Filed April 19, 2011 at 11:47 pm under by Administrator
sunset at anchor ( such a good feeling…)
big, nasty waves on the way.
Oren sniffing tobacco leaves.
bags of spices in the market.
oysters and seaweed for sale.
brown sugar
children at the anchorage.
Filed April 16, 2011 at 2:24 am under by Administrator
We left San Jose on Mindoro on Wednesday. For some reason which now seems strange we neglected to download grib files ( grib files are the best way of getting an accurate weather forecast for sea areas). The weather did look nice, and the Amihan had been quite light for a few days, with south westerly winds for part of the day even, so we assumed that the season was already changing, the worst of the Amihan over. Between Mindoro and Panay there is little or no protection from the full force of the strong north easterly monsoon which at the height of the season blows at 30 knots for days on end, and huge waves rip through the channel between the islands.
We left San Jose with a light south westerly breeze and a smooth, calm sea. We were towing our new dinghy with the oars and outboard on, another mistake, it turned out. We had a really nice sail through the islands south of San Jose and came out of the tip of Mindoro with the same good wind. We had considered stopping for the night in a sheltered anchorage just before the course to Panay would take us out to sea, but the breeze was so nice we decided to carry on. As we sailed out, getting a few miles from the shelter of Mindoro we saw big waves on the horizon, coming the opposite way to the wind. We wondered whether this was because of the strong current which was against the wind, maybe forming a standing wave, or whether these were waves from the Amihan blowing further out to sea. Soon we had our answer. The wind gradually veered and died, then came up again from the north east and rapidly built to 20, 25, then 30 knots, with gusts of 40 knots. The waves quickly rose to 3 metres, 4 metres and more, and we started to get wet, spray and even waves breaking over the cockpit. We had furled sails except for a little bit of jib and started the engine to keep us at a reasonable angle to the waves, and decided to try to get back to Mindoro. No way! The current going south west was so strong that even with the engine we couldn’t turn around. We had a wild helterskelter ride all night, getting up to speeds of more than 8 knots, unheard of for Chasamba. The dinghy started to fill with water and we would have liked to get it on deck, but it was impossible. We watched as it turned upside down and the engine and oars fell off. Eventually we managed to pull it up alongside Chasamba and turned it the right way up, and let it bang along next to us until a lull in the wind at dawn. Then we heaved it up on deck finally, but not without it being damaged quite a lot.
The rest of the journey was gradually better, as we got closer to Panay and out of the channel. The waves only really got much better a few miles from San Jose though. At least it was a very fast trip, and now we are licking our wounds in the well sheltered anchorage. There is quite a big city here with a good supermarket and internet cafe close to the anchorage, so it’s a safe bet we will be here for a while. Oren has already started mending the dinghy and making new oars, and I have cleaned up the awful mess our hopeless lashing left us with. ( The garbage bin fell over and emptied itself everywhere, the box of torch batteries fell on the floor and batteries got everywhere, wet clothes that we took off were strewn everywhere, bits of paper receipts and so on fell on the floor,water came up the sink and turned everything to mush…)
Sheva wasn’t really impressed with our seamanship, in fact she gave us several extremely scathing looks before settling down on the floor of the cockpit and going to sleep, her usual answer to bad weather. ( Actually her answer to any kind of weather).
Filed April 7, 2011 at 2:59 am under by Administrator
A banca on the beach
one of the many islands
the market- actually really fresh!
going home from town to a village.
Filed April 3, 2011 at 11:13 pm under by Administrator
This part of the Philippines is very pretty, really postcard material, with turquoise patches of reef fringing every island, palm trees and sand varying from pure white to almost black on volcanic islands. It is very dangerous too, with inaccurate maps and unsurveyed areas which could almost have ” Here there be sea monsters” written on them. Reefs sprout suddenly from 20 meters depth to 2, or even zero, and can only be seen when the sun is high in the sky, so anchoring for the night is an adventure! We try to anchor every evening before twilight at least; sailing at night, which I usually enjoy, is not the best idea in these areas because unlighted pearl farms take up most of the space between islands. We got stuck in one near Busuanga town, and escaped after Oren stood on the rope which had wrapped itself round the keel, while I gunned the engine in reverse. We never did actually find Busuanga town, and ended up anchoring off a nice little island with a village where we could buy fish.
