At the end of my last blog I said that we were going to anchor in the Tuba River, however we came across a beautiful tropical island and Mike and Dave decided that it would be a nice place to stop and spend the night. We had a lovely afternoon there but the night ended up being a wee bit roly. The next morning we got away early and once we had rounded the island the wind hit us and we were battling 30kt North Easterlies and it was not nice at all. Anna was seasick so instead of our destination being Brooks Point we headed for San Antonio Bay, which was a bit of a mission getting in the Bay through all the reefs but once in there it was a nice calm anchorage. The next days trip to Brooks Point was worse with 30kt NE and we had to do 31 miles to go 16 miles and Anna was sick once again, but we finally anchored in Brooks Point mid afternoon behind a sea wall and although sheltered was not flat calm. With the weather like it was we decided to stay put there for a couple of days but going for a walk in the town the next day Anna saw that there were buses etc. to Puerto Princessa so that afternoon they jumped ship and found accommodation in the town for a couple of days and then on the Sunday (13th March) they caught a bus to Puerto Princessa. While there I received a phone call from Cameron on Saturday afternoon to advise us about the Japan earthquake as he was concerned as to how a tsunami was going to affect us. However as we were on the western side of the Philippines we had no affect from it at all - was more the East Coast bordering the Pacific Ocean that was the concern. During the couple of days at Brooks Point we took particular notice of what the wind was doing and found that by about 7pm each night the wind died, the seas flattened out a little and then the wind was up again by 9-10am. So on Saturday 12th, Dave and I had a couple of hours sleep and then got up and left at 11.30pm. Ended up being a lot pleasanter sail and we only struck the 25kt plus NE for a couple of hours before we anchored at our destination of Rasa Island - 56miles further on at 11.30 the next morning. Had a couple of hours sleep, a swim and a bit of a relax. Rasa Island was a beautiful calm anchorage but Dave in all his wisdom decided that we would leave just after 7pm and head for Puerto Princessa. Well we got out there and it was fair blowing, big seas, wind on the nose and then at 9.30pm the autohelm died. The decision was made to turn back and head back to Rasa Island as Dave did not fancy hand steering in those winds all night with having very little sleep the night before. We had a fantastic sail back to our anchorage and reanchored there at 11pm and had a good nights sleep. Dave spent all the next day fixing the autohelm; we had a few hours sleep and then up anchored at 12.45am and headed for Puerto Princessa. We had to tack out from Rasa Island for a few miles but then we were able to lay the course straight to the Puerto Princessa Harbour entrance. Had drizzly rain virtually the whole trip and at one point had a thunderstorm but overall was a pretty good trip and did the 48 miles in 10hrs. Before arriving at the anchorage out in front of the Abanico Yacht Club at PP (Puerto Princessa) we hit the bottom in a shallow spot so friend Graeme on Katani 11 came out in his dinghy and lead us in. We had been in there before and were following weigh points in but a wind and rain storm pushed us off the line, consequently hitting the bottom, went from 13m to nothing in a flash. However no damage and we were able to back off eventually. Once anchored we had brunch and then had a couple of hours sleep. Graeme and Lorraine had kindly invited us over for dinner that night so was good to catch up with them as we had not seen them since August last year, along with Jan & Geoff on Arnak who were also in PP. Viajero, Destiny 111 and Dancing on Water were also friends in PP - the latter two having ventured up north but returned because of the weather. We ended up spending two weeks in PP due to the weather conditions out in the Sulu Sea and jobs that needed to be done on Pied A Mer - mainly the water maker. Dave thought that as we were not getting enough pressure to feed the Clark pump we would buy a 240v pump which we did, but on finding 60 cycles was no good he blew the capacitor so then had to go and get a new one put in and the pump rewound to 50 cycles. Got the pump back last Friday only to find that the pressure only got up to 50 PSI and we need 80 -90 PSI. To cut a long story short, as we had a couple of spare 12 volt pumps he has coupled two of them up with one lifting the water and the second one pushing the water through to the Clark pump and hey presto we are now making 50 litres an hour - the water maker has never produced that in all the time we have had the boat! We had quite a social time in PP catching up with everyone and every Sunday the yacht club puts on a luncheon