Senta Newsletter June 2005 to January 2006 South Africa, Germany, Borneo and Philippines - A mixed bag
Visit to South Africa and Germany
June, July and early August were spent visiting family and friends in South Africa and Germany. We had wanted to fly from Kota Kinabalu in Borneo to Kuala Lumpur, on to Johannesburg, Frankfurt and then return to Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu; a sensible round trip. A visit to a travel agent brought the bad news that our chosen route would cost almost double the price of flying back to Kuala Lumpur after Johannesburg and then doing a return trip from there to Frankfurt. More air miles and air hours but the difference in price meant we went the long way.
We spent a very pleasant time staying with Brett, Hilda and Angela. It was great seeing everyone in Johannesburg and Pretoria, but it wasn’t very restful as we spent a good deal of time sorting out banking and other affairs. We had to get ourselves FICA’d, obtain new credit cards, move money around and transfer documents from safe custody in Richards Bay to Johannesburg. We also had to renew our driver’s licenses and get international ones. We became more and more sure that we were doing the right thing cruising far away from such annoyances. But we managed to do everything and visit everyone and before we knew it were on the plane again, back to KL and on to Germany.
Our stay with Ingrid and Phillip in their comfortable double storied house overlooking a farmer’s field on the edge of the village of Schwarzach in Southern Germany was exactly what we needed. We would have been happy to stay put, but were dragged away from the sylvan delights chez I&P to see the castle at Heidelburg, visit a transport museum, drive to a resort in the Alps and attend an open air performance of the opera, ‘Carmen’, in the grounds of a nearby castle. Joking apart we thoroughly enjoyed all of the outings. We will especially remember the day we hired bicycles and cycled through the forests around Lake Kontanz, which has shores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
All too soon we had to leave. A snag arose at Frankfurt airport. An efficient (officious?) German lady at the Air Malaysia check in counter would not let us through as we are not Malaysian citizens and did not have an air ticket for onward travel. After hearing our story about not needing a ticket as we had a sailing boat in which we planned to leave Malaysia, she referred us to her supervisor. We had to give them a copy of Senta’s registration certificate (luckily we had one with us) and sign a form indemnifying Air Malaysia from any costs which might be involved in repatriating us. Then we were free to go.
Preparations for voyage to Palau
Back in Kota Kinabalu we started to prepare Senta to go to sea. We planned to join Déjà Vu on a trip to Palau, the most westerly of the Caroline Islands in the NW Pacific and had a lot of work ahead of us.
Our Volvo diesel engine is 27 years old and needed a substantial overhaul. Parts were ordered from Volspec in the UK and we arranged for a local engineering shop to do the work involved in a complete ‘top end’ overhaul. In the end we wished we had done all of the work ourselves. Part of it was done badly (conducting a so-called ‘bump test’ and then adjusting the clearance at the top of the pistons, by removing the appropriate shims from under the cylinder), and had to be redone by us involving ordering some spares to replace those spoiled in the botched job. The service from Volspec is excellent, though pricey, and we have had spares delivered to the marina, via DHL, three days after ordering via e-mail. The engineer suggested that we have the injectors adjusted and, although they seemed to be fine we agreed. What a mistake! The engine poured out smoke, so the injectors came out for a second adjustment. A bit better, but still not right. We wanted to be on our way so decided to leave the injectors as they were.
We needed to catch up with Colin and Glyn who had already left for Kudat, just past the northern tip of Borneo, where they slipped Déjà Vu for a bottom scrub and antifouling.
Our plan was to be away from KK for about six months and, as we had heard that food was very expensive in Palau, we started stocking up. Huge piles of groceries were loaded into Senta’s lockers as she slowly sank 10cm down on her waterline. Full diesel and water tanks, plus extra water in jerry cans on deck added to our ‘submarine’ profile. We scrounged charts from other cruisers, had them copied and carefully planned our 1500 mile voyage through the Philippines to Palau.
The last task before leaving in December was to do some sail training for the four teen-aged children of Gilbert and Lucy Teo. The Teo family had been endearingly friendly towards us; looking after Senta while we were away; entertaining us; taking us on a weekend visit to their fruit farm at a Kampong on the edge of the jungle; helping arrange stainless steel repair work and many other kindnesses. A weekend was set aside for this after schools and universities had closed for the holidays and the four young people were free. Saturday was occupied with classroom learning. Pierre covered the concepts of sailing and sail handling and I dealt with safety aspects and navigation. Raimie (19), Shaira (17), Jairal (16) and Karen (13) were wonderful students, eager and intelligent. On Sunday we reinforced the theoretical learning on a sail to nearby Dinawan Island. There Senta lay at anchor for the night while we slept below and the others slept up on deck under the stars, their choice as there were berths down below for them. We sailed back to Sutera harbour on Monday and, in the early afternoon, delivered them safely back to their parents
First attempt to sail to Bonbanon
We were eager to leave. December is the last month of the typhoon season, and the typhoons often come fairly far south then. So we planned to hole up in Bonbanon, a well known typhoon shelter, on Negros Island in the Philippines, till January. Déjà Vu was already there and Christmas was approaching.
We eventually left Sutera Harbour on 13 December and after short stops at Gayana Island and Usukan Bay we set out to sail non stop to Bonbanon about 500 miles away.
