Captain’s Blog: Kota Kinabalu to Puerto Princesa Philippines!!

Jan 16-19,

Hi All,

Yeah…..we are here in Puerto Princesa safe and sound. You will notice I was silent in the blog regarding our plans. That is because we were advised to not discuss our plans with anyone out of concern too many “bad” guys are on alert for boats traveling north into the Philippines.

Here is a good article about the issues in Philippines: https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/southeast-asia/philippines/areas-to-avoid-in-the-philippines

The route we chose put us about 200 nm from Jolo, the center of a lot of the activity. Of course, even Puerto Princesa had an alert last May…..ugh!!! The advice put out by the Rally last year was to stay at least 100nm away from Jolo which we did!! In fact, once we were in the Philippines we went silent….no transmitting AIS and we stayed 50nm offshore of Palawan Island until we were 30nm north of Brookes Point, then we started to head for PP.

Alvin our agent as well as Brian on mv Furthur gave us great advice on how to proceed. We did think about just skipping the Philippines and going to Taiwan or straight to Japan but that involved a lot more planning and exposed us to to the ferocious NE trades. Going up the islands of Philippines allows us to avoid the NE trades and is a much more comfortable and manageable route. Of course, before all this terrorist activity, Philippines was a great destination for cruisers…lot’s of great diving and beautiful islands…just what we love!!

We left Kota Kinabalu on Tuesday, Jan 16 @ 2pm and arrived in Puerto Princesa on Thursday Jan 18 @ 10:30am…..44.5 hours, 2 nights, 317 nm, avg 7.2 kts SOG…..AND best of all, had trawler like weather 90% of the time….SWEET AS!!!! We started with 10 kts of wind on the nose and 2-4′ seas….now the 2′ seas no big deal but the 4′ seas reminded us we are on a boat with motion…hold on honey!!! But that only lasted for about 8 hours and then it became 2-3′ seas, then 1-2′ seas and for the last day we had <1′ seas. Now all this was on the nose but still…1′ seas….Mystic never blinked!!!! And the winds…..well, light and variable after the 1st 8 hours…..wow!!!! The only issue was the current. We started with a 0.7kt favorable current but after 12 hours we had a 1-2 kt adverse current….we increased the rpm’s from 1400 to 1700 to keep our speed up so we could arrive as planned….so much for saving fuel:((((

Oh what a relief…..both of us have been dreading this passage for the last two years once we made the decision to head back to USA via the north Pacific. We have had way too many conversations and pursued many other options. So, what a relief to have this done and over!!! However, we both will not feel totally safe until we get north of Palawan where there has been no “bad” guy activity.

The Plan: We will leave here in a few days and head north to Coron Island…about 175nm…will take 3 days as we will day hop….too many fish traps and pearl farms to dodge. We will rendezvous with Brian and Donna on mv Furthur. We will hang with them for a few weeks then head to Subic Bay for some maintenance. We hope to be done and ready to head for Japan late February. But, we will still be in the NE trades until sometime in April so we will stage ourselves in north Philippines and wait for a decent weather window to head towards Okinawa where we will check into Japan. AND, hopefully, weather gods permitting, we will join up with our good friends on sv Spruce.

Boat Stuff:

Really….yep, we developed another saltwater leak on the port stabilizer….it’s like oh Mr Wesmar, we are going on another 8,000nm ocean cruise so time to start to leak….arghhhhhhh!!!! Many of you will recall we developed a saltwater leak on the same stabilizer on our passage from Panama to Galapagos in early 2013. We then debated whether to turnaround and lose a year or proceed, which we did, but the leak got worse and we eventually hauled in Papeete, flew in a Wesmar mechanic, Wally from Australia to effect repairs.

Well, this time we are not messing around. We had already contracted with Steve, the great mechanic from Auckland and a Wesmar mechanic to fly to Subic Bay to repair a leaking actuator (oil) and other engine maintenance so we will just add this to the list. Of course, this means hauling and dropping the fins…adds 2-3 day of work…yep, it’s a lifestyle!!!

Puerto Princesa: PP is a big city, and it is as you would think of the Philippines — lots of traffic, noisy, and mostly 3rd world. There are a few very nice buildings and malls around, but some of the poverty is quite stark, especially after the modern, 1st world country of Malaysia. Still, they happily wave at us as we pass, and mostly, the people have been very nice and smilingly helpful. We’re sort of on the outskirts of town, so where we are anchored is blessedly quiet and calm. Lots of boats, but most are unattended, and the folks that are here are old timers that keep to themselves…ugh!!!

Public transport is either by jeepney (crammed jeep/bus) or by tricycle (motorbike with sidecar thingy….so we opt for the tricycle. Not very comfy, but it gets us there without be smushed! 😉

But wow, is it inexpensive…..maybe cheaper than Thailand….we’ve had 2 lunches….one $18 and the other $10….all with plenty of San Miguel beers (1.25USD), which is actually quite tasty!!!….the trike is about $2 for a 20 min ride!!

Hope all is well!!!

Happy and relieved John
Mystic Moon
Puerto Princesa Philippines

Leaving Kota Kinabalu and Malaysia….it’s been a blast!!

We think that is Mt Kinabalu as we left KK

A Navy ship in the middle channel greeted us to the Philippines….they were on exercise and hailed us but then did not respond

The Navy ship as we passed the middle channel between reefs

Philippine Coast Guard station at Mangsee Island. They hailed us and took all our information announcing Mystic to all listening….arghhhhh

Sunrise on after our 2nd night….amazing!!

Palawan Island as we approach Puerto Princesa

Puerto Princesa….the main town is back from the shore

Kathy celebrating at our opening lunch….cheeseburgers of course!!

The tricycle…called trike…the most popular mode of transportation!!

John and our trike driver

View from the yacht club…yep, washing the family horse!!

That’s Mystic resting comfortably at anchor

View from our backyard!!

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