Impressions of the Philippines 2011

May 2011

The tourism authorities of the Philippines tell you that its a land of 7017 islands, so as a keen sailor it seems natural to want to return to the Philippines after having been away for slightly over a year. One should always be suspicious of outlandish claims and the reality is that over 3,500 islands are so small that they have no name and are either isolated groups of rocks or a sand cay. Still that leaves over 3,500 islands and even if you visited a new island every two days it would take some twenty years to see them all. At the same time the population of the Philippines is somewhere in the order of 90 million so every tiny islet that has some habitable land is fully utilised. The romantic dream of finding your own uninhabited sandy island with swaying coconut trees is exactly just that.

The real reason for returning to the Philippines so soon after our last visit was pragmatic. Our sails were over 10 years old and have been patched and repatched and were so weak that you could tear them with your bare hands and it turns out that there is a very good British sailmaker with a worldwide production loft in Cebu, the price was right and to have the sails freighted to Malaysia was going to cost another $500US so the decision to revisit was easy.

Cebu is the hub of the Philippines, geographically and is also the centre for local ferries and shipping. Its a thriving metropolitan city with 4 million people and you can get just about anything you need in Cebu without putting up with the smog and the mad traffic of Manila.Its also famous for its Lechon Baboy, (roast pig) and boasts one of the largest shopping malls in the world. There is an international airport on Mactan island and conveniently the Cebu yacht club is almost within walking distance to the airport.

We sailed from the tip of Sabah, East Malaysia to Puerto Princesa , Palawan for the first leg a journey of some 300 nautical miles (nm) and cleared formalities there, rested and restocked before sailing across the Sulu sea towards the southern tip of Negros. The weather was squally and we managed to shred both the mainsail and the headsail about a hundred miles short of Cebu, the headsail we repaired but the mainsail was beyond repair so our timing was almost perfect. As it turned out we were beset by a week of calm weather which was great for snorkelling and motoring so the sails were not required.

The sails had in the meantime been measured and made the season before by one of Hyde Sails distributors but collecting the sails required paper work to satisfy Customs that the sails were being exported so nothing is as straightforward as it first appears.

Four weeks later in pouring rain the sails were delivered in cardboard boxes which quickly reduced to soggy wheatbix so they were left on deck till the weather cleared before we attempted to hoist the brand new sails. It took five minutes to discover that the sail track attachments were the wrong size when they kept popping out of the mainsail track when you yanked. Its a little disappointing and could have been disastrous if we had freighted them to Malaysia but as we were only 15 minutes away from the loft, one phone call and the next day two sailmaikers and their supervisor arrived and within a couple of hours had removed and restitched the new fittings. Apart from this single hitch the sails have performed well and we have used them through a huge range of wind speeds from almost no wind to gale force winds.

Directly south of Cebu is the island of Bohol, its a fairly large island, I think the tenth largest in the Philippines but has a population of probably less than 100,000 so it has quite a rural feel to the place. Once an agricultural island now its main income is tourism that plus overseas funds repatriated by the millions of Filipinos working overseas and its blessed with an unusual limestone formation known as the Chocolate Hills that have made it a worldwide tourist attraction. Much more endearing, its home to the tarsier, the planet's smallest primate no bigger than your palm yet complete with all the fingers and toes that make their larger cousins our nearest genetic relative. The waters around Bohol are clean and deep with strong currents and must still contain sufficient fish supplies as we saw one of the largest pods of spinner dolphins go by one day consisting of several hundred madly cavorting dolphins having the time of their lives as spinner dolphins seem to, doing backward flips and full forward somersaults and aerial spirals. I sometimes wonder whether its a method the dolphins have developed for driving the fish they feed on as the sound of the impact of a falling dolphin underwater is quite a large bang.