We approached the Balabac Straits on the night of Sunday 18 under double reefed main and small jib, in deteriorating weather, squalls and heavy overcast. At 0600 Monday, we went down to triple reefed main and storm jib as the skies turned black and the wind backed to NE and increased to gale force. We were now in among the reefs of Nasubata channel, hard on the wind, and had to tack and tack to keep clear.
During the day, the biggest line squall we have ever seen, hit us from the opposite direction (SW) and we ran off in very bad seas. When it was over the gale went back to the NE and we beat, making 120 degree tacks, because of a current on the nose and explosive seas throwing us sideways.
We beat for five days, falling heavily off the square waves. The barometer never went below 1010. Some squalls were up to fifty knots and we couldn't look to weather without wearing our underwater masks. The rain was unbelievable. Mostly our leeward rail was in the water and the weather deck was filled with water from the gunwale to the cabin top every time a wave exploded over us. This river streamed aft into the cockpit and lazarette which by then must have had half a ton of sea water in it.
We even had fish and seaweed in the cockpit and the plankton or sea animals in the weed were stinging us. The forward bilge began taking water and we pumped every hour. We were worried that the incredible pounding by falling off the waves had eased a keel bolt.
Twice we had to heave to, once for three hours and once for six hours, so we could rest, eat, sleep and tidy up down below. Only 130 miles from Bonbanon the effect of the Pacific Equatorial current sweeping westwards through the Philippines was so bad that the GPS showed us to be going backwards. The angle between our tacks was about 140 degrees and we were being forced southwards towards the Mindanao coast, the stronghold of the rebel terrorists, Abu Sayef.
Because of fatigue, the heavy pounding and the leak, we decided to give up this attempt to beat through the Sulu Sea, tacked onto starboard and bore off for Puerto Princessa, Palawan, arriving on Xmas eve. There we were welcomed by John and Cissie of the Abanico Yacht Club who brought us a basket of fruit and a bottle of wine.
How we spent the 2005 ‘Festive Season’
Our very welcome Christmas Eve sleep was full of dreams of the work that was needed to fix up the mess. We wondered how Déjà Vu had fared, how she managed to force through the maelstrom of the Sulu Seas and how Colin and Glyn would enjoy their Christmas in Bonbanon.
After a fantastic Xmas breakfast of bacon and eggs made for us by Cissie, we set about getting Senta ready to try for Bonbanon again.
The bearings of our Rutland wind generator had come out second best in the battle with the wind, so we located new ones in the town of Puerto Princessa and Pierre spent a whole day repairing it. A massive job, but well done as it has been going great guns ever since. I wore out my fingers sewing up the damage in the pram hood and dodgers. The supposed ‘sprung keel bolt’ causing sea water ingress into the forward bilge compartment turned out to be an old enemy. The rough seas had moved the anchor chain where it entered the hawser pipe and dislodged the plasticine seal. Each sea that came on board sent a great dollop of water down the hawser pipe into the anchor locker and thence into the bilge. So there was no work to be done on what we had thought was our biggest problem!
Numerous other tasks kept us busy for about ten days and then on 2 January we set out again.
To Bonbanon Again
The wind was now a consistent north-easter varying in strength from 15 knots to 35 at some times, but mainly in the 20 to 25 knot range. We had rigged Senta as a cutter, setting up her baby inner stay and hanking on our tried and tested small working jib. This sail is now 27 years old!, but still sets as well as it did on its first day.
It did a wonderful job as, together with a reefed main and our wind steerer, it helped Senta to slowly close the gap between us and Bonbanon. When we had turned back on our first attempt and made for Puerto Princessa we had been 130 miles from BB. The distance from PP to BB was 264 miles, so we had to win back slow mile by slow mile those 134 miles we had given away. The wind was helping, but the square sharp seas were a real pain and we both got pretty seasick, the first time in ages. Not nice!
In the worst of the strong winds and bumpy seas, the engine's water pump stopped working. Although we didn't need the engine to propel us forward, we sure needed it to keep our fridge full of fresh provisions cool. So Pierre had to spend a ghastly 3 hours lying on his stomach on the port quarter berth twisting sideways with his head in the engine compartment and his belly being pounded on the edge of the berth every time Senta went over a wave, about once every three of four seconds. He found that the impellor was broken and after searching to find all of the missing bits, thus ensuring that there was nothing left behind to gum up the works, he reassembled the pump and all was well. Except for the mal de mer.
I had now been on watch for six hours, but had to stand another watch to let Pierre sleep and try to overcome the queasiness.
Slowly as we approached the leeward side of Negros the seas smoothed out and the wind backed more to the north. Senta took off and under storm sails we were doing between 6 and 7 knots straight to Bonbanon.
It looked as if we would arrive there at 1430 on the 5th January, three and a bit days after leaving Puerto Princessa. But nothing is quite that easy. Firstly we entered the wind shadow of Negros and the wind cut off almost completely for a couple of hours. We also got a fishing-net around our rudder. The dreaded motoring had to be done and we were doing well until we approached within 5 miles of BB when guess what? Right! The NE wind came shrieking at us from round the SE corner of Negros and we were soon beating hard under storm sails again. A forty knot rain squall made things even a little harder. I was beginning to think that, at 67 years of age, we were both getting a bit too old for such larks.
