Moon – Koopmans 47 – 12,5t (16,5t equipped and full tanks)
The Philippines
2 – 27 April 2015
Thursday-Friday April 2 – 3 Rasa Island
After a good nights rest we set of for the Philippines.
The good visibility from getting in to the anchorage was turned to no vision of the reefs at all in the low sun position in front of us. In these situations the track from getting into the anchorage is worth a lot.
We came safe out of the reef and could start motor sailing in the weak wind.
The waters in the south west Sulu Sea is full of reefs to avoid, and the same for the east coast of the long island Palawan.
We chose to make an over night sailing over “clean” water as the first recommended anchorage along Palawan was too far to reach before sunset. Next stop within our reach was Rasa Island where we anchored behind a mangrove covered island after sailing zigzag between the fishing stakes the last five miles.
Saturday 4
Realising it was Easter and probably the officials in Puerto Princesa had a day off. So we stayed on the anchorage another night. Did some maintenance and cleaning the hull under the water line, at least partly.
The evening gave us a free ticket to entertainment as we watched the full moon eclipse, fascinating. On top of this we still see both the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper.
Sunday 5 Puerto Princesa
Early start to make the 45 nm to Puerto Princesa. No wind to start with but before lunch we made 4-5 knots in a light breeze on flat water.
Anchored in time before dark near the yacht club.
Monday 6
Easter Monday was not holiday so we managed to check in at both Immigration and Customs at almost no cost.
Customs checked us out at the same time for the next stop in Subic Bay.
Tuesday 7
Very relaxed day on anchor in Puerto Princesa. Only some small items done in Moon and to our web site.
In early afternoon we took the dinghy to the yacht club to have a beer and dinner together with the crew from the four boats anchored in front of the club.
Wednesday 8
Did a long walk to the big shopping mall a few k:s to the north. We miss a lot of items that were available in Malaysia.
In spite it was probably set up more or less for the retired Europeans and Ossis, there was a lack of a lot of the “normal” stock.
In the evening we had another meal at the yacht club.
Thursday 9
An even longer walk in to town in the other direction. We found vegetables, fruit and chicken at the market. Had lunch/dinner in town before we hired a tricycle back to the yacht club.
An hour before sunset we weigh anchor and left. We thought we should make use of the weak south east that normally blows through the night, making the northerly swell a bit smaller. This night the northerly wind blow the whole night!
The swell was really big and on the bow. Because we were to make passage through shallow waters we had to priority pointing high in favour for speed, not a good thing combined with heavy swell.
Yes we had to use the engine a lot during the night, especially when our pointing in to the wind wasn’t enough to get around some shallows. In the middle of the night we where finally at the point where we could turn to sea and sail 45 degrees to the wind. What a relief. Thanks to the better angle to both wind and swell we sailed fast end relatively comfortable.
Although we sailed compass bearing 110 degrees when our main direction was supposedly north-northeast we were ok.
Friday 10 Bay Point Cove
We continued out to sea almost until noon. Tacked back towards Palawan which was not visible in spite of the high mountains. We arrived into the shallow coastal area late afternoon and thanks to a wind shift we could continue sailing the remaining 15 nm between reefs and small islands to finally reach the north-eastern cape of Palawan and could turn more to the west and have more open wind, at least for some time…
Now we where in the archipelago of islands north of Palawan. A lot of possible anchorage but unfortunately a lot of pearl farms. This is not a place for night sailing! Numerous black buoys, often connected with lines just under the surface.
Bay Point Cove – We anchored around five in a completely protected bay with a lot of reefs protecting the entrance. Again important to plan the track for the morning departure without good visibility.
Saturday 11 Batas Island
Luckily we had wind all night. Luckily because right after we had anchored they started burning the surrounding forest in three places.
With the normal calm during the night, Moon had been covered with sot and dust. Now we got only a few flakes!
