The Calamian Group, an Unscheduled Stop

Actually, we had always planned to stop for an overnight in Coron Town, Busuanga.  But other than “a quick look see” that was all that was on the cards.  Due to timing and the rather rough ride up, we decided to time our arrival with New Year’s Eve.  We were tired from the trip and after a quick dinner ashore we headed back to the boat to sleep, planning to miss the start of a new year.  Of course the shore side revelers woke us at the appropriate time with a nice firework display and we were actually awake for the New Year.

We were having our doubts about rushing through this place but as we had a schedule to keep we stuck to our plan.  But what we saw as we sailed in was fantastic protected bays, beautiful islands and terrain.  There is a typhoon hiding hole just around the corner from the town but we decided to anchor in front of town and enjoy civilization for a couple of days before moving on.  The winds were still howling and the weather reports didn’t look too favorable but in the protection behind all of the islands we were lulled into a false sense of security and decided to head out on schedule.

After 6 hours of bashing into a very miserable head-on sea, some cross trees holding the pulpit onto the bow sprit gave way. It tore away from the remaining trees and breaking some stainless braces and twisting screws etc in the process.  We decided it was too dangerous to continue with the pulpit unsecured so we turned 180 and headed back to Coron. 

Coron is a diver’s paradise and hence easily linked to Manila by air.  This allowed Pauline to make her scheduled trip back to Singapore and me to fly up to Manila and purchase the lumber, stainless steel and items I would need to make repairs.  The people here were quick to befriend us and after a hard day’s work on the bowsprit each day I would head in to the resort and enjoy a nice meal, a few cold San Miguels and some relaxation.  I was amazed to see the traffic flowing through the resort which acted as the main hub for the divers and tourists travelling to the various islands each day.  Talking with many I quickly became fascinated with the tales of their exploits and experiences.  We decided to slow the pace down and once the bowsprit was fixed, to enjoy some of what this group has to offer.

The Calamians are just north of Palawan and belong to the Palawan district.  But they make up a rather large multitude of islands by themselves and hence offer what many tourists want.  It is also advertised as the best cruising area of the Philippines.   Nice beaches, clear water, good diving, seclusion or places to party, reasonably priced resorts, cheap beer, and good food. What more could one ask?

The islands also offer another non natural attraction.  Due to the very well protected anchorages and good hiding places, the Japanese support fleet was hiding out here in September of 1944.  On the 24^th of September a surprise attack by some Hell Diver bombers from a US carrier sitting in Leyte Gulf sank over nine vessels.  This was a distance a little over 400 miles away so was a pretty dramatic raid at the time.  Not only did this help in the war effort but it left more than nine rather large wrecks for divers to explore.  A typical day diving is to do three dives and a different wreck each dive.  Also the wrecks are large enough and varied enough even if you dive the same wreck 2 or three times the dive still seems like a new experience. I dove the Irako Maru, the Olympia Maru and the Tamakaze gunboat.  The Irako is  the deepest of the local wrecks at 40 metres and was my first Nitrox dive.  We penetrated all through the wreck but one of the most bizarre sites was getting into the machine room which still has a lathe and drill press pretty much intact.  The Olympia was my favorite of the wrecks as there were so many ins and outs and marine life that one could dive this wreck several times and for sure have each dive unique.  The last dive is a gunboat, that story has it the crew was trying to get to shore and scuttled it.  It certainly is close to shore with the bow in 3 metres of water and the stern in 19 it makes a nice shallow dive to aid the nitrogen to degas out of your system after a long day.

 If wreck diving is not your cup of tea there are also several coral areas to dive.  There is even a lake which supposedly is the only place like it in the world where there is warm fresh water on the top (29°C) and warmer salt water (37°C) a few metres down.  This is a very unique dive as the visibility is quite good and the sides are fairly sheer limestone that has eroded to eerie formations.  And other than the feeling one gets with the sudden temperature changes as you go through the reverse thermoclines the optics that play through the different density layers of the haloclines adds a surreal atmosphere to the experience.  Of course wearing your dive gear as you climb up and then down several steps to the lake’s edge is a bit of a chore but the dive is every bit worth it.  There is also supposedly a large barracuda that lives in the lake.  We didn’t see him but did spot a fairly large black grouper hiding in the rocks.

On Calauit Island is a wild game reserve which has giraffes, deer, antelope, bearcats etc   offering an African Safari type theme in the heart of the Philippines.  Another of the islands has an old settlement with buildings etc from the time the Spanish ruled the Philippines.

At the top of one of the highest points in the area is a very large cross.  It overlooks the town and the bay.  With well over 700 steps it offers a bit of exercise for those feeling like they want to do something on land rather than in the water. Other than the large number of steps the walk is very pleasant and offers spectacular views of the surrounding bays and town. The cross is lit up at night and offers a bit of reassurance when the wind pipes up in the night and you need to do a quick visual inspection to make sure you are not dragging.  It makes a perfect reference point.

Anyway we have repaired Sari Timur and enjoyed some great diving, and sight seeing but feel we still have only scratched the surface here.  We will be a bit sad to leave but need to keep on moving.  But we are certainly glad we made this unscheduled stop!