The Pacific current also put in its contribution and we found that unless we went in very close to the reefs off the coast we could make almost no progress against the current. Under motor and mainsail we dodged up the last three miles to the entry waypoint closer to the shore than we ever really like to go.
The waypoints for the very narrow (40 meter) entrance, given us some weeks before by Trish and Fitz on Columbus, were an excellent help as we edged Senta in close to the black cliffs on the starboard side. Nigel, who runs a resort at Bonbanon came up on the VHF radio and talked us in, his instructions matching almost perfectly with the waypoints.
At 1633 we dropped anchor for a wonderful rest. It was great to see our friends, Colin and Glynn on Deja Vu.
Onwards towards Palau
We now entered a period of scratching our heads and studying charts to find a way to clear the remaining 225 miles of Philippine islands and reefs before we could reach the open Pacific and sail to Palau.
Ten days later we had a plan and left Bonbanon to claw our way against wind and current towards Limasawa Island at the start of the Surigao Strait, the exit from the Philippines to the Pacific.
It was very tough going. The first leg was a day sail of about 39 miles to Lazi Bay on Siquijor Island. NNE winds and the ever present easterly current meant an average distance made good over the ground of just over three knots. We arrived very tired in the late afternoon to look for an anchorage where there really wasn’t one on a small ledge between the very deep water and the reef.
We still had over 120 miles to go to Limasawa and decided to try to cover this distance in a day-night-day sail of 36 hours. During the first twelve hours we managed 30 miles in 12 to 18 knot winds. As the sun set the wind started to increase in speed. It was a horrible night beating into 20 to 25 knot winds at one stage peaking at 40 knots. Rain with the wind made visibility very bad, and there was a danger of colliding with Déjà Vu who was also battling the same conditions in the same area. Both boats hove to for some rest for the crews, but the thought of drifting backwards and losing our hard won miles forced us onwards. We were also plagued with thoughts of the unlit fishing buoys that are scattered over the seas north of Sabah and throughout the Philippines. These are 40 gallon drums anchored in very deep water, with no lights and only a palm frond lashed on to show that they are there. We had seen many during daylight hours and wondered how many we came close to at night.
By sunrise the next day we were still 40 miles from Limasawa so decided to put in to Guindleman Bay on the SE tip of Bohol Island. As we approached the entrance to the wide bay we were chased away from a large area of surface fishing nets and buoys by a young man in a banca. The sizeable detour was not what our tired bodies and minds wanted, but we had no choice. Déjà Vu had also opted to stop. Already anchored they warned us of the same sort of dangerous narrow ledge which we had encountered at the previous anchorage.
A lay day was declared and the crews of both boats took a well earned rest. In my mind I could hear Senta and Déjà Vu muttering to each other ‘Don’t know what is wrong with these old fogies. Such lovely sailing weather and all they want to do is stop and rest!’
We left Guindelman bay at 0520 on 18 January, hoping to cover the 33 miles to Limasawa by mid afternoon. It was not to be. There was reasonable wind until 1400 and we made good 20 miles, 13 to go! The wind fell light so we started the motor which ran for two hours and then stopped. We could not get it to start again and suspected a fuel supply problem. Luckily Deja Vu arrived at Limasawa in daylight, and was able to guide us in by leaving her anchor and other lights on as we slowly puff hunted to get Senta to cover the last eight miles in three and a half hours. Our racing experience in the Hartbeespoort and Vaal Dam drifters was a great help. We were exhausted after the 16 hour sail and looked forward to a couple of days off. Why did we retire and come to live on this slave ship? We could have been sitting in our air conditioned offices telling other people what to do, instead of beating our bodies and brains out against the sea and weather, which didn’t know or care about us!
The next day Pierre spent five hours replacing fuel filters and cured the engine problem. We were both so very tired that we were in two minds as to whether to carry on to Palau. We still had to negotiate the rip tides, whirlpools etc of the Surigao Strait, and a 500 mile passage in the Pacific against the wind. We informed Colin and Glyn of our dilemma, and promised to let them know our final decision later that day.
At 1600 Colin radioed us and told us that they too wanted to abort the Palau attempt. Although eight years younger than us, they were also feeling the pressure. On top of this, his weather fax showed a tropical depression west of Palau heading for the mouth of the Surigao Strait. Straight at us. Both boats decided to 'Get the hell out of there'! When Pierre realised that we would have to go to sea again he wanted to vomit!
Back to Bonbanon
Deja Vu opted to go to a marina at Cebu 70 miles away. But this was northwards and paralled the storm track. We chose the safer route away from the storm back to Bonbanon 126 miles away. With the wind and tide now in our favour Senta romped back in 22 hours covering the distance that had previously taken us nearly 70 hours of sailing.
Senta was now safely anchored in a good typhoon shelter and had suffered no damage. She takes these conditions much better than we do.
Our plan was now to take a week or so off before moving north to Cebu. From there we would explore more of the Philippines in company with Deja Vu and return to Kota Kinabalu in April/May.
The next newsletter, which you should have soon, will tell of our further explorations in the Philippines.
Kind Regards, Faith and Pierre
Senta Newsletter January and February 2006 Further explorations in the Philippines
Second Time in Bonbanon
Tired though we were our flight back to Bonbanon from Limasawa Island at the south end of the Surigao Strait and away from the approaching revolving tropical storm (TRS), was a very enjoyable sail. In just over twenty hours Senta romped westwards for 120 miles with wind and current in her favour. The tight entrance through the pass was easier this second time and soon we were safely anchored in a recognized typhoon shelter.
