Uh Oh - it's been 10 months since updating blogsite!! The good news is that we are still alive, with facebook being our more regular forum for updating for posting lifestyle updates. I'll just make this a short post as the dodgy internet connection often lets us down & we lose long postings.
All is well, we are still at Samal Island, near Davao, Mindanao, Southern Philippines. Since our previous post, we flew back to Australia for a couple of months in June & July last year. Returned here in August for the Kadyawan Festival - a very colourful exposition celebrating the tribes of the Davao region. We then sailed down to Talaud & Morotai as part of the Sail Morotai / Sail Indonesia yacht rally, & returned here to sort out a serious problem with our engine mounts in October.
We have stayed longer than we intended, mainly because it is very comfortable here & we have taken the opportunity to do a lot of small jobs on the boat.
Our intention was to sail to Sabah (top of Borneo) at about this time, then return to the central Philippines when the wind changed to the South West monsoon. However there is unrest between a sultan in the Sulu area of Philippines & Sabah, with hundreds of people from a private army invading the area. Yachts are reportedly not allowed to leave Kudat, & travel advisories exist, so we are passing on that for now. Instead we have bought a motorbike, 150cc Suzuki Mola, & intend to do some travel throughout the Philippines on that. Will call it a day for now & hope this posts. Sorry for the big gap in reports, will try to do better & add photos as well soon.