which is a wonderful spread, with three courses to boot. The first Sunday we were there the Yacht Club decided to make it an evening meal but this Sunday gone was back to the normal luncheon. We met up with Anna and Mike two days after we arrived in PP and did our immigration etc. as they were illegal immigrants and needed to check in with us as crew. They were off to El Nido the next day for a week or so and arrived back on Friday so they came out to the Yacht Club late Saturday afternoon to join us on the boat for dinner. They flew to Manila on Sunday and were then flying on to Singapore on Monday for five days before going on to Bali where Anna has a cousin living. They were regretting that they had been a bit hasty in their decision making and were later wishing they could have had more time in the Philippines. However as they are going to be doing a 2 year stint around SE Asia they may consider coming back. Last Tuesday, Jan from Arnak and I had a ladies afternoon in the city and decided to have our hair cut and blow waved with a foot spa and pedicure - luxury and all for $NZ10. Next morning I woke with a dreadful sore throat, which by Thursday got progressively worse and ended up with the flue and Friday I was definitely a right off!! Gradually starting to improve on Saturday but even now 10 days later I am still full up with cold and a cough. On Monday we got a tricycle into town to Immigration as we needed to extend our Visas, when entering the Philippines - you only get 3 weeks so we needed to get another 38 days which cost us 3030 pesos (NZ100) each. Also did a bit of a stock up on the boat. Arnak, Katani 11 and Destiny 111 all left early Monday morning, heading south, the latter making their way back to Australia, the other two down to Kota Kinabalu. They were all having a good sail with the NE winds. We headed out of PP on Tuesday morning and had to head east before we could lay Honda Bay where we spent Tuesday night anchored at Arreciffe Island. We had to contend with 20 odd knots of wind and 3 m seas which was quite uncomfortable going Eastwards but once able to change tack had a more comfortable ride and we were even able to turn off the motor for awhile and we dropped anchor at 11am so had a bit of a relaxing afternoon and enjoyed a swim. Tuesday we were away just after 6am to head up to North Verde Island, a distance of 24 miles but it turned into a real battle with 30kt winds and involved a bit of tacking and then the autohelm gave out. We went in behind Sth Verde Island but found it wasn't that sheltered so had a quick late lunch and Dave fixed a corroded wire on the water maker and then we up anchored and followed Arnak's track into behind Nth Verde Island where we had a beautiful calm anchorage. Big excitement when we got a fish on the line (the first in over a year) only to have it flick itself off the hook just as Dave was going to land it - what a disappointment! Was looking forward to fresh fish for dinner. Yesterday morning the wind had dropped and we thought we would follow Arnak's tracks and do a short trip of 17 miles but found with the wind on the nose and so many reefs around we would give it a miss and do an overnight passage to an island 50 odd miles further north. For most of the day we had good sailing, all be it on the nose and lots of tacking and usually at night the wind drops but last night it just got up higher and higher and so most of the night we had 30-35kts on the nose with 4-5 metre waves, certainly had lots of green ones over the deck, and we had to do lots of long tacks to get anywhere. In fact we did 110 miles to gain 48 miles north. We sailed most of the way and the wind generator kept the power supply right up which was amazing as normally at night we have to run the motor to charge the batteries. Never saw another boat in sight the whole night. However, Pied A Mer did us proud as she handles the big seas amazingly well. We finally made it to an island south of where we were going and found shelter in an inlet on Dumaran Island, 20 odd miles south of our destination and dropped anchor at 10.15 this morning. Neither of us had had any sleep so we had brunch and high tailed it off to bed. During the night Dave was getting himself a cup out of the cupboard when a big wave hit us and he was thrown on to the steps and now has either cracked or broken ribs again, the same side as the ones he did at Kudat before we went to China. He reckons he has had more injuries sailing than he ever did in all the years he played rugby. He seems to forget that he is 30-40 years older than he was in his rugby playing days!! The cruising lifestyle is not all beer and skittles! Definition of cruising is fixing boats in exotic places. Anna certainly would never have coped with the conditions we are having, although all the locals say these weather conditions are not normal and we should be in the SW monsoon season now.