Eight o’clock we where outside our protecting reef and hit the bow into tremendous swell. But it lasted only half an hour before we could turn north and hoist our sails. What a difference!!
An extremely nice day for sailing. 10-15 knots and from a favourable direction. Although the swell was pretty rough, it didn’t matter because we got it perpendicular to the boat and Moon has a perfect hull for those conditions.
Moon really enjoyed and made great speed, mostly above 7 knots which is quite good in around 10 knots of wind.
We had plenty of reefs and pearl farms to avoid during the day, but thanks to the open wind we had no problem to alter course when needed.
We had no record of any used anchorage for this area. The first two we searched were not ok, but the third one was protected enough at Batas Island.
Sunday 12 Popototan Island
Sunday we weigh anchor very early. Of course the sun was in the normal unfavourable angle to be able to see the reef. But we thought that in the shade behind the high island and the water like a mirror we should be able to see enough. There was a real short cut out to open water around the island, opposite the way we entered.
For some reason the charts suddenly was not as accurate as we have been spoiled with. Suddenly we had corals right in front of Moon. We managed to stop and turned around, getting as carefully as possible back to our track!
The nice wind from yesterday was gone, and we had to make use of the engine most of the day.
We anchored at Popototan Island just before sunset in a nice bay north of the northern tip of Culuion Island.
Monday 13 April Calauit Island
After taking care of some small items on Moon, we were not in a hurry today because of only 20 nm to the next anchorage, we weigh anchor around ten o’clock. The bottom was sand which made our problem with the not working wash down pump negligible.
The anchorage had several small resorts. From the lack of maintenance and deterioration most of them seemed to be abandoned.
We motored around the island into a marvellous archipelago. Hoist all sails and shut down the engine. After a long tack we were to sail a more westerly course, and of course that’s was also the direction of the wind! We have had almost due north east since we left Singapore, but of course today when a north easterly had been just fine the wind had to come from west…
Ok not much swell and ten knots of wind was really perfect conditions for tacking. Today we used the centreboard, and yes – with no swell and a tight wind angle it makes a difference. Less adrift and most of all we turned faster when tacking.
We furled the Yankee a meter to protect it from chafing against the spreaders when tacking.
For the first time we have seen more than one sailing boat on the water.
The first, a cat anchored behind a reef, and the second one came motoring out of the bay where we were going to anchor, leaving the anchorage to us alone. Because boaters often don’t use flags, we don’t know their nationality.
Anchored at Calauit Island in a long narrow bay, open to west and the swell from the South China sea. But the two reefs we had to go around killed all energy in the swell and left the water in the bay completely undisturbed.
Our planned 20 nm became 30 because of all tacking.
In mid -70 the former president Marcos had a reserve built for dangered animals from Africa. It’s a huge area, a peninsula isolated from the “mainland” by two bays and a creek. This park was another reason to anchor in this bay.
Tuesday 14 Safari
We took the dinghy across the bay to the “information centre”, paid our entrance fee 800 pesos for the two of us, and start walking. There were only a small group of other tourists, mainly from countries close to the Philippines. After taking photos of themselves feeding the giraffes with leaves the embarked a Jeep and were driven around, leaving us alone with the animals. Over 30 zebras and 20 giraffes and a lot of local deer were the main population of the open savannah, almost desert like area.
Previously it was covered with bamboo, but when the park was established that was cut and burnt. The trees looked like the one in Africa, like an umbrella, with all leaves and branches under the reach of the giraffes eaten away. Got some nice photos and some exercise by walking around, but it was not a place you travel long distance to see… But as a break and the “trip” only a dinghy rid it was well spent time.
Back in Moon we had lunch and then we attended the flush down pump. The pressure switch is the problem. Managed to get it working, but corroded from water intrusion it’s not reliable…
Wednesday 15 overnight sail
Weigh anchor around six. Again no flush down pump. Luckily very little mud on the chain. It’s good to have a stainless one… Outside the bay we met a long and high swell. The wind very week, less than five kn.
