Palawan to Cebu 2011

Palawan to Cebu

It took us 3 days of mainly motoring to get to Puerto Princesa, Palawan from Kudat in Sabah. The SW wind didn’t arrive and any winds we had came from the NE. We felt quite at home in Puerto Princesa , although we only stayed a couple of days last March. Even the immigration officer recognized us.

We waited for Cyclone Songda to pass over Luzon before we started to head towards Cebu, across the Sulu Seas. The weather was quite unsettled even though the cyclone was over on the eastern side of Luzon. Winds were ranging between 22 to 32 knots over the 3 days it took to get us to Port Bombonon, at the bottom end of Negros Island. Those windy conditions ripped both our main, genoa and bimini cover. The main was ripped in several places but we managed to tack the single rip on the genoa with contact glue. It worked. We did cut some sail cloth out of the torn main to glue the tear on the genoa. It’s a good thing that we’re sailing to Cebu City to pick up our new sails.

Balicasag Island on the southern end of Bohol is a lovely spot where the edge of reef falls off to 200m. A small section, marked off by small floats, right in front of the resort, is a marine reserve. There were no more fish to be seen inside or outside the reserve. Each day, over 20 bancas (traditional Filipino trimarans) bring their guests to dive off the sea wall. These bancas start to arrive at 6 am! There was a good range of different corals, a couple of green turtles and small aquarium size fish. By 3 pm most of the bancas would have left and the locals ( 600 people live in Balicasag ) come to fish and search the reef for food.

Cabilao Island, another interesting island where the reef falls off to 200m. We picked up a mooring buoy as it is impossible to anchor on the reef. We pay 200 pesos /day for the use of these buoys. These buoys are tied to edge of the reef by ropes. Rather dicey looking buoys. Glad there were no major storms while we’re using these buoys. It’s quite eerie to look down to a bottomless pit on one side of the boat and on the other side we’re only 4 meters from the corals. Again, beautiful coral formation but no big fish seen. Fishermen fish off the drop in the evenings, boys spear fish in the afternoons with their home made spears and flippers. Rather unique flippers too. They tie a large , round board on one foot, but leave the other foot free so that they can walk on the reef as well. They comb the reef for hours, trailing their catch behind them. Anything over 5cm will be speared. The women will comb the beach at low tide to complete the hunt for their daily food. It’s a tough life.

Cebu City on Cebu Island, a major city in the Philippines. Home for nearly 4 million people. As with most cities that grew up piecemeal, the streets and houses are both new and old. Slums are neighbours to huge shopping malls. Cebu City boasts of having the 11^th largest mall in the world. The water around the city is covered with filth but the people still have to fish to eat. Many get round the poor catch rate of traditional methods by dynamiting the reef. We here dynamite being set off each day. The reverberation of the explosion is very loud through the steel hull. The officials turn a deaf ear to these sounds and yet we read in the local newspaper, they want to fine the locals if the daily fee of 35 pesos ( NZ $1 )for the permit to pick shellfish is not paid.