Bonbanon is an inlet on the SE corner of Negros Island. It is so well sheltered that many yachts anchor there for months at a time and some even years. A couple in their seventies was an example, and the lady was running a school on shore for the local children. Her classes were so well liked that some of the children off visiting yachts also attended. An especially popular class was the one on how to make ice cream!
There are several grass roofed restaurants, all accessible by dinghy, offering good cheap food, so it is affordable to eat out every day. There is no other sign of civilization, except for a satellite internet facility available from a retired Englishman, Arthur. He has set it up for his own use to keep in touch with the outside world. To cover the costs he sells access at 100 pesos a time, no matter how long that time is. There are certainly no shops, so provisioning has to be done by taking a very uncomfortable ride to the main road on the back of a moped and then a long trip into Dumaguete on a local bus.
We made use of Arthur’s internet to track the path of the TRS. In case it came near we laid two anchors in tandem. We noticed that Ferdinand, the owner of a Freedom Ketch, moved his boat from the middle of the inlet to the extreme NW corner from which the wind would blow if the TRS came by. No one else seemed to care or even know that bad weather could be approaching. We had encountered Ferdinand several times in the previous couple of years and were very impressed with his boat handling and cruising knowledge. So we discussed the situation with him. He said that he had learned that if you are given a warning about something you should take it seriously. It is much better to be prepared for the worst which never comes than to ignore the warning and be caught ‘unawares’. The TRS moved extremely slowly in a NW direction and eventually passed over well to the north of us, with only some cloudy skies and a slight increase in wind speed to mark its passing.
During our wait for the TRS to pass we received many SMS text messages from Glyn of Déjà Vu, now in Cebu, saying that the marina there was good and the supermarkets excellent. She was trying to tempt us to move northwards to join them. Her ploy worked and so on 24 January we sailed out through the Bonbanon pass at four o’clock in the afternoon. We were aiming to sail through the night and the next day to reach Cebu City in one hop.
We join Déjà vu at Lapu Lapu.
A short beat into the north easter and we were then able to bear off northwards. By 1900 the wind had died and a current coming down the Cebu Strait between Cebu and Bohol islands forced our speed down below three knots. This situation continued through the night and all of the next morning, with the wind never blowing over 12 knots and the current constantly pushing us backwards. By lunch time we had only covered 37 miles from Bonbanon. We were obviously not going to reach Cebu by nightfall, so stopped at Moribojoc Bay on the west coast of Bohol about five miles north of Tagbilaran, a fairly large town. It was not a pretty place, but the anchorage was well sheltered from the NE and made a useful overnight stop.
Next morning we were on our way again, beating mainly on starboard tack, into the current and a stronger NE wind of 12 to 18 knots. Progress was still slow, six hours for the 15 miles to anchor at Mocaboc Island in the mid afternoon. Four young people visited us and said that there was to be a ‘feast’ on their island next day and warmly welcomed us to join them. We declined because we were not too happy with the anchorage in between several coral heads and with strong currents flowing around the island. They were very insistent so we said we were very sorry not to be able to come as we had to meet friends in Cebu. We were constantly disturbed by loud clicking noises down below. These turned out to be small detonator explosions on the coral reef, a popular method of ‘fishing’, but actually killing the small reef fish and destroying the coral. This scourge has made it almost impossible to do any good snorkeling in the Philippines, unless you go to places where there are no people. These places are few and far between in this heavily populated country.
From Mocaboc we crossed the Cebu strait and into the narrow channel between Cebu and the off lying Island of Mactan. There we hoped to find Déjà Vu in the Cebu Yacht Club at the town called Lapu Lapu. We practiced our beating and tacking skills to inch up the narrow channel past ships moored at the quays, speeding ferries, under bridges and close to reefs and mud banks.
Glyn had seen us approach and was agitated with our slow progress. There were only a few places left in the marina and already one yacht was waiting outside to go in. This marina has no floating walk on jetties. You have to tie stern to in between four poles. After a lot of maneuvering with the help of the marina staff and Déjà Vu’s crew we were eventually securely tied up.
A large green lawn slopes down to the water’s edge and some thatched buildings house a pub/restaurant and shower facilities. The lawn mowers are unique. They are albino water buffaloes which had been rescued from the slaughter house. They spend the hot daytime hours lying in mud patches in the shade and are brought out onto the lawn in the early morning and late afternoon to graze. Their skins are a gentle shade of pink and their eyes a light grey colour. We loved to watch them live their peaceful existence.
We took a taxi to the immigration office in Cebu to check in to the Philippines. It was now January 27 and we had checked out of Malaysia on December 12. Officially we had been at sea for all of this time; rather long to have come such a short distance. The immigration officials were not interested in where we had been or for how long, they were only interested in charging us as much as possible, most of which went into the back pocket. In the end we paid 9000 pesos, about R1400, for an initial month visa and a one month extension. The previous week Colin had paid only 7000 pesos for exactly the same visas. No complaints or requests to see the official ‘price list’ brought any reduction in the charges.