We circumnavigated Busuanga, stopped at the entrance of Caluit bay and then went on to Port Caltom, which isn’t a port at all, although it may be a Caltom. There is a resort on one side of the bay which is good for filling up water and having a dip in their pool, although it costs 200 pesos. We ate in their restaurant and frankly it was not as good as it should have been for the price. The better side of Caltom actually isn’t well known and is worth visiting; a small village sits on the eastern arm of the inlet, which is better shelter than it appears and is shallow, with good holding in mud. At a pinch this would be a typhoon anchorage, especially if you can get a little further up the river and round the bend; we didn’t try, but it looks possible. From the village, just off the anchorage, a jeepney goes to Coron every day, at 4 in the morning. Oren took the jeepney and brought supplies of ice, chicken, pork and so on, which improved our standard of living greatly!
From Port Caltom we sailed to Tara island, and an uncomfortable anchorage, then on to San Jose with an unusual wind which started off northerly and swung round to the west, giving us a nice sail. For once we could sail at night as there are no pearl farms here, and we sailed through fleets of bancas fishing with floating islands which they tow around. Now we are anchored outside the entrance to the river here. San Jose is a big town, and has a good market, lots of hardware stores and a few reasonable restaurants. Everything is cheaper here, the vegetables particularly, so we have been eating huge salads. Alimango, mud crabs, are good here and cheaper than other places, and I have perfected my recipe; first I bring the crabs slowly to a boil, turn off the heat and drain them, then clean them and break open the body and claws. The clever bit is the seasoning ( although really they are fine without, but this just makes them irresistable) ; I grate garlic, add a few spoons of oil and a little fish sauce, then whip it with a fork. If you get the right ratio of fish sauce to oil it emulsifies and makes a great sauce, which I spoon over the prepared crabs, then warm them in the oven for a few minutes. Done this way these are the tastiest crabs I have ever eaten. Since they are sold alive they are always fresh too!
We will be here for a few more days- I have to renew my visa and the officer in charge is away, so we will probably wait, unless we get itchy feet again. We have bought antifouling paint, and the next stop is Bonbonon, where we have been told there is a wall to dry out against. Typhoon season is getting closer, and already one has given us a scare before drifting off north eastwards. Bonbonon is supposed to be a typhoon anchorage and is southerly enough to be below most of the typhoons.
Oren with the biggest cuttlefish I have ever seen; he speared it! It wasn’t really all that tasty though, maybe a bit too elderly?
Alimango for dinner!!!
Anchored off one of the Calamian islands ( don’t remember which one!)
Filed March 9, 2011 at 2:25 am under by Administrator
We have been in Puerto Princesa so long we nearly grew barnacles to the sea floor. Eight months was really too long, even though Puerto is a nice place and the yacht club is very friendly. Oren went to work in Israel and visit his family for three and a half months, and came back just in time for a wonderful Christmas buffet prepared by Cissy at the club.
The Armenian ambassador even found time to visit…..
After recovering from working 12 hours a day in Israel, Oren decided we really needed a new dinghy, and we were lucky to be given plans for a Spindrift 10 foot sailing dinghy.We worked really hard making it, and we are really proud of the result. It is actually a real boat, not just a cupboard on its side! One advantage of constructing things in the Philippines is that plywood is cheap. We had a good place to work too, as John and Cissy kindly let us use the yacht club facilities. Rocky, who probably works harder than anyone at keeping the club on its feet, gave us tips on how to do tricky bits of fibreglass and was generally very helpful. His lovely little daughter, whose nickname is Mouse, is going to be a top model one of these days!
By the way,sorry for all the fiberglass sandings in your laundry, guys! Orens father kindly brought us an old sail and we managed to sail really well in El Nido.
At the start of February Orens brother Uri and his father came out to visit us. After a quick tour of north Luzon they arrived in Puerto, and then travelled up to El Nido while we sailed round and met them there. We had a good time sailing round Bacuit bay, visiting all the beautiful islands. We found a free mooring at the entrance of the lagoon on Miniloc and stayed the night. It was a good place to stay, because apart from being very pretty it was also protected on nearly all sides, and when a strong wind and a squall blew up overnight we were glad of that.After restocking with pork chops, chicken legs and plenty of beer we went down to Pinasail island, and found a reasonable anchoring spot on Lagen island, just opposite the cathedral cave. We sailed our new dinghy over to the cave, and found it was high enough to enter with the mast! There isn’t much to see there though, its just a little cave. We didn’t feel safe staying overnight, so we set off back to Corong Corong, which is the anchorage south of El Nido, and had a great sail with the Amihan wind blowing through the islands and scaring us to death with sudden gusts, then whipping round to come from a different angle altogether. Good practice after so long at anchor.
