Flying Fish Articles

Flying Fish Articles

Balabac island, Clarendon Bay lat 07°48’94N long 117°01’24E
Negros, Port Bonbonon.lat 09°03’00N long 123°07’00E
Siquijor Is., Maria Bay. Lat 09°09’95 long 123°40’37
Bohol, Cogton Bay. Lat 09°50’98 long 124°33’35
Mindanao, Surigao city.Lat 09°48’00 long 125°29’0
Lapinigin Island. Lat 09°34’50 long 125°44’60
Hinatuan Passage.

FROM Beth Bushnell Splinters Apprentice

length 10.9m draft 1.8m

July 2000

Note; we did not check into the Philippines so have no direct experience of officialdom. One of the reasons we didn’t was the experience of other yachts with customs, immigration etc all wanting money. The official clearance fee is 65pesos but boats were being expected to pay $20us per official in some places. Some boats had parted with us$200! Corruption is a way of life here but negotiation is possible.

Balabac island, Clarendon Bay lat 07°48’94N long 117°01’24E

A good well sheltered anchorage open only to the SE. Well positioned for crossing the Balabac Strait. There is often a navy presence, very friendly, as there is major smuggling in this area. The entrance is easy. The reef extends each side but is easily seen, watch the N side it extends a longway and at an angle slightly inside the entrance.

No facilities or water available.

Holding good but dig well in, 2 boats with us dragged but all then held in 50knt winds!

Negros, Port Bonbonon.lat 09°03’00N long 123°07’00E

An excellent typhoon hole. Very beautiful and peaceful.

Entrance is awkward, not to be attempted at night first time. A reef and sand bar extend from the west side of the entrance to leave a narrow entry channel close to the R bank. Keep to within 30m of the R bank. A course of 352T from the entry waypoint above leads clear of danger to the corner where a sweeping turn to the right clears the sandspit arising from the r bank just around the corner. The water is just clear enough to see both sandspits. Favour the right bank as yet a third sandspit extends from the L bank. There are several yachts semi-permanently moored here but plenty of room. Holding is good in 3-8ms sand or mud.

Drinking water is available, no charge.

Nickys yacht services ashore at the jetty will mind boats and Arleen runs the bar and food.

Diesel can be had via Arleen. The cans are taken to Siaton and returned to the jetty for 25pesos a can + cost of diesel.

The journey to Dumaguete city is an experience! First a motorbike to Siaton, an hours trip on dirt tracks, then an hours ride by jeepney or bus. There is fresh veg available in Siaton but other shopping needs to be done in Dumaguete. Getting any volume of stores back to the boat would be fun, I would advise being stocked up before visiting.

Good onward connections from Dumnaguete by plane or ferry. There are e-mail facilities in Dumaguete but it ‘s very slow.

Siquijor Is., Maria Bay. Lat 09°09’95 long 123°40’37

A large bay, deep until well in then shelves fairly steeply. Anchor in 5-10m sand and coral. Holding fair but lots of isolated low coral heads. Swell tends to creep round the corner, open to the East.

Bohol, Cogton Bay. Lat 09°50’98 long 124°33’35

Large bay open to the east but with some protection from reefs. Need good light to get in as reef both sides is not easily seen and is a long way out. A course of 290T on the south end of the island in the bay leads clear of both reefs with least depth of 25ms.

Anchor to the sw of the island clear of the fish traps in 5-10ms, mud. Holding excellent.

Mindanao, Surigao city.Lat 09°48’00 long 125°29’0

This is the last stop before leaving for Palau or PNG. Check out with customs, immigration, and police.

The anchorage is in the bay to the south of the wharves by the coastguard, and customs offices in mud 5-10ms. It is possible to go bow or stern to the wharf anywhere there is room. It is very busy with local traffic. Fuel in cans from local petrol stations, water from coastguard or buy drinking water from shop outside the port area. There is a good market and some stores are available but not wide choice. It is a dirty, noisy place, there are bank facilities but no e-mail and most boats found mobile phones didn’t work either. Not a place to linger but minor repair work could probably be done.

Lapinigin Island. Lat 09°34’50 long 125°44’60

This is a useful anchorage partway through the Hinatuan passage. Anchor in mud 8ms, don’t be tempted to try to took in too far the reef comes up quickly and is not seen. There is now an overhead cable from the shore to the island so passage along the inside is no longer possible. The islanders are friendly and will trade. They have a visitor’s book for visiting yachts.

Hinatuan Passage.

Requires care with tides as currents can run up to 6knts at springs with nasty overfalls and tide rips. We went through at neaps and had no more than 1.5kts of tide even in the narrow bit round Risa Island. Easy to navigate but not lit well enough for a night passage. Helps to have the large scale Filipino chart.

Passage from the Philippines to Papua New Guinea.

We left Surigao late July and had very light winds mainly from the sw so we took 17 days with a lot of motoring. Initially current was south going before we picked up the equatorial counter current but south of the equator we ran into strong adverse current which we then battled all the way to the Hermit Isles and, in fact all the way to New Ireland. If we did the trip again we would seriously consider staying north of the equator in the counter current until north of Kavieng, New Ireland then dropping down. We found the wind, swell and current combination meant we could make southing fairly easily but easting was a real problem. Boats following later in August had better wind from the sw but still found the same easting problems as they approached PNG.

Once south of the equator we experienced frequent heavy squalls with tremendous thunderstorms.

One boat, which went via Pulau, then took 17 days to get from Palau to Mandang, however they sailed due to gearbox failure.