There followed some shopping for long missed fresh fruit and vegetables as well as several dinners ashore. We discussed our proposed route through the Philippines back to Malaysia with Déjà Vu. Everyone was determined that we would go downwind all of the way, if we could. Glyn and I formed an association, WAB, Wives Against Beating, and have recruited a few members, who have all had sailing to weather in big chunks. We also said we would try to do only day sails as the waters we would be sailing through were full of reefs and other charted obstacles, never mind the uncharted ones – fishing boats, buoys and floats. Together we planned a route which would, with luck bring us to Puerto Princessa in time to check out before our visas expired.
Cebu and LeyteIslands
The first leg was a 20 mile fetch to theCamotesIslands. We were still traveling northwards into the wind and would be doing so for another forty miles until we reached the latitude of the north of Cebu Island and could start to travel to the west.
Our planned anchorage was at Santiago on the SE corner of Pacijan Island, protected we hoped from the NE by a reef and Poro Island. Déjà vu arrived ahead of us and radioed a message that the anchorage was untenable because of a fresh SE wind blowing straight in. Both boats then sailed to the west coast of Pacijan and anchored at Consuela for the night. In the early hours of the morning a North West wind came up and blew so hard that we had to get our anchors up and set sail as soon as we could see enough to do so.
Moving on again we were eager to get all of the beating over and done with, and put another 20 miles under our belts before we anchored at Puerto Isabela in Dupon Bay on the south west coast of Leyte Island. There we had to stay for four days, as some ghastly weather set in. Lots of wind from the north east and buckets of rain. Each evening we prepared to leave early next morning for the almost fifty mile hop to Malapascua Island, north of the top of Cebu Island. Each morning we woke to heavy rain, wind and almost no visibility and had to call off the plan.
On the fifth day we left at 0600 under motor with clearing skies. At 0900 the wind arrived from the NE at 12 to 15 knots and we reached Malapascua by lunch time.
We learned on the BBC news that, on the day we left Puerto Isabela, the heavy rain caused serious mudslides in the area, killing many people. We were saddened but not very surprised. The countryside has been denuded by illegal logging, housing is primitive and the rains were some of the most intense we had ever seen.
Malapascua was a fantastic stop; a typical tropical island with crystal clear water, white beaches and a sheltered anchorage. We found a cyber café in the jungle and even an Italian, yes Italian, restaurant on the beach front. It sold the most delicious food at very reasonable prices. The owners live in Italy for six months, covering the winter period, and at Malapascua for the rest of the year.
We were now as far north as we needed to go to clear the tops of Panay and Busuanga Islands and could look to faster, easier, downwind passages from now on.
Panay
Two and a half days later we left at 0400 to sail almost 40 miles to the Gigante Islands. The early departure was because we had noticed that, although the NE wind was still around, it tended to blow in the morning but cut off around eleven or twelve o’clock. This is exactly what happened and we had to motor the last three hours to anchor in the gap between North and South Gigante Islands. The charts made this look like a good anchorage, but the NE swell came in through the gap between the two islands and we had an uncomfortable, rolly time there.
We were now north of Negros and off the NE corner of Panay. There are very few good anchorages on the Panay north coast and we again had to make an early departure to reach one of them, Port Batan, over 50 miles away. The NE wind had now veered to ENE and stayed with us much longer giving us a fast comfortable run to the entrance to the river where we would find Port Batan. The shoal waters opposite the river reach over a mile and a half out to sea. The entrance is marked by two poles stuck in the mud; a red flag on the one to starboard and a green one to port, not easy to see in the choppy water. Once into the entrance the bottom is not visible due to the very muddy water and we had to be extremely careful to steer the exact course required, all the time watching the landmarks on the shore.
Déjà Vu, some way ahead of us, motored over the bar and into the narrow pass radioing useful information back to us.
When we rounded the final 90 degree turn to starboard taking us in to the ‘port’ we found Déjà Vu already anchored opposite a small creek and very close to a concrete quayside. We opted to go well past them as we were wary of getting involved in any shipping activities that might take place at this small river landing spot. Colin shouted as we went past that they wanted to be near the creek, because the ferries obviously would go in there and he wanted to watch the action.
Next morning they saw a bit too much action. As Glyn was enjoying her coffee in the cockpit she saw some smoke over the reeds which obscured the passage to seaward. She thought a fishing boat might be coming in. Soon there was a loud blare from a horn, an enormous inter-island ferry rounded the corner and came straight towards Déjà Vu, exactly between the ferry and the wharf. There was much frantic activity as Colin and Glyn got their anchor up in double quick time and came to re-anchor closer to us. Having been more prudent the afternoon before we were able to watch and laugh. The ferry docked and off loaded hundreds of passengers, followed by a truck and a forklift. They proceded to take many containers out of the hold and stack them on the wharf. An hour later the ferry left and the containers were carted off into the jungle. Port Baton was once again quiet and lonely.
After a welcome lay day it was Senta’s turn to be terrorized by a ferry. As we rounded the bend leading into the channel we heard the dreaded ‘Tooooot!’ and saw the ferry hurrying towards us. We did a quick u-turn back to where the channel was a little wider and waited near the mud banks for the ferry, almost as large as a small ship, to pass. Senta safely negotiated the passage through the river mouth and shoals and was soon on her way to Borocay, the well known tourist island off the north west corner of Panay, about 35 miles away. A good NE wind helped us cover the distance in 6 hours, arriving just after lunch.
