June 28, 2021, from the PhilippinesI haven't quite finished updating our adventures in 2019--I did a few long posts while we were in Lockdown in 2020, but waiting for catchup obviously isn't working, so I thought I'd at least let everyone know that we DID survive (at least so far) Covid-19 in the Philippines.
To recap our situation in early 2020... With the boat at Holiday Oceanview Marina, Samal Island (near Davao, Mindanao, Philippines) we had stayed in Florida until the end of January 2020.
December and January in Florida
2020 Started Out Right
With a Regatta at Melbourne Yacht Club
And Pick'n and Grin'n with some of our favorite folks at Melbourne Yacht Club
We enjoyed visiting with lots of people all over Florida, including Dave's cousin Bryan, kayaking with some of Dave's Naval Academy buddies, sailing with friends Don and Gwen (who also own a St. Francis 44), and visiting with former Keys friends Dave and Jo-Ann. Plus Dave spent a bunch of time talking about World War II issues with buddy Justin Taylan of PacificWrecks.com. Justin also helped us move a bedroom full of stuff into a storage unit.
So Much "Stuff"!
The Last Trip with the Van
By late January we were starting see the news from China that looked very bad. Contemplating our flight via LAX and Manila, on about Jan 28, I ordered a 100-pack of surgical masks from Amazon to be delivered to Dave's son in San Diego, which was on our route back to the Philippines. Prescient!
Purchased: 100 Count Surgical Masks, Jan 2020
We were scheduled to fly LAX to Manila, leaving LAX Feb 4 and arriving in the Philippines on Feb 6, and I was scared that we might have problems with this flight, as China is so close to the Philippines. All went well on the flight, but we kept masks on when in enclosed spaces. We flew straight through, LAX to Manila to Davao, with only a 4 hr layover in Manila--no problems. All of our (very heavy x4) luggage arrived with us. We were grateful that a friend with a pickup agreed to meet us at the airport and transport us and luggage across on the ferry to the island of Samal. As always, we were very happy to get back on board.
Our plans were to leave Samal Island "at the end of February" for Indonesia, and then work our way west to Singapore and the Malay peninsula during 2020. So we had a really busy month planned to get ready to go. Besides our 4 big suitcases full of stuff, we had also shipped 3 big boxes via sea freight, with lots of parts and materials for "projects", including a complete set of standing rigging wire and connectors, a mainsheet, and too many other things to list.
Approaching the Haulout Ramp
Blocked and Ready for Work
Well, we didn't make our "end of February" date--our 3 boxes didn't arrive with the new rigging wire until mid-March. On March 8, we hauled out for a couple of weeks to do bottom paint and some work on the saildrives. Since they were going to leave us on the haulout ramp, we got a short term condo booked at the resort next door, for March 8-22. We didn't check out of that condo until May 10, 2021!
The Lovely View from our Condo
Other than the haulout and the re-rigging, we were ready to leave. We were fully fueled and stocked to the gills for 6 months in Indonesia. We just needed to complete the haulout, a couple of days of work to replace the rigging wire, and we were ready for Indonesia. God laughed at our man-made plans.
The First Inkling That Our 2020 Plans would drastically change
While we were hauled out, on March 18, 2020, COVID measures started happening on Samal Island. This included restriction of movement, requirements for quarantine passes, and very limited trips to even the local market on the island, and severe restrictions on going in to the big city of Davao.
By the end of March, almost all SE Asia countries were "locked down" (not admitting new visitors). By the time we finished our haulout and our our re-rigging, it became obvious that continuing with our plan to move on to Indonesia was unwise and maybe impossible. There were already several cases in our cruising Facebook groups of cruisers that left one place while their next stop was "open" only to find out that country, and the country they left, both closed while they were enroute. We didn't want to get stuck somewhere--we had it pretty good in our little Oceanview Marina on Samal Island.
Waiting at the 7-11 for Shuttle Pickup
Checkpoints around Samal to Keep Unneccesary Travel down
Sale of Liquor was Banned on Samal Island for most of 2020!
