Unexpected Visitors

We left Boracay on Friday, Mar 4 for our trip to Port Bonbonon on the south of the island of Negros.  This trip took us past the island of Panay and we made 3 stops before arriving at Port Bonbonon on Monday, Mar 7.

The first day out we anchored by a little island halfway down the west of Panay.  We got anchored about 4pm and since we have not had lunch, Pauline got started on getting dinner ready.  Halfway through preparations, Mark said that we had visitors.  4 bankas (boats) with 2 teenage boys in each had arrived and one of them who spoke passable English was trying to chat with Mark.  Anyways, they wanted to jump off the bow of our boat into the water.  Mark said ok but only 2 at a time.  Soon off into the water the boys jumped, leaving one boy on the bankas to hover around.  They came in 2s, clambered up the swim ladder, ran to the bow and jumped off into the water.  They swam back to their respective bankas and the other boys jumped into the water and the whole process was repeated over and over again for about an hour.  It was nice to see that the boys were having a grand old time.  When the sun was setting, they all got back on their bankas and thanked us over and over again.  The one who spoke passable English told us that we are very nice and generous for allowing them onto our boat and before leaving said, God bless you and they left as suddenly as them came, back to their little village.  We said to each other later over dinner that they probably had something to talk about for a while with their friends.  It was nice to know that we have helped make the day for some kids.

boys jumping off the bow

boys in their bankas

boys having fun

We left the next day and went south, anchored in a bay south of Panay for one night and in a bay in Asia Bay, west of Negros for another night.

dolphins came to play

When we left Asia Bay in the morning, the wind was very light and we had our main up and were motoring south toward Port Bonbonon.  It was a beautiful day, light wind, sunshine.  We noticed fish thrashing towards our portside and thought it was tuna.  Then we realized it was dolphins and before long they were alongside and playing with our bow wake.  We went forward and watched them.  They left after a couple of minutes.  We then realized in our excitement, we had forgotten our camera.  We took it out and said perhaps the next time, never expecting a next time.  Well, we saw dolphins again but this time they were busy feeding and didn’t come to play.  We were disappointed and had almost given up on seeing more when, we saw some, again to our portside.  These came over to play with our bow wake and Pauline ran forward and started taking pictures.  They were playing for a few minutes and then one of the dolphin made some dolphin noises and off they went.  It was really nice to see these creatures and they really made our day.

 

There was a last little unexpected visitor.  This time it was a little sparrow.  It flew onto the boat, looking really tired.  When it arrived, we were about 10 miles offshore.  It got up close and personal with us for a while.  We put out some water and sunflower seeds but never saw it again.  Pauline thought she killed it because she didn’t bring out the water when it first arrived.  It must have flown off when we got closer to the island.

We anticipated the trip down to Port Bonbonon to be mundane and uneventful but we had these unexpected visitors and it was really nice.  So who says life is boring?  It is always full of surprises.