There we anchored in a narrow strip of clear blue water with Borocay Island to the east and extensive coral reef to the west. Many bancas, about one every minute or so, came from Panay and past our transoms, to deliver tourists to this ‘Island Paradise’. It was a nightmare, worse than Phi Phi Don Island in the Phuket area of Thailand. As evening approached the tourists and motorized bancas all went back to Panay. The local sailing bancas set out from the beach to practice for an upcoming race. They sailed up and down the channel behind us with the sun shining through their colourful sails. This was a remarkably beautiful picture which almost made up for the day time torment.
In spite of the tourists we stayed at Borocay for a further three days, shopping, banking, e-mailing and eating at some of the beachside restaurants. We had almost enjoyed our stay, were pleased we had gone to Borocay, but would not willingly go back!
Only Busuanga Island and the Cullion Island group lay between us and Palawan, where we would check out of the Philippines before heading back to Borneo.
We started to make plans for this last part of our ‘Voyage to Palau’.
More in the next newsletter.
Kind Regards, Faith and Pierre
Senta Newsletter February to June 2006 We go slowly back to Borneo
Only Busuanga Island and the Cullion Island group lay between us and Palawan, where we would check out of the Philippines before heading back to Borneo.
Panay to Busuanga
We now had to head slightly northwards to the south west corner of Mindoro to give us a reasonable final day sail to Busuanga. Our first leg in this direction was to Semirara Island, 35 miles away, which the charts showed to have a good anchorage on its north western side.
We opted to sail around the south of Semirara and then northwards to find a place to drop our hooks. What the charts had not shown us was that there was a large open-cast low-grade coal mine exactly where we wanted to stop. As we approached we were alarmed by red discoloration in the water. We first thought this was some sort of reef but soon realized it was caused by dust from the mining activity. Soon Senta and Déjà vu were covered in fine red dust. Ughh!! It was to be a long time before wind and rain washed the boats clean of this menace. We definitely will not go back there again!. Luckily it was Friday and the mine stopped working for the weekend. So we had a dust free lay day and were on our way again on Sunday.
We now sailed in a north westerly direction to Bognao Inlet on the west coast of Ambulong Island off the south west corner of Mindoro Island. The distance of about 20 miles was soon covered in north easterly winds of 18 to 25 knots broad on the starboard beam. The water at Bognao was clear and both boats had a good sea water wash which removed some of the dust, but left behind horrible, sticky sea water.
After another lay day we set off for Nanga Islands off the north east corner of Busuanga Island. This 45 mile leg took about ten hours as the wind was light and then died almost completely. We tried the spinnaker for a while but then had to motor for the last four and a half hours. As we closed Busuanga we were treated to a magnificent view of Tara Island, a rocky, orange coloured sentinel against the jungle green of Busuanga. The entrance between the two Nanga Islands was tricky, but the anchorage was much better than it appeared to be on the charts. We were all entranced. This was the nicest place we had stopped at in weeks. We hoped it boded well for the future. Snorkelling was not good, as the seas were rough around the rocks and the coral had been dynamited. But we enjoyed the peace and the scenery
On our third day at Nanga Déjà Vu’s weather fax showed another TRS (tropical revolving storm) on its way. Currently at Palau it gave us a few days to get to a typhoon shelter, two of which, Ilulutok Inlet and Halsey Harbour were within easy reach. So next day we set off for Ilulutok, while Colin and Glyn opted for a short interim visit to a resort at Maricaban on the north coast of Busuanga.
After a fast run to the west we rounded Pinacle rock before heading south to Ilulutok bay. The entrance to this narrow strip of water between Caluit and Busuanga Islands was difficult. Surrounded by reefs and small islands we first had to sail to the south east and then north east before finally turning east wards to enter the anchorage. This was hair raising stuff because the reefs were not visible except where they were shallow enough for the waves to break.
We once again prepared for the approaching weather by laying two anchors in tandem. We decided to delay further preparation until we were surer of the position and speed of the TRS.
Two days later a catamaran, Marica, sailed in and anchored to the east of Senta and further in to the creek. The sight of her crew diving overboard for a swim encouraged me to plan a boat-bottom scrubbing session for the following day. Crocodiles were obviously not a problem. We were always eager to check the hull for growth, as the anti fouling paint was now over two years old and sea grass and barnacles had to be actively discouraged.
Next morning the people on board Marica went ashore in their dinghy to visit the game reserve on Caluit Island to the north. This reserve had been set up years ago for the, then ruling, Marcos family and stocked with game from Kenya. I wondered how the animals had enjoyed the sea voyage, or if maybe they had come by air.
I started to clean Senta’s hull, but soon the wind was blowing hard from the east. I get sea-sick swimming in rough water and was about to stop work when Pierre shouted to me that Marica was dragging her anchor and coming towards Senta. I stayed in the water to check that she would miss us and then, when I saw her pass by and head for the reefs at the entrance, I decided to try and rescue her. As I swam towards Marica Pierre kept blowing our fog horn in an attempt to alert her crew. Once on board the catamaran I let out all the anchor warp but she continued to drag. I felt I should abandon ship to stop being blown out through the pass to sea. Just then Marica’s anchor caught on the deep part of one of the reefs on the southern shore. She was obviously safe now so I dived overboard and started the long swim back to Senta. It was tough going through the choppy water, but I was wearing some large new light-weight flippers I had bought in Kota Kinabalu before we set out for Palau. Soon I was back on Senta enjoying a fresh water shower and a welcome cup of tea.
