sv evi

Well, I wasn’t properly mentally prepared for our passage to the Philippines. Perhaps because we had spent 4 months motoring around Indonesia — there was never any wind and the seas were almost always flat calm. Or because a friend had said getting to Davao, Mindanao from Raja Ampat was relatively straight-forward, involving 3 overnight sails and a few day sails. (We did it straight in 5 1/2 days). We put our cheetah tattoos on, as per tradition, but we didn’t take any seasickness medication. I had cooked a few meals ahead, but not as many as I normally do.

The passage started out mellow — motoring in calm seas.

Riki and Tomu celebrated their actual birthdays at sea.

On Day 5 of our passage, we hit 20-25 knots of wind right on the nose. Also rain all day, and lumpy seas. We were pounding into the waves and burying the bow regularly. Tomu woke up at 3 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Jade was up on and off from 3 am. Riki struggled with the Italian espresso maker in the rolly seas and lost — spilling hot coffee on himself and the floor. We weren’t scared, just tired, and wanting to get there. Riki and I were both sleep-deprived and irritable.

We had discussed trying to enter the Gulf of Davao in the daylight because of the many unlit fishing buoys, fishing boats, and cargo ship traffic. However, we got to the Gulf at 10 pm — we wanted to get out of the weather into hopefully more protected water. Riki took a shift from 10 pm until 8:30 am — he said he would rather be awake than have me wake him up, scared about hitting a ship. That was fine with me, but I didn’t sleep well either as I was worried. He basically played Frogger with about 200 fishing boats.

The wind died down in the morning, so we thought we could make it to Holiday Oceanview Marina by 3 pm or so. We knew we had to make it before 5 pm, as the workers leave at 5 pm, and there are 2 sea gates they need to open for you. Riki was napping during this calm time. Then the wind picked up again to 15-20 knots, right on the nose, so we had to tack back and forth. Also we had current against us. We ran the engine hard the last 3 hours and made it just at 5 pm. Whew! It was stressful coming in to the marina because they hadn’t told us which side we would tie to, so we had to prepare lines and fenders on both sides. Also, it was blowing 18 knots and they didn’t open the gate until the last second so we weren’t sure where to go.

Riki did a great job docking, and the Quarantine officials got on board at 5:10 pm. They checked us for fever and looked in our throats, issued us our Free Pratique paperwork, then told us it would be $150 USD! We looked at each other, shocked at the fee. One guy asked, how do you feel about that? I said, err, it seems strange that the fee is in USD instead of Philippine pesos when the Office of Quarantine is a Philippine government agency. What happens to boats from France, do they also pay $150 USD? They said the fee was for overtime (10 minutes after 5 pm), travel expenses, and food allowance. Riki responded that we didn’t have the money, and they said we could sort it out with Dina, the marina manager. When I told her about the charge, she replied, oh no! it’s too high! She texted them and told me the following day that they said I could pay whatever I chose to pay.

Wednesday, January 29th was Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year. It is a national holiday in the Philippines, so the immigration office was closed. However, the customs officers came to the boat.

The kids and I took a baobao for 15 minutes to the nearby town of Babak.

We went shopping in the market and bought donuts for 5 pesos each. I think the current exchange rate is 58 pesos to one US dollar.

In town 3 people asked me for money–one woman was repeatedly touching my elbow as I got my change. No one ever asked me for money in Indonesia.

I bought ready-made pork lumpia in the supermarket and fried them for dinner, along with steamed egg and vermicelli rice noodles. It wasn’t a proper Chinese New Year feast, but it was the best I could do on Day 1 in a new country.

The kids each got 1,000 pesos from us for licee. Tomu was doing some math and figured out that he could buy 200 donuts with his 1,000 pesos. The kids started cracking up as they imagined walking into the bakery and buying 600 donuts.

Thursday we took a baobao to Babak, then a ferry ride to Davao, then a taxi to the immigration office on the second floor of a mall. At the ferry we saw military personnel in camouflage with rifles. Jade was scared, and wondered why they were there. Our cab driver in Davao gave me my first lesson in the local language: Bisaya. The kids spent their licee on glow in the dark slime kits and the arcade in the mall. Almost everyone here speaks enough English to communicate with us in English. Riki is loving being able to communicate with people.

Yesterday I met Ernesto, his wife Mylize, and their kids Kia, Klio, and Kiara in the marina. I said good afternoon in Bisaya, and they responded with big smiles. Mylize promptly invited us over for dinner for Kiara’s 7th birthday. I invited them to come have a look at evi, and they came on board and took some selfies. Later that evening, it was raining buckets, but the kids were keen to go to Kiara’s birthday party. So I rallied, and called Mylize. Ernesto came to get us in his flatbed truck about 30 minutes later. The kids all rode in the back on chairs, holding on to the side. We arrived at their home and were treated like royalty. We brought cookies for the family and a birthday present for Kiara. One woman, Marilyn, wanted to take so many photos while hugging the girls. They obliged, and she told me they were bo-otan, or kind. She joked that they were her granddaughters, and wondered if their hair was dyed. The rest of the evening I called her Lola (grandma) and she taught me Bisaya(Visaya). As she drove away on the back of a motorcycle, she called out “I love you!” and then the translation in Bisaya (which I forgot). Talk about big-hearted!! Mylize sent me home with a bunch of pancit (like a noodle stirfry) for Riki, since he couldn’t come. Both Amor and Lola (pictured below) asked me if I was born-again. I said no. Then what religion are you? uhhh….no religion.

Wow, what an incredible show of generosity! I went home feeling warm and fuzzy. We weren’t invited to any homes during our time in Indonesia. We have only been in the Philippines 5 days!

Now we are settling into life in the marina, and doing lots of fixing and cleaning. We want to haul out as soon as possible, but have been told we have to wait for the Coast Guard boat to haul out first. So…we are waiting. We will get back to our home schooling routine tomorrow.