June 1, 2011 We head into the Cebu Yacht Club in order to watch game one of the NBA finals. To call this place a yacht club is a bit of an exaggeration. There is no “club” facility here at the marina purposely designated for us. There is a restaurant/bar that must endure with the cruisers using their facilities. We are mindful of this fact and purchase drinks daily and an occasional meal. Some other cruisers we feel take advantage and don’t purchase anything. They will still ask for service of ice water and take up tables. We find that a bit untactful, but to each their own. It is on the restaurant management to bring a complaint either to the cruisers or the marina operators. A yacht club this is not, but the daily fee to be here remains. After the game, we bring some laundry into town and young Oliver from Pagos tagged along. We had fun with him walking about and took him to eat at a BBQ spot that we like. Following up on the ukulele add we found on-line, we exchanged several emails with a man named Henry. We’ve confirmed that he can in fact get ukes from Susing’s (or any of the manufactures here) at significantly reduced prices. Or more accurately; non-gringo/tourist prices. We find out from Henery that the different manufactures are just opposite sides of one large extended family. He’s part of the extended family and does this as a little side business. Luckily while we were at Susing’s Jodie snapped a shot of me with the ukulele we liked, figuring that the picture would be the closest we’d ever get to having it. I sent the picture to Henry and he knew exactly which one it was. We’ve made plans for him to stop by the YC this afternoon with a few samples for us to look at. Henry arrives and his trunk is full of ukes in varying sizes and wood types. We end up sticking with the one we’d seen at Susing’s – a mahogany ovation concert. The one Henry’s brought with him isn’t quite completed yet, and we opt for a couple enhancements (nicer strings and chrome tuners) as well as a shell inlay in the neck with some additional mother of pearl around the body. With all the additions the total comes to just over half of the quoted price of the standard model in the store.
June 3, 2011 Email from Henry with a small problem with the ukulele. The Luthier (uke maker) made a mistake by carving the shell inlay in the wrong location at the base of the fret-board instead of in the headstock where we had wanted it. There are currently no other concert ovations close to being finished, so that would be a long wait. He gives us the option to redo the entire fret-board (breaking the uke) or to do an additional inlay in the headstock (and leave the other at the base of the fret-board). He also said he would throw in a hard case for free. After a few email exchanges we agree with the additional inlay and hard case.
Pizza for dinner, then we buy some sweet mangos from a cute brother-sister team running the family stand and finally our bottled beer. Loaded up, we head on home.
June 4, 2011 George has invited us to watch him perform a fire poi show onshore tomorrow evening. We gladly accept his invitation. A guaranteed good show with possibility of 3rd degree flesh burns! We are there!
June 5, 2011 Henry dropped off the ukulele today and it looks great! The shell inlays in the body, neck and head really look nice. We are pleased and we coax Henry to play the ukulele a bit for us. We show off the instrument to the yacht club members and they all agree that it is the finest ukulele they have seen.
June 6-7, 2011 Rainy boat days, which is nice, time to relax.
June 8, 2011 We found a third option for getting to SM City Mall from Mactan Island - by collectivo van. Cost a little more than a jeepney, less than a taxi, but the great thing is it has air conditioning! The downside is it departs from the mall here on Mactan Island, which means we first need to get to the mall from the marina. We decide to try it out today, first grabbing a jeepney down to the mall (18 cents pp) then paying our 75 cent pp van fare. Then we discover a second downside; they pack the van like a can of sardines. So although technically the van has ac, you hardly notice it packed in so tightly with 12 of your new closest friends. Our reason for coming to the mall today (other than getting out of the dreaded heat and into the lovely air conditioned mall) is to head to the movies to see X-Men 1st Class. Didn't expect much from this film, but movies tickets are cheap here at $2.75 usd pp. One item that may or not be worth mentioning is what I will call the “companion” factor here. Basically, if you’re a foreigner, comfortable financially (you don’t need to be “rich” by US standards), and still walking upright, you can get a young female (or male if you prefer) companion. It’s quite easy; just take your pick of available women (girls, really) making themselves available. They will make solid eye contact, they are quite aggressive about it, and it is socially expectable. All that is expected in return for this companionship is 200 usd sent back to the family and that you take care of her while in this “relationship”. We’ve seen lots of this around Cebu. They are easy to spot; he’s white, older (much) and she’s young (capitol young). The worst thing we saw was a 70 ’ish man approach a teenager at the mall. A few minutes later, they are together in a restaurant. Creepy. We taxi back and grab some ube (yam) shakes before heading back to Savannah. Ube [ooh-beh] shakes have become Jodie’s new favorite treat. Ube is a sweet purple yam and Filipinos love their sweets! Ice cream, shakes, jam, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, pretty much any dessert or sweet thing you can imagine comes in ube. Ube ice cream taste very similar to cookies and cream ice cream.
