3-5 May - Pujada Bay - Monserat - Ocean View Marina (YES a real marina!!)

Sunday 3^rd May 2015

The water is a most glorious deep blue

6 degrees 49.477N

126 degrees 17.144E

Pujada Bay

Mindanao

11.2 metres

We left am, with the nearly full moon shining brightly until 4.30, when it gently sank under the horizon, not to be seen again till tonight.  But at 5.30 the sun rose, so we didn’t have to blunder along in the dark for very long.

So far what we have seen of Mindanao is that it a very VERY big island, and very beautiful, lush and green, and very sparsely populated, along the east coast.  Once we got away from the mining sites, it has been just gorgeous.  But so far we have not set foot on land so who knows what it is really like.  And I have just  checked - the population of Mindanao is…nearly 25 MILLION!!!  

Beautiful Mindanao

It was a very pleasant trip.  I think we travelled over 70 nautical miles again.  We passed hundreds of little fishing boats.  Everybody waves and smiles; nobody looks cross at being invaded by a big catamaran zipping along their shipping areas.  Most of them in this region wear coolie hats as well as balaclavas, to protect them from the fierce sun.  I was charmed to see that many of the hats have been painted to match the bright, jaunty boats…

But the highlight of the day was – two very big pods of dolphins speeding along in the opposite direction – heading north!  About twenty of them peeled off to have a quick splishy splash in the bow wave and then – they were gone!

Monday 4^th May

06 degrees 35.812N

126 degrees 05.341E

Monserat, Borot Cove, Gulf of Davao

Mindanao

17.7m

Not SUCH an early start…we didn’t leave until 5.30am.  Once again we anchored at 4.30pm, in a little cove in the huge Gulf of Davao.  Yesterday was a bit more delightful…it was still light, and there was a very beautiful little reef only a hundred or so metres from the boat.

I went for a snorkel and signalled to Pete that there was no point in him getting into the water – only sea grass, no coral.  But then I swam parallel to the shore and it became more and more lovely.  There were clumps of coral amongst the sea grass - it looked as if some creative children had decided to make a coral garden in a soft green lawn.  I admired all of this for another hundred metres or so, and then the reef changed.  There were large bommies, lots of different coral, many glorious little fish.  I had to go back to the boat to tell Pete I had seriously misled him and that there was still time before the sun set for him to admire the beauty.

Today we are anchored near some road works in a little town and it is raining.  Rain is always welcome, of course, and Pete is busily constructing ways of catching as much as possible.  At the moment he is rigging up a hose to be connected to the dinghy bunghole so that we can use all of the water which would otherwise just go to waste – oh the joy of showers and laundry.  But I do miss our lovely reef in Pujada Bay…

Later…

Well our afternoon did not involve beautiful fishies and coral gardens but…it did involve beautiful people!

Jemima and Randy

Within half an hour of anchoring, we had visitors…

Jemima and her big brother Randy, from Monserat (pop. 900), beaming with joy and very happy to be invited on board.  Jemima (20) spoke English extremely well.  She was able to tell us, for example, that dolphins are a “protected species” in the Philippines – we had wondered, and hoped…Jemima and Randy’s family (pop. 10) are the only Jehovah’s Witnesses in town.  They hadn’t come out to visit 2XS in the spirit of conversion; they were just full of love, and curiosity.

A few craft wobbled past, with boys aboard, all wanting to stare at the unusual sight of a catamaran in the harbour. 

The men on the big fishing boat nearby were enthralled.  They had just arrived at their mooring, a few minutes after we had anchored, and they spread out comfortably on their boat to watch what was happening on 2XS.  (G & T for Pete and me; coke for Randy and Jemima; biscuits for the floating-by boys.)

Tuesday 5^th May

07 degrees 11.862N

125 degrees 42.675E

Ocean View Marina

Samal Island (Davao)

Mindanao

But today – oh joy upon joy!  We have found a berth in a marina.  A PROPER marina, with floating pontoons, power, water… This is our first marina since Kudat (Borneo) where we spent quite a lot of time last year.  But Kudat was very broken and wobbly; this is glorious!  I am so happy I think I will cry…for the first time for many many months we can step off the boat onto solid ground…

Well, onto solid pontoon, at least!

It is all very lovely but…there isn’t any sort of café, bar, restaurant.  Not quite sure what we will eat.  It is getting very hard to prepare a meal, with no onions…onions seem to be a basic need, for any sort of cooking, don’t they?