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 17th 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