June 9, 2011 Jodie feels it is time to move on and finally convinces me as well. I like Cebu despite the crappy anchorage and marina. Maybe it is just being in a city after all the time in remote, albeit beautiful, islands. We start the usual preparations – grocery shopping, fuel runs, etc.
June 12, 2011 Final run to SM City mall to pickup cat litter, hair conditioner and check the grocery store for a few items we haven’t found (mainly coffee beans and canned beets). It’s been an indulgence having all the modern amenities here in Cebu and we’re going to miss it as we move back into less developed areas once again. We try the van trip again, but this time we arrived early and snagged the two front seats and it was a much better experience. Learn all the tricks, just in time to leave…
June 13, 2011 Propane. We need to fill our second tank up before we leave and normally the marina would help you out with this; a contact name, a map, something. No help here at the Cebu Yacht Club however.
Our driver doesn’t have change to break a $1000 peso bill so we ask him to stop at the grocery store. We always can use some more rum aboard and I pick up a few bottles to get the change. Have we mentioned the cost of liquor here in the Philippines? It is crazy cheap. A full liter of twelve year aged rum will set you back $6 usd. The eight year rum is $3.00 usd for a 750 mil bottle. Back at the yacht club, all the workers were amazed we actually succeeded in getting our tank refilled. Into a rotisserie chicken place for dinner and when we were finished we gave our leftover rice packets to a family sitting at an adjacent table. For us, the rice is a side dish and there is no way we can finish 12 packets of rice. For them, it’s the main course. They were so very pleased and thankful for the rice, it was amazing.
June 14, 2011 Into shore this morning for final grocery shopping, fuel run, and calls/emails home. I head to the barber for a trim while Jodie goes to the grocery store. We meet back up and Jodie is shocked to see my incredibly short hair. The guy that cut my hair last time was busy and the new guy went a little crazy. For 75 cents, it’s hard to get too upset. I’ll be sporting my new G.I. Joe look for a while. We’re planning to depart tomorrow and we spend the rest of the afternoon getting Savannah put away for sailing. Just after dark we head back into shore to say our goodbyes to the Pagos family and pickup a few final items including a rotisserie chicken and exchange our empty beer bottles for full ones.
Great people, cheap food and transportation, Cock fights and really fresh chicken!
June 15, 2011
All is well as we sail out of the Mactan-Cebu Channel and head towards Bohol. By noon we have 15 knots on our nose, so much for the forecasted light wind! We decide to head into Tipcan Bay to get out of the headwinds. 09° 56.2 N, 123° 53.2 E
June 16, 2011 Around noon we decide to stick our nose out to see what the wind situation is. If they are light, we might do an overnighter to Negros Island, if they are strong, we’ll just duck around the corner to a more protected anchorage in Calape Bay. We find 17 knot head winds and decide there is no way we’re going to fight this for 70+ miles. We round the corner to Calape Bay. We then weave our way through the fish traps and nets and get settled just as the rain arrives. All of these areas are uncharted by C-Map and we are relying on Google Sat images downloaded before we left to navigate and spot the reefs and shallows. Blue colored water is good, brown is bad. It works. 009° 53.0 N, 123° 50.7 E
June 17, 2011 A check of the weather shows strong southwest winds for the next few days so we’ll hunker down here in Calape Bay. The locals have pretty much left us alone, just a friendly wave as they pass by in their canoes. We’re well protected here, so we’ll be able to leave the boat and do a little exploring around the island from here. Bohol Island is home to the Tarsier, the world’s second smallest monkey, and we would like to see them. Jodie’s been fighting a cold so today we just enjoy a lazy day reading and watching movies.