A few days later we set sail for Coron with our temporary crew. The wind was against us all the way, and the best thing we can say is that it wasn’t too strong, so we managed to motor all the way, something we wouldn’t usually do, but with visitors you can’t really sit at sea for weeks waiting for wind and tacking. We did manage to find anchorages each night, and only touched one reef when a strong current pushed us onto it as we were leaving an anchorage. Uri jumped into the water and guided us out, and we didn’t have any damage apart from scratches on the keel, which is used to it.
Coron is nice, as a town nicer than El Nido and a bit cheaper. Water is available on the jetty for 5 pesos a jerry can and there is a good market. The mud crabs are particularly good, and I cooked four big ones for dinner one night. I did them in a garlic sauce in the oven after boiling them and cleaning them, and they were wonderful. This was the first time Uri and Orens father had eaten crabs, and I am sure they will be the best crabs they taste for a long time!
Coron anchorage is off Coron town, but Coron town isn’t actually on Coron. Confused? You won’t be, after the next episode of … no, but really, Coron island is across the bay. Why? I guess that the local tribe, which owns Coron island, doesn’t want anyone traipsing about all over it without paying, so they moved the town to Busuanga. To visit Coron island you have to pay, and it really adds up, since you have to pay for each beach, lagoon and whatever. One of the locals told us the government is cracking down on this now, because it is actually unlawful, but since this is the Philippines, good luck with that. We took a bangka tour and visited one of the lakes, which are brackish and have a few little fish, the skeleton wreck, which is the shallowest of the many wrecks in the bay and can be reached snorkelling, several reefs and a nice island where we ate lunch. The wrecks are all WWII Japanese cargo ships which were all sunk on the same day in a bombing raid. We haven’t dived to any of the deep ones, but there doesn’t seem really to be much left, and even the fish aren’t spectacular since there is so much fishing here. The reefs also are mostly dead, probably because of dynamite fishing in the past. The one place which was very nice was the fjord, which is about in the middle of the top end of Coron island. The limestone walls are really nice, and there is a temperature difference in the water- about a meter down it is warm, and the top layer is quite cold. We ended the day in the Seven Islands area, which is a bit better than the rest of the reefs because it is protected by armed guards! Really, 24 hours a day!
Now we are sitting in Coron bay, Uri and Orens father have taken the ferry to Manila and may be home by now. We have seen Celuan, whom we know from Puerto- they are staying round Coron for the next few months, and Arnak, whose track we used entering Coron. We are thinking about going round to Conception, from there to Busuanga and out to Apo reef, but we will probably think about it for a while, if I know us.
By the way, sorry to all those people who follow the blog and haven;t had an update for so long, especially Robert, whoever you are! It’s just a bit depressing to write an update and say you are in the same place, not doing anything new! Anyway, we should have updates more regularly for the next few months, at least.
Filed September 8, 2010 at 2:18 am under by Administrator
It’s been quite a while since I updated Chasamba, we’ve been busy with lots of things- I’ve been painting the deck and have scraped the barnacles off the hull ( an ongoing project!), Oren has built a wind vane rudder and we have generally cleaned up a bit. Then we made a quick trip to Port Barton, and a few days ago came back from El Nido. Port Barton was nice, but El Nido is outstandingly beautiful and well worth a visit for anyone who likes snorkeling or just looking at the view.
Our bus to Port Barton….
which of course broke down several times….
in the middle of nowhere.
The nice thing about Philippinos is that although it is a long, hard journey, 6 or 7 hours,
everyone looks on the bright side!
the view from the roof
and from below….
Port Barton beach
Oren next to one of the three or so buildings in Port Barton
a banca trip to the islands
lunch…
and happily back to the guesthouse just before the rain starts.
the wind vane under construction…
ready to bolt onto the stern
leaving for El Nido at 5 in the morning
what time is it again?….
randy….
the entrance to the guesthouse, it was lovely
our bungalow
El Nido beach early in the morning
we shared our banca with three young Israeli backpackers, really nice people
back home to a full moon over Abanico yacht club.
Filed July 2, 2010 at 2:44 am under by Administrator
A Jeepney, kind of a local bus.
A typical shop on the outskirts of Puerto.
Oren and Sheva walking past a tricycle ( 100 pesos to be driven where you want for an hour!)
A pork butcher in the market- in the front you can see the lower leg with trotters, used for making pata, crispy pork leg.
An octopus stall!
A fish and seafood stall.
The Yacht Club jetty.
The bar (a quiet day…)
Kids playing near the yacht club.