The alcohol ban was the worst. We were fortunate that the new 7-11 store on Samal still permitted us to buy wine. We also hired some fishermen to go to a nearby town that wasn't under liquor lockdown and buy all the rum they could find. And we made rice wine in the pantry.
Signs at the Checkout Counter at the Grocery Store
Washing Money in Alcohol after Shopping
(I only did this once!)
The Filipinos in our small town don't have enough money to "stock up" on anything, so we never had a run on toilet paper. We were in good shape ourselves, because we were stocked for 6 months in Indonesia, so we never panicked about buying necessities.
So, with the lockdown, we decided to stick with the comfort of the condo (better A/C, Satellite TV, electric cooking, and more space). Dave could work on "projects" on the boat without having to work around me, and I could do sewing projects in the condo with a little more room to lay things out. We also felt it was safer (and nicer) for us to have a private bathroom rather than using the marina facilities. We were fortunate that our landlord was stuck in Davao and very happy to have her condo rented, even when the resort was completely closed for several months.
We did LOTS of useful work on the boat during 2020. I worked on a number of sewing projects, and Dave worked on all the boat mechanical, electrical, refrigeration, and interior stuff. With the marina closed to new guests (even those already within the Philippines), no new boats were coming in, so the marina workers were starting to run out of work to do. We all thought up new projects just to keep them working. One boat who had planned to go to Thailand for a major refit ended up staying and doing their refit at the marina, keeping a lot of the guys busy all year.
Our New Dinghy Chaps
Here are the things I accomplished in 2020:
- New Dinghy "chaps"
- New back curtain for shade across the back of the cockpit
- New side shades for the cockpit
- New windshield for the cockpit
- New screens for hatches
- New front and side window shades
- Learned how to program Arduino's (small micro computers) and Raspberry Pi's
- Tons of research and buying stuff online to support Dave's projects
- Bought and configured 2 new laptops
Dave's list is much much longer
- Moved engine exhausts to about 12" above the waterline
- Serviced both engine injection pumps and all injectors
- Upgraded the Freezer compressor from a BD-35 air cooled to a BD-50 Frigoboat keel cooled system
- Completely refurbished the freezer compartment and gasketing
- Anchor and chain re-galvanized
- Upgraded our anchor swivel to the new Mantus swivel
- All rigging wire, turnbuckles and end fittings replaced
- Added a bunch (50 shelves) of new shelving in various areas of the boat for more stuff
- Made burglar bars for the front inboard hatches
- Twice pulled and replaced seals and orings on the saildrives (chasing leaks)
- Liferaft serviced and repacked
- Installed 2 new bilge pumps
- Replaced our aging 600 Ah of Gel batteries with 540 Ah LiFePO4 (lithium) batteries
- Did some major rewiring and labeling of electrical system
Early on, to keep ourselves occupied, we had "learning night" in the marina clubhouse. Dave and I each gave several presentations on places we had cruised, and technical subjects. (see our Presentations page on the website--they are all there).
The Battery Project
When it became obvious in late May that things weren't going to get better for quite awhile, we started thinking it was a good time to upgrade our house battery bank to Lithium. The biggest problem in the Philippines is shipping stuff in--if you don't do it carefully, your "stuff" can get stuck in Customs and subject to 35-50% duty and day-by-day Customs holding charges. We got pretty good at shipping stuff in from the USA, but we wanted to buy these batteries direct in China, and we didn't know of a shipping mechanism that would work.
Our LiFePO4 Cells Have Finally Arrived!
Another friend in the marina found a way, via a friend in Hong Kong. So together we bought 24 3.3-volt 272 Ah LifePO4 cells from a reputable source in China. It took 2 1/2 months for the batteries to reach us from China. Then the fun started. It was a long long learning process for us--one that didn't complete until April 2021.
