Part 2 of the Epic Trip. March 23-27, 2018.
Watch Miriam’s video about the adventure
Friday: Mavic’s Birthday and a rest from boat work. Martin had to attend some business meeting at work in the morning and we then all went to Manila to watch Lion King. Great show. Back to Los Banos in the evening.
Saturday: The original plan called for going to Maya Maya today for purchasing supplies and doing last minute preparations. But there was still too much to do. So we spent most of the day in Los Banos, making trailer tent parts, packing, and buying some supplies. Drove to Nasugbu in the late afternoon, checked in a Sofitel name alike and had some very nice Pizza and second birthday dinner for Mavic in the newly discovered Italian restaurant.
Sunday: After a delicious breakfast at the famous chain restaurant with the golden boobs we spent the morning in the Marina to prepare Magayon. Martin tightened all the lashings while the girls were cleaning up the boat.
Back in Nasugbu we ventured to the coast trying to find a nice restaurant for lunch and ended up in a resort with OK food. Shopping for the stuff we forgot, bedsheets, alcohol for the cookstove, batteries for the flashlights, 26 l of drinking water in case we would loose control over the boat and drift away from the land, etc. similar to the all so familiar charter boat trip preparations. Another trip to the Marina to store all the supplies in the boat and for a last check. Mounting the Trackimo GPS Tracking device and checking all electronics including the nautical charts and the logbook on the Ipad.
A last dinner before the trip in another beach resort, it consisted mostly of beer.
Monday: We finally detached the mooring and left. Setting sails right outside of the Marina.
Some great sailing at around 5.5 knots heading South wind abeam. Passed Matabunkay in no time and did the distance that took us three days in half day with wind from port. Hardly any swell.
The sea was calm, hardly any waves, we made between 2 and 5 knots most of the time. Around lunch time the wind dropped for a while and we came almost to a standstill, but then it picked up again. But then, when we reached the Calatagan Peninsula we all of the sudden had the wind come from the front and a pretty high swell. This is where we gave up the last time, the old wooden mast was working so much and the cross beams were getting loose back then, that we decided to go back. Now, with the new aluminium mast only weighing half of the old monster, sailing was almost a pleasure. Miriam practiced riding out the highest waves by reducing speed through coming up and it was exciting, but pleasant sailing for a while. But we had to tack against the wind and it was already 3:00 PM and we realised that would not make it to Anilao that day. We consulted the nautical chart and found a sign saying “Marina” in a bay on the eastern side of the Peninsula. Some quick phone conversation with Mavic, who had followed us with the car and had taken photos, and we decided to check it out and anchor there if possible. Mavic would then try to reach us with the car.
The Marina turned out to only exist on the chart. No Marina wherever we looked. But there was a small bay, protected from the wind and swell, with a few small beaches. At the entrance there was a buoy and on the beach some handymen were working on a huge bangka. After dropping the sails Miriam manoeuvred Magayon II close to the shore and Martin asked the workers whether it is OK to anchor inside the bay. They said no, it was private property, butthey allowed us to moor the boat overnight at the buoy. So we did, and after some rest in the shade of the cabin roofs, when the sun was less intense, Miriam cooked noodles with delicious noodle sauce from a glass, and we opened the bottle of wine we had brought along to celebrate the successful day. We had gone much further that last time in three days. Everything had worked well, only some of the crossbeam lashings got loose again. And there appeared to be some wood dust from one of the locating blocks, indicating that the hardwood used to make them was not such hard wood.
Mavic could not find a road to our little bay, so she went ahead to Anilao to sleep in the resort she had found, which we had hoped to reach today.
Tuesday: We awoke from a rough night, the buoy was outside the little bay and we got the full swell the whole night. After a quick breakfast consisting of chocolate cookies and water, we were happy to untie Magayon II and start sailing towards Anilao. Martin had tightened the lashes of the cross beams the evening before, but there was still a lot of sound caused by the boat working against the swell. Martin was not very happy, he briefly thought about returning and fixing the locating blocks, which were obviously part of the problem. But that would have meant giving up and taking the boat out of the water again, and now we had come so far. The wind was a bit less than the previous day and the swell was also less, and we would come into the more protected areas once we crossed the bay, so we decided to move on.
The sail turned out to be eventless, except for some miscommunication about the location of the resort, which caused a slight detour, and we arrived in the early afternoon in Anilao at the Campers Resort, a very basic dive resort Mavic had found with a very helpful and accommodating owner. The resort has its own buoy, and we were allowed to leave the boat overnight there.
The inner lashings were loose again. Martin thought about a new way to do the lashings, which led to much tighter fittings. He did all the 16 lashings this way and used some additional ropes for the aft cross beam. We’ll see how that works out tomorrow.
After Miriam had shuttled crew and luggage to the shore using a stand-up paddle board – “You are not allowed to tell anyone that I used this.”, Mavic drove us to a nice BBQ restaurant were we had a delicious Italian meal.
Wednesday: given the relatively heavy sea over the last two days and the fact that Mavic would have to get a boat anyway to go to Puerto Galera, we hired a support Bangka for the crossing of the channel to Mindoro. Just in case. In the morning the sea was mirror like, no wind at all, so we started the day under motor, with the Bangka following us.
After passing Eagle Point Resort and when getting some wind we set sail.
To no avail. Just not enough wind to tack against it. So we ended up using the motor for some more time until reaching Chicken Feather Island. We told the Bangka that the can go ahead and wait for us at the channel. They took the opportunity to do a side trip to a beach resort, where they re-newed their registration of their boat. Only in the Philippines 🙂
Reaching the channel the Bangka had caught up with us again. We killed the motor and tried to aim at Puerto Galera close-hauled. The wind was reasonable for around 4-5 knots speed, there was almost no swell. So we told Mavic on the Bangka that they can go ahead.
After a nice, comfortable sail we arrived in Puerto Galera around lunch time. Since we have not been in contact with the Puerto Galera Yacht club for some time we decided to anchor in front of the Sandbar Resort for the night, and sort out things tomorrow. After the transfer of the boat to the ocean and the sail to PG we were all happy to have a break. After all, we arrived with one spare day before the Regatta would start.
We paid a visit to the Puerto Galera Yacht Club to talk with Elma, the manager of the Club, about the possibility to leave Magayon II in the Club after the regatta. She said that she had reserved a buoy for us for the time during the regatta and that we could discuss whether we can use it afterwards. We agreed on moving the boat the next day, since we urgently needed to pick up our Crew. They came from different places and some were quite jet lagged. Angela Lehmann from LA, Sheckie and Matt from Hong Kong, and Daniel from the far away place IRRI.
Miriam, Mavic and Martin joined the BBQ evening in the Yacht club, during which some announcements were made by Peter, the Master of Ceremonies for the event. Among others he welcomed the newcomers including us and pointed out to the other contestants that our little Wharram Magayon II is actually a boat participating in the race, and should not be mistaken with a marker. He presented the program for the weekend.
Skippers briefing tomorrow at 9:00 pm, we were all happy to retreat and catch some sleep.
Related pages
Sail to Pandan: Transfer from Talisay to Maya Maya
Sail to Pandan: Maya Maya to Puerto Galera (this page)
Sail to Pandan: The PGYC Easter Regatta