Thurdsay 12th May 2016 - feeling better - Palau - toilet all ready and waiting for use - Pete's turn to be exhausted

Thursday 12^th May 2016

AM

A nice big icy margarita, a lot of sleep, a calm anchorage, a long swim – I am restored!

The menu at the yacht club is OK, but gives me a sinking feeling about Palauan cuisine…

SPAM AGAIN!! 

But I do love the no-smoking signs…

The dogs here also make me happy.  I couldn’t even look at the local dogs on Samal Island.  The pets belonging to wealthier people are fluffy and cute but…most of the dogs are mangy horrors, limping and pathetic.  Not savage, like the scary dogs in Aboriginal communities, but pitiful. 

Here the dogs are tall and glossy, friendly and confident.  Joy!

Pete came for a swim with me yesterday.  We swam for about two hours, which is good, because it took him about half an hour to get kitted out… Stinger suit, with hood, gloves, boots, socks and then snorkel, mask, flippers…It takes me about thirty seconds to get ready – bikini, thin and slightly ragged black singlet, mask, flippers – INTO the water!

We went to Carp restaurant for dinner, about five minutes walk from the yacht club.  Highly recommended on Trip Advisor, and now highly recommended by 2XS!  The chef loved Pete.  She is Japanese and we had the most delicious gyoza (dumplings) and a spicy beef dish.  All this food made us very happy!

Today I will swim and struggle with the internet.  Pete will spend the day disassembling the toilet to find out why the pump isn’t working.  Again…It stopped working when we left Ocean View, thus adding to my miseries – using a bucket for toilet needs in a tossing heaving sea is NOT fun.  And now we are here, in this pristine bay, well…wees are OK I think but poos…we have to hop into the dinghy and row in to shore to use the yacht club facilities.  I had a lovely trip this morning at 5am.  Daybreak, smooth clear water, nobody around.  Lovely!  But possibly not a sustainable way to meet one’s toilet needs in the long term…

PM

It took Pete five long hot weary hours…and now we have a flushing macerating toilet again!  He is very weary.  (So am I; I did try to help, emptying buckets, handing over screwdrivers etc.  And I did a valiant stint in the water pushing bits of bendy wire up the pipes trying to dislodge whatever ghastly thing was blocking the system.)