4 of our 8 Cells (note Bar Codes, etc)
The Battery Lab Where We Did Our Capacity Testing
It IS possible to just slam together a LifePO4 system without a lot of thought and effort, and it will likely work, but Dave is obsessed with "doing it right", both for safety reasons and longevity of the batteries. So he and I both spent hours reading (mostly online) and watching YouTube videos to understand why upgrading to LifePO4 batteries can be an involved process.
To see the results, check out our Electrical page on the website at http://svsoggypaws.com/electricalsystems.htm)
Originally we thought we would build a custom Battery Management System (BMS), using Arduino boards and custom programming, based on a project posted by someone else on Instructables.com. Our friend in the battery project is an Electrical Engineer, and he designed a custom circuit board with an Analog Devices BMS chip on it. He did the hardware design and I was in charge of adapting the Arduino programming to the new chip, adding in a NMEA2000 communications capability, and programming the additional protection circuit logic.
Me, Learning How to Program Arduionos
(I had a lot of fun doing this!)
Two Arduinos Communicating via CanBus
(and eventually NMEA2000)
A Simple Temperature Monitor, My First Project
We thought this would be a cinch project since we already had a hardware design and prototype software for a working system. But throw in a newer BMS chip, and several new protection circuits, board fabrication and sourcing parts from the Philippines, and things got kind of out of control, timewise. I got the prototype software working with a breadboard version of the BMS board, but the final "production" BMS boards were still not quite 100% by the time we left the marina in May 2021.
When it became obvious in about August that our custom BMS wasn't going to be ready for prime time according to our schedule, we bought a commercially available BMS (Electrodacus SBMS0), which took 2 months to make it to the Philippines, and another several months to get wired up appropriately with protection circuits, etc. But at least I wasn't responsible if there was a glitch in the software!
The Custom Compression Box Dave Built
Even now, after 6 weeks of actively cruising with the new battery bank, we are still learning. But we are glad we made the switch--adding more capacity at far less weight (300 lbs less) than our previous gel bank.
The Finished Enclosed Battery Box
See more details here: http://svsoggypaws.com/electricalsystems.htm
Staying Fit
We were fortunate to be locked down in the marina with another boat who were both Black Belts in karate. Mike and Liliane held some kind of workout session in the marina clubhouse 6 days a week--3 days a week for karate, plus 2 days of Jazzercisey strength and core exercise, and one day a week we took a long walk. After over a year of karate we 3 students ended up as Blue Belts. We normally did our workouts in the marina clubhouse, but occasionally we would vary the venue a little just for fun.
Working out in a Gorgeous Setting
We also had the resort pool completely to ourselves for months, as the resorts were closed due to lockdowns.
Dave couldn't be bothered to get up early enough for the morning workouts. He liked to do his workouts in the evening just before sunset... a half hour walk up and down the hill behind the marina, working out indoors in front of the TV, or an evening pool swim a couple times a week.
I ended up the lockdown period 10 lbs lighter and a lot stronger than I would have otherwise.
Social Life
The traditional very strong marina social life kind of fell apart during 2020. Sundays at Bahay Kubo, Wednesday night pizza, and Friday evening potluck, all eventually went by the wayside due to lockdowns, social distancing, and low numbers in the marina. Most Sundays, participation at Bahay Kubo was only 4 stalwart foodies (winos), as the restaurant was not officially open for most of the year due to COVID restrictions.
Looking Forward to Bahay Kubo on Sundays Kept Us Sane
For various reasons, we could never get more than 2-3 boats to participate in any "social event" that we dreamed up, including a BYO dinner poolside at the resort (when the resort was closed). Even when we managed to restart "pizza night" by having pizza delivered, only a few people stuck around to socialize on the balcony after the pizzas were delivered. I sure missed the pre-pandemic social life!
We were really grateful when Wind Hog held a very nice Christmas Party on their boat, and invited everyone in the marina. We all brought masks, but after the first round of drinks, they went into our pockets (we were all outside on deck and in the cockpit). Wonder why the mayor initiated the Liquor Ban that we hated so much?
