farmers and while they have sold their orchard, they have a share of Adrian's parents 3000 acre fruit farm. We had a jeepney ride, plus a bit of walking and then caught the bus back to Port Carman arriving back at about 6pm so decided to have dinner at the yacht club that night. We found being in the little marina in Port Carmen very hot - 35 degrees plus - and their power supply was pretty rough and ready so was hard to keep the air conditioner going all day and as they do not use an earth it eventually blew up my microwave. Their power is 60 cycles rather than 50 like NZ and the power can range from 185v to 270v so not that good for our electrical appliances. We left Port Carmen on Monday 2nd May and motored the 18 miles down to Cebu and fortunately had the current with us. Was another mission getting out of the marina with lines and we got caught up in a line again but we were lucky enough to have one of the workers dive down and free it from our prop. Dave was not keen to do it again as he had a few cuts when he dived down going in and they ended up getting infected and he had to take a course of antibiotics to clear them up. We anchored off the Cebu Yacht Club as we wanted to have some fresh air going through the boat and had originally planned to go into the marina for a few days in order to do a grocery stock up, fuel runs and get our sails back. However they charge 4000 pesos for 10 days but if you go in for less than that it still costs 4000 pesos so we opted to stay anchored off. However we were supposed to pay 200 pesos a day to tie the dinghy up in the marina while ashore which was a bit steep if one was not using any of their facilities which we weren't really. The water outside the Yacht Club was pretty filthy with lots of rubbish coming from the stilt homes built out over the water. We frequently got plastic bags caught around the dinghy motor prop as you could not always see them. Cebu Yacht Club is on Mactan Island and is a city in itself (Lapu-Lapu City) and is across the Cebu Strait from the main part of Cebu City on Cebu Island and there are two bridges across from one to the other. They are serviced by jeepneys which run continuously but there are no tricycles allowed in the main parts of both cities. Cebu is the second largest city in the Philippines after Manila. Close to the Yacht Club was a small shopping centre with a good supermarket so we were able to get most of what we wanted there so had several trips doing the big stock up for our trip back to NZ as no doubt Palau being US will be pretty expensive. Ian from Hyde's bought down our sails, plus the kit set shade cover and canvas on Friday morning (6th). Our visas were due to expire on 14th May so as we were unsure as to where we could do our clearance for Palau and be there in time so decided we would do it in Cebu, even though we knew it was going to cost!!! So after putting the sails on board caught a taxi to Customs which were situated at the Airport Cargo Depot which turned out to be only a 20 minute walk from the Yacht Club but the Office lady told us it was too far to walk. (Filipinos don't walk anywhere). Got to customs and the fun began!! “Where is your Quarantine certificate?” Didn't do quarantine in Puerto Princessa, no yachts do when checking in at PP, just do Immigration. “Must do quarantine when coming into the Philippines so were sent off there to do Quarantine which was on Cebu Island and bearing in mind that we had no idea where quarantine was had to use taxis. At quarantine we were read the law and that we could be charged anything from 50,000 to 1 million pesos for not doing quarantine, however we could not complain when we were charged 2500 pesos and he gave us certificates for entry and exit. So then it was another taxi to Immigration who then tried to charge us 4000 pesos and when I told him that was a bit steep he dropped it to 2500 pesos. After Immigration we went and had a late lunch and then caught another taxi back to customs who then said that will be $US75. I told them we don't do US dollars so they said 3250 pesos and when I complained they dropped it back to 3000 pesos. It is just all a license to fleece yachties and most of the charges go in their back pocket - a real rip off. Unfortunately we had to go through the whole rigmarole as we have heard that Palau is pretty particular about having the correct paper work when you go in there. After we got back from customs and back on board we put up the Genoa and then went to put up the main sail and when we tried to put it up the track the bolt rope just fell out of the track. So I rang Ian to tell him that they had put too small a bolt rope on, so on Saturday morning he came and had a look and bought bolt rope samples with him so that they knew what size was needed and took the sail away to be redone. He arrived back at 1pm with it all fixed and we were able to put it up with no problems. They have done a great job on the main as all the batten pockets had rotted and we had lost or broken the battens. We now have the battens set up so that they can be easily removed when we have to take the sail in for repairs - a really good system and wish that had been done when the sail was first made. While in Cebu we had Adrian, Sue and their two boys, George 14 and Oliver 10 over one night for Train dominoes and taught them how to play chicken foot with the dominoes, which we learned to play from Ruth & Cliff in Port Carmen. Adrian is also a wiz with electronics and managed to fix one thing he found wrong with our autohelm computer but it did not do the trick. He suggested we find an electronics place on our travels and get the diode checked. No doubt you heard that a typhoon went through the Philippines just over a week ago and on the Saturday we got a bit of the wind from it in Cebu so stayed on the boat all day to make sure we were secure. We were hoping for some decent rain to fill the water tanks but all we got was a bit of drizzle for 3 days. On the Sunday we went across to Cebu to the SM Mall which is a huge mall with very upmarket shopping etc. Also went back on Tuesday afternoon to get a few things from the supermarket there that we could not get close by. We were in the supermarket at 6pm and everything ground to a halt in the mall, computers went off line and everybody went quiet and stood still and there was a prayer session for several minutes and all said in English. Have never struck that anywhere before. We finally left Cebu on Wednesday, 11th May and motored 29 miles south and anchored for the night off Cebu Island coast at a place called Sibong. Next morning we headed off again, with the sea like glass and did another 27 miles and headed into Taglibaran Port on Bohol Island.