By now its early July and the typhoons are beginning to whiz by at regular intervals. While historical records show that they tend to go by along the North and East of the Philippines at this time of year each passing typhoon drags in several days of wet squally weather for hundreds of miles . With this in mind we start heading south towards Mindanao to create as much distance as possible from typhoon alley.

Mindanao evokes strong emotions with anyone who is familiar with South East Asian politics. Thoughts of the struggle for autonomy by the MORO liberation front the later active terrorism by Abu Sayaff and the kidnapping of tourist divers from Semporna, Malaysia make Mindanao anything but a popular tourist destination. All our friends outside the Philippines tell us to beware of pirates and more disturbingly when you are in the Central Philippines they warn you of the pirates in the south. There is a good historic reason for all this mistrust as for five hundred years pirates have seasonally come North during the South West Monsoon to raid the islands like Bohol etc. The Spanish had watchtowers built to look out for pirates and lit smoke as a warning for locals to move inland. Such was the ferocity of the pirates that they were allowed to plunder at will. In local speak the word Habagat which means the South West Monsoon can also be used for pirates. The later Christian Missionaries, the Jesuit Fathers made the mistake of building their first church by the sea and had to rebuild further inland to avoid the regular attacks. While not most of the population in Mindanao are Muslim there are certainly more Muslims present in Mindanao than the rest of the Philippines, so the Christain North lump the two factors together and associate Mindanao with Muslim terrorists and pirates.

Before arriving at Mindanao island there is the little province and island of Camiguin. Its a steep little island, volcanic in origin, mountainous and can be circumnavigated by road in a couple of hours. The islanders are friendly the villages are clean and planted with flowers and all available flat land seems to be covered with rice padi. Unlike the other islands Camiguin seems to be devoid of ugly squatters crowded along the foreshore. We sheltered there out of some blustery weather and went ashore to tour the island by jeepney, do a little stocking up of fresh produce and generally take in the ambience of the island. Right in front of our chosen anchorage was mangrove with a recently built walkway which we conveniently tied our dinghy to. Ashore was a lagoon with fish farms and a little road side bamboo cafe where local fare was served. Anne was delighted to find green coconuts for sale at 15 pesos, about 40cts NZ. We stayed several nights and when the weather settled set off for Mindanao Island. As the locals say 'Come again to Camiguin'

Cagayan de Oro is the Provincial Capital of North Mindanao and that was where we were headed. It is our last offical port for us to complete departure formalities. My impressions of Mindanao from the reading of Time magazines and other journals was a backward rural, terrorist ridden outpost, so I was totally flabbergasted when some 15 miles before arrival the shoreline was dotted with container port, shipyards, heavy industries, power plants, steel mills and other major industrial establishments larger in scale than any present in NZ. The city itself has several universities each competing with the other and identifying themselves by having their undergraduates wear uniforms!. I must admit that having groups of young ladies smartly dressed in uniform completely with three inch heels moving around the city malls in the middle of the day does make shopping a more interesting proposition. I don't think you will find any Kiwi undergraduate willing to don uniforms in the university.

Customs officials in the Philippines are notorious for their corruption and there are regular articles in the local papers about feeble attempts to weed them out. Today with the internet the floating community intelligence is right up to date and there are a number of ports that are best to avoid for extortionist custom officials, namely Subic Bay, and Cebu. Hardly anyone clears out of Cagayan de Oro so we were unsure as to what would be required. We breezed through immigration without paying and so were feeling upbeat. Customs was very polite but before issuing us with final clearance the officer said. "The charge will be 1500pesos ($45 NZ) are you prepared for that". I said, "you're, going to give me a receipt" and when the official said yes I coughed up. I still have the individually type written receipt, dictated to a secertary in front of me. It says for additional services provided such as food, transport and accommodation. All this for 10 minutes in his office. C'est la vie.

