Our new technique to find the whale sharks might have impressed the tourists however it did have its problems being the inability to avoid any stray jelly fish.
In the end it was the local spotters that came up with the goods and we got to swim with the whale sharks again. We did however go one better than them with a swim with the manta rays we found a few miles further on. We were told that as they are edible they are extremely rare.
Managing to sail most of the way to Bohol we passed under the power lines safely except for Amanda’s wobbly knees and anchored in Basiao Passage. The next morning after Sop I Pea (Chilean dish shared by Christian and Mane) while preparing to depart to town for supplies, the discovery of my missing wallet that Amanda was last in possession of resulted in a trip to the internet to cancel credit cards etc. While heading down the west coast of Bohol a few days later it turned up. The Red Horses had hidden it in the wardrobe.
The main town of Tagbilaran was a good spot to hire motorbikes for some inland travel. Unfortunately ours broke down an hour into the journey. We abandoned ours and borrowed Pontus’s machine, which we were on for 1 minute before it got a flat tire.
Eventually we did manage to see the Tarzier’s and the Chocolate Hills that are still quite green with all the rain.
After finding Tagbilaran through all the cooking smoke that blanketed the whole island at dinner time and accidentally traveling up 1 way streets the wrong way, we parked up our machines for the evening and went out for dinner to celebrate our survival. The next day we rode to some closer waterfalls on quieter roads.
We also found a cave that we attempted to explore using the camera flash as our source of light. With better equipment it is possible to go into the cave for 1 hour before it disappears.
With Robin and Pontus scheduled to depart soon for Japan, we headed south to Pacmilijan Is for a sail and snorkel and even managed to rendezvous with Gadfly mid ocean. With coral reef around we were unable to anchor but a small Banka kindly tied all 20 tonne of us to his bamboo outrigger – even towing us when the Banka up the front actually on the mooring headed off. We enjoyed a good sail back, where a farewell and birthday party was planned.
The only trick with the Fish Markets is the evasion of the over night $25.00 fee. I am proud to say we have avoided this to date, however Omen is down 3 - 1.
Still on the subject of swimming Tony took one on the pretense of saving Jo from falling in and James was over come by the forces off gravity while taking a leek into the ocean. No prizes for guessing where he fell!
We had a BBQ in Farm Cove overlooking the festivities. 
What a beautiful harbour! 