To Motor Or Not To Motor?

23 August 2010
Culion to Coron to Puerto del Sol
Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines

It was the 5th day of our sailing trip and uhmmm… we haven’t sailed. Meaning, we have been using our auxiliary engine all this time and haven’t raised our sails.

The Cathedrals- the towering limestone cliffs of Coron Island

Busuanga is a boaters’ paradise with a myriad of beautiful islands clustered together in one place. According to Mike Bachelor, owner of Puerto del Sol (post on this new yacht club coming up), “Busuanga has the highest density of islands in the Philippines, with 800 islands within 4 hours of sailing and 2,000 in 8 hours. You can see a new beach everyday for 2 months and enjoy 1/3 more annual sunshine than Boracay.” If you look at the map, the Busuanga mainland is surrounded by a mish mash of green, blue and green-blue blotches, with islands as green, water as blue, and green-blue as the reefs that make this a boaters’ paradise.

I Will Treasure This Moment Forever

22 August 2010
Bauan Bay to Ditatayan Island to Culion Island
Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines

This was the day of the CamSur (Half) Ironman 70.3 km race where Raul and I had registered for a team relay. However, about a month before the event, we realized that there were 3 non-working holidays between August 19-30, giving us a rare opportunity to go on a 12-day vacation out of a 5-day leave (the consequences of being an employee). After a frantic search for replacements, Raul and I decided to pull out of the event and go on this sailing trip instead. It was a major decision as we had been training for several months and were looking forward to the race.

On this vacation, we kept ourselves free from work and detached ourselves from our cell phones and email. This was the first day I kept in constant touch with the outside world to keep track of how my family faired in the CamSur race- my 2 brothers, sister-in-law, nephew, brother-in-law and numerous friends. My parents who are in their late 70s- our biggest fans and cheerleaders- were even there to root for everyone.

It was drizzling in the evening and we couldn’t hang out on deck. Precious moments indeed, with the whole family snuggled indoors. We fit perfectly, tight and warm in our snail home. With nothing much to do, I cooked a full Chinese meal. The boat was full of cooking smells, love and laughter. The CamSur event felt like a world away. I had only one thought in my head- “I will treasure this moment forever”.

Where is Everyone?

22 August 2010
Bauan Bay to Ditatayan Island to Culion Island
Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines

Mariel enjoying the calm waters in our anchorage

Must be its past as a leper colony but Culion town gave me goosebumps. Or maybe it was the huge cultish-looking alpha and omega characters on the façade of the imposing church which welcomed us at the entrance to the bay, looking incongruously large and well-maintained compared to its shabby surroundings of houses on stilts. Or the gigantic eagle insignia on the side of the mountain?

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

22 August 2010
Bauan Bay, Bulalacao Island to Ditatayan Island
Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines

See Paraluman in the far background

Lifted anchor at 7am and headed for Ditatayan Island so the girls would wake up to a new place. We read about this island somewhere, looked it up in the nautical charts and what a wonderful surprise! It was beautiful, untouched, another picture-perfect paradise island. The sand bar was breathtaking. We were so happy to find this place, we were literally jumping with joy on the sand bar, and took our time snorkeling, birdwatching and touring the rest of the island. Had a picnic lunch on a different beach on the northeast side of the island, under the trees where I saw a bayawak earlier, hoping to see more.

Seeing Through Water

As we look for anchorage at the end of every day, it is my job to position myself at the bow of the boat (this is where Kate Winslet stands with her eyes closed and arms outstretched with Leonardo di Caprio behind her in the movie Titanic) and watch out for shallows we might hit. Although we diligently consult the nautical charts and plot which areas we should avoid, I still need to visually watch out for reefs or coral heads when approaching shallow waters for anchorage while Raul is manning the helm at the back of the boat. It is a task I dread because it is not easy and the implications are enormous. If I don’t do my job well, the boat will hit bottom. At these moments, the burden of responsibility of keeping our boat safe is on me, the boat we bought with our life (and future) savings. This would be relatively easy though on bright sunny days with clear waters and a good pair of polarized shades.

