Sage on sail

Amazing is about all there is a need to say.  It was not only the incredible scenery of the limestone karst formations but it was all enhanced by having Sierd and Elsbie come all the way from Canada to visit us – what a great time we had!

Sierd and Elsbie at the end – they’re still smiling!

Despite the fact that we exposed our landlubber friends to many of the vagaries of cruising including water restrictions, hot quarters, out of ice in 3 days, salt water baths, jellyfish, coral cuts etc etc they still managed to smile at the end of it all (see picture taken in the hotel on their last morning before saying good-bye, boo hoo).  We managed to get out onboard Sage and visit some of the sites of the China Sea.  We walked amongst strange temples in anchorages where the anchoring depth was 123 feet (!), clambered into caves through the surf and from under the water, wandered up through the jungle with a guide to waterfalls, rode bangkhas into the sunset and almost enrolled Sierd and Elsbie for Survivor Sweden.And you know what? For two people who aren’t water rats; or, like the most famous of rats said in Wind in the Willows “There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” , Sierd and Elsbie passed the test with flying colours.  Our only hope is that when they get home and think back on the vacation they say to themselves ‘Wow, we can hardly wait till they get to ___________ and we’ll visit them again”!

Since they left last week we sailed away from El Nido, stopped in one of our favourite anchorages, Dilapia, passed over the top of

Dilapia

Palawan and have made our way down the east coast to the largest city on Palawan which is Puerto Princesa. Here we were welcomed at a small yacht club in an anchorage surrounded on one side by mangroves and the other by the downtown area. There are about 15 boats in the anchorage, some of which are almost permanent residents and others that are either moving north or south and come from the U.S., Australia and Germany.  We’re still the lonely Canadian out here not having seen another Canadian boat since Hawaii.We’ll stay for a week before continuing south and eventually on to Kudat, Malaysia on the island of Borneo.

Thanks for making the effort to visit us

What an incredible place. The scenery is magnificent, the villages small, very few tourists and if there are some they are in concentrated areas. The winds have been perfect and temperatures a little on the warm side but being on the water makes a big difference as there has usually been a wind in the daytime.

Starting off in Coron (#1on the map) we made our way over to Coral Bay (#5 on the map) on Popototan Island. I would have to say quite a remote location but there on the
beach a very nice small dive resort but more stunning a selection of about 7 huge homes obviously built by foreigners.

Not one of them was lived in at that moment. Amazing what one comes across out here. Unfortunately Coral Bay Resort wanted 200 pesos to snorkel on their small reef but we did take them up on the showers they had on shore for which we got more than our 100 pesos worth of time under running water.  Oh yes, unlimited fresh water – the first in months!!

Next stop was Linicapan Island (#6 on the map). A remote anchorage that reminded us a lot of Mexico. A few small homes on the beach, drier landscape but despite the remoteness had great internet!  What a contrast. I have to say that the Philippines has the telecommunications

and you say you want to hook to the internet?

infrastructure down pat.

From Linicapan we headed off to another anchorage and this time off a small village to watch the cock fights, climb up to the waterfall, partake in a little rum with the local fishermen, watch the kids play and enjoy the incredible squid the fishboats were coming in with.  Now in El Nido – one of the backpackers musts in Asia.  Talk about feeling old!  This is a young persons paradise for diving, enjoying the limestone karst formations and generally hanging out aroud the beaches and small restaurants.  We’re here to meet up with Sierd and Elsbie from Victoria who are visiting from Victoria – stories of adventures to follow!