Tuesday 10 March Puerto Galera, N Mindoro

Lonely Planet's description of PG is 'Puerto Galera is Spanish for 'port of the galleons'. It's deep natural harbour, sheltered on all sides, was a favoured anchorage well before the Spanish arrived in 1572, and today remains a favoured anchorage for long-term yachties and short-term vacationers.'
As we were nearing PG the wind strengthened as it funnelled in between Batangas island to the north and Mindoro island.  We flew along under jib and jigger and then had to run and motor into the head wind to come into the harbour.  It may be a recognised typhoon anchorage but for the three days we've been here these are the most consistent NE trades we've encountered.   Our wind generator whirled and continuously put power into the batteries.
Around the bay there are three towns, Sabang and White beach a bus ride away are resort towns for divers, Muelle is home to the yacht club, hub of the ferry services and the main shopping area so Muelle was our base too.  The yacht club has 30 moorings for residents and visitors but all were occupied when we were there so we anchored half a mile east which was OK.

Typical Puerto Galera bus

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What Muelle offered us was a chance to reprovision with western goodies from the one supermarket which caters for the expats, ie butter, cheese, Heinz tomato sauce, olives, baguettes and wholemeal bread, all the essentials, two good butcher shops and a good fresh produce market.  It's not an attractive town, too dusty and dirty but good for the shopping and eating.
Muelle has more Italian restaurants than any other place we've visited.  Why this should be Il Adriatico en Filipino I don't know.  One night we ate pizza at Robbie's place, another night home made pasta and on the third night it was an Austrian inspired chicken dish.  In the deli's adjoined to the restaurants we could have bought salami's, prosciutto, dolcettas and other beautifully over priced morsels.
In the Rock 'n' Roll bar near the ferry terminal we found the hangout of cruisers who have swallowed the hook and found themselves a local girlfriend.
When we left this morning it was with full fridge, freezer and tums and without regret.