We spent a further three weeks cruising North Mindanao wending our way westwards back towards Malaysia. There were many delightful bays with friendly villagers and courteous coastguard officials and so it was a truly enjoyable time. Interestingly, the locals warn us not to go to South Mindanao where the pirates and terrorists hang out and this time we heeded their advice and when the weather cleared headed across 400miles of the Sulu sea back to Sabah, East Malaysia. It was a rough crossing with the wind directly from the front. With our usual luck, the SW didn't materialise, instead we had westerlies for 6 days and we're of course heading west. Winds turned to SE the moment we dropped anchor in one of the other of the islands west of Kudat, Sabah. The local fishermen that came to talk to us when we dropped anchored were very friendly. Offered us a couple of fish that were edible sizes I gave them biscuits for those yummy fish. The next day they came back with a bag of very large crabs. We feasted well for a few days. There are still fish in Malaysia unlike the Philippines where the locals were eating aquarium fish like Moorish Idols and all types of sea shells including cowries.

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.

Layang Layang

Layang Layang – Swallow Reef, is part of the historically disputed Spratly Reefs in the South China Sea. It has been claimed by China, Philippines and Vietnam over recent decades. However Malaysia decided to take the bull by the horns, reclaimed part of the atoll, blasted a ship’s channel into the lagoon, and built a naval base to mark the territory for Malaysia. There is now also an exclusive dive resort, an airstrip and a research station for the Fisheries Department. To visit the atoll one needs a permit from the National Security Council, Prime Minister’s Dept. It took about three weeks to obtain the permit

We left Miri, Sarawak in early June to sail the 180 nm to Layang Layang. En route we trolled our usual fish lure and had a huge strike, lost the whole fishing reel as the elastic cord snapped. Never saw the fish. As they say ‘hook, line and sinker’. Sailing with modern electronic navigation equipment is truly a wonder. Imagine we sail in oceans with depths over 1000m, looking for a small atoll 7 km long and 1.5 km wide. After 2 nights we are happy to sight this little island in the middle of nowhere. We can only see the island within 5 nm from the island. Once we had motored thru’ the channel into calm, clear waters, we heaved a sign of relief.

After Leo presented our permit to the Naval commander, we had permission to roam around the atoll. In the evening while enjoying the peace and tranquility and the cool night air, sitting on the aft deck with his usual cup of after dinner Chinese tea, Leo heard a thump then squirt squirt squirt. Hullo? A huge squid had jumped into our dinghy. Obviously using the aerial route to escape a hungry predator, did not really get him out of the frying pan this time!, a herald for a wonderful time?? We managed to catch 2 more over the next few days but our luck didn’t last long. The school of squid became too smart to take the bait anymore. They swim around the boat all the time, just tempting us to try to catch them but smart enough not to take the jig.

Within the atoll the water is a consistent 8 – 12 m deep so in theory you can anchor anywhere. We try to find a clean spot of sand so we do not damage the coral and drop our anchor, swim to the edge of the reef which surrounds the atoll and gawk at the riot of colours and shapes of all kinds of unlikely forms of marine life. At low tide, we can just swim over the reef. To get to the outer edge of the atoll, we have to wait for high tide and hope that the current is not too strong. We tried a few times but had to turn back as the current was too strong. We did manage once to snorkel over the outer edge. It was eerie to swim over the outer edge of the reef. There was no visible bottom over the reef’s edge, just blue water. The edge drops off immediately to 200m then over 1000m. Here the denizens of the deep use the vertical face of the reef as their reference as there is no gravity and swim as if that is the ground, so when we snorkel and look down they are swimming on their sides.

Lovely reefs surround the atoll. We anchored in half a dozen places around the whole atoll and noted how different types of fish, coral and shells dominated each section as we moved around the atoll. Not many big fish reside inside the atoll, although some large humphead Wrasses do but mainly small coral reef fishes, suitable for aquariums.