From One Tropical Paradise Island To Another

21 August 2010
Bauan Bay, Bulalacao Island to Malcapuya Island
Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines


Woke up to 15 knot winds and heavy gray skies. How can this happen when we slept last night to glassy water?

Fancy this beautiful sand bar? Then just dock beside it and enjoy it.

Sky cleared quickly though and we sailed to Malcapuya Island. This is the first of many days like this- beautiful, sunny, peaceful lazy days hopping from one tropical paradise island to another, each one more beautiful than the last, just snorkeling, swimming, napping, taking in all these amazing scenery around us.

From Magnificent to Menacing in Minutes

20 August 2010
Uson Island to Coron Island to Bauan Bay, Bulalacao Island
Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines

Raul bought bait from this fisherman. We couldn't help but stare at him because he was so dark, almost black. Coron Island.

Cruised down the entire western side of Coron Island the whole morning, mesmerized by the seemingly unending towering limestone cliffs. There is a marked difference as we sail south. While the northern part of Coron Island is lush and green with foliage, the southern side is much less verdant and thus the limestone cliffs look grayer, more forbidding, and much more spectacular, rising up to 2,000 feet. They seemed to go on and on and on… until we rounded the southern tip and found a peaceful bay where we anchored off as close to the cliffs as we possibly could. Took our dinghy, Putol, for a drive and let ourselves get lost in the nooks and crannies of the cliffs. We hardly spoke as we did not want to disturb the silence and we could only stare in wonder at these magnificent cliffs, breathtaking and bathed in sunshine in sharp contrast to the hovering clouds in the distance.

Surprise, Surprise!

19 August 2010
Coron Town to Uson Island
Busuanga, Palawan Philippines.

Uhhmm are there crocodiles here?

A month before our trip, we decided to load scuba gear “in case of emergency”, specifically in case our anchor gets entangled which rarely happens but when it does, can make or break a trip. I had my 20+ year old Conshelf IV regulator overhauled and a tank backpack set up (my BC was too dilapidated to repair and besides, I was a “macho” diver in college, diving recklessly without a BC), borrowed a tank, and stored all these at the very back of the storage area, sure that there would be no need for it. Well, as luck would have it, around 5pm of the first day of our trip, we realized we were anchored too near a reef and after several attempts at lifting the anchor, realized it was stuck at 60 feet. I am a certified divemaster, logged hundreds of dives in college, and have never been afraid of the water, but I must say I was scared at the idea of diving then- it was almost sunset, the water was very murky due to the mangroves, my antique albeit newly overhauled gear was untested, I had no BC, haven’t dived in 15+ years, yikes! But dive I did and a most unusual sight met me underwater. Our anchor was floating midwater entangled in a web of lines. I had to surface to fetch kitchen scissors which I used to cut our anchor free.

After the excitement though, we settled down amidst glassy water, mangroves and nothing but the sound of birds… and Mariel’s ukulele.

5 nautical miles from Coron town to the southern bay of Uson Island where we anchored off in a small beautiful uninhabited protected U-shaped lagoon, at 60 ft, mud bottom, gradual slope, watch out for shallows at entrance to lagoon.

Sailor Joy

19 August 2010
Coron Town, Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines

This is the start of a 12-day sailing trip around the unbelievably beautiful islands of Busuanga, Palawan, with my husband, Raul, and Mariel, our 16 year old daughter.

The fun started before we even hit the water. In the shuttle from the Busuanga airport to Coron town, we met Joy, a wiry, wrinkled 50-ish American woman who has been sailing around the world for the past 20 years with another female American companion. Their boat, Banshee, sank (!) and was eventually salvaged in Papua New Guinea and she has a book about it http://www.bansheeboat.com/. She flew to Manila to get spare parts for her ref and took advantage of the trip to see a doctor for a leg wound that had been festering for some time- the doctor immediately scheduled her for surgery the next day as it turned out to be skin cancer. Her sailing stories during the hour long shuttle ride were priceless indeed and I was sorry to see her go at the end of the ride, limping from her wound clutching her precious ref spare parts.

I need more inspiration like Joy.