We hope everyone had a great Christmas and are looking
forward to a bright and positive 2012.
My niece Laura was flying out to the Philippines on 17th
Dec to spend the holidays with us,
G had been doing some work off shore and was also coming back on the 17th,
so managed to get the same flight from Manila to Busuanga, Palawan. I was alone on Pelangi making sure
everything was “ship shape” and that we had enough supplies (beer!!) for her arrival. However, the day they were due to
arrive so was a rather nasty Tropical Storm that threatened to shut down the
airport and with the potential to do serious damage to our beloved yacht! Fortunately, I was on a mooring buoy
belonging to a resort in a typhoon hole along with a few other boaties. We’d check the weather each day and
track the storm and sure enough it as headed right our way. I started to lash
everything down and was prepared to take down the headsail, dismantle the solar
panels, collapse the bimini (sun canopy) secure the outboard motor and bring
Dolly on deck. The weather gods
must have been smiling on us though because on the morning of the 16th
the storm started to track south and any threat more or less disappeared. G and Laura arrived safely and we were
on board Pelangi enjoying our first (of many!) gins and celebrating her safe
arrival.
I’d put together a plan that would take us to some deserted islands
with white sand beaches for a real “cruising” experience, along with some stops
at local villages for a real “Philippines” experience and Christmas moored off
an idyllic beach and dive resort.
So, on 18th
we set sail to our first stop.
The island was less than an hour away from where we were and the wind
was quite strong, probably a slight backlash from the storm, but we found a
lovely sheltered spot to anchor for the night. Laura had her first experience of jumping off the back of
the boat and snorkeling over some beautiful coral full of fish less than 50
meters away in clear, warm tropical waters.
After breakie the next morning we continued travelling North
West, again experiencing some strong winds and currents so abandoned our first
choice of anchorage and went with our 2nd. It was a sheltered bay, out of the wind and although the sea
was choppy we were comfortable on the hook. Laura and I swam to a small beach after lunch and in the evening
we went ashore to Coral Bay Resort for dinner. Candles on the tables, sand between our toes and fairy
lights in the trees made for a lovely, evening.
Next day, further north again to a deserted island (more
like an atoll really) where we swam ashore, snorkeled, collected shells and had
dinner and drinks on the boat. The
last island on our passage north was a very deep 30 meter anchorage, so we made
it a lunchtime stop only. G stayed on board while Laura and I swam ashore,
checked out a cave on the island, then swam back. We lifted the anchor and went a few miles back and anchored
off a small island and fishing village.
We went ashore to check out local life and were immediately swamped by loads
of kids running down to the beach to check out Dolly and the strange, pinkie
visitors. We were like pied pipers
as we walked through the narrow streets with all these kids following us, giggling and laughing. As we stopped at a local store to get
some ice we were immediately invited inside for a drink with a few (well oiled)
locals. Before we knew it, the
karaoke machine was on (Philippinos LOVE their karaoke!!), the disco lights
were flashing and me and Laura were up there murdering Spice Girl and David
Bowie songs!! When one particular
guy started to get a bit “over friendly” towards Laura, we bade farewell and
headed back to the boat, much to the disappointment of our many fans – ha ha!!
On 22nd we headed to Sangat Island where we spent
Christmas at Sangat Dive Resort.
Andy, the owner is a really cool guy who we made contact with through a
mutual friend. Because the front
of the resort is all coral and reef, you can’t anchor in front of the resort so,
Andy has a couple of mooring buoys and gave us the use of one for as long as we
wanted. It was around the tip of the island in a quiet and sheltered spot
with lovely snorkeling and hot springs you could swim to – Laura went
twice!! We were warmly welcomed by
Andy and all his staff for the 4 days we were there. Laura and G did some diving with the resort guests and we
ate there at least once a day – sumptuous buffets of rice, salads, chicken,
fish, veggie curries – all delicious and freshly cooked.
On Christmas day morning Laura made sure Santa knew where
Pelangi was because when we woke up “he’d been”!!! and left a stocking filled with chrissie goodies!! We all got new Christmas Day outfits
from Our Bev and Laura gave us a hard drive full of our fave music, plus lots
of cool, new stuff to help replace our ipod that got stolen – such a
sweetie!!!. After pressies me and Laura went ashore to do some
snorkeling and sun bathing while G set to doing some maintenance work that he’s
been itching to do for a while (he WANTED to, we didn’t MAKE him!!). A quick shower and change and we back
on the resort early evening for their Christmas evening buffet complete with
full roasted pig (with apple in mouth) which Laura, being a vegetarian, thought
was lovely!! The chairs and tables
were taken out of the restaurant and placed in the beach garden with lights and
lanterns floating across the trees.
It was a beautiful setting.
We did 1 final stop at Culion Island made famous as a leper
colony many years ago, It was our only day of rain, so was an appropriate place
to be as there is a very interesting museum in the small town where you can
learn about the colony and how they eradicated leprosy. We also had a beverage stop at a hotel
on the edge of the hill with great views before heading back to the boat
slightly damp and with a bottle of gut rot (local rum of a very strange
luminous orange colour!!) and coke.
As it was too wet to go back ashore in the evening, we had a movie night
on board and proceeded to do damage to said gut rot!
On 28th we tried to get to the main town of Coron
where Laura could get a van to the airport for her flight home on 29th,
but with strong winds on the nose , very choppy seas and some shallows in a
narrow channel that we weren’t sure of it all became a bit risky. We weren’t far from Sangat, so, to be
safe, we rang Andy at the resort.
Not only did he give us our mooring buoy back, but arranged transport to
Coron for us on one of his boats and a van transfer to the airport for Laura,
then a boat back to the resort and Pelangi for us – all free of charge. Nice one Andy!! So, it was a tearful farewell at the
jetty on the 29th. We had a great
holiday and really loved having Laura with us. What I miss most are the nights when we simply sat on the
back of the boat with a gin in hand star gazing and chatting about stuff –
special times and treasured moments!!
We did manage to get Pelangi to Coron the next day and bumped
into friends we’d made in P.P; Mark and Theresa. Mark has a lovely motor cruiser and he invited us onto his
“floating hotel” for a new years eve dinner and drinks. At midnight we watched a rather
impressive firework display from his viewing deck. He left on 2nd Jan and we’re now just waiting for
our visas to be extended before we leave Busuanga and head out for another 2
months of cruising these beautiful islands.
We don’t really know what 2012 will hold for us. We hope to have good health, fair winds
and continue to be amazed by our good fortune and excellent friends who support
us and help make our life on Pelangi that little bit easier.
We wish all of you the very best as another year starts to
fly by.
Cheers then
Captns J and G XXX
