Since I was skirting the doldrums as I got further west I let SunShine go a bit more north in order to hold onto the wind. By the time we neared Guam I considered a quick stopover. On the last day nearing Guam the wind went away. This made up my mind for me. I altered course to the WNW and powedred round the southern end of Guam near midnight, 15 days after leaving Majuro. By sunrise we were at the entrance to Apra Harbor. Within two hours I found the mooring field just off the yacht club. This was brief and unplanned stop.

I was amazed by Guam. It looked like a slice of southern California, complete with a 5 lane divided highway. There are many stores, groceries and "stuff" abound. Even a "Home Depot" graces the landscape. It was, like American Samoa a territory, with all the conviences, such as US Postal Service. A good place for provisions as well. I met a man there the morning I arrived. His boat, Felix, lost the mainmast up near Midway Island. He then drift sailed downwind to Guam. Through a fortunate set of circumstances he was able to get a near new aluminum mast to replace the rotton wood mast. A lot of anxiety but a great deal on the new mast.

After a brief stay of one week SunShine and I were headed to Cebu again, about 1,200 miles to the west. I was getting a bit nervous as the typhoon season had already started. Actually that season never ends in the Philippines. There can be typhoons anytime of the year. Usually while high in wind strength thier diameter is small...but every once in a while a monster comes along. That I did not want to meet. The passage turned out to be an easy one with moderate to light winds. As we neared Surigao Straight, 10*32N x 125*40E, the winds became very light.

As I entered the straight in the early morning hours I hoped a good breeze would see me on the way to Cebu Island. This required going south once through the pass, then west, then NNW and through another narrow pass. The light breeze was northerly at first and only at about 5 knots. Since I was powering along the appearant wind on the boat was zero and the sun was baking down. UGH! The turn up to the NNW was a delightful change as it was much cooler and I was able to sail most of the way to the next pass.

By sundown the wind was gone. So with the tide against us I powered along at about 3 knots and finally got clear at 4 AM. Then it was west again for 40 miles to Cebu. Now the light breeze was easterly so again no appearant wind to help cool me down. It is times like these that I really appreciate my small fridge. I was chugging down water and cokes all day. By noon we made to Cebu.

After a slight bump on a reef I finally found the way in to the northern part of the bay and dropped the hook. I went ashore in the dingy and was dragged out to too many beers and a great dinner. I was pretty punchy that night after being mostly awake for nearly 3 days. Thus started a long and delightful stay in Cebu.