All in all we spent almost 2 weeks in Layang Layang. We had to leave as our permit had come to an end. This place is definitely 5 stars. We caught a huge barracuda on our way back to Kota Kinabulu. It was so big that we couldn’t fit the head in our landing net. We managed to get the hook off with some trepidation as Leo was loathed to kill such a large fish but those sharp teeth would easily chomp off a few fingers and we did not have chain mail gloves. It was too big for food. Anyway it got off in the end by using the landing net as leverage to tear the hook out of its lips. It will have a crooked sneer for the rest of its life but I think that will suit a barracuda.

Victualling for such a long stay away from any food supply is always a challenge. With refrigeration and canning, these days its really only fresh greens and vegetables that run out after about 10days.

We sprouted mung beans and in desperation, stir fried watermelon skin , which when well fried tastes surprisingly like marrow!

The journey back to Kota Kinabalu started painfully slowly, with long periods of calm. The idyllic weather for snorkeling does not suit sailing and it was really in the early hours of the second night when some inclement weather brought a fresh breeze that rushed us over the last 12 hours.

Now we are happily ensconced in Sutera Harbour once again, catching up with the local marina residents and catching up on news and of course the World Cup. Its amazing what happens when you are out of touch with the world for two weeks, we discover that Australia has a first new female Prime Minister. Perhaps we should go away again.

Palawan 2010

Gemma, Matt, Leo and I left Malaysia for Palawan in early February . We had strong north east winds, sailing up the west coast of Palawan was torturous. We did 15 to 25 miles most days. We took a month to get to the top of Palawan and we only had less than 3 weeks to visit the bays on the east coast. Alas, the east coast was the prettier coast, the bays had crystal clear waters.

We picked up NiZhen in El Nido. El Nido is at the top end of the west coast of Palawan. NiZhen is the daughter of Fu Hua and Gracie. She had just completed a working stint in Palawan and was free to join us for 2 weeks. It was quite an experience for her to be on a sailing vessel. I have enclosed Gemma's views of our holiday. A lovely summary of our holiday.

Walking and looking for shells.

A great leap into the clear waters.

A view from the top.

Gemma in the water.

The colourful corals.

A Nudibranch.

Dancing shrimps surrounding a sea urchin. Dinner!!

Spot the stone fish.

The photos are taken by Gemma and Matt.

Palawan 2010

On a blustery summer day,
We crossed the Balabac straits.
As we zoomed atop the cresting waves,
We willed some dinner to take our bait.

Not one, but two simultaneous strikes.
Then chaos reigned, two tuna, yikes!
In Clarendon Bay, ‘ada buwaya ?’* yes! *crocodile
Perhaps he said, ‘ you should swim a bit less’.

At low tide we walked,
Following sandy trails,
To find new seashells,
to fill our pails.

Tagbita Bay, we had a long stop.
We washed and watered in a mountain stream,
While old Mario stocked up our banana shop.
Beach fired trevalley, damper in tins,
No scrap of food left, just a couple of fins.

At Long point, we heard a flurry of dogs,
Barking and yapping in search of hogs.
Success at last, one lone boar for slaughter.
We left for Fish Bay and it’s ‘crystal clear water’

Day after day, Matt tried to catch squid.
Alas, success eluded him.
He claimed he could catch one, who’s he trying to kid?
They remained safe and sound, still free to swim.

Quezon promised fresh food and ice cream,
But the anchorqge was not exactly a dream.
The outboard sounded as if suffering a terrible plight,
While from the shore, Pewter remained so far out of sight.

Sebang, the home of the underground river,
Where we watched tiny bats hang all a quiver.
May day Bay was thick with giant jellyfish
And a cooling swim was just a mere wish.

At Alligator Island, we met the German Peter,
With his alcohol consumption, I’m surprised he didn’t teeter.
Pail after pail we drew from his well,
By lunchtime that day, my back, it could tell.

Corong Corong Bay and El Nido town,
We search for Ni* as the sun went down.
Children raced and play fought on the beach.
The peaceful air shattered by the occasional screech.

