I am not sure exactly what encompasses "The Visayas" technically. But we finally broke loose from the Carmen/Camotes shuffle on August 12, and headed a bit further north.
Our first stop north of Camotes was Calangaman Island, in the middle of the Camotes Sea. This is a pretty island that is now a park and has an access fee. We could anchor without paying a fee, but could not go ashore. We spent 2 nights here, and snorkeled the whole north coast, looking for an appropriate anchor spot. We also snorkled on a couple of the moorings. These were not really intended for cruising sailboats to stay on overnight, but for dive boats that are attended by crew and don't stay more than a few hours. But the setups looked hefty enough to hold a cruising boat in moderate weather. We anchored carefully in a sand patch on the south side. For the 2 nights we were there, there was virtually no wind, so we were OK on the S side. Our sand patch: 11°06.71'N / 124°15.03'E
(Photo courtesy of palompon-leyte.gov.ph)
From Calangaman, we made a quick trip back to Carmen, as we'd finally gotten notification that the Moderna vaccine we'd been waiting on was going to be available for only one day in Cebu City. So we hustled back, spent a day in Cebu City getting vaxxed, and hustled back out to do some more cruising.
The next stop was famed Malapascua Island, one of the most recommended diving locations in the Philippines. We had stopped here overnight in 2018 on our way to Puerto Galera, but didn't have time then to stay and dive. So we anchored in the same general area, near our friends on Meikyo and Wind Hog, on the south coast. This isn't a great anchorage in southerly winds! After a couple of choppy nights, we moved around to the SW corner, and it was much better.
It was really sad to see Malapascua during the COVID lockdown of 2020/2021. On our previous stop there were over 50 dive boats, and hundreds of divers--boats full of divers coming and going from dawn to dusk. The Malapascua shoreline is lined with dive resorts big and small, and the beach was crowded with people and bangkas of every size. Sadly in August 2021, all but 2 resorts were closed, and those 2 resorts were barely hanging on, with minimal staff and only one boat active for each resort. Many many boats were stored up on the beach, decaying, even the really big bangkas.
Our friends had already hooked up with Evolution Dive Center, because they have tech diving support, and our friends wanted to use their rebreathers. So we did a few days of diving with Evolution. We did the iconic Thresher Shark dive, and actually saw a Thresher Shark and got a fairly decent picture of it. On this dive, you basically go down at the Thresher Shark area (a submerged reef in the Camotes Sea), and sit and wait at about 90 ft deep for the sharks to appear. They normally appear right around dawn, so the meeting time for the dive is at 4:30 am at Evolution!
While Waiting for the Sharks
We also did a couple of very nice "critter dives" in two good spots on the north side of Malapascua.
Our final day of diving was at Gato Island (about an hour's motor north of Malapascua). The Gato Island dive starts with a neat swim through a natural cave/tunnel in the island.
Cave/Tunnel through Gato Island Behind Us
One of the last things we'd done in Carmen before we left was to get our kitten, Charlie, spayed. This turned out to be a real disaster--after 3 hours on the operating table, the "vet" declared she couldn't find Charlie's uterus, and so was just going to sew her back up and hand her back to us, unspayed. How traumatic for both us and Charlie! But it's my own fault--the vet hadn't wanted to do the surgery until Charlie was older. But after researching on the internet "Best time to get kitten spayed", I had pressed her to take care of Charlie then (at about 6 months). