The next chapter

This time last year we were getting ready to leave Thailand and head south for Malaysia.  Now, we’re in the Philippines and have been here just over a month; the start of a new chapter in our sailing adventures.  We knew the cruising would be beautiful with over 7,000 islands to choose from, lovely beaches and great diving.   We were also aware that the sailing here can be very challenging.  It’s prone to typhoons at certain times of the year so timing is important.  Get here too early and you could be hit, start your journey too late and the winds will have changed and you might get knocked back.  Also, there is a lot of coral closer to shore, so you need to stay out of the shallows as much as possible and be careful when anchoring as the shore can shoal up real quick.   We did our homework though and took advice from those who’ve sailed these waters before and collected a lot of notes on good anchorages and safe typhoon holes.

Everything started well.  We did our final check out of Malaysia in the small and friendly town of Kudat, then headed for Balabac, the most southern island of the Philippines and only 8 hours away.  Things progressed nicely and pretty uneventfully as we crossed to the south east coast of Palawan Island.  Our first major port after a few stops at some very pretty islands was Peurto Princesa, better known as P.P.  We had a 20 mile passage to P.P. from an overnight anchorage and everything was going fine for about the first 10 miles.  The weather was overcast, but that didn’t worry us, and we had good wind behind us so we’re making great progress.  After a while we noticed that sea was getting increasingly choppy and the waves were starting to build.  Pelangi was plowing through, but was taking some nasty bangs between chop.  Also, the horizon was getting very dark and we knew heavy rain was coming.  We altered course and started to sail closer to the shore to get away from the building waves, but were restricted somewhat by the amount of coral and shallow water along the coastline.  We put a reef in the mainsail, rolled in the headsail and started the motor. 

We could see a number of squalls heading our way and managed to outrun them all.  Although it was uncomfortable we were making good progress and though the rain was now heavy we could make out the entrance to P.P. harbour only a few miles away.  As we got closer, 1 last, nasty squall came our way and before we knew it we we’d been hit head on.  We managed to keep control of Pelangi and get the main sail down but lost 3 battens doing so and as we turned into the entrance of the harbour we literally surfed our way in getting a real smack up the arse from the wind!

Once inside all was calm.  It was still raining, but not heavily, the swell calmed right down and wind just seemed to disappear.  I suddenly realised why this is known as a typhoon hole!  After feeling like we’d just been flung out of a washing machine all was quiet.  We were finally able to give Pelangi a rest and gratefully dropped our anchor amongst half a dozen other yachts already here.

That was 3 weeks ago.  We’ve managed to get new battens made and apart from that we’re none the worse from the experience. If you go sailing sooner or later you will hit bad weather.  We didn’t get hit by a typhoon, just some nasty, localised weather that didn’t show up in the forecasts or on the barometer.  Hindsight is always a great thing and we should have dropped our sails much earlier,  or at least put another reef in, but we didn’t panic, kept everything under control as best we could and learned that not only is our boat lovely, but she’s very strong too and can handle heavy weather no bother.   I think we’ve become better sailors as a result.

Puerto Princesa is a great place and was definitely worth the trouble to get here.  The setting is idyllic, mountains set back from mangroves with stunning sunrises and sunsets along with clear star-filled skies at night.  This is also home to John and Cissy, owners of the Abanico Yacht Club. The absolute reverse of the posh marina we stayed at in KK this is not much more than a shed over the water, but what a place and what a couple!!  John is an ex yachtie from England but spent many years in Hong Kong.  He’s loves a drink shall we say, and is the consummate host.  He’s eccentric, generous, funny, great company and will bend over backwards to help fellow yachties.  His wife Cissy is a lovely Philippino lady who has done much in her life and she basically the runs the place while John plays “Mein Host”.  Again, she will do anything to help and has been very good to us.  The only problem is that John likes to start the day with a coffee, then a few beers followed by a bottle of wine or 2 before having lunch and going to bed just after mid day having done a nice little number on himself.  He then gets up late afternoon and does the same again.  We normally arrive at the yacht club about 10am with a list of things to do and start by having a coffee and chin wag with John – putting the world to rights as it were!  Next thing he’s forcing us (well almost!!) into a few beers with him, then sometimes sharing the wine and by the time he’s gone off for his afternoon nap we’re half cut and can’t remember what we have to do that day!!  There are quite a few ex pats who’ve retired out here.  They all know and love John and Cissy and so drop by on a regular basis.  By some unexplained means (??) we always seem to be around when they arrive and have had some great nights with them.

