Passing the time in Palau

He looks really happy doesn't he?

It has been brought to my attention that I haven’t updated the blog in a timely manner (Thanks, Bob), so please accept my sincere apologies.  We’ve just been having so much fun…

We haven't been too busy but our attitudes have been pretty good...the result, lots of play.  After ordering our autopilot parts, we took a week and hung out in the Rock Islands.  We had barbeques with the locals, Jake worked on eradicating the rats (cheered on by the locals), and Andy and I worked on our tans.  The highlight (or low point, depending on which Savannah crew member you ask) was camping on the beach at our favorite anchorage.  It started out all nicey-nice (big camp fire, good snacks and drinks, no rats), but ended in a torrential downpour, lots of leaks and a few too many bug bites.  Long story short...not the greatest idea ever presented.  Andy still wonders why anyone who lives on a boat would think camping would be a good idea.  Jake documents it as the "worst night EVER."  I think they just didn't think through their sleeping spot very well.

He was target practicing with some cans before moving on to the real thing. Like the camo?

Anyway, we're still waiting on parts but enjoying the nice weather.  We have a breeze, the constant rain has stopped and we have some really good friends to hang out with...always important.

A few pictures documenting our last few weeks....

Getting ready for the natives :)

Jake is now making his own breakfast (I know, it's just frozen
waffles...but I see the day when he makes ME breakfast!)

Sharing the grill...wish those fish were ours!

Jake helping the locals separate their sardines.

They gave him a few so he decided to disect them and see
what he could find.

My handsome husband.

Making fire, ug ug...me man.

At our mooring at Sam's...Jake holding my hair down in the high winds.

Brining in the New Year...in Palau

We tried.  We really tried.  We just couldn’t pull it off. 

We checked out with Customs and Immigration around 10:00 on Friday and were underway by 11:00.  It’s about 16 miles from Sam’s to the west pass.  We were about half way to the pass when the autopilot went out.  We pulled into a little cove and dropped the anchor so Andy could work on it.  The motor was dead.  Luckily we had an extra.   It took Andy a bit but he finally got the new (old) spare installed.  We spent the rest of the day contemplating whether we should go or turn back around.  The spare had been sitting there for years…and it was an older model than the one that broke.  The last thing we wanted to do was hand steer the 510 miles to the Philippines.  I know lots of people do it, but we didn’t want to.

So, to make a long story hopefully not so long, we spent the next two days hiding out in our anchorage while Andy fabricated some parts to another motor trying to get us another “spare.”  On Monday morning, we had made the decision to give it a go.  Everything worked great until we were about 10 miles out of the pass.  Both motors broke within 15 minutes of each other.  We decided to turn around.

Jake, painting his dinosaur bones from a kit he got for Christmas
while Andy worked on the autopilot.

Our last sunset in Palau...or so we thought.

So here we sit, back on our mooring at Sam’s Tours, celebrating the new year.  There are definitely worse places to be stuck waiting on parts, right?

Here are some pictures from our last days before we checked out...

Saying good-bye to Sam

Last beer at Sam's

Exhausted after a day of provisioning