Marica’s crew eventually returned from the game reserve and motored hastily to their boat, now almost a mile away from where they had anchored it. As they passed by I shouted to them that the boat had dragged, and that I had gone aboard to let out their warp. There was no reaction from them and also no thank you later once they had re-anchored. Amazing!
Déjà Vu arrived at Illulutok next afternoon to tell us that they had decided to move on in the morning to Halsey Harbour, where they felt the anchorage would be more sheltered in case the TRS, which was still on its way, came near.
Busuanga to Palawan
After six days hiding at Illulutok, during which the TRS dissipated, we moved on southwards, motoring in a flat calm, to Popotatan Island, 20 miles away. There we anchored opposite a deserted resort, in bright blue water with Popotan to the north and Culion Island to the south.
We saw a few tourists paddling by in canoes rented from the resort. Those who had just arrived had snow white skins and those who had been at Popotan for a while looked like boiled lobsters.
On Thursday 10 March we left Popotan under motor at 0700 and headed almost due south along the coast of Culion Island. We planned to go through the Dicabaito channel at the southern tip of Culion and anchor in a deep inlet on the eastern side.
At 1000 the wind came through and we were able to sail. By 1230 as we passed Saddle Rock at the entrance to HalseyHarbour we heard Déjà Vu and another South African boat, Wanderlust, talking to each other on the VHF radio. We spoke to Glyn and she advised us not to go through Dicabaito channel. They had just attempted it and the wind was blowing through there in such bullets that they had opted out and were now on their way south to Cablauan Island.
We thus decided to stop at Halsey Harbour, a large, many fingered inlet on the west side of Culion. With the wind on our nose we had to motor sail for three and a half hours until we were safely anchored in the north arm. This certainly looked like a good typhoon shelter and we recently learned that, three months later, Wanderlust had sat out a typhoon in this spot.
Two days later we motor sailed south to join Déjà Vu at CablauanIsland.
The anchorage is in a large bay on the north west corner of the island. Déjà Vu was rolling in the swell which was wrapping around the northern shore. We noticed this and moved further in and to the south where we didn’t suffer so much from the roll. Next morning Colin and Glyn moved further inshore of us and were happy to be out of the swell.
Both boats were now faced with the problem of how to get to Palawan Island. The large Dumuran Island is in the way and has very few, if any, suitable anchorages. After much head scratching we decided to break our rule of day-sails only and try for an overnight sail of just over 100 miles from Cablauan Island to Reinhard Island at the south end of Green Islands bay on the east coast of Palawan. It was now March 14 and Déjà Vu needed to be in Puerto Princessa by the 21st to check out of the Philippines.
The wind blew from the east at around 15 knots all day, lessening to ten knots in the evening. We ran goose-winged at five knots through the moonlit night to arrive at Reinhard island at 0900 the next morning. A wonderful sail! To quote from the A-Team, ‘Isn’t it great when a plan comes together?’.
While Déjà Vu sailed directly to Puerto Princessa we dawdled into Honda Bay and anchored for a night at Buguias Island. Conditions were not good and the island was populated and noisy, so we moved on the next morning. Sailing carefully through the many reefs and islands we arrived at almost the nicest spot we had found in the Philippines, and just around the corner, so to speak, from Puerto Princessa! It is an island about one mile WSW of Meara Island, too small to even have a name. There we anchored in clear water between two reefs for three days of bliss.
We now joined Déjà Vu in Puerto Princessa, for some fresh provisioning and to check out. The immigration officials were horrified to hear how much we had paid for visas in Cebu and said that we should write to the immigration head office in Manilla to complain. We couldn’t be bothered but decided that on future visits to the Philippines we will try always to check in at Puerto Princessa.
Palawan to Borneo
We were now nearing the end of our ‘holiday’ and had the long dreaded prospect of hauling Senta out of the water in Kudat, Borneo, for a much needed painting session. Deja Vu, although not hauling out, was also heading for Kudat to paint her deck and topsides in the well protected yacht basin, called ‘The Pond’. Both boats were like reluctant scholars dragging their feet on the way to lessons. Our day hops got shorter as we stopped wherever we could to delay the evil time when we would become workers instead of players.
Between Puerto Princessa and Kudat we stopped at places we had been before; Malanao Island, Sir James Brooke Point, Iglesia Point and Clarendon Bay. They all looked exactly as they did when last seen over a year before; just as lonely and poor.
We also visited some new places.
ArenaIsland and GardinerIsland, between Malanao and Sir James Brooke Point were unremarkable, but provided good protected overnight stops in the NE season.
The winds were becoming lighter as we entered April and the change over season. We had to resort to using the engine more and more often and in doing so had cause to curse the Kota Kinabalu mechanic who had arranged to adjust our injectors. They had been fine before the adjustment, but were now causing the engine to belch out clouds of grey smoke. Something else to put on our list of work to be done back in Borneo.
Candaraman Island, off Ramos Island in the North Balabac Strait was so lovely we stopped for four days. Was it the beauty of the place or the dread of work that kept us there so long?
