May 1999
Puerto Galera, Philippines to Singapore
The time has come to say “Good-Bye” to
all my acquaintances in Puerto Galera and I thank them all for their
hospitality. Thanks to the Puerto Galera Yacht
Club, where we had so much fun. The manager David Socash and Barmaid Jenny
with an ever ready smile or was it a grimace? Sanie, “the Mystery Lady” with Jassel and Bon Robi. Digna, a special
friend in trust. Farewell to Rosemarie, Caroline
and Kim, Baby, Angie and Ernst, may we meet again some day. Fair winds to all the “Yachties” we have met and span a
yarn or two. Especial thanks to the COCO Beach
Resort who organised so many charter tours for me and of course all the
Danish people who contributed generously towards Little Swan.
As we head out the Manila channel, a
last look back to PG and my thoughts will be with you. It has been great
staying here and the temptation to stay forever was nearly irresistible. Sabang passes on our starboard side and I notice Ray’s
dreamy eyes searching out the Umbrella-Bar and like a mumble he sings;
Tataratatata….Tataratatat… eya.. eya..uee..uee.. Hmmmm…?!
Toni struba@hotmail.com
Hi, my name is Ray McNabeny and I
arrived in Puerto Galera on Sat. 20th March, only to find that
“Little Swan” has gone! Toni had taken a charter group to Coron Isl. on a
six day round trip and left me on the shore. He booked me into COCO Beach
Resort to await his return. COCO Beach proved to be up market Resort with excellent
food and facilities, so I didn’t mind too much. Little Swan duly returned on Friday afternoon and a relieved Ray joined
the “Boat”.
The first 3 weeks were very busy as we
did some minor repairs and then a week of daily charter cruises for COCO
Beach Resort. We took 10 to 14 people on board and sailed out to the
islands Bonito, Chicken and Sombrero, did some swimming and snorkelling,
then lunch and back via White Beach. Every one loved their day out,
especially as Toni supplies free Booze and soft drinks. Of course the crew don’t drink until the end of the day
and the home-anchorage has been reached.
Many happy days were spent at Puerto
Galera, as Toni had quite a few good friends there who entertained us. We
gave them a “Farewell Cruise” to Bako Isl. where we had lunch and swimming
etc. hen a “Fun Farewell Party” at Angies and
Ernst’s place, more food and drinks and a final party at the Yacht Club on
Saturday night before sailing on Sunday to Boracay. I will be staying aboard as we sail finally to
Singapore via Boracay, Coron Isl., El Nido and Sabang in Palawan. Then
Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia.
I am writing this as we sail on the
final leg and I must say that the whole trip adventure has been the most
enjoyable nine weeks of my life. Toni has to be
an excellent captain, looking after the safety of vessel and crew. I would like to say thanks for a great trip.
Ray McNabney raymcnabney@hotmail.com
Flying into Manila I was thinking to
myself that only 9 hrs from Sydney lies Little Swan, another country and
culture. All the work done to get her there and I just step off the plane
and join the adventure, what a great opportunity! Hi, I am Dennis Shepherd
and Toni has asked me to write the latest Update for our journey from the
Philippine Islands to Singapore.
Ray McNabney had been on Little Swan for
a few weeks and once I arrived at Puerto Galera it took us nearly a week
to get going. (I don’t think Toni really wanted to leave) There was a riotous farewell
party that was put on by the good friends that Toni had made over the last
few month. When we finally sobered up from the parties, we were off to
Boracay. Toni had a tear in his eyes and was singing Julio’s “All the
girl’s I’ve loved before” and then made a vow, that I will return to my
beautiful LBFMs!
We were finally away, an o/night stop at
Puerto Conception on Maestro de Combo Isl. (there seemed to be a lot of
kids there) and then we sailed on to Boracay. The beach here is about 2 miles
long and endless string of Restaurants, Bars, Disco’s and shop’s sit right
on the sand. We hired a Tricycle to give us a quick tour of the Island
and must have looked a sight with the three of us on it plus the driver.