Coron Bay

Coron Town in the day

street in Coron Town

Coron Bay

Coron Town at night

the cross at the top of the hill

on the way to a dive site

Coron Bay

view of the bay from the top of the hill

another view from the top

view of Coron Island

Sari Timur sitting at anchor

local banka (boat)

faint view of the Tamakaze wreck

Some pictures taken at Sabang, White Beach and the Ponderosa Golf Club

We did the touristy thing and visited Sabang and White Beach, as well as the Ponderosa Golf Club.  Sabang and White Beach are full of resorts and restaurants.  The Golf Club is situated up in the hills, so we went up to have a look at the view.

The beach at Sabang

Fruit vendor in Sabang with her basket of fruit on her head

The 1st tee

The 2nd hole.  You tee off from here

The view of the boats from the golf club on the right, see how well protected they are

White Beach

White Beach

Puerto Galera, finally or the Cape Calavite Experience!

As you are all aware we had set out for Puerto Galera when we broke the pulpit and had to turn back.   Therefore we were a little apprehensive of leaving again.  We had stories of 40 knot winds and 4 metre seas.  Not what you really want to bash to weather and unfortunately Puerto Galera was to weather.

We plotted our track so we had less than 50 mile days for all but the last one.  Finally after downloading every bit of weather we could, we picked our window and went for it.  The first day out the weather was still a bit unsettled but better than our first attempt out, and we were happy to have snuck away.  We stopped on the bottom end of Tara Island for the night and some sleep.  The waves were breaking on the reefs around us but all in all we had a pretty comfortable stop here.  The next morning we started early as we wanted to take advantage of the morning lull to get as close to Mindoro as possible and hopefully in its lee.  Our planned overnight stop was Sablayan which offers very good protection during the N.E. Monsoon.  The following morning was another early start as we were heading to Paluan Bay just under Mount Calavite.  We were warned that this mountain throws all kinds of weird katabatic winds.  And sure enough as we were getting ready to enter Paluan Bay the winds kicked up to 28 knots.  We continued, our reasoning was that at the top of the bay though we were close to the mountain, the fetch would be almost nil so the waves could not be big.  This logic proved to be right but it was rather disconcerting sitting on the boat and a bullet would pipe down on us at 20-30 knots.  We discussed it and checked the grib files and one other weather site before the internet dropped out.  The prediction was the weather was still unsettled ahead.  The wind was piping all through the night. At about 4 am we decided to sit one more day and watch to see what the daily cycle was like and talk with some of the locals.   At 5 am it rained and we played with the idea of changing our mind thinking the rain might take some energy out of the wind.  We decided not to go and later found out that was the first semi calm day in over 4 weeks!  This information we gathered from the various locals who came out to welcome us to their part of the world.  We made the decision that we were leaving the next day and had a back up plan of heading for Subic Bay north of Manila if we could not get around the cape. 

We again started early as this day was going to be long and we knew we were going to get beat up for at least part of it.  Mount Calavite is very funny as it is tall enough and big enough to change the wind direction all around it.  The cape is also where two major current flows collide and really close to where the South China Sea, North China Sea, and Sulu Sea meet and thus bring their own respective weather patterns.  As we rounded the Cape it seemed every direction we headed we had 30 knots against us.  At the bottom end of the cape we had no seas but still with the wind, we knew they would arrive soon enough.  But Sari Timur with Pauline steering, hammered on.  Though it was uncomfortable we were making progress.  We hoped once Mount Calavite was in our rear view mirror the winds would die a bit and thus the seas.  The seas, though nasty, were not as defined as they should be for winds of this strength, so again we were pinning our hopes on some logic.  Again we were correct and after a couple of hours the wind started to abate.  Pretty soon it not only dropped to the 12.8 forecast but veered a bit so it was about 30 degrees off the bow and gave us some extra speed.  We were in a hurry to make Puerto Galera before nightfall otherwise we might have even toyed with turning off the engine.  But as our arrival looked to be right at sunset we kept the engine going hard.  We also picked up a current and were really getting our hopes up for an early arrival.  Sari Timur was doing almost 7.5 knots in a still pretty sloppy sea which is pretty extraordinary for her.  She will do more but not usually into a sloppy sea.  But the wind gods were not finished with us.  The distance to go to the harbour entrance just clicked under 10 nautical miles and up came the wind again on the nose.  Only 25 knots but still enough to slow the boat speed back down.  We persevered and finally made it to the entrance with about an hour of sunlight left.  Puerto Galera is advertised as one of the members of “The Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World” and is the only member from the Philippines.  It is pretty but personally I find that a lot of the attraction is that it means you are finally past Cape Calavite!  It is a very quaint community and we are fitting in nicely.  This is a true tourist stop and there are loads of little bars and restaurants mostly with waterfront views.  San Miguel is still cheap and the Tuesday vegetable market produces some lovely vegetables so what more can one ask for.  Anyway we intend to stay here for a couple of weeks, do some maintenance, diving and sightseeing before we start watching for another weather window to head further east and south.

The boats on their moorings

The landing dock of Puerto Galera YC

View of the waterfront

the bay off the club's moorings

Muelle Pier, the waterfront with its restaurants and bars

We are in Puerto Galera

We finally made Puerto Galera.  We have written something up for the Calamians but have submitted it to Nautique for publishing.  Once it is published we will post the original as a blog and the Nautique version in the articles listing.  But suffice to say we enjoyed the place very much.  Probably our favorite stop so far!

I will write something about the trip up here and a brief for PG shortly.  Right now I need a San Mig!!!