The Wind Hog Christmas Party
US News and the 2020 Election
When not working on the boat, we enjoyed/suffered through catching up with US News by watching CNN on the TV, and NBC Nightly News on the computer. The spectacle of Trumpism flourishing in our country left us speechless at times, and often made us embarrased for our country.
Our President Making Official Announcements
And Leading Us Through This Crisis
We made sure our status as absentee voters in Florida was solid, and faxed in our absentee ballots during the early voting season. And we verified that our votes were received and counted. We are hoping that "voting reforms" will not disenfranchise us in the next election.
Online Check to Make Sure our Absentee Vote
was Received and Counted
Towards the end of 2020, Indonesia appeared to be opening up somewhat, and we hoped to be able to enact our 2020 plans in 2021. However, uncertainty over when we would actually complete our battery project caused us to miss that window. Indonesia closed the special cruising permit again in early January 2021.
To recap our situation in early 2020... With the boat at Holiday Oceanview Marina, Samal Island (near Davao, Mindanao, Philippines) we had stayed in Florida until the end of January 2020.
December and January in Florida
With a Regatta at Melbourne Yacht Club
We enjoyed visiting with lots of people all over Florida, including Dave's cousin Bryan, kayaking with some of Dave's Naval Academy buddies, sailing with friends Don and Gwen (who also own a St. Francis 44), and visiting with former Keys friends Dave and Jo-Ann. Plus Dave spent a bunch of time talking about World War II issues with buddy Justin Taylan of PacificWrecks.com. Justin also helped us move a bedroom full of stuff into a storage unit.
By late January we were starting see the news from China that looked very bad. Contemplating our flight via LAX and Manila, on about Jan 28, I ordered a 100-pack of surgical masks from Amazon to be delivered to Dave's son in San Diego, which was on our route back to the Philippines. Prescient!
We were scheduled to fly LAX to Manila, leaving LAX Feb 4 and arriving in the Philippines on Feb 6, and I was scared that we might have problems with this flight, as China is so close to the Philippines. All went well on the flight, but we kept masks on when in enclosed spaces. We flew straight through, LAX to Manila to Davao, with only a 4 hr layover in Manila--no problems. All of our (very heavy x4) luggage arrived with us. We were grateful that a friend with a pickup agreed to meet us at the airport and transport us and luggage across on the ferry to the island of Samal. As always, we were very happy to get back on board.
Our plans were to leave Samal Island "at the end of February" for Indonesia, and then work our way west to Singapore and the Malay peninsula during 2020. So we had a really busy month planned to get ready to go. Besides our 4 big suitcases full of stuff, we had also shipped 3 big boxes via sea freight, with lots of parts and materials for "projects", including a complete set of standing rigging wire and connectors, a mainsheet, and too many other things to list.
Well, we didn't make our "end of February" date--our 3 boxes didn't arrive with the new rigging wire until mid-March. On March 8, we hauled out for a couple of weeks to do bottom paint and some work on the saildrives. Since they were going to leave us on the haulout ramp, we got a short term condo booked at the resort next door, for March 8-22. We didn't check out of that condo until May 10, 2021!
Other than the haulout and the re-rigging, we were ready to leave. We were fully fueled and stocked to the gills for 6 months in Indonesia. We just needed to complete the haulout, a couple of days of work to replace the rigging wire, and we were ready for Indonesia. God laughed at our man-made plans.
While we were hauled out, on March 18, 2020, COVID measures started happening on Samal Island. This included restriction of movement, requirements for quarantine passes, and very limited trips to even the local market on the island, and severe restrictions on going in to the big city of Davao.
By the end of March, almost all SE Asia countries were "locked down" (not admitting new visitors). By the time we finished our haulout and our our re-rigging, it became obvious that continuing with our plan to move on to Indonesia was unwise and maybe impossible. There were already several cases in our cruising Facebook groups of cruisers that left one place while their next stop was "open" only to find out that country, and the country they left, both closed while they were enroute. We didn't want to get stuck somewhere--we had it pretty good in our little Oceanview Marina on Samal Island.
