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01/04/23 Sat. Happy Birthday Ana! We went for a meal at the Cutting Board with Mike and Marie. The restaurant had been recommended for it's steaks but was a huge disappointment to me, and I left most of my steak.
03/04/23 Mon. Today we started the check out process. First stop was Quarantine although I have not the slightest idea why you should have to visit that office when leaving. We filled in numerous forms to get a 'free pratique' certificate. Then it was off across town to Immigration where I could feel the pressure building inside me and steam coming from my ears! We need an exit stamp in our passports - easy, five minute job (if that), right? Not quite!! We have to fill in enough forms to start our own stationery store, get 3 photographs (with white background), have fingerprints taken, get an affidavit from the solicitors, health insurance (for 3 days!) for Ana, produce boat registration, insurance, crew lists, and countless other bits of paper, pay 500 pesos - and this is just to start the process of getting an exit stamp! They then told us to come back on the 11th and it would be processed. After that it would be the turn of Customs, and you have to pick them up, ferry them to your boat, let them take photo's, ferry them back and pay 3,100 pesos for the privilege. I'm done with the Philippines, I shall never come here again.
07/04/23 Fri. It's such a shame that the Philippines should be as it is. It's a lovely country, the people are friendly, smiling and a pleasure to talk to. But.....put them in a uniform and in government service and they become assholes of the first degree. This is not their fault but that of the government which continues to use out of date practices of domination and corruption.
11/04/23 Tues. Off to Robinson's, (the mall where the Immigration Office is}, at 0830. The office is open at 0800, the mall at 1000, so we had to use the back door to gain admittance. After a couple of hours there, we had our exit stamps and it was then a trike to Customs Office across town - more paperwork there and another hour of filling in, then it was back to the yacht club, taking a customs officer with us, and out to the boat for him to 'inspect' it. Ferry him back to the yacht club, have a drink and a late lunch, then back to Robinson's for a last bit of shopping.
12/04/23 Weds. Let go the mooring at 0630 and hoisted the mainsail before making our way out of the channel. By 0830, we were clear and set course for Rasa Island, about 45 miles away. The wind and current were against us and it was about 1600 when we anchored to the south of Rasa Island, off Narra town.
13/04/23 Thurs. After a peaceful, quiet night, we weighed anchor at 0700 and again hoisted the mainsail. Winds were again against us and very variable, shifting back and forth through 120o which meant we had to continually switch the genoa from side to side. Our original destination was San Antonio Bay but 15 miles short of that I had taken as much as I could and we turned hard to starboard and put into Brookes Point where we anchored at 1630.
14/04/23 Fri. An easy day today as we decided just to motor down the coast to San Antonio Bay. We left Brookes Point at 0700 and anchored in San Antonio at 1015.
15/04/23 Sat. Today's plan was to head to Balabac town.....but things didn't go as planned! We weighed anchor at 0500 and made our way across the bay in the dark. We neared Pirate Island as the dawn came up. Now, normally I would pass inshore of the island as on previous trips, but this time I decided to pass to the north east of it (the seaward side) and that proved to be a big mistake! The chart shows depths of 31 metres but that is most definitely not the case! We were about 500 metres to the NE of the island when the depth alarm went off. The alarm is set to 3 metres below the keel. In the time it took me to look at the depth gauge, it went from 3 to 2 to 1 to 0 accompanied by a severe jolt and grating sound. We were aground on a coral reef!! Ana immediately dropped the sails as I went slowly astern. The boat moved round to port and stuck again. OK - inflate the dinghy and get ready to try to push us off the reef. I could feel the boat rising and falling onto the coral in the gentle swell and tried the engine astern again. This time, with a huge amount of luck, the boat came free, and I saw the depth gauge start to read 0.1, 0.2, 0.3. With a little more depth, I went slowly ahead on full port wheel and we 'backtracked' to deeper water. Ana abandoned the dinghy inflation process and lashed it down on deck again before hoisting the mainsail once more. This time, I took the inshore passage! Those areas to the NE of the island extend about a mile offshore and in some places (as I could now see in daylight) break the sea surface. I am still kicking myself several days later for doing such a stupid thing. Fortunately, the boat's keel is a strong affair and I don't think there is much damage although it will obviously need some repairs doing.
Later......and we are rounding the southern end of Bugsuk Island and avoiding a marker post which fishermen leave bobbing to mark (usually) a pot of some kind. As we neared it, a fisherman in a small bangka started waving and it looked like he was pulling up a line but he was in fact trying to tell us to go to port. Ha, not so easy because that was the way the wind was coming from. However, I changed course to port by about thirty degrees and at the very last moment, Ana shouted "there's a net in front of us". Too late, we sailed over it! It was marked by a string of small two inch black floats and impossible to see from any distance. However, the hull and keel shape of Rhumb Do pushed the net downwards and clear of the prop and rudder and no damage was done to either net or boat.
An hour after that incident, we had a change of heart about going into Balabac town and as we had another two hours of daylight we decided to head to Clarenden Bay which would save us two hours in the morning. Another bangka with a shady group of characters onboard followed us for miles and caused me some concern and a lot of worry to Ana. They could only be heading for the same place as us and would not be going fishing south of the tip of Balabac, no fishing nets were visible either. As the weather was moderate, we made the decision to alter course to port, cross the shipping lanes (after two tankers) and make a night crossing of Balabac Strait. We were hailed on VHF during the crossing by the Philippine Navy, checking up on our destination, last port of call, crew etc. We could not see them, either visually or on AIS, but we would clearly have come up on their screens.
16/04/23 Sun. Negotiated the narrows by Palau Tiga, Riflemans Rock and Labuan Rock safely and anchored in a small bay (I think Kurakit) on Banggi Island at 0130.
After a good sleep, we weighed anchor for the last leg to Kudat, at 0915. The wind was practically non-existent but the mainsail did help a little. We entered the pond and rafted up to Shelley at 1330. Josephine taking the lines for us.
17/04/23 Mon. Into town with Josephine for the usual check-in procedures. What a most pleasing experience that was. Officials were all smiles and jokes and using our first names and we had done Immigration, Customs and Harbour Master in well under an hour. A little shopping but we were unable to get money from the bank as there was a long, long queue outside.
23/04/23 Sun. The middle of Hari Raya and most places are closed. Doing some splicing of braid on braid rope.
30/04/23 Sun. We need some parts for the Sailrite sewing machine. On the way down the coast of Palawan, I ordered them from the US in anticipation of their arrival in Kudat about the same time as ourselves. That hasn't happened! I have spent the last four days arguing with the UPS agent in Kuala Lumpur who was about to return the package to the sender because of non-payment of import duties. It didn't seem to matter that UPS had sent me confirmation the duties had been paid on the 17th. After proving to the agent that the duties had been paid, she eventually messaged me and said the package had now been released and would be here in 3 days time - which is tomorrow, and that's a public holiday, so it won't be here then!
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