Our last stop, also for four days, was one of the best. Tiga Island off the NE corner of Balambangan Island has a large lagoon inside a fringing reef. Several fishing boats were anchored there, but we were wary of the depth, so anchored just outside. The holding was good and protection from wind and swell excellent.
We hated to leave, but had to some time. On Sunday 16 April, motoring in rain, we slowly made our way to anchor in the pond at Kudat.
The Dreaded Haul Out!
Dinner at the Kudat golf club with Colin and Glyn, where we saw our friends Warren and Mary of Arawana, preceded a hectic time.
On Monday we checked in to Malaysia, which is always a pleasure – quick, little red tape and no money to pay. After a tour of Kudat, a small fishing town, we arranged for Senta to be hauled out on the travel lift at the Penuwasa boatyard at eight o’clock the following morning.
We also reserved a room at the Ria Hotel for a month. This was fairly expensive, but some of the best money we have ever spent. We had decided that we needed to have some respite at the end of each day from the dust and heat of the shipyard. We would never have been able to complete the work needed to sand, fill and paint Senta’s hull and top sides, even with the help of Badang, a young local man, if we were not able to shower and rest in our air conditioned room each evening.
On Tuesday, after slipping Senta we moved into the hotel and the next morning Pierre traveled the 100 miles or so to Kota Kinabalu by long distance taxi to fetch our motor bike. He was really exhausted after the hectic, two and a half hour taxi ride, followed by the three hour, cramped bike ride. But it was worth it, as we could now get around the spread-out town of Kudat to buy bits and pieces as well as to commute to and from our refuge at the Ria.
Internet access was available in the hotel lobby for guests, so we could keep in contact with our family, while wishing they were with us to help! We dreamt of a plane load of friends and relatives landing at the small airport, dressed in overalls and armed with scrapers and sand paper.
Reasonably priced meals at KFC, the golf club, a seafood restaurant on the waterfront and at Annie’s meant that we did not have to cook. We could make endless cups of tea on Senta and in the hotel room, so our inner persons were well looked after.
There was even a laundry next door to the hotel so we could just throw our disgustingly dirty boat working clothes into a bag, take them to the ‘dhobi’ and get them back the next afternoon, all fresh and clean.
Sounds like another holiday, doesn’t it? But I can assure you it wasn’t.
It seemed as if the sanding, scraping and filling would never end, but, as always happens, once it did the rest of the work went reasonably quickly.
Almost exactly one month from the day we hauled out we were back in the pond, considerably poorer. But Senta was looking, oh so very good!
The injectors still needed adjusting, the starter motor on the engine was jamming intermittently and our fridge gas had all leaked out of the system while we were on the hard. Will it never end!!?? We wanted to be tied to a jetty to do this work so, nine days later, we sailed back to Sutera Harbour Marina in Kota Kinabalu.
Up to now the starter motor and the injectors have been fixed. But work has stopped because we eventually succumbed and bought a lap top computer. We now play with it all day. Actually I have used it to write the newsletters and Pierre is reconstructing and editing a novel.
Right now we have no special plans and we can’t go anywhere till the SW season is over in November. So, as we buy ice from the marina bar every day, the fridge can wait for a while as we become computer literate again.
Regards to everyone, Pierre and Faith
PS. When are some of you going to chuck it all up and come cruising with us? Or have the newsletters scared you off? P&F
Anchorages described in last three news letters
Lat Long
Gayana Resort 06 00.88N 116 02.85E
Usukan Bay 06 28.28N 116 20.39E
Puerto Princessa 09 45.88N 118 43.79E
Bonbanon 09 03.47N 123 07.59E
Lazi Bay 09 07.27N 123 38.84E
Guindleman Bay 09 45.41N 124 29.73E
Limasawa Island 09 56.18N 125 03.93E
Moribojoc Bay 09 42.8N 123 49.87E
Mocaboc Island 10 04.06N 123 55.60E
Cebu Yacht Club 10 19.76N 123 58.57E
Consuela, Camotes Islands 10 38.42N 124 17.65E
Puerto Isabela, Leyte Island 10 55.03N 124 25.95E
Malapascua Island 11 20.43N 124 06.59E
Gigante Islands 11 36.37N 123 20.44E
Port Batan, Panay Island 11 35.77N 122 28.72E
Borocay Island 11 56.84N 121 55.71E
Semirara Island 12 04.95N 121 20.77E
Bognao,Ambulong Island 12 11.95N 121 00.42E
Nanga Islands 12 20.54N 120 16.06E
Ilulutok Bay, Busuanga Island 12 16.07N 119 53.00E
Popotatan Island 11 59.64N 119 51.41E
Halsey Harbour Busuanga 11 47.63N 119 57.82E
Cabulauan Island 11 23.05N 120 05.39E
Reinhard Island 10 09.15N 119 15.58E
Buguias Island 09 55.90N 118 51.10E
No name Island 09 52.85N 118 46.01E
Malanao Island 09 26.01N 118 46.60N
Arena Island 09 15.01N 118 28.84N
Gardiner Island 08 02.79N 118 06.81N
Sir James Brooke Point 08 46.28N 117 49.54E
Iglesia Point 08 30.28N 117 28.09E
Candaraman Island 08 04.57N 117 05.77E
Clarendon Bay, Balabac Island 07 48.97N 117 01.34E
