Sulu Sea, El Nido, Kudat Nov./Dec. '08

Skipping over the dreadful details of boatyard blood sweat and tears, we are later out of it, back in Cebu, re provision, hurry to Apo, then have a blast in Bombonon Harbor at the southern tip of Negros Oriental. From Bombonon we cross over to Palawan by way of Tubbataha Reef, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tubbataha is yet another natural wonder the Philippines are endowed with. The ranger station is placed on a sand dune that get submerged at high tide, hundreds of sea turtles can be seen early in the morning feeding around the station, while a short swim away more turtles, sharks, sting rays, mantas and all sorts of fish can be enjoyed against a background of pristine corals, super clear water.
We have arrived off-season, which means that we have the place almost to ourselves (saved the rangers) and the rangers being bored and lonely take us to all the best snorkeling spots on their motorboats. Banks of barracudas, shy wrasses, curious triggerfish, lionfish etc. Tubbataha is almost a miracle for variety and abundance of sea life. No wonder people pay about one thousand dollars a day to come dive here!

Puerto Princesa welcomes us at the Abanico Yacht Club with its intriguing and fascinating characters. The provisioning is great the town well supplied and not too chaotic (but for PI that still means borderline insane); we are stuck waiting for a replacement pump for the toilet: when it arrives weeks later the new one is just as defective as the old one. That over with we can depart for Malaysia, though first going around the northern tip of Palawan. On our way to El Nido we first take shelter at the Islas Verde through some wicked reef labyrinth then on to Dumaran. Some pretty nasty weather is expected and just as we enter the cyclone hole Langcan bay the meteo deteriorates rapidly. By the time we drop anchor deep in the mangrove swamp the wind has already risen to 25-30 knots. For a few days we are stuck there with blow after blow of fierce winds and rain squalls. When it all dies down we can get out of the swamp and go to the nearby town of Araceli, located in a lovely enclosure with white beach, quaint bamboo homes decorated with bougainvilleas, blue water and a few islands around dotting the horizon. We befriend the Catholic priest –which we find drunk as a skunk on a Sunday afternoon—who speaks favorably of his smuggling business with the Muslim brothers “Muslims, good people” he proclaims…go figure.
Continuing towards El Nido we make another stop to Linapacan Island, anchoring in the deep but very sheltered Colaylayan Bay. Once again idyllic settings: a few fishermen huts at the feet of steep forested hills, no electricity or phones, just fires in the night and a huge moon rising. Just outside the bay scattered little islets are easy to sail to by dinghy, and for a whole day I explore them. The reef is good, but infested by a species of starfish that loves to feed on coral. I spend a couple hours trying to kill them off hoping they don’t grow back too fast.

We arrive in El Nido one golden afternoon with the sun already pretty low casting shadows and gleaming reflections over the majestic peaks shooting vertically out of the water. The whole scenery is part Jurassic Park, part The Beach. We give up immediately anchoring in front of town (shallow and rolly) and instead go around the corner to Corongcorong Bay. El Nido is truly stunning, like the rock islands of Palau supersized. Leaving the boat in Corongcorong it’s an easy walk into town.
Somewhere we have read that El Nido is the “last frontier” in the Philippines, although quite immediately that is hard to justify. The main town is a backpacker strip, two flights a week coming in from Manila, packed “El Nido adventure” boats loaded with clueless Koreans and Taiwanese in bright orange lifejackets. Reggae bar, New Age bar, Aussie bar, lame beach party here and there competing for the cheapest beer and internet rates…and yet everyone in hippie garb acting stuck up believing themselves hardcore travelers on a genuine “adventure” (with air-con) to the “last frontier”.
From the boating point of view the Bacuit archipelago also doesn’t offer much besides the landscape. We manage to anchor at Miniloc Island in order to see the scenic bay but the resort doesn’t want us there and soon the Coast Guard (on the resort’s payroll?) comes asking us to leave. In other areas of the island anchoring is very deep and our windlass fails once again under the strain. Soon we depart for Malaysia.
On our way to Kudat we stop in two more bays: one by White Island on the SW side of Capoas Peninsula, then we sail clear off Port Barton (though we heard it is beautiful we just want to move on and wouldn’t want to be looked down upon by such hardy travelers enjoying their air cons) and stop for Christmas in Jibboom Bay, by the village of Caruray (definitely no tourists or air con there!). It is rolly and going ashore quite a roundabout way, though we manage to buy some ice and have some cold wine for Xmas. Two Australian catamarans are in the bay, but we’re just bent on getting to Kudat, my Xmas gift a swift sail that take us down there just a couple days later.