The alcohol ban was the worst. We were fortunate that the new 7-11 store on Samal still permitted us to buy wine. We also hired some fishermen to go to a nearby town that wasn't under liquor lockdown and buy all the rum they could find. And we made rice wine in the pantry.
(I only did this once!)
The Filipinos in our small town don't have enough money to "stock up" on anything, so we never had a run on toilet paper. We were in good shape ourselves, because we were stocked for 6 months in Indonesia, so we never panicked about buying necessities.
So, with the lockdown, we decided to stick with the comfort of the condo (better A/C, Satellite TV, electric cooking, and more space). Dave could work on "projects" on the boat without having to work around me, and I could do sewing projects in the condo with a little more room to lay things out. We also felt it was safer (and nicer) for us to have a private bathroom rather than using the marina facilities. We were fortunate that our landlord was stuck in Davao and very happy to have her condo rented, even when the resort was completely closed for several months.
We did LOTS of useful work on the boat during 2020. I worked on a number of sewing projects, and Dave worked on all the boat mechanical, electrical, refrigeration, and interior stuff. With the marina closed to new guests (even those already within the Philippines), no new boats were coming in, so the marina workers were starting to run out of work to do. We all thought up new projects just to keep them working. One boat who had planned to go to Thailand for a major refit ended up staying and doing their refit at the marina, keeping a lot of the guys busy all year.
Here are the things I accomplished in 2020:
- New Dinghy "chaps"
- New back curtain for shade across the back of the cockpit
- New side shades for the cockpit
- New windshield for the cockpit
- New screens for hatches
- New front and side window shades
- Learned how to program Arduino's (small micro computers) and Raspberry Pi's
- Tons of research and buying stuff online to support Dave's projects
- Bought and configured 2 new laptops
Dave's list is much much longer
- Moved engine exhausts to about 12" above the waterline
- Serviced both engine injection pumps and all injectors
- Upgraded the Freezer compressor from a BD-35 air cooled to a BD-50 Frigoboat keel cooled system
- Completely refurbished the freezer compartment and gasketing
- Anchor and chain re-galvanized
- Upgraded our anchor swivel to the new Mantus swivel
- All rigging wire, turnbuckles and end fittings replaced
- Added a bunch (50 shelves) of new shelving in various areas of the boat for more stuff
- Made burglar bars for the front inboard hatches
- Twice pulled and replaced seals and orings on the saildrives (chasing leaks)
- Liferaft serviced and repacked
- Installed 2 new bilge pumps
- Replaced our aging 600 Ah of Gel batteries with 540 Ah LiFePO4 (lithium) batteries
- Did some major rewiring and labeling of electrical system
Early on, to keep ourselves occupied, we had "learning night" in the marina clubhouse. Dave and I each gave several presentations on places we had cruised, and technical subjects. (see our Presentations page on the website--they are all there).
The Battery Project
When it became obvious in late May that things weren't going to get better for quite awhile, we started thinking it was a good time to upgrade our house battery bank to Lithium. The biggest problem in the Philippines is shipping stuff in--if you don't do it carefully, your "stuff" can get stuck in Customs and subject to 35-50% duty and day-by-day Customs holding charges. We got pretty good at shipping stuff in from the USA, but we wanted to buy these batteries direct in China, and we didn't know of a shipping mechanism that would work.
Another friend in the marina found a way, via a friend in Hong Kong. So together we bought 24 3.3-volt 272 Ah LifePO4 cells from a reputable source in China. It took 2 1/2 months for the batteries to reach us from China. Then the fun started. It was a long long learning process for us--one that didn't complete until April 2021.
It IS possible to just slam together a LifePO4 system without a lot of thought and effort, and it will likely work, but Dave is obsessed with "doing it right", both for safety reasons and longevity of the batteries. So he and I both spent hours reading (mostly online) and watching YouTube videos to understand why upgrading to LifePO4 batteries can be an involved process.
