Had not realised it was so long since I had updated our blog, I seem to have to be in the right mood to get in and do it! I think I am a lot slacker at it than I used to be because I talk to the family and some of our friends on skype more regularly.

From Inlulutoc Bay we headed up to the El Nido area and did a little tour up the Endeavour Strait where there were a couple of big and interesting looking villages and we later regretted that we had not stopped and visited the villages as Arnak and Koru did and found them most interesting. We spent the night anchored under Barron Hill, Port Cataaba. Next morning we motored around into Bacuit Bay to Lagan Island where we joined up with Sowelu, Marida and Vulcan for a late lunch barbecue on the beach. However, before lunch we dinghied over to Pintail Island with Icicle & Kelaerin to have a look at a huge cave in the island which is called Cathedral Cave and it was certainly like a cathedral with an opening at the top. The acoustics were amazing. Lagan Island was a beautiful spot with lovely clear water and some quite good snorkeling. The whole area is beautiful with karsts (large rock islands) popping out of the water everywhere.

All the other 5 boats headed off into Corongcorong the next morning but we went and visited a village on the mainland called Bebeledan which had a population of about 800 and one of the locals who spoke a bit of English took us to visit the local school. There were 6 classrooms with 40 pupils in each one and we visited every classroom and spoke to the teachers as well as took photos of each class. From shore most of the villages don't look very big but behind is a maze of streets, houses etc. All the villages we have visited have a concrete road behind the shore front row. After our village visit we headed into Corongcorong which is the best anchorage for El Nido in the NE monsoon.

We spent six days at Corongcorong and the township of El Nido was a 15 minute walk away. El Nido is a quaint town with a Spanish flavour and most of the tourists that were there were back packers. It is a 6 hr trip by bus from Puerto Princesa over a very rough road and to fly in is very expensive so you don't see a lot of middle aged tourists. We had some nice meals ashore and on 12th February we went to a local restaurant for a late lunch to celebrate Roger, on Sowelu's 60th birthday along with Marida, Icicle, Kelaerin, Vulcan, Koru and Arnak and a Texan guy who has a Philippino wife (Alan & Nelma) and has built a house at Corongcorong. Alan & Nelma invited us back to their place to have a look and what an idyllic spot and Nelma has been very artistic in the garden and in the house which is basically two apartments which they can also let out. El Nido only has power from 5pm -1am so when one wants water you have to pump by hand. Some of the restaurants do have their own generators. One day we went out to one of the islands with Icicle on Kelaerin with the intention of snorkeling and Jim and Dave having a dive but we could see all what we wanted to see snorkeling. The supposedly good dive spots require anchoring in very deep water which is a bit risky for us yachties.

We finally left Coroncorong on 15th February with Kelaerin and motored with the wind on the nose the whole 41 miles to North West Bay on Linapacan Island. Joy, Dave and I dinghied ashore and visited the local village and it seemed that everyone came out of the wood work to look at us. A local guy cottoned on to us to show us around and at first we thought he was drunk but then we realised that he was actually intellectually handicapped. His English was virtually nonexistent but he kept telling and asking Dave things and all Dave could reply was “I don't understand”. His reply, “No problem”. It certainly created quite a bit of mirth amongst the local village people!

The next day we motored another 21 miles to a sheltered anchorage at the bottom of Culion Island for the night and the next morning had a rough trip for a couple of hours until we got into the shelter of some islands and then it was lovely and calm even though we were motoring and arrived at Port Culion.

Port Culion was a Leper colony so has quite a history attached to it so we visited the museum there and to get to the museum one has to go through the hospital and pay a fee of 250 pesos each there, which is a donation to the hospital. The last case of leprosy was in 2003. The lepers had quite a community there and set up all the normal types of business etc. but the town was divided into two sections - lepers and non lepers and neither was to go into the other's section. A lot of leper research was done in Culion. Joy and I had a big long snorkel along the reef there. Even though they had houses built over the water on what we term as sticks the water was still beautifully clean and clear. Malaysia and Indonesia could learn a lot from the Philippines as far as clean waterways and rubbish goes. There are big fines here for littering.

While in Port Culion we did some repairs to the genoa furler and also to the propeller on the dinghy's motor - a temporary fix but need to get a new propeller if we can in Kota Kinabalu, otherwise can wait until we go home in May.

Went to up anchor in Port Culion on the morning of 19th Feb to do the 13 mile trip across to Coron and the up anchor switch had died. Dave shorted it to get the anchor up so we could still head off (will fix it later). Set the water maker going and after an hour or so when I moved on deck I could hear water rushing, went down below to find a hose on the water maker had burst and the water in the aft head was just about up to the door opening ledge to the galley. The bilges were full. While travelling along I bucketed water out of the aft head to speed the job up as the bilge pump in there is for the shower and only does 3.6 litres per minute so was going to take a few hours to get rid of all the water!! Once in Coron Dave attacked the anchor switch and as usual the wire had corroded. With all the technology that is available today you would think that the manufacturers would have cottoned on to the fact that in the marine environment wiring should all be tinned wire not bare copper wire. The anchor switches were new in 2007. We had had a T junction fitting made in Miri for the water maker as were going to have two pumps to double the water capacity but found that system was not going to work for us and it was that fitting that had caused the pipe to burst so Dave has now removed it and gone back to the original set up. We also did some repairs to the main sail while in Coron.

Non sailors probably wonder what we do all day when at an anchorage but there are always little jobs to do to maintain and fix things as the marine environment is hard on everything and a yacht certainly requires more maintenance than a house!!!.

We had three nights in Corong which is a very busy little town and one afternoon Kelaerin & us went in our dinghies for a ticky tour around the bay and Joy and I had a snorkel on a reef. A NZ motor sailer (Vohangy) whom we first met in Sebana Cove in October 2007 was boarded one night by a local and had cell phone, wallet etc. stolen plus a whole lot of meat out of their freezer. The guy dived off the boat before they could stop him and obviously there was a boat waiting for him. They had been in Coron for 2 weeks and had become complacent. We have an alarm in our cockpit which we set every night. We bought it after the Englishman on Mr. Bean was killed in Thailand.

On Sunday night we had a farewell dinner for us at a local restaurant in Coron and had a beautiful meal along with Sowelu, Marida, Vulcan, Kelaerin, Icicle, Arnak & Koru. All but Kelaerin, who are carrying on to Hong Kong, are eventually heading back to Borneo.

We left Coron just before 8am on Monday and were originally planning to do a 35 miler and spend the night at an island but 4 hours later the wind picked up and for the next 9 hours we had beautiful sailing conditions so decided to carry on and do an over nighter. However the wind died at about 9pm and we ended up motor sailing right through until yesterday afternoon when we dropped anchor off North Verde Island. I was woken during the night by a crash and a curse from Dave in the cockpit and he had slipped on a genoa sheet and fallen into the cockpit, put his hand out to stop himself but in the dark couldn't see where he had put it and all his weight went onto his fingers on his right hand. He said I have broken my fingers, but no, three of them were dislocated and were pointing in all funny directions. He then immediately pulled them all back into place which caused a lot of pain but got them all back. They are still swollen and painful when he bends them. He says, “Life's tough but he wouldn't swap it for the world.” I felt all faint and sick and dived back to bed in a hurry. No good me being a nurse!

This morning we left North Verde Island at 6.20 and motored for a couple of hours and then the wind came up and we are having a lovely sail with just the genoa and will arrive in Puerto Princessa this afternoon where we will spend two or three nights, do our clearance etc. and then head on down to Kota Kinabalu to be there by 3rd March to be joined by US friends Linda & Don Jenkins on the morning of 5th March for 3 weeks.