Oren has started to make a wind-vane ( we got plans for one from a cruiser we met in Singapore), so keep posted for pictures of various large pieces of metal being tortured in different ways, heroic attempts to attach bolts and screws to the stern of Chasamba as she tries to sail off with her boom between her legs, and a lot of beer drinking- after all, it’s thirsty work, wind vane making, and even writing about it….
Filed June 14, 2010 at 2:17 am under by Administrator
A typical outrigger, Puerto Princesa harbour.
A HUGE barracuda!
A native village, Clarendon Bay, Balabac
A duty free beer in Labuan harbour.
A great big tree trunk, lots like this float by the Borneo shore.
Filleting a Spanish mackerel.
Filed June 10, 2010 at 9:21 pm under by Administrator
Yes, we are safely anchored in the well sheltered natural harbour of Puerto Princesa, outside the Albanico Yacht Club, surrounded by the big jungle covered mountains which are part of the central range which form the backbone of Palawan. This is a nice, sleepy little place run by a British expatriate, John and his Philippino wife, Cissy. There are only three other yachts here, probably partly because this is the start of the off season for the Philippines, which means a lot of rain and the possibility of cyclones, although in Palawan the chance is quite small.
The good thing about arriving at a place like this after being at sea for a while is that things like being able to get gas bottles refilled and go to the supermarket seem really thrilling! Puerto Princesa is a small city, or a big town, with only one supermarket, a market which we haven’t visited yet and a large amount of tiny little local shops, all selling the same selection of stuff. Alcohol is very cheap, the local Rum is about a pound a litre, and is supposed to be good, although we haven’t tried it yet. Most of the population is very poor, and the most popular item for sale is a variety of different little tins to mix with rice. This is actually a great idea, as it makes a really cheap meal, needs no fridge and is really quick to prepare- perfect for sailing! There are really lots of kinds,meat, fish and seafood in lots of flavours, and the tins are just right for two people, about 150 grams or so. They are really cheap too, about 20p a tin. Meat here is good too, we had spare ribs for dinner and we have seen good beef too, for the first time since……and avocado too, which is wonderful.
Check in was easy and pleasant- Israelis get 59 days without a visa, which is almost unheard of for any nationality, so the contrast with Malaysia and Indonesia is extreme.
We did stop in Labuan on the way, and stocked up with tins of meat curry, clams and anchovies in sauce, rice, flour and water. Labuan is a duty free port and the centre of a thriving smuggling network between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, but we didn’t see any of the well feared pirates we were told about- the only boat which bothered us at all was a wretched fishing boat dragging a trawling net with heavy steel cables which kept getting exactly where the wind was taking us. As this was one of the rare days when we had a fair wind, it was annoying!
The weather on the way was ok, but could have been a lot better. We had days and days of sitting in complete calm, looking at a glassy sea and waiting for the faintest breath of wind. Then a squall would come over, and within three minutes the wind would get up to 30 knots! This would either give us a push on the way, or throw us off course, depending on which direction the squall came from, and meanwhile scare us to death as we rushed to shorten sail and control the sudden rush of speed. In the middle of the night this could be a problem, so we reefed the mainsail most evenings, only leaving it full if there were no clouds at all in the sky. This reduced our speed, which most of the time was pretty slow anyway, but was worth it for the peace of mind. In the end we got fed up 70 miles from Puerto Princesa and treated ourselves to 20 hours of motoring to get in. The engine actually worked perfectly, and sounded better at the end than at the start, also was running cooler! It must have needed the practice.
We don’t have any hard and fast plans for the near future, but we do want to go out to Honda Bay at some time, so we will probably rest for a while and stock up, the head out for a week or two then back here, or up north to El Nido.
Filed May 5, 2010 at 3:36 am under by Administrator
This will be the last update from Singapore, we are checked out and tomorrow morning we will be on our way to Borneo. The weather isn’t ideal, not much wind forecast and no real sign of the south west monsoon arriving, but we are fed up of the heat and humidity here. Singapore is one of the few places where we really feel that people aren’t all that happy, too, despite the low crime rate and high standard of living. Anyway, we will soon have no money left if we keep on being moored at Changi!
Today we have bought a huge load of potatoes and onions, garlic and cabbage to go with the pumpkins we got last week, so we are full up now. We really don’t mind a slow, gentle passage since we do have plenty of food and water- having said that it will probably be wild and wet! We have managed to get a Malaysian sim card, so with any luck we will be able to send emails in places where we have reception, but of course we don’t know where those places will be, so we will have to see.
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