June 18, 2011 Jodie’s feeling a little better today and wants to see if we can find the tarsier monkey ashore. We dinghy over to a clear area, not sure exactly where we are since we are surrounded by mangroves. We have seen others in this one area and we think we can hear the sound of cars. We’re hoping we are near a road and will be able to catch a bus to a nearby town. From the satellite image, we know there is a road off in this direction. We take a short walk down a dirt track and find ourselves in the middle of a large shrimp farm. What we thought was the sound of car traffic is the sound of the paddlewheel aerators! Marcela Farms employs an environment-friendly shrimp production technology that was developed by a Philippine-based government hosted aquaculture center, the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department, geared towards the recovery of the country’s waning shrimp industry. It employs mitigation measures such as salinity reduction, physical and biological filtration of the culture system, use of reservoir and settling ponds, biomanipulators, good quality shrimp feeds and an efficient feeding protocol, as well as long-arm paddlewheels for better aeration and water circulation. For everything you ever wanted to know about shrimp farming, you can check it out on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp_farm
The very muddy road and the young local boy who had
We ask about buses, trying to explain we’re trying to find the tarsier monkeys. We get very little reaction. At some point a man and his wife, and their three daughters, appear. They speak fairly good English and we talk with them about where and how to see the monkeys. He recommends we get a tricycle into Calape, the closest town, to coordinate a habl-habl (motorcycle) to where we want to go. Not many buses around here. He also tells us that the place we are intending to go (based on our lonely planet guide) is pretty far away, because there is no direct route there. No problem though, as there is another place which is closer and also has views of the Chocolate Hills, which he was shocked to find out we were not planning on seeing. A short while later a tricycle comes by and we hop on for the short ride into Calape. Calape is a surprisingly large town, Lonely Planet doesn’t even include it on their map. Story has it that the town is named after a type of rattan, called locally ca’pe or kalapi, which used to grow abundantly in the area. The town is proud of its 18th century gothic-inspired church; a green and white painted edifice with pointed towers that resembles a castle.
Off we go, passing through a few other small towns and many rice fields, with oxen turning over the muddy fields with bamboo plows. Now this is beginning to feel like the Philippines!
After the steep climb up the windy road, with only a few nail biting moments when we weren’t quite sure our tricycle was going to make it without a little push, we eventually arrive at a park. We’re still not quite sure what the park was… a zoo, a kids play ground, possibly a water park… quite odd. We walk to the summit where we have a clear view of the surrounding Chocolate Hills. The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. They are hundreds of cone shaped mounds, the exact number varies depending on the source, but there are upwards of 1000. They are very uniform in shape, between 30 and 50 meters high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns brown. Hence their name. Since it is currently the rainy season I guess they are more mint-chocolate hills today, green instead of brown. Legend has it that the hills came into existence when two giants threw stones and sand at each other in a fight that lasted for days. When they were finally exhausted, they made friends and left the island, but left behind the mess they made. For the more romantically inclined is the tale of Arogo, a young and very strong giant who fell in love with an ordinary mortal girl called Aloya. After she died, the giant Arogo cried bitterly. His tears then turned into hills, as a lasting proof of his grief. However, up to this day, even geologists have not reached consensus on how they where formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are the weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of an impermeable layer of clay. If you climb the 214 steps to the top of the observation hill near the complex, you can read this explanation on a bronze plaque.
We head back down to get an up close look at the two tarsiers that live here in the park. As I mentioned before, the tarsier monkeys are the second smallest monkey in the world, or the smallest depending on the source. Either way they are pretty darn small. About the size of your fist with large, goggling eyes and a round head that can be rotated 180 degrees. They have a long thin tail, about twice the length of their body, that they use as a balancer while clinging vertically to trees and leaping from trunk to trunk. They also have elongated hind limbs and disk-like adhesive pads on their finger tips that help with this. Cute yet sorta creepy little creatures. The bug-eyed, furry little Philippine Tarsier has been called “the world’s smallest monkey”, but it’s not actually a monkey at all. Scientists have loosely classified them as primates for lack of anywhere else to put them, since they’re extremely unique. They spend all day sleeping in cavities and hollows formed in tree trunks and emerge at night to hunt insects. They average 3 to 6 inches in length with another 5 to 11 inches in their tail. Fun fact about the tarsier: its eyes are literally bigger than its stomach. (http://webecoist.com/2008/12/17/adorable-cute-miniature-animals-pets/).
