We didn't do too well in the typhoon. We were in Romblon having a fat time with our old friend and meeting new ones, when the typhoon was forecast to go between the top on Mindoro and the top of Panay. Romblon is 30 metres + depth and the moorings were very close to the coral and then rock walls, so we felt that if the mooring went we would be on the rocks before we could do anything about it. Our friend Hank told us about this place that he'd been into on the north of Panay called Port Batan which is an estuary system, so mud and mangroves, and we had good charts of it, so thought that if the anchors did let go at least it would be a soft landing. Unfortunately the wind was far too strong for our 2 anchors, and we were motoring full revs into the wind when the motor overheated, so then we dragged onto the only concrete and rock wall in the area! We would have kept bouncing until we were past it, but there was a mangrove tree right at the end. At this stage we thought that the boat was a goner, so with our lifejackets on and a dry/grab bag tied to my jacket we made a jump for the wall and then walked towards the hill and trees, except we ended up back in the water swimming as the wall was around a fish pond! There were heaps of fish traps made of huge bits of bamboo which were also in the water with us, but we made it ashore and hid behind the palm roof of a house which had fallen down. We stayed there for 1 1/2-2 hours and then noticed the Lass didn't seem to be bouncing around as much, so made our way back to her and on board. We'd abandoned ship around 1400 and back on board by 1600. By 2100 you wouldn't have known that there'd been a typhoon as it was flat calm again (except for the damage of course) When we looked the Lass over we discovered we still had power, fridge, gas and our water tanks hadn't been compromised, and the only water in her was from down the hawse pipe and what had washed into the companionway over the cockpit coaming while we were dragging! Definitely a time to count our blessings! As the tide went out though we lay over on the port side away from the wall.

The next morning Phil went out to check the damage and we discovered huge dents in the starboard hull, right along and under the waterline. He went out to find the anchor (one was on rope and disappeared) and had to dig it out, with the help of a couple of locals, who then got stuck in and cleared a lot of the mainly bamboo debris away from the boat with their bolos, with lots of laughter and jokes and teaching us the Visaya words for things. One of these guys moved into the roof we'd hidden behind with his 3 kids and pregnant wife as their house, that they'd just had built and moved into a week before was just a frame. Our phone had got wet in the 'dry' bag and not working, so another 2 of them took me into Kalibo to buy a new one so that we could get in touch with family and let them know what was going on. One of our solar panels and our new 8hp outboard had gone missing off the back of the boat-unluckily we couldn't get the outboard going but the panel is back where it belongs and doing fine!

Over the next few days we reassessed what we could do, and realised that we should be able to dig a trench to get the boat out from the wall and back afloat. The keel had dug a hole for itself as it was bashing against the wall (we broke the concrete wall) so we were under the tide mark as such. Hank had rung and found out our troubles, so he and his partner Joyce came down in his yacht-he was great for problem solving, and she's Visayan so could speak to the locals, who had very little English. She's super friendly and has a heart as big as a whale so was worth her weight in gold. The locals all helped dig our trench-about 10 times faster than we could- in between getting their own lives back together, and were always cheerful, so there really was no way we could wallow in misery as our troubles were nothing compared to theirs. Ten days after we went up we were off on the full moon with a combination of kedging ourselves off with our anchor and Hank pulling a rope from us to his anchor winch. We have found a small leak which Phil feels confident of fixing, and the wheel steering has gone, but we have an emergency tiller and the auto pilot is working fine, so we made it back here no problems. Actually we sailed non stop from Boracay to Verde Islands in one hit-200 mile in 32.5 hours-poor old girl hasn't had that good a run for ages!

The people we met will always be in our hearts, they were the most fantastic group of people you could ever hope to meet. We put out a call to family who put money in our account, we had a chat to the main 2 about what people needed (through Joyce) and then went on a shopping spree to buy tarps, nails, epoxy to fix boats and rice. Hank has some more coming apparently, and more came from our families since, so Joyce will be catching a ferry down and getting more of what they need. She also put on a few meals, and we had a big party which was the best time-one of the guys brought a huge sound system and I think everyone got up for a dance!! Many tears were shed when we left, and Phil and I agreed that out of the worst moments of our lives came one of the best experiences we have ever had.

We've been tossing up what to do next, we were going to Kudat to haul out and sandblast and bog the hull, but now we think we'll sail back to Oz. We were pretty well planning to anyway to get work, but now we'll try and find somewhere to put the poor old Lass and maybe strip all the good bits off and maybe sell her for scrap-pretty harsh considering the way she's looked after us, but what do you do with an old boat? It'll be sad to see her go, but life must go on, and there's a time you have to realise that it's not worth throwing good money after bad. Phil's just about got the steering fixed as I speak, so we'll be good to go in a few days.

Hope I haven't bored you too much, and kisses to you. Mesqualito's looking good, and I saw Rocky out there last night.

Whitbys