Motoring under a reefed main to stabilise Moon. This kept on all the 40 nm to Apo reef, where we intended to anchor and do some snorkelling.
Hopefully even clean the anti fouling that had become fouled with some slime/weed.
We reached the reef around three. There is one island and aside from that a big reef that nearly doesn’t reach the surface. Looks similar to Minerva reef, protected from the Ocean swell but not from the wind.
We spent an hour trying to find a reasonable space among the reefs to anchor, but the water was not that clear, making it difficult to decide if it was possible to anchor. With no clear water the main reason for stopping was gone. We decided to continue to Subic bay, 130 nm to the north. Subic bay has all the time been our final destination before leaving the Philippines. Hoisted our main before leaving the
protected reef and then unfurled the head sails outside the reef and could actually sail until sunset.
No moon made the night quite dark, only lit by the stars and of course numerous of small fishing boats using enormous strong lights when fishing. When you see a lot of these in front of you, it’s difficult to see how you can find a way through. When reaching the first one you discover that the lights have made it impossible to see that they are in fact spread over a big area, not on a line difficult to penetrate. We only had to change course twice to avoid these fishermen. But their lights temporarily destroyed our night vision! Although you try not to look into the lights.
The heavy commercial traffic between Asia and Australia seams to have its main route west of Luzon and south.
Intense traffic added with local commercial traffic. We where now close to Manila.
We got new wind from west around eleven, a wind that died after one hour. Just after passing the lighthouse Cape Calavite on the island Mindoro, we got new strong wind form east together with high confused swell. In this strong wind there where no fishing boats like on the calm waters further south.
A reefed main and only Yankee gave us full speed 60 degrees to the wind the rest of the night. The strong wind gave us speed to overpower the swell with no loss of speed. A lot of AIS targets around us, often crossing our course made the night quite intense. One cargo ship came slowly from behind with a CPA less than 200 m! We made nine knots over ground and that one made eleven.
In the rough sea state and strong wind Moon of course didn’t have an exact course, making it even more complicated. When they where beside us, very close, came an AIS target from west, perpendicular to us with a CPA in 15 min and 150 m!! We called him using the VHF. No good answer! He just told us that he had everything under control. With one freighter parallel 200 m to starboard we thought he would go astern of the two of us. But he didn’t change course at all! Finally we had to go to leeward as much as possible, not to gibe in the rough sea and heavy swell, to avoid a collision. In the same time he finally altered course, more than 20 degrees to port, only to change back and more after passing us to avoid “our” freighter which now was a little bit in front of us. All happened under really dark conditions, only lit by the stars. A very unsafe behaviour from this Philippine registered ship.
Earlier this night we had called one ship with CPA 150 in front of us in a small angle. Rapid answer, port to port and he changed course immediate 10 degrees to starboard, 15 min before CPA, and crossed our course well behind us when he had returned to his original course. The doubtful action taken by the Philippine ship, both the steering and the VHF respond, is luckily very uncommon judging from our experiences.
Thursday 16 Subic Bay
When we passed the lighthouse on Cabra Island, we where called by the coast guard two times, one hour in between. First time they called using “Moon” and call sign, and the second time “north bound sailing yacht”.
Both time they wanted to know our flag, how many people aboard, last port and where we were heading. We felt like being at home in Kattegat where we often hear coast guard calling unidentified ships.
Sunrise came with easing wind and after an hour we were motor sailing towards Subic bay. With 15nm to go we were tempted to continue to San Fernando (120nm), but suddenly the wind came strongly from the north, making the decision to continue downwind into Subic Bay easy.
Anchored in front of the beach in the northern part of the bay, waiting for a response to our e-mail to the marina.
Being used to anchor in almost total solitude we have difficulties to get used to all the noise from the beach and the bars. Flashing lights and Karaoke “song” is not very pleasant. Luckily Moon has a thick and insulating hull… We slept very well after our intense sailing night despite the “song” and music.