Adobas is waiting for us when we’re done and we jump back in the tricycle to return. When negotiating the price I asked to be returned to the main road outside Marcela Farms, so we wouldn’t have to stop in Calape for another ride. To our surprise, when we arrive at the turnoff to Marcela Farms, Adobas turns down the muddy dirt road, taking us all the way back to the guard shack. I give him a $100P tip, which he seems very surprised (and happy) to receive. We’ve been watching the dark clouds build on the trip back, so I hurry ahead (taking a short cut through the shrimp ponds) to get the dinghy ready so we can get back aboard Savannah hopefully before it starts to pour. Lots of wind, but no rain as we arrive back at the boat.
June 19, 2011 Looks like we’ll be having another day of strong wind and stormy conditions, making for a lazy day of laundry, reading and watching movies.
June 20, 2011 Tropical depression finally passed over and so we depart Calape Bay. It’s been a great little protected anchorage. Our plan is to go 20 miles today to the city of Tagbilaran. We have a great day of sailing; the only problem is we have to tack back and forth because of the headwinds. Me, being lazy, decide to do two long tacks, instead of many smaller ones. Around 3 p.m., being much closer to Cebu Island, we decide Tagbilaran isn’t in the cards. We find a shallow spot on the chart along the coast and head towards that. As long as the winds die down tonight, which they normally do, we should be safe and comfortable. Just before sunset we drop hook in 15 feet of water off the small village/town of Balanigan. 009° 47.9 N, 123° 32.4 E Were getting some funny looks and waves from the fisherman as they head out for a night of fishing (with small fires lit in their wooden canoe bows), I don’t think they’ve seen very many boats anchored here.
June 21, 2011 We’re headed to Sumilon Island today, a small marine reserve island 25 miles away, just off the tip of Cebu Island. I’ve managed to catch Jodie’s cold and am not feeling so great. We have a repeat of yesterday, having to tack back and forth across the headwinds. Unlike yesterday, the weather slowly deteriorates, and by 2 p.m. we feel like we’re on roller coaster ride. I’ve also deteriorated physically as the day has progressed and now I’m basically a lump sitting in the cockpit while Jodie fights the increasing wind and sea. Not complaining here, but this is the other side of cruising. You are in-between anchorages and must push on till you get to you destination. I’m sick, Jodie is battling the seas solo and the wind just won’t stop. Just before 5 p.m., we’re both relieved to enter the wind shadow of Sumilon Island and drop anchor on the side of a steep slope. The prevailing wind is blowing us back towards the island pulling the anchor up the slope and we decide its good enough till tomorrow. 009° 26.2 N, 123° 23.4 E We turn on the GPS anchor alarm, just in case, and I crash into bed.
June 22-24, 2011 After downloading a new weather forecast, we discover that the bad weather we encountered getting here was caused by two separate typhoons passing through the area, with us sandwiched in the middle! We keep a close eye on the weather, keeping our fingers crossed that neither of the systems decide to veer off their current course and decide to head our direction. This gives me time to relax and get over this cold. Feeling better, we also enjoy a few snorkels in the crystal clear waters around the island.
June 25, 2011 Both typhoons have moved on, which should mean calm weather for the next couple days. Given this, we decide a stop at Dumaguete City on Negros Island is possible. Only in the calmest conditions is this anchorage tenable since it offers limited protection and is completely open to swell. We make the short 10 mile hop over from Sumilon in the morning and have the anchor down in front of town before noon. 009° 18.5 N, 123° 18.7 E
Dumaguete City was a quick overnite stop on our way down south.
