We walked the 4km to Concepcion Town along a dusty old road. We visited the Pier House and were shown all their lovely rooms. They had a lot of furniture made out of lacquered drift wood and bits of trees etc - very effective. Even the 'fish' behind the bar was driftwood and the art was done by the Swedish owner's father. We then had lunch at a local restaurant and the vegetable curry was one of the best meals so far. We saw a waterfall and then walked back. Along the way we saw some tiny piglets which were just a few days old. We had a drink at the bar (to pay for the mooring!) then sundowners on Braveheart.
Sunday 11 March - Puerto Del Sol - Coron town
11°59.780N / 120°11.776E
We dropped the mooring at 8.15 and headed past lots of islands - its almost like being in fjiords - past heaps of pearl farms and then up the channel to Coron Town. Some of the islands we passed we will come back to but for now we need some supplies and money - the first ATM we have come to in the Philippines! Anchored at 1.20 - at least we anchored four times but that is another story!! Explored the town which is a reasonable size but there is no supermarket and it is more expensive than El Nido. They just have sari sari stores some of which you have to stand at the counter and tell them what you want. Went out to dinner at the mermaid restaurant on the water which belongs to Mike's (Puerto del Sol) daughter. A really nice meal. Cilantro found themselves too close to some bangkas so they reanchored in the dark.
Miles: 18 TTT: 1104
Tuesday 13 March - Coron Town
Went to the market, got the diesel and had haircuts - $3.25 and they are great haircuts. Met Gunther and Maria off Mana Mana and had dinner with them. At the top of the hill in Coron is a big cross which is lit at night and looks really good. On a smaller hill Coron is spelt out like hollywood!!
Wednesday 14 March - Coron Town
Happy Birthday Brian
Spent some time shopping then had lunch at the Coron Bistro where we met a lovely Canadian lady and another bloke who had been at Concepcion Town when we had been there who told us they have guards on islands as it is easy for people to go ashore and claim and register the land then it takes years in the courts and the locals don't have the money to fight it - don't know if thats true but there certainly seems to be something going on with the land up here. Cilantro moved around the corner out of the wind. We had a black and white banded sea snake sunning itself on the back transom -a most unwelcome visitor!!
Thursday 15 March - Coron Town - Puerto Del Sol
About 8am our anchor dragged and we were going out backwards at a great rate of knots so upanchored in the wind and went around the corner to put Bob on board and then we all headed to Puerto del Sol in 25 - 30kn winds where we all picked up a mooring again.
Miles: 19 TTT: 1123
Friday 16 March - Puerto del Sol
Took the dinghies up the river late in the afternoon. Interesting trip and went as far as we could and there was a mob of workers up there had been cutting bamboo and were having their knock off drinks - they offered us some San Miguel gin! We declined. On the way back in the dark we hit a net which stopped us instantly. Bob's nose went down and we stopped!! The skipper had to cut the net off the prop. Felt pretty bad for the fisherman.
All the best
D&P
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