Friday 17
After an early breakfast we gave the flush down pump a new try. This time we managed to get the pressure switch completely apart and thanks to that we could clean it more complete. Seems to work better after installing, fingers crossed.
Called the marina by phone and after some e-mails back and forth we got a spot from tomorrow for a few days. Diesel at the pontoon, although 50% more expensive than in Malaysia. Still 50% cheaper compared with Europe.
Saturday 18 WaterCraft Venture Marina
Weigh anchor eight o’clock after some trouble. Together with the anchor came a rope with a lump of concrete. No wonder the windlass was struggling! A line from Moon around the lump and back to Moon made it possible to free the anchor, loosen one end of the line and down went the rope and concrete block.
The flush down pump is still working “intermittent”. Obviously it will be an ongoing project until we find a new pressure switch.
Got an easy accessible berth in the WaterCraft Venture Marina, straight forward into the wind, a relief for a long keeler without a bow thruster.
Checked in and made arrangement to get diesel on Monday. Used a lot of fresh water to clean Moon from all salt. Three weeks without any rain and a lot of sea spray last night had made Moon very “salty”. We found out that there was a possibility to get diesel at a pontoon in the restricted area. Launched the dinghy and took a ride to that pontoon.
Yes we could have full tank there! The price was almost 50% less compared with the marina price, nearly back to Malay price. Lucky we found this alternative before we filled…
When the sun was low we made a walk to the surrounding malls to investigate where to shop on Monday. We found a nice little restaurant, a bit expensive but compared with all the fast food restaurants crowded with noisy people, we thought it was well spent money.
Walking back to Moon in the dark we thought we had not encountered such a heat that late in the evening. Almost 30 degrees all night.
Sunday 20
The main goal for the day was cleaning the bottom. Travel-lift and high pressure wash was almost 400 US$. The alternative was diving at the pontoon for a negligible amount of pesos… Guess what, we used a guy from the marina that used our little compressor. In one and a half hour he had done a very good job and Moon had fresh antifouling all over the bottom. Rinsing the bottom from weed and slime means that the abrasion to achieve that takes away the outer layer of the antifouling, leaving a fresh not used surface. When we painted the bottom in Langkawi we put on more than four times the “normal” amount of paint, making it possible to clean Moon several times during the expected four to five years to the next painting. Have previously done this two times with good result.
In the evening we did a trip in the other direction, in to Olongapo town.
The area with checkpoints, bars and special American inspired shops shows clear signs from the time when this was a US Naval bas.
Monday April 20 WaterCraft Venture Marina
Still in the marina since Saturday. Philippines have had heat record, typical just as we are here!
Boat job and web-fixing, shopping and dinner out.
Tuesday 21 Subic Bay
Early morning for more job, among others we did conservation of the chicken we bought yesterday, using the pressure cocker. Another shopping tour, paid the marina fee and left for the diesel dock. 400 l and paid 30 pesos per litre. Compared with Malaysia it’s a little more expensive, but still less than 50% compared with Europe!
After fuelling we motored to the north part of the bay, near the karaoke bars… where we were anchored two nights when we arrived.
Anchored and looked back to south and the harbour. Completely invisible behind a downdraught for half an hour. We in the northern end of the bay didn’t even lose the sun!! Talk about local weather…
Wednesday 22 Over night sailing
The plan was to continue preparation for the passage to Japan on site.
But a weather window for the passage seems to appear, starting Monday. We had already decided not clear custom and immigration in Subic Bay.
Rumours talk about hefty corruption resulting in “fees” that sums up for the two of us to 300 US$. San Fernando 120 nm to the north seems to be free from corruption.
So instead of staying we weigh anchor and in an open reach we slowly left Subic Bay. Later going north close to the shoreline of Luzon we had still a favourable wind angle, but due to land and sometime high mountains the strength was quite shifting. The worst was some catabactic wind reaching above 30 knots, giving Moon almost nine knots of speed through the water.