Conditions are calm, just as we’d hoped, so we drop the dinghy into the water and head ashore for lunch and a grocery store run. We’re only planning to stay here overnight, we certainly don’t want to push our luck with the weather, and our next stop is the remote anchorage of Port Bonbonon, so we want to stock up on groceries now while it is convenient. At the grocery store we run into Peter and Toni from s/v Tigger, whom we’d met in Cebu. They are currently anchored in Port Bonbonon and have made the long and rather convoluted road trip journey to Dumaguete. They let us know we’re smart to have stopped on our way to avoid the trip here. We also find out that while we were anchored in the wind shadow at Sumilon Island, they were experiencing 45+ knot winds and six foot swells at anchor over in Tagbilaran City on Bohol Island. That is where we would have been had we stuck to our original plan. Sometimes you just get lucky.
June 26, 2011 After a fairly comfortable night here, we push on to the popular cruising anchorage (and hurricane hole) of Port Bonbonon. The entrance to the harbor is a large S-curve, partially blocked by a coral reef. The reef extends from the west side, covering nearly 2/3 of the width of the entrance, and is not always easy to see during the approach due to the murky water. We take it easy and have no problems entering. Once beyond the reef, the estuary meanders around two more turns, with the deep water on the outside of each curve. We drop anchor among 30 or more other boats. 009° 03.4 N, 123° 07.6 E Peter and Toni from Tigger stop by to tell us about the Sunday night barbeque hosted by one of the locals and invite us to go with them, with drinks on Tigger first.
Bruce and Rowena host a great Sunday night barbeque, and invite the yachties to get water from their well. Bruce is an American who sailed here many years ago, sold his boat, married, and moved ashore. Rowena is a local, and an a excellent cook!
June 27, 2011 Into Bruce’s to exchange books and chat. Bruce is a fun and interesting guy who keeps himself busy making small sailing trimarans. And I mean small. One person sits and fits snugly into the hull with two outriggers keeping the boat stable. He offers me a chance to sail, but the wind is calm and I take a rain check. With the exception of a great dinner last night, Port Bonbonon is a disappointment to both of us… The water is murky (so once again no swimming/snorkeling or making water), it is isolated (closest town to do any shopping is 1.5 hours away, with a large part of that being on a motorcycle (with groceries?!), the bay is filled with many unattended boats, and to top it all off there isn’t even wifi! We also notice that there are no kids around in canoes to visit with and give candy to; this place is tranquil, but remote and, well, boring. We do head outside the bay and swim off the reefs that extend off the point. Not much to see here either unfortunately.
June 28, 2011 Our plan was to stay here a couple weeks (maybe longer) waiting for a good weather window to make the 400 mile jump to Borneo. This morning a fluke northeast wind picked up around 9 a.m. (perfect direction for heading to Borneo), so we decided it was a sign that we weren’t meant to stay any longer. We picked up anchor and by 10:30 we were sailing out of the bay on our way to Borneo. The northeast wind stayed with us and we had a great day of sailing, with calm seas to boot. Plus we finally ended our dry spell and caught a fish – a huge wahoo. Freezer full we reeled in the poles.
June 29-30, 2011 A squall stuck last night, you guessed it, during Jodie’s watch. Why does most of the bad weather we encounter occur between 1 and 7 a.m.? I got up to see if I could help and Jodie is relieved to see me. It seems some crazy boat decided to approach during the middle of the squall. No matter which way Jodie would go, he’d follow. This is during a huge downpour when visibility is terrible and the last thing you need is to have to watch out for some crazy boat! I come out to give her a hand and sure enough he just kept coming at us. He finally backed off once Jodie got our spotlight out and shined it on him. Very strange. Might have been something fishy going on out here and he thought we were someone else… I stayed up with her for awhile, finally going to bed around 2:30 a.m., after the worst of the squall had passed and we were sure the crazy boat had moved off for good. It continued to lightly rain the rest of the night and into the morning, making for a pretty miserable watch. Jodie keeps threatening she’s going to change watches with me. We experience light winds and head south motor sailing. The seas remain flat and comfortable most of the journey. Another squall hits us, this time during the day, bringing with it 40 knot winds and lots of rain. We filled up both of our water tanks and made excellent time with the wind. We’ve been very fortunate not to have strong headwinds, which is the norm this time of year. Looks like we’ll make landfall tomorrow.
Dusk at Port Bonbonon
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