27th April - Port Carmen to Cebu City - Mactan Island - yacht club - carnival

Monday 27^th April 2015

10 degrees 19.383N

123 degrees 58.672E

Next to Cebu Yacht Club

Mactan Island, Cebu City

Depth 4.1m

No #1 bridge from Cebu City to Mactan Island - with the solar panel gap visible

Yes!  After a whole week near the drydock between Danao and Port Carmen we finally lifted the anchor and cruised gently down the coast of Cebu Island.

Our first attempt at finding an anchorage was slightly fraught… There were people walking across the narrow channel leading to the waypoint I had marked on my navionics chart…at high tide.  Presumably at low tide it is a causeway!  So we gave that a miss and cautiously made our way towards the big bridges spanning across from Cebu City to Mactan Island.  We tried to get into the very nice little marina at the Yacht Club but – no room at the inn. We are now anchored right next to the yacht club, very close to a row of stilt houses.

Near to the boat is a large paddock full of rubble and goats.  I have a sinking feeling that there are whole families living on this site, in tiny tents constructed from old rice sacks.  There is a lot of poverty here…

That is why everyone said BEWARE of thieves in Cebu City.  But so far…all we have seen is cheerful, smiling faces.  Not that we actually expect to set eyes on sneaky thieves…surely they can just slither out to 2XS and creep onboard while we are gently snoozing down below.  But…they haven’t!

Pete was filled with joy when we went in to shore.  Just next to the yacht club is a large chandlery.

He spent a very happy hour in there, and emerged with two new stainless steel bolts and a new bung for the dinghy (the current one is a wine cork…)

The solar panels are all in place on the splendid new tilting frame.  But…there is a gap!  Today’s challenge is to find a new panel to fill this gap.  The last panel Pete bought was the perfect size and configuration.  He found it in the main street on Culion Island…the old leper colony, where there is hardly anything to buy at all.  And now we are struggling away with the search, in the second biggest city in the Philippines, with no luck yet.

It doesn’t help that today is a public holiday…(There are LOTS of public holidays in the Philippines.) 

Yesterday after our happytime in the chandlery we decided to go into town in search of some different bolts, and the elusive solar panel.  We were directed to the main road, where we could catch a mini-jeepney into town.

It wasn’t as easy as it might have been…Apparently the main road was closed off, for CARNIVAL.  We squeezed into a jeepney, along with about thirty people, and off we went.  It was OK because there are no windows – the air can flow freely. 

We had to walk a  few blocks to find the HomeBuidlers Depot – Pete’s Mecca – and when we got there…

it was closed.

The whole road was closed, for several kilometres. 

CARNIVAL!

We walked alongside one of the dancing troupes for a kilometer or so, then they merged into the melee.  The carnival proper probably didn’t start for quite a few hours but it was all GO in the street.  Sound stages, food stalls, people finding good positions from which to watch, paraders having finishing touches to their costumes .  All very cheery.

In normal times we would, of course, have stayed for the spectacle, but we really didn’t want to leave 2XS alone in the dark.  So we walked, and walked, and walked to the end of the closed off highway.  Large complaint coming up…it nearly killed me!  Both of my feet are extremely painful.  I am not going to be so unkind as to take a photo of my wounds; suffice it to say there is one big sore on the top of my right food, and an equally large one on my left ankle, and…they are ghastly!  I am doing all I can to prevent infection, blood poisoning, ulceration, and I am sure I am winning the battle.  Bloody tropics!  Both of them started off as very minor scratches – I get itchy feet, literally, and I think maybe I scratched them with a bit too much enthusiasm.  So now I limp and I hobble and I complain. 

I am no going into town with Pete this morning, much as I would love to have another jeepney trip, and anther chance to have a look at this large, noisy city.  I am going to lie on the couch with my book, and dab hydrogen peroxide on my wounds.  Oh the fun!