We did escape by hiring a motorbike for a week and rode over the concrete road to the west side of the island.  It was great!!  Palawan is pretty much untouched, known as “the last frontier” and after so long in KK’s modern city we feel like we’re back in the real Asia!!  There are paddy fields everywhere with buffalo tending the land.  The people don’t have much but are super friendly and the children come rushing up to say hello as soon as they spot you.  We love it, and rather than go east from here next (which was our original plan) we’ve decided to keep heading north to see more of Palawan and the many surrounding islands.  The most exciting prospect in all of this is that my niece Laura has decided to come out from London for a 2 week holiday – yee ha!!!   She arrives on 17^th December and so we will have a fantastic Christmas together.  There are some lovely places to cruise around and we can’t wait to have new crew on board.   Not only will Laura get to meet Pelangi and Dolly Dinghy, but also Humphrey.  He’s our newest crew member cum mascot – a very cute and cuddly stuffed camel that G brought back from some work he did in the Middle East.  He sits above the nav table and is great at keeping watch!! 

So, as we count down the sleeps till Laura gets here it’s hard to believe that we are once again wishing everyone good luck with the Christmas shopping and festivities just around the corner.  Our wish is for sunny skies, light breezes, picturesque anchorages and comfortable cruising.

We hope you get what you wish for - depending on how good you’ve been this year of course...

Cheers then

Capts J and G XXX

One year On……

It’s been quite a while since we last posted anything, the end of February in fact.   We’d just arrived on Tioman Island with the plan to stay a month then head north.  We left Tioman Marina 5 months later! 

Some of that time was wasted – trying to find boat parts, then trying to find ways to either pay for said parts, or even get them sent to us. 

Some of that time was well spent – once we’d got the parts we set about fitting them and carried out other general maintenance and cleaning duties.   

Some of that time was even better spent – partying on Paul’s lovely Lagoon 44 catamaran (the perfect party boat and host!!), partying on Phil’s 70ft Supercat (complete with Philippino band and copious amounts of alcohol!), partying on the deck with Mark’s BBQ doing a superb job of cooking the pork chops (not actually allowed in a Muslim country, but hey!), partying on the.,,, well, you get the picture – we were on a duty free island after all where beer and gin is cheaper than soft drinks!

Most of this time, we were also waiting for the winds to change.  We needed the South West monsoon to kick in before we could leave, and this was the perfect place to wait. -  the sun shines just about every day and the beaches, snorkeling and company are great.

 

Just days before we were due to finally set sail we received heartbreaking news.  Gareth’s father, Alan, had suffered a massive heart attack.  He passed away the next day.  We rushed back to NZ and stayed for a month.  After a very moving and most fitting farewell to Alan we spent time with Gareth’s Mum, Bev, and managed to catch up with family and friends which was great; to those friends we didn’t manage to see, sorry, it was just the wrong time.

We flew back via Singapore and helped our friend, Ed, sail his yacht to Tioman.  It was an easy overnight passage and lovely to be back on the water.  Once back at the marina we set about preparing to leave once more and finally set sail on August 2^nd. 

We said our goodbyes to more new- found friends who have been so generous in their support and friendship, as well as being damned fine people to be around – we miss you already!! With tears in my eyes we motored out of the marina.  It was time to head north and cruise the Borneo coast in search of new adventures.

We got a taste of action on our first night of the passage courtesy of the Singapore Navy.  They decided to do naval exercises, at about 10pm in the same waters we were.  Well, yes, technically, it is THEIR waters, but still…  At first we ignored their commands to “alter course to 006 degrees for the next 7 nautical miles“ due to the fact that it pushed us too far north and would put hours onto our journey.  But, after being circled several times as they yelled down a load hailer at us, plus the fact that there were more of them than us (we were surrounded by this point!), and they had much bigger boats than us, and were using live ammunition, we surrendered, altered course as requested and left them to it.

Our first anchorage on the tip of Borneo at Tanjung Datu was perfect; no winds or strong tides to push us around, with a beautiful uninhabited beach fringing native bush for our early morning view.  

A few hours sail to the next island and we were invited ashore to visit a turtle sanctuary.  By day the eggs heat up and at night they hatch while the turtles come ashore, dig huge holes in the sand and lay more.  We released about 70 baby turtles, less than a few hours old, into the ocean that night.  Smaller than the palm of your hand, eyes not quite open and fins flapping like a wind-up toy they followed the light of the moon and sensed the water, then ran madly towards it before disappearing into the blue – absolutely magic!  Our hope is that not all of those we released have become fish food and some actually make it, one day coming back to that same beach to lay their own eggs.

