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04/09/22 Sun. Almost ready for sea now.......and today the wind is blowing strongly from the SW! Hopefully, it will die down by Tuesday morning.
06/09/22 Tues. Sailing this morning and intending to hop from anchorage to anchorage up the coast of Palawan, so we will be "off the grid" for a week or so! OK, starting to leave and running into a few 'problems' almost immediately, first thing was a broken foredeck hatch - it's not a big deal as it's original purpose was to house a danforth anchor but it will have to be repaired soon. Secondly, the Garmin GPS has died with the usual black screen issue so common with LCD screens in the tropics. We left the 'pond' in company with Zizi and made our way under genoa and engine to Balambangan Island, a sort of sea trial run to test everything out. My wheel pilot control head is playing up and the 1o buttons are not working, also it is difficult to disengage the clutch when needed.
07/09/22 Weds. A joint decision to remain at anchor in Balambangan today. I noticed some small rubber pieces on the cockpit floor which indicated a wheelpilot belt issue. I removed the wheel and the pilot and found the belt shredded inside which is why the clutch would not disengage properly. Luckily, I had a spare belt so that problem was easily cured.
08/09/22 Thurs. Sailed this morning across Balabac Strait and anchored off the the town of Balabac. We all went ashore to get Philippine sim cards for the phones.
09/09/22 Fri. 4am and we received the sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral. Weighed anchor at 0530 and made our way northward with the intention of anchoring at Pirate Island, however on arrival a squall was brewing and we decided not to anchor there but to enter San Antonio Bay and anchor close inshore there.
10/09/22 Sat. A little later start this morning.....weighed anchor at 0700 for our next leg to Crawford Cove. The weather has been benign since leaving Kudat and we have been lucky to have calm seas with only 10 kts of wind.
11/09/22 Sun. Weighed at 0715, again motor sailing with genoa and engine, arriving at Malanao Island at 1530 and tucking ourselves in behind the NW corner. All the anchorages so far have been in about 6 mtrs of water with a mud bottom.
12/09/22 Mon. Away around 0800 for the final 30 miles or so to Puerto Princesa. On arrival there, all the channel navigation buoys were missing, so it seems that no maintenance has been carried out for some time! We anchored off Abanico Yacht Club at 1300.
13/09/22 Tues. And so begins the process of checking in. Mark, Kim, Ana and I took trikes to the Quarantine Office in Rizal Avenue where we duly filled in all the required forms and presented our vaccination certificates. We were told that it costs 50 USD, which is around 2,800 pesos and when we politely asked what that charge was for, the girl in the office got very angry, gave us our papers back and told us to go back to the boats until quarantine and customs officials had visited the boats. OK, when Cissie in the yacht club heard this news, she arranged a meeting with doctors and customs officials at the yacht club for 5pm. The outcome of that meeting was that new rules are now in force whereby you have to send a notification of arrival to immigration, customs and health and you must not leave the boat until they have each visited your boat and given clearance. You are not to go ashore until then. Of course, that really is nonsense and unworkable. They say they are understaffed and don't want yachties coming to their offices but could not explain where the additional staff needed to to make these visits would come from. Nor could they explain how they were going to get to the boats at anchor or how we were supposed to contact them if we had no internet or sim cards. And how are we to pay any fees due if we are not allowed ashore to the banks. They all left the meeting saying they would think about it and let us know tomorrow.
14/09/22 Weds. This morning we got our clearance by sending our papers via Roland the trike driver to the various offices. Quarantine waived our 'charges' on this occasion but it is still not clear if that will be the case for any other incoming yachts. The customs charge of 2,500 pesos is still in the balance and we are arguing whether they are right or wrong in trying to make us pay that. Immigration charges are 110 per person plus the 500 for "express" service.
15/09/22 Thurs. Customs are still insisting the charge is 2,500 going from a 2004 document. However, the document does say that is the maximum chargeable when working overtime and on commercial vessels. We of course do not fall into either category and so we continue to dispute it. They are sending their chief officer to the yacht club tomorrow morning to have another meeting with us! We had a trip to Robinsons this afternoon to get a little shopping done and I made a point of looking into the Immigration Office - it was completely empty, not one customer is sight!
16/09/22 Fri. The customs Chief (female) turned up just after 0900 with a customs officer and we began the long process of form filling. After that, the customs officer boarded both Zizi and Rhumb Do and did a search of lockers etc. Back at the yacht club, he completed his form filling and then asked for 100 USD - a jump of 100% from yesterday. This is about 5,600 peso which he said is for "supervision". This is separate from the 130 peso charge for customs check in. Of course, we argued the charge and the Chief conceded to the 2,500 charge agreed yesterday, but we insisted on an official receipt - which they could not provide. We said we would leave the monies (2,500 each) in escrow with the yacht club until such time as they could provide a receipt. The trouble with these officials is that they are unable to answer any of our questions or point us to any document detailing charges due. Cissie has downloaded directives from the Port Authority which show that yachts are exempt from any charges.........so the questions continue, but I doubt we will get any sort of a refund. As it currently stands. all visiting yachts from now will have to pay $50 quarantine, $100 customs (+130 peso) and 110 peso per person immigration (+500 peso express fee). A further development is the length of stay allowed, Customs say that if the boat stays longer than 6 months, then it is liable for import duties. I guess the numbers of cruising yachts will diminish rapidly from the Philippines if any of this is true.
21/09/22 Weds. All of us have been down with terrible colds over the last 5 days and I believe that Mark and I caught it from the customs guy who boarded our boats, Kim caught it later from Mark, and Ana from me. We went into the yacht club this morning to see if customs have produced any receipt yet, and they have not, so we took back our escrow money and they will have to contact us again if they want to proceed any further. Personally, I think it's just another issue of corruption from people who think they have power to extract funds from yachties.
23/09/22 Fri. 59 years to the day since I joined the Royal Navy - a lifetime ago!!
30/09/22 Fri. We've had several visits into the city and wandered around, the USS Rushmore is in port so the malls are full of American servicemen and women shopping for presents for home. There is piped Christmas carols everywhere you go, Ana said it's because it's the ber months, which I've never heard of before..........SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER etc etc and the Filipinos start celebrating Christmas in those months!
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