*‘Ni’ is Fu Hua and Gracie’s daughter. She joined us for 2 weeks of sailing.

The boat soon filled with the familiar stench,
Of newly found shells rotting on the bench.
We swam and dove in clear blue sea,
Exploring new reefs and bays with glee.

Two giant marble cones
Matt is delirious,
While Ni plaintively moans,
‘I want to find one!!’

Unfortunately, it all must end,
And down the east coast we start to wend.
We leave behind Palawan’s beautiful shore,
To see what else this year has in store.

By Gemma

A Family Interlude

The family (Carina, Mark, Jordan, Emma, Ping, Wayne, Gemma and Matt) all joined us on the boat in Brunei in the beginning of January. It was a tight squeeze on the boat, but everybody was ready to rough it out. Leo ended up on the floor rather than sharing a bed with Jordan and Emma as they wriggled and fought throughout the night.

It was fun having all of them around. The kids had such a tremendous capacity of finding fun in the simple things. Jordan and company (Matt, Gemma, Ping & Wayne) wrote silly song parodies as we sailed from Brunei to Labuan.

Emma the skipper

Emma and Jordan had both complained that they wanted to stop swimming lessons, and to prove it to Carina they both had to swim around the boat without a lifejacket. With lots of encouragement from all of us, especially to get Emma through her swim, as there was a slight current that she had to tackle, they made it, hooray!

Showering!

From Labuan we sailed to Pulau Tiga, the island where they filmed the first of the Survivor series. The island has volcanic mud pools, and Ping and Wayne got themselves completely covered in mud (actually Ping fell into the mud pool trying to rope walk across the pool!) They had to jump off the jetty to clean themselves up, and the rest of the family thought it was a great idea to leap off the jetty as well. Soon they were all leaping in. Emma and Jordan had no qualms leaping in with the rest. I was the only chicken…

A muddy pair...eek!

A flying leap

Ready, steady, JUMP!

Everyday we’d play ‘Oh Golly’, our favourite card game. Losing meant washing dishes so it was a rowdy and often, contentious event. Carina usually took the honours of doing dishes!

We stopped in a 5 star marina in Kota Kinabalu and it was great for the family. We enjoyed the swimming pools, the bowling alley, free bus rides to town, and pre-heated towels!

The main event was the trip to the Mulu Caves in Sarawak, the largest cave system in the world. The caves were great, however I found the long walks hot and tiring. We swam in clear streams during the walks and even found 4 wild durians for morning tea one day. The best part was the 3-hour boat ride out of the national park, riding the mini rapids down the river on very unstable canoes. The boatman would warn us not to move too much whenever we hit a rapid.

All set to walk

Like all wonderful holidays, it came to an end. The family left Gemma, Matt, Leo and I in Brunei, heading home to NZ while we traveled back to Kota Kinabalu before heading to Palawan, Philippines.

Family Parodies

Blob It

by Matt Gemma, Jordan, Ping & Wayne.

( music to 'Beat It' by Michael Jackson). It's about a card game ' Oh Golly '.

1. Told you, if you wanna play, you gotta play fair.

The stakes are pretty high, so you betta beware.

The contest's in their eyes, so you gotta take care.

So blob it, just blob it.

2. They told her there are lots of dirty dishes round here.

You betta clean em' up, make em' disappear.

The trumps are in their hands and their message is clear.

So blob it but you wanna beat dad.

Chorus:

So blob it, blob it, blob it, blob it.

Do what Car does and blob it.

You've got a nine in the trump suit,

You don't know whether to bid 1 or 2.

Just blob it, blog it.

3. You betta trump, you betta win while you can.

Don't wanna see no blobs, wanna be a blob free man.

If you wanna survive, betta blob while you can.

So blob it, just blob it.

4. There's only 5 cards and it's well over bid.

You ask for bonus points 'cause you're just a kid,

They trump you or they'll duck you ,

Then they'll got you like a squid,

So blob it but you wanna beat dad.

