March 17, 2024
The Philippines:
7,ooo Islands, only about a thousand occupied. The second poorest country, next to Indonesia in this part of the world. Friendliest people ever.
First stop Princesa, When I opened the curtains this morning, I was shocked to see this ship headed straight at us! Turns out they were just turning around to dock behind us. Whew.
Princesa is called the “cleanest and greenest” town in the Philippines. Well, it was cleaner, but their claim is still a stretch.
The highlight of my day was this field ripened pineapple Kim bought me at the market. These small ones are the best. Heaven. The chief cut it up for me.
This high school band played for us as we prepared to leave the dock. Nice place. Kim thought this Pilot boat was cute.
Today at noon we arrived at Boracay, I call it the Disneyland of water sports. Ever seen over a dozen parasails in the air at one time? How about over 70 sailboats sailing together?
A tender ride to the dock where we were met by these costumed dancers. Then a trike ride to the beach, these trikes are electric and take the place of cabs.
The beach was billed as “white sand that doesn’t get hot”, well, Kim said it was white, for sure, but also hot.
The weather is cooling down, it is now in the low 80’s and much less humid. I again was able to spend more time outside.
Last night a new mystery noise started. About every 30 minutes, there was a sound, like a pump running. It continued throughout the night, waking us up from time to time. By this afternoon, it had increased to every 7 minutes, and I was sure that it was a hydraulic pump. I called to ask if maintenance could look at it for us. Within 2 minutes, someone was knocking on our door, they listened and assured us they would find it. About that time, Kim came in and announced, quite proudly, that she had accidently found the source of the noise. She was walking on deck 5, just below our room, when she heard “the noise”. She brought me pictures and I immediately recognized it as the hydraulic pump that raises and lowers the lifeboats. I called and told them that we had isolated the noise, and they should send maintenance back to our room. They said they had it under control and would fix it.
Well, a couple of hours later, the engineering officer and two workers showed up at our door. Kim let them in, and they started investigating the mechanics of our room, still looking for the noise, they checked out the A/C and other stuff. Kim told them I was out on the veranda and could tell them where the noise was coming from.
They came out and I showed them the pictures of the hydraulic pump and explained to them that the problem could only be either low fluid in the hydraulic revisor, a small leak that they have not detected, or an air bubble in the line.
The Chief looked at me and said I was right, there are no other possibilities, and thanked me and left. I doubt any of you knew that I have a degree in Hydraulic Engineering ;). They fixed it before bedtime, and we were off to sleep.
As Dad told me a few times, Learn a lot about one thing to make a living BUT learn a little about other things to make it through life.
(Not a quote but put in my words)