Into the Oceanview Marina on Samal Island
11 July 2013 | Oceanview Marina
Bill/ sunny with high clouds
We arrived at the marina about 1300 on Tuesday, right on schedule. While it was at low tide, we still cleared the passage into the marina by just over 3 feet. One of our friends(Paulo on Super Mario was already here though we had thought he was headed for Indonesia when he left Palau. His boat has a very deep keel and he ran aground when he entered earlier.
We got in and with lots of help from fellow cruisers, we tied up easily at the dock. Even got a starboard tie up which is great for Zephyr. It made coming into the dock easy. With lots of fenders along the side and plenty of lines out we were in nice a safe and sound. We cleaned up Zephyr a bit and then headed up to the office to check in. Easy paperwork and we were set. The office manager went though what we would need when we headed into Davao to check in with Customs, and Immigrations on Wednesday. They are quite lax with the formalities we have run into as we crossed the Pacific. Going in the day after we got here was perfectly alright with them. So for the rest of the day, we snoozed and cleaned up. Even took showers in nice restrooms here.
One thing I forgot to write about was the blockades they have across the entry way to the marina. First, there is a set of long buoys across the outside entry, the and swing open gate made of steel at the water line right at the narrowest point and then another set of buoys inside of that. All these are set up to stop the swells that could come up when the winds shifts to the northwest. The marina is right on the northernest point on Samall Island. We have jets flying over head from time to time with is different for us. We haven't seen or just about heard any planes for quite some time.
Yesterday, Wednesday, we took off for Davao to get checked in. The marina runs a taxi service to the ferry that takes you across from the island to the city. The taxi is free and the ferry is just 10 pesos(about 25 cents). Once on the mainland, we jumped in a taxi and headed for the Customs office. It had been explained to us that everyday dress(shorts and a tee shirt) would no be allowed in the government offices. We had to wear LONG PANTS!!! Plus a dressy shirt to boot. Shoes, not sandals. No mini skirts were allowed(like we have those on board?). It was all nice and proper and took just a few minutes to do all the paperwork and surrender our exit paperwork from Palau. Back to the main road and into one of the local colorful busses that are all over the place. We knew that Immigrations was next to the Victoria Mall so we had him drop us off there. The office we needed was right across the street. In we went and up to the third floor where we met Ms. Gomez who got us all checked in and passports stamped. We now have a 21 day visa. When that time fame is up, we have to go in for an extension. So far, no one has asked us for any money. We do know that the extension will cost a few bucks.
Once that was done, we crossed the street and headed into the Victoria Mall. We needed a bank to get some local currency. We'd tried a back across the street and our ATM card didn't work with their system. We needed another bank. It took some looking but we found an ATM in the mall that would give us some money. The bank puts a limit of just $10,000 pesos(about $225 US) on any transaction and adds a $200 fee(about $5.00 US) on every transaction. That can really add up after a while. Now with money in had, we need a hardware store. On Tuesday, after checking in, we had attempted to hook up to the 220 volt system here at the marina. I have a stepdown transformer that we used in Fiji and it was perfect for the task. The problem was was that all the cords I have are set up for Fiji wiring, not US style. I cut the heads on one of the cords and wired it onto the turn lock head from Marinco that fit their connections. The other end was set up by the Fijians and it just didn't want to play nice with the US style wiring. I tried numerous ways to hook it up and every time I did it, I got the light on our circuit board that we had "Reverse Polarity". Not a good thing. It normally means so wire some where is not hooked up right. The problem was that I didn't have a "female" end for the wires. Yesterday, while in town, I found the correct fitting. In the mean time, I was using the generator to keep our batteries topped up. When we returned to the marina, even with the new fitting, I still kept getting "Reverse Polarity". The marina manager is getting an electrician to take a look at it. Meanwhile, our generator just keeps on running.
Tracy went up to do the laundry at the office and found that all the machines were half the normal size and to do it would not only cost a fortune but take forever. So after just one load, back she came and she will now be doing them at the boat. Water is free and she can get them done much faster(though lots more work) than to use their machines.
Last night, we had a get together at the club house. A local family brings in a dinner for all the cruisers and for $175 pesos(About $4.00 US) we had a great dinner. Afterwards, we had game night with everyone set up in teams. We did well coming in third out of five teams. We only had three on our team while the winning team had 6, so we did well all in all.
And that's about it. I'm trying to add a picture of the marina.