Once out of the main shopping strip the driver slowed down on a corner and
3 little urchins leaped on, now there were 7 of us on this poor little
motorbike. naively thought they were getting a free lift home from
school, but soon the driver turned up a bush track and announced that the
“Bat Cave” was just over the hill and the kids were our “official guides”.
We agreed to look at the Bat Cave and on
the way passed a beach with a 60 feet Yacht high and dry on the sand. It
apparently was a local Charter Boat running for cover from a typhoon when
it broke down and was blown onto the beach. It was still in good condition
and we were figuring out how to refloat
her, when our guides hustled us off to the cave. (business
first)
Of course we had to go through a
tollgate first and then down over slippery rocks and bat shit. The guides
did an excellent job with their torches and once on the bottom we could
hear the noise of waves as the cave was connected to the sea via a tunnel,
which gave it an eerie light especially with thousands of bats peering
down on you. We made it out safely and with much bartering our guides
were happy and we dropped them off at their ambush spot. We went on up to
the Look Out (The highest spot of Boracay). We ended up pushing the trike
up the steepest part, then through the standard tollbooth to see the view.
It was well worth it a panorama of the whole island.
We were expecting the arrival of another
crew member, but when he didn’t turn up, we set off. Two hours down the track we got a
phone call. Our new crew was waiting on the beach back at Boracay for us,
so back we went. (we would be lost without the phone) The new crew was an American guy
who’s name was Randy Reamer (no joking) from San Francisco and who was
working in Cebu. It was now too late to sail so we had to spend another
night partying in Boracay (what a shame)
We had a “lovely” time at Boracay,
especially Randy and me. With hangovers we set off for Coron.
After an o/night stop we arrived at Coron Island. We went for a swim in
the inland lake, which is a massive limestone structure and you feel as if
you are suspended in space as you snorkel around. A couple of nights on shore were
great fun. We were entertained by the singing sisters, Sol and Charlene,
whilst eating at the Restaurant. Two of us were tricked into dancing with
a Boy-Girl, but I wont say who! We dived on 2 Japanese WWII wrecks on
the way to El Nido. It was really fascinating looking at this ships and
the bomb holes that sank them.
El Nido (The Nest) is nestled at the
bottom of these huge sheer rock cliffs and the setting is really pretty. Toni introduced us to a lady
called Resty Adams who runs a bar called “Shipwrecked Bar”! Boy, it was well named, I will
never drink a “Long Island Tea” again. We did a Day-cruise around the local
islands with some new found friends from Resty’s, who were from Germany.
We stopped at a Resort (Malapacao Island Retreat) for lunch.
The cover picture of the Philippines
Lonely Planet Guide was taken here and Little Swan in the scene before us
made it look even better. From El Nido it was Good Bye to
Randy who flew back to Cebu, we have had a great time with Randy on board
and it was going to seem quiet without him, however Sabang awaits us.
Sabang in Palawan (not Mindoro) our next
stop had a magnificent underground river, which worked its way over 8 km
into the mountain. We only went in about 11/2 km on our guided tour. The
rock formations were breath taking. Sabang itself was very quiet, however an
upturned Dingy episode at 1am by Ray and myself returning on board in an
unexpected surf (we had been at a local Birthday Party) saw us giving the motor mouth to
mouth at 2 am – not appreciated by Toni.
The next morning we found our glasses
etc. from the night before, ably assisted by cross eyed Vincente O.Murillo
“The unpaid Volunteer for human and earth defence” and the unofficial
guardian of the dock. He gave us plenty of light hearted moments with his
antics. We left Sabang, hoping to stop o/night in a river, but the
untimely arrival of a storm set us off on a 50 hour run to Kota Kinabalu
in the Malaysian state of Sabah.
K.K. as it is known is quite a big City
with many tall buildings. The City itself is pretty ordinary and not very
cheap. We decided to do a day trip to Mt.Kinabalu and some nearby hot
springs. After much thermal soaking and a shaky walk along a suspended
walkway in the jungle canopy, we were treated to lunch and a look at the
ranger station. From there our Coach-driver showed us how it was possible
to drive down a mountain with the accelerator flat to the floor. From K.K. we went onto Labuan
which did not have much going for it other then being a duty-free port.
