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.


Malcapuya Island is one such tropical paradise island- picture-perfect with its pure white beaches, shady trees, hammocks, excellent reef for snorkeling. I was here first in 2005 during one of the stops of the Philippine Hobie Challenge and fell immediately in love with it and thought it was even more beautiful than Amanpulo which was our stop the day before. The island is now open for daytrippers though so there were several bancas of orange vests (what we call tourists) but who were all gone anyway by early afternoon. You have the full glory of the view of Coron Island in the east.

Another boring day in paradise...

Marina arrived today to join us for 3 days! The family is almost complete (our grandson Diego is not here) and the boat is full of love, laughter and silliness. An unforgettable moment was poor Raul stuck in a deep conversation around Van Gogh and the meaning of art with our inquisitive daughters.

4 nm from Bauan Bay to Malcapuya Island. Difficult anchoring as it is surrounded by a shallow reef. Try to go as deep as you can to avoid damaging the reef. We took it from the western side of the beach, anchored at 60 ft. According to the owner, the black buoy is only for bancas and can’t hold yachts.

For the night, we tried to look for anchorage northwest of Malcapuya Island (around western bend of beach) and several coves southwest of Tambon Island. We were unsuccessful as these areas had very sharp drop offs from 80 ft to 30ft and getting shallow very quickly. I was definitely getting stressed out as it was getting dark and impossible to watch out for shallows. Tried northwest of Bulalacao Island (Malaroroy) as we wanted to keep majestic Coron Island in sight but encountered the same sharp drop offs. Ended up in Bauan Bay again.