By sunset the wind faded away and we engaged the engine. The little moon was down around ten, but then we got new wind that lasted almost the whole night. Lots of small fishing boats close by made the night very demanding. It looked like half the number of the stars had landed on the horizon.
Our 24v alternator has decided to stop working. The 12v alternator still does a good job and most of the consumption during motoring is actually 12v, only the plotter and autopilot uses 24v. But if we want to produce water… and some heavy cocking that’s another matter. We did run the Whisper generator while sailing for the first time.
This is what we need to do on passages as the Whisper is our main source for heat and electricity. It did work very well and for three hours we produced water and of course some charging.
The WhisperGen consume 1/4 of the amount diesel that the engine consume, so of course we will run the Whisper when it’s only heat or electricity we need.
Thursday 23 San Fernando
In the early morning the wind was almost gone and we had to motor the remaining 30 nm to San Fernando where we anchored in the south bay around noon. One of the fishing canoes came and offered their services.
Yes we wanted a ride to the beach, but not until tomorrow. They were fine with that and promised to be back tomorrow morning.
Friday 24 San Fernando
The morning begun with a lot of measuring on the alternator and its regulator. Most of it was ok, eventually we found some odd values when checking the diodes. Further investigations have to be made in Taiwan or Japan. We will not try to bother San Fernando with this. First of all it’s Friday and we don’t want to miss our weather window for the passage.
The guys in the canoe came as agreed and we were thankfully for that when they in full speed made the last four waves to the beach. Four guys waited on the beach and directly lifted up the canoe on the dry sand.
That hadn’t been fun in our dinghy! The return trip made the arrangement even more important in the swell. They had quite a skill!
Immigration and customs were very nice and friendly. They checked us in and out in almost no time and at no cost at all!
Saturday 25 Pinget Island
Weigh anchor very early to get to the next possible anchorage 60 nm to the north. 6 knots from behind made the climate on deck almost unbearable. With no wind over deck, 6 knots from behind – 6 knots of motoring speed is obviously 0, makes condition quite harsh. Especially in early morning when the little bimini does not much to protect us from the sun!
At noon the wind turned to west and the situation became absolutely fine. A nice breeze over Moon, full sails and no motor made life so much easier.
We anchored an hour before sunset completely protected from the swell. A canoe with two fishermen where hanging onto Moon when we anchored. Tried to get them of, but they seem not understand, kept asking for wine and so on. Almost no English words in their “conversation”.
An hour later and after some scratches from their outriggers on Moon we finally got rid of them. Very unpleasant! Luckily this happens very seldom.
So far we have encountered this four times in three different countries, meaning this has to do with alcohol and not with people from a specific country.
Sunday Gan Bay
Today we had a plan to keep sailing not more than 110 degrees of the wind, remembering the conditions from yesterday sailing/motoring 180 degrees off the wind. Luckily the wind direction and our direction agreed and we had a very nice sailing until anchored shortly after lunch behind the reef and a man made reef.
Then we went down to continue with all updates on our web site. As usual we also shut down all instruments including the VHF, as there was likely no one to call.
Big surprise around five when the coast guard came to visit. They had called us several times but as our VHF didn’t listen… they had rented a local canoe to be able to visit us.
Two nice guys came aboard and were only interested in who we were and where we came from and nationality.
As we already were checked out we thought maybe they would say something about stopping, but no. We just had to call them on the VHF before we left the bay next morning.
We asked how many yachts they have had in the bay – we where the first…
Monday 27 on route to Japan
We leave today heading for Ishigaki or Okinawa. Taiwan if conditions force us to.
Last night we had to exchange a membrane in the cooling pump for the WhisperGen, luckily it failed before we left…
Next logbook – Japan Part 1
Annika & Björn
Moon
www.sailaround.info
mail@sailaround.info