To see the results, check out our Electrical page on the website at http://svsoggypaws.com/electricalsystems.htm)
Originally we thought we would build a custom Battery Management System (BMS), using Arduino boards and custom programming, based on a project posted by someone else on Instructables.com. Our friend in the battery project is an Electrical Engineer, and he designed a custom circuit board with an Analog Devices BMS chip on it. He did the hardware design and I was in charge of adapting the Arduino programming to the new chip, adding in a NMEA2000 communications capability, and programming the additional protection circuit logic.
(I had a lot of fun doing this!)
(and eventually NMEA2000)
We thought this would be a cinch project since we already had a hardware design and prototype software for a working system. But throw in a newer BMS chip, and several new protection circuits, board fabrication and sourcing parts from the Philippines, and things got kind of out of control, timewise. I got the prototype software working with a breadboard version of the BMS board, but the final "production" BMS boards were still not quite 100% by the time we left the marina in May 2021.
When it became obvious in about August that our custom BMS wasn't going to be ready for prime time according to our schedule, we bought a commercially available BMS (Electrodacus SBMS0), which took 2 months to make it to the Philippines, and another several months to get wired up appropriately with protection circuits, etc. But at least I wasn't responsible if there was a glitch in the software!
Even now, after 6 weeks of actively cruising with the new battery bank, we are still learning. But we are glad we made the switch--adding more capacity at far less weight (300 lbs less) than our previous gel bank.
See more details here: http://svsoggypaws.com/electricalsystems.htm
Staying Fit
We were fortunate to be locked down in the marina with another boat who were both Black Belts in karate. Mike and Liliane held some kind of workout session in the marina clubhouse 6 days a week--3 days a week for karate, plus 2 days of Jazzercisey strength and core exercise, and one day a week we took a long walk. After over a year of karate we 3 students ended up as Blue Belts. We normally did our workouts in the marina clubhouse, but occasionally we would vary the venue a little just for fun.
We also had the resort pool completely to ourselves for months, as the resorts were closed due to lockdowns.
Dave couldn't be bothered to get up early enough for the morning workouts. He liked to do his workouts in the evening just before sunset... a half hour walk up and down the hill behind the marina, working out indoors in front of the TV, or an evening pool swim a couple times a week.
I ended up the lockdown period 10 lbs lighter and a lot stronger than I would have otherwise.
Social Life
The traditional very strong marina social life kind of fell apart during 2020. Sundays at Bahay Kubo, Wednesday night pizza, and Friday evening potluck, all eventually went by the wayside due to lockdowns, social distancing, and low numbers in the marina. Most Sundays, participation at Bahay Kubo was only 4 stalwart foodies (winos), as the restaurant was not officially open for most of the year due to COVID restrictions.
For various reasons, we could never get more than 2-3 boats to participate in any "social event" that we dreamed up, including a BYO dinner poolside at the resort (when the resort was closed). Even when we managed to restart "pizza night" by having pizza delivered, only a few people stuck around to socialize on the balcony after the pizzas were delivered. I sure missed the pre-pandemic social life!
We were really grateful when Wind Hog held a very nice Christmas Party on their boat, and invited everyone in the marina. We all brought masks, but after the first round of drinks, they went into our pockets (we were all outside on deck and in the cockpit). Wonder why the mayor initiated the Liquor Ban that we hated so much?
US News and the 2020 Election
When not working on the boat, we enjoyed/suffered through catching up with US News by watching CNN on the TV, and NBC Nightly News on the computer. The spectacle of Trumpism flourishing in our country left us speechless at times, and often made us embarrased for our country.
We made sure our status as absentee voters in Florida was solid, and faxed in our absentee ballots during the early voting season. And we verified that our votes were received and counted. We are hoping that "voting reforms" will not disenfranchise us in the next election.
was Received and Counted
Towards the end of 2020, Indonesia appeared to be opening up somewhat, and we hoped to be able to enact our 2020 plans in 2021. However, uncertainty over when we would actually complete our battery project caused us to miss that window. Indonesia closed the special cruising permit again in early January 2021.
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