Friday 15th May 2015
Today is really
and actually our last day, for the moment, in Ocean View marina. We are leaving in the morning to head towards
Raja Ampat – this should take a week or so.
Maybe a week to Sangihe, our first stop in Indonesia, and then another
week to get to Raja Ampat in all its glory.
Yesterday was
extremely busy. We shopped ALL day with
only a very small break for a large jug of iced tea and a very delicious pizza
to share, in one of the shopping malls which were our abode for the day.
 |
| A five-minute pause for a quick mass in the shopping centre, over the loudspeakers!! |
I spent about $600
and the boat is now loaded with essential items – canned corn, tomatoes, tuna,
toilet paper, detergent, coffee, cheese, washing powder. Some items more delicious than others!
We went in the
Ocean View van with people from about eight other yachts, a long way, across
the river and many miles further, to a bulk shopping mall. (These bulk store trips happen about once a
month; they are very popular!) We had
four hours before the van came back and we created quite a spectacle outside
the main door, waiting for the van to return.
I had to use the panorama function on my camera to fit the trolleys in.
We won the Emma Peel award for the day. We haven’t ever encountered Emma Peel, a 40’ catamaran, which spends
a lot of time at Ocean View. They
staggered everyone on the shopping trips with the amount they bought. They weren’t sure how anybody managed to fit
in after the boxes had been unloaded.
But this boat set the benchmark and we were THE WINNERS! We had two enormous (double-wide) trolleys
full…
Everything was
jammed into the van and then four people squeezed themselves in. I was not in the least tempted to join the
squash; I was VERY happy to take a nice airconditoned taxi!
It took us a few
very hot hours to lug all of our boxes back to the boat in heavy little metal
trolleys. And then more hours to stow
everything away. But – satisfying!
We collapsed for
an hour or so, then got ourselves organised to go out to dinner. And a very posh dinner it was, on Chakira, a
very big catamaran (Australian) which has Ocean View as a home base.
Our host, Lee,
cooked a splendid three course meal (tomato soup (spicy), roast chicken,
cheesecake.) There were about ten of us,
very happily and hungrily seated around the large outdoor dining table.
We admired Lee’s
Master and Commander table
hand-crafted, with great
enthusiasm, by Jonathan, who runs a very successful business in the boat yard
here.
And we generally
had a very nice time. But…those of us
who had been shopping (Pete, me, Suzi and Dave) were drooping pathetically by
10pm and we just had to slope off down the pontoons to go straight to
sleep.
This morning I
woke up early and decided to get right into all of my projects. By 6am I had two loads of washing going in
the clubroom machines; by seven the washing was out and I had boiled 15 eggs
(to make curried eggs for tonight’s marina BBQ.) I was buzzing with activity and hoped to
relax a bit later in the morning.
But first I had to
pop into Babak to get some more eggs (to replace the 15 boiled ones..) and a
bit of fish to cook at the aforementioned BBQ.
I went in the van with Dondon, who picked up some beer from the
wholesale San Miguel place for Pete. He
said he would pick me p in twenty minutes, from the market meeting place. I bought my fish and eggs in record time and
then sat in the shelter, idly taking the odd photo.
making new
friends…
making new
friends… |
| Julius Montero trying to encourage me to buy some of this local "medicinal wine" |
getting a bit hot
and thirsty…
After two hours I
gave up and went back to Ocean View in a tricycle, very hot and crabby. Dondon was near the clubroom, with the van.
When I hopped out of the tricycle, I asked what had happened and he said I
wasn’t there so he went. APPARENTLY I
was waiting in the wrong place…but it was the same place where he picked me up
a few days ago so maybe I wasn’t too deluded in thinking that this was THE
meeting place near the market…
Never mind…I
helped Pete with a few jobs when I got back, and then I went for a swim. And very glad I am that I did my major jobs
this morning…
I am not sure how
far we will go tomorrow – probably just down the Gulf of Davao - or whether
there will be any internet connection.
Always interesting!
Your curried eggs ARE very nice! X
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