Rather that stop at places we’ve been to previously, we then completed another 3 day/night, non-stop sail to Miri in Sarawak.  On this passage we had very special guests indeed – a pod of small black dolphins, which visited us at dawn and dusk each day.  They played alongside the bow of the boat for about 20 minutes each time, darting in front of Pelangi while we watched in awe and excitement at such a sailors treat!  After hours of little wind and the engine on, within half an hour of our visitors leaving the winds arrived and we had beautiful sailing every night.

In Miri marina we found Ian, a single-handed sailor we’d met in Tioman.  He was waiting for parts to be delivered (a familiar story!!) and by the time we’d rested up and enjoyed the sights and hospitality of this small and friendly town Ian was ready to leave too.  So, we sailed in convoy to Brunei.  On the 2^nd day of our journey the wind rapidly built to over 35 knots (v. strong!) and waves of about 2 meters were building behind us.  Pelangi surfed the waves at almost 8 knots with just the reefed main sail up and as we turned into the entrance to our anchorage for that night we saw Ian’s boat almost disappear between the waves!  We lurched in behind him and once inside a breakwater everything calmed and we anchored in the rain.  Next day, all was calm and sunny again as we set sail to our next anchorage just outside the Royal Brunei Yacht Club where we enjoyed a delicious lunch of sirloin steak and chips – a treat we haven’t had in years!

After exploring this interesting city of old and new, and fueled up with cheap (tax free) diesel we headed for Labuan, which has expensive fuel, but tax free booze and chocolate!. Our boat is now perfectly stocked!!

We left Ian in Labuan working on his boat and are now cruising some beautiful islands on the way to Kota Kinabalu where we hope to meet up with Ian later.  It was good to sail with company.

It’s just over a year since we bought Pelangi.  She’s given us hours of absolute and indescribable pleasure and adventure as well as frustrations and challenges.  We’ve learned to adjust to a whole new way of life where we’ve marveled at mother-nature and just how little you actually need to survive.  We’ve coped with everything that has been thrown at us including nasty squalls, strong winds and a stowaway.  We’ve argued and fought while learning how to live together in a confined space 24/7, work as a team and trust each other in a whole new way, and we’ve made more genuine and generous friends than in the last 20 odd years put together. 

Here are a few choice words and phrases that sum up our life on Pelangi so far:-

“Wow, isn’t this amazing, You’re doing it wrong!, The other left, Who put you in charge anyway?,  Another day in paradise, Another bloody hangover, I have got to get out of this marina for the sake of my health!, Wow, This place is just beautiful, How much?, You’ve got to be kidding, What the hell have we done, Pelangi speaks to me, I’ll never get the hang of this, How do I get into the dinghy from here?, Why won’t it start?, Where’s the dinghy, it was here a minute ago!, Another drink? OK then, What a sunset, What a sunrise, Wow, When’s Captains Locker open?, What do those lights mean?, What did we just hit?, More shit floating in the ocean, Get another round in before happy hour becomes sour hour (one of John M’s sayings!),  Can you stop this boat from rocking for just one second, I love sailors, I love sailing, Where’s the wind?, Engine on – again!, Why is it blowing in the wrong direction?,  They didn’t teach us this in Sailing School, We’ll have to do another anchor watch tonight, We’re getting quite good at this, Look at all those stars!, What a perfect anchorage, I love my boat!, There’s always something needs fixing, Wow, we’re the only ones here, Do we have to leave this place?, Was that a turtle?, dolphins, dolphins, dolphins!, This is amazing, Thanks guys for all your help!”

The sudden and very sad loss of Alan is a reminder to us all that life is short and, just as he did, we should grasp our opportunities and live life to the full with the support of good friends and loving families.  He didn’t really “get” the sailing thing, he was a true landlubber, but I’m sure he would be proud of what we’ve achieved so far (as he was with all his children) and happy that we’re learning as we go and embracing new experiences.

Who knows what the next 12 months will hold for us but we’re sure that both our dad’s spirits are with us and will keep us safe on the sea.

In ever-loving memory of Alan Williams and Joe Bebb

Captains J and G XXX

The Pleasure and the Pain!

The last blog saw us reluctantly leave Pelangi in a marina and head off on foot to dryer land as we waited for the rain to abate. We had some air points that were about to expire so we dusted off the backpacks and flew off to Vietnam. The wet weather continued to haunt us (so much for dryer land!) and temperatures dropped too. Some of the cheapie places we stayed at might have had a certain “charm”, but lacked any form of heating prompting us to go shopping for jumpers for the first time in about 3 years!