(still expensive) and cheap fuel (hard to get)
We then sailed down the coast of Sabah,
past Brunei we caught a huge Queen Mackerel. Hundreds of oil rigs later saw us
into Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Our charts showed we could take the
river right into town, however there has been a lock built which
kept the water level in town constant. We were faced with a racing river due to
3 meter tides with lots of debris and logs or try to get under the newly
built bridge and lock and moor in town. After much discussions with the
lock operator, they worked out we would clear the bridge by 10 cm at 10pm
that night on a dead low tide.
We were ready at 9:30 and told to follow
a cargo boat and a fishing trawler into the lock. We waited and waited.
Finally the Cargo boat coming downstream was let out. It was nearly 11pm
and the tide was rising again. Toni decided to still have a go at it, so
we slowly motored in. Luckily for us there was a guide wire slung across
at the same height as the bridge before you actually hit the concrete. We
hit the wire about 30cm down the forestay and then all hell broke loose
with the lock operator screaming at us over the loudspeakers to go back
and 10 dock hands frantically waving at us trying to control and turn
Little Swan using the dingy in the swirling tidal currents.
Finally back at anchor and many Rum’s
and Beers later we consoled ourselves, that if we had made it in, we may
have missed the tides to come back out again and been stuck in there for a
month or more. Kuching itself was clean with a mixture of modern and well
kept old colonial buildings. We decided to do a trip to the national park
and see the Orang Utan’s in the wild.
We caught a cab out to the park and
followed the signs to where the animals were kept. Many were kept in cages
and being trained to be let back into the wild and fend for them selves.
We had missed the feeding time for the semi-wild Orang Utans to come
for breakfast, however a female and baby were still there. She immediately
went to Ray to see if he had any food. Being sussed out by something with
four huge hands is pretty scary. After Ray she set upon me and even had
the hide to look up my shorts. I must have scared her off as now it was
Toni’s turn. She decided she wanted his bag right or wrong. Toni decided
different and she only succeeded in ripping the strap off and then played
with it as if to skite at what she had done. All this with a cute little
baby on her back.
We retreated, deciding not to try our
luck any more and via the forest walk way made our way out. One more night out in Kuching,
with an other Australian Boat “Quicksilver” who was also locked out. On a slack tide we departed and a
three day passage ahead to make Singapore. Sixty-three hours later we
arrived feeling very dwarfed by the thousands of huge ships. It was
absolutely mind boggling the amount of ship traffic moving and at anchor.
Here we wandered amongst the monoliths
trying to get onto Port Control on the Radio to find out where we could
clear immigration. We finally got through 3 different channels later only
to be given some garbled message. We gave up and decided to go around the
back of Singapore Island and try our luck there. We found a Yacht and got info
that we had to travel into a Downtown Office Building. We were also told
anchoring was not permitted, so Toni had to hire a mooring off a Marina at
S$30.-/day. We had wondered why there were no cruising yachts here, but
the answer becomes apparent.
Well, that is it for me. 6 weeks and
3000km later it is time to get back to Sydney and my Boat to start my own
adventures. I have had a fantastic time and voyage and if you are reading
this and wondering if you should join Little Swan and Toni, I can
only say Carpe Diem.
Dennis Shepherd sheppo_48@hotmail.com
My sincere thanks to Ray and Dennis for
their participation of helping to sail (motor) Little Swan to Singapore. With new crew, I hope to depart
Singapore on the 1st of June and sail up the East Coast of
Malaysia and its Islands to Thailand and possibly onto Cambodia. If
Vietnam is still not possible to cruise it will be a rhumb line back to
Singapore and then up the West Coast of Malaysia to Phuket in Thailand for
some maintenance work.
Sending you all my best regards and if
you have the time, please drop me a line by e-mail.
Toni
Sat. phone No.
(+) 873 761 336 848 IOR
Resty’s Long Island Tea:
1 shot of Rum
1 shot of Vodka
1 shot of Gin
1 Shot of Tequilla
2 spoons of sugar
Ice
Drink with a straw
