Captain’s Log: Waiting for Mr Weather in 100 Islands Philippines!!

March 4-10, 2018

Hi All,

We indeed did leave Subic Bay around 0645 on Sunday March 4th as planned. But, we left with somewhat of a sour taste in our mouths. Checking in/out of Philippines was no problem in Puerto Princesa….cost was ~US$20. Got receipts for all fees and it was all fairly straight forward, although we did have to run all over town to get it done. Not so in Subic. Check into Subic was no big deal, but on check out, the marina insisted that all officials come there to check us out, which is all well and good….they did have several boats that Saturday morning. EXCEPT that the officials then charged us $50US for immigration officer, $50US for customs official, $30US for port captain, and a whopping $100US for quarantine because we didn’t have a quarantine release from PP. We had been told that Subic was infamous for graft and sure enough, in spite of requesting receipts, none were given. The quarantine officer actually laughed at that. The marina is well aware of this practice and had even told us how much cash we would need in advance, although the $100 from quarantine was a surprise as they thought it would be $50. In any event, we paid as we wanted to get the hell outta dodge, but I will say it left a very bad taste in both our mouths. A shame, really……

When we asked if there were any other places to check of Philippines no one knew…maybe San Fernando but not sure….when a Yacht Club Member found out this obvious graft he was incensed and vowed to take it up at the next member meeting. We vowed to let all cruisers coming to Philippines know!!!

We had 2 really, really good days of trawler weather. Day 1 we went 67nm to Salvadori Island. The only issue was a 0.5 adverse current. Our charts were way off at Salvadori Is so we had to rely on Ovitalmaps and Google earth. We found a good spot and dropped the hook by around 4:30pm…..but, ODG, did we anhcor in the middle of the channel or what….for the next few hours there was a parade of fisherman and other boats/bangkas….some with families and children…..all waving, yelling, some stopped for pictures….it was all fun and noisy…especially as most of these bangkas have 1 cylinder engines with no mufflers. When we got up around 5:30am the next morning there was a parade of lights coming at us….many fisherman returning from a night of fishing!!

Day 2 we went 68nm to Bolinao, but this day with a 0.5kt favorable current. Anchor down, passage beers opened by 3:30pm!!! Now this spot was full of fish farms….we actually wanted to anchor a little further in the cut but too many fish farms so we anchored in amongst some larger fishing vessels. But, by the next morning a foul west swell came in and we were rolling just a bit.

Day 3 we went 27nm to where we are now at 100 Islands. A very beautiful spot….many mushroom shaped limestone karsts, similar to Thailand but not as dramatic. We have been here 3+ days so far!!

Boat Stuff: On Day 1 we are on the FB enjoying the views when Kathy says….say John, do you smell anything….uh, no….hmmm….I spell propane…..ugh….turns out one of our 20-lb fiberglass cans which was full in KK is now 75% gone…..yikes….we switched the hose to that tank and no more smell….so the valve was leaking…ok, no problem…we have plenty of propane so back to enjoying the trawler weather…..then….the CA44 went blank….

Well as is the case with most electronics, there is a lifespan and we may have seen the last of our Simrad GPS that feeds the Simrad multiunit…..redundant chartplotter, (our main one is Nobletec) b/u radar, and main echosounder…this is the Admiral’s unit and well….the saying is so true….happy wife, happy life….she was not going across the Bering Sea with no backups.

So….what did the Captain do…..spent about 3 days working on it….ugh…but we have success!!! The unit lost its “POS” and just blinks zeros for the lat/lon making the chartplotter and various logs useless. It would run for 5 minutes, then shutdown and restart on its own. We did figure out how to disconnect the GPS and the unit stayed on so we could at least use the echosounder…..ok, the Admiral was feeling better:))) After some great help by Greg at Yacht Systems NW who initially installed the unit, and Mark Tilden, who does have a vested interest in keeping Mystic in tip top shape, I was able to rewire the 0183 terminal strip to use the active Raymarine GPS (for Nobeltec) and set the CA44 unit to “external gps”…..life is good again on Mystic:))))

You might ask…gee John, why did it take 3 days to do some rewiring….well, glad you asked….BECAUSE WE DID NOT HAVE A DRAWING of the 0183 NMEA TERMINAL STRIP…..where most of our instruments are connected together…..ARGHHHHHHH…..as you can tell, I’m still a bit frustrated on that…in spite of asking 100 times at commissioning in 2005 for a drawing. So, I spent 1.5 days under the PH dash in 90+* F heat, sweating all over the cables, tracing various wires and figuring out all the wiring. Of course, you have to wedge yourself in and look upside down at the terminal strip….I took lots of pictures and then used those to try and sort out the mess. But, I now have 2 drawings of the 14 cables with about 35 connections….about half the cables were labeled and I found maybe 30% more but still left guessing on the other 20%!!!

We could have a bad Simrad GPS, a bad receiver section of the CA44 main board, or a bad battery. Simrad Navico was no help saying the unit is discontinued and should be replaced. Great if you are in the USA, not so good if you are in remote Philippines.

TG we have had pretty decent cell/internet service so we could search for help and write many emails….plus get weather….

Mr Weather Update: It is blowing stink about 150nm north of here in the Luzon Strait…like 30-35kts and 20-25′ waves…that’s 7-8 meters…arghhhhhhh!!! We had hoped to get further north along the Luzon coast but the wind and waves make a slight turn and come down the coastline and all the anchorages became untenable. So we are just hanging here in 100 Islands and enjoying the peace and tranquility. We think there is a potential turn in the weather starting next Tuesday so the plan is to Day hop on Tuesday to a spot north of Candon, then day hop to Dirique Inlet at the top of North Luzon on Wednesday and then on Thursday, March 15 begin the 650nm passage to Okinawa, crossing the Kuroshio current (it’s the 2nd largest current in the world, think Gulf Stream and you MUST get it right or……

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuroshio_Current

Another curious bit on MR Weather is the heat….the water temp is around 82*F in the open water but when you come into an anchorage it goes up to 88*F….we guess because of shallow water and small tides…but wow….Mystic heats up and it’s like an oven….ugh!!! Good news is with these strong North winds it has cooled off a bit…80* in the cabin this am…..we know in about a week and 300nm north we will be in the Kuroshio current which is 68*F and we might be a bit chilly!!!

We know we are 4-8 weeks early from the seasonal turn form NE to SW winds….the Kuroshio current is North setting so the SW winds are ideal….you do not want the NE winds….as in wind against current.

We hope to have east winds clocking to SE and S winds…not ideal but doable!!

So that’s the plan and we will keep you updated before we leave….we spend ~2 hours each morning going through all the weather models, plotting and so on. We did learn quite a bit about the Kushiro Current from people in Subic who had experience so we feel somewhat prepared. We are also in email contact with a delivery captain out of Japan that has done this route many times.

Hope all is well!!!

John

Mystic Moon

100 Islands Philippines