Chorus x6.

You'll Be Stung

By Matt.

sung to the tune of' She's the One' by Robbie Williams.

Chorus

Kong Kong steers,

Por Por yells,

Emma cries,

Jordan smells.

1. If you go swimming, out in the sun.

You'll be stung, you'll be stung.

If you go swimming, sting suit or none.

You'll be stung.

2. Carina cuts up a ripe pineapple.

Matt complains about the temperature.

It's BOILING!

Ping & Wayne lounge in the forecabin.

G laments the bites upon her skin.

Mark reads a book that sounds

BORING!!

10 People on a Boat

by Ping & Wayne.

10 people on a boat.

It's hard to stay afloat

Going nowhere fast

But it's such a blast.

10 people on a boat.

I think that's a great quote.

Someone spiked my 100 Plus.

Now I think the boat's a bus.

I'm getting really high.

Maybe the boat will touch the sky.

10 people on a boat.

Let's learn this song by rote.

Why should we stop here.

Only 10 is just not fair.

let's each invite a friend.

drive Ma and Pa round the bend.

20 people on a boat.

Oh no, it's not afloat.

Water's coming in.

Maybe we can't win.

We're gonna sink for sure.

Let's chuck our friends over board.

10 people on a boat.

10 people

10 people

Te-en people

on a boat

And it's name is Pewter.

Kinabatangan River, Sabah – December 2009

The Rhinoceros Hornbill

The Buffy Fish Owl

The Greater Egret

Ping, Wayne, and Leo’s nephew, Jeremy, joined us to sail north from Kota Kinabalu, over the top end of Sabah to the mouth of the Kinabatangan River. Which is just south of Sandakan.

It was a slow sail north, close haul, (winds from the front of the boat) all the way to the top end of Sabah. Battling with winds that were 20+ knots, Wayne was horizontal most days, only reviving when we anchored each night. Although, some of the anchorages were only slightly better than when we were sailing.

We all breathed a sigh of relief once we rounded the top end of Sabah, a lovely beam reach to Sandakan. We motored to the north entrance of the Kinabantangan River, and touched the bottom several times as the depth was never more than 1.5 to 1.8 meters. Normally, we need over 1.8m to clear the bottom, but the soft mud was a blessing, and allowed us to carry on even in depths of only 1.5 m, and occasionally 1.3m. That’s when we would touch the bottom, though just momentarily.

It was awesome entering the massive Kinabantangan River, the river was calm and glassy, and even Wayne could read while we motored upriver. The trees by the banks were full of wild life. Egrets, hornbills, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, eagles, kingfishers, owls……. The antics of the proboscis monkeys were very entertaining. One evening we anchored just beneath a tree with a large family of proboscis monkeys. It was fun watching them play, eat and sleep. Waking up in the morning gave us another exciting view of the monkeys, as they too wake up with the sunrise.

Proboscis Monkeys leaping

One night a local guide took us up the river and we saw sleeping kingfishers, owls, crocodiles and some small mouse deer. The highlight was the sleeping kingfishers. Even with the torches shining at them, they didn’t move and we could get really close to them. In fact, we’d get as close as the next branch over, being only a metre or two away from the sleeping birds.

Sleeping Stork-billed Kingfishers

Ping, Wayne and Jeremy left us from the little village along the Kinatangan by road, and traveled overland back to Sandakan. Leo and I motored down the river and then sailed up the coast. Farewell to a lovely calm interlude where we could see monkeys and birds roam freely, which may not last for long, as the oil palm estates are encroaching on their territory.

The photographs were taken by Jeremy.

Captions for the photos

Sorry, i missed getting the captions for each of the photos before posting them.

1. Pewter on the move. Taken by a fellow yachtie just at the start of the race. Almost becalmed.

2. The rest of the fleet, waiting for the wind to pick up, just after crossing the starting line.

3. The coil of fishing net that was caught in our propeller.