Some parts of Vietnam are charming such as Hoi An and Hue, also the outer parts of Hanoi where Ho Chi Min is laid to rest. Unfortunately other places have chosen the path of mass tourism and “anything for a dollar” mentality. Encounters that would have seemed funny or quaint in our younger days were now just annoying and made us grumpy! So after numerous scams and rip offs we headed for the hills and lovely Laos! Refreshingly laid back, charming and cheap. After cycling round Vientiane, elephant riding in Luang Prabang and eating our fill of freshly baked baguettes in lovely roadside cafes we headed back to Terengganu in the hope that the rains had stopped and Pelangi hadn’t sunk!

The weather had indeed improved and Pelangi looked pleased to us again. After a week or so of completing minor jobs and planning our next route we provisioned and watered up and set sail for Tioman Island. Doing a steady 5 knots it would take us about 34 hours. We were sailing during a black moon (no moon in the sky at all), and decided to take advantage of an overnight anchorage off the small island of Tenggol eliminating 1 night’s sailing. So, we left the marina nice and early and were glad of the blue skies, although the water was a little rough once out of the marina entrance. Good job we’d learned our lesson from last time and had fueled up well because, just like last time, the wind deserted us and we literally motored for the whole 8 hours it took to get to Tenggol. Only a small island with 1 (yet to open) resort, we enjoyed a nice anchorage taking in the last of the day’s sun.

Next morning we set sail on what we estimated would be a 25-hour passage. The motor went on and stayed on, although we were getting some lift from a small amount of wind and were well ahead of schedule by lunchtime. About 3.00pm the wind decided to help us and we could turn off the motor. We were doing over 8 knots and Pelangi was pounding through the sea with little effort and really seemed to be enjoying herself. It was perfect; blue skies, moderate wind, happy boat, and happy sailors! I was on navigation duties and reckoned that at our current speed we’d be at Tioman by about 3.00am. Good news, except we would be arriving in the pitch black and were aware of rising reefs a good way out from shore. Also, there is an island just to the right of Tioman that we would easily miss if we stayed on course, but a bit too close for comfort if we were a few degrees out. We reefed in both sails, that is, we reduced the sail area in order to slow the boat down. This worked, but even then she was still running along at over 5 knots. This was the type of sailing we’d dreamed about, so decided to just let Pelangi go for it and enjoy the experience. The sun set on another day and it was very black without that big torch in the sky to show us the way, but with very few fishing boats on the horizon we could easily navigate our way through some oil platforms, and the stars did their best to give us some guiding light.

About 1.00am the wind left as quickly as it had appeared and after 10 hours of true sailing we put the motor back on and slowly continued on our way. We were about 2 miles from our entrance into Tioman at 5.00am and it was still too dark to navigate our way to anchorage with the other island somewhere close by. We could sense it, but not see it! Our decision was to turn off the engine and leave Pelangi to drift until sunrise keeping a constant eye on our position and ensuring we didn’t drift onto the island. As the sun rose, a breeze picked up and we were able to turn ourselves round, hoist the sails one last time, and head for land.

There were a number of buoys available just outside the reef that we gladly used. With Pelangi nicely secured it was fantastic to jump into the clear water and refresh our tired bodies and minds! There is a newly built marina here, but I’m a bit of a romantic and love idea of just “dropping the hook” (or tying to a mooring) and taking in the world from the cockpit, this after all, is what sailing is supposed to be about – freedom and scenic anchorages, so we stayed outside of it and prided ourselves on being true sailors!

However, we quickly realised that no amount of romanticism can make up for bobbing around in an open bay with a large swell. For 4 days and nights we endured Pelangi rocking side to side making it almost impossible to stand upright, let alone make a cup of tea. Getting in and out of Dolly Dinghy turned into a new challenge fit for the Krypton factor! And, when Pelangi did stop rocking the tide would push the mooring buoy on and off the side of the boat making it almost impossible to sleep. In fact, I would recommend sleeping on a boat with a buoy bashing against its hull all night as a new form of torture for Guantanamo inmates!!!

We surrendered idealism for realism and brought Pelangi into the marina where she’s stable and we can get some sleep (along with power and water, showers and the good company of fellow sailors).

Tioman is a pretty island, un-spoilt and covered in native bush. The marine park means great snorkeling and diving, which is the main attraction for most visitors. There’s also a turtle breeding centre. Best of all, it’s a duty free island, where beer is cheaper than soft drinks and stocking up captains locker hasn’t broken the bank!!

We’ve booked our berth for a month so we can enjoy exploring this and outer islands a few hours away and may have some friends coming to visit us early April. And, as always with a boat, there’s plenty of jobs and upgrading to keep us busy.

Lesson learned from this passage? Time your arrival with a few hours to spare either side so if you’re early or late, you’ve still got plenty of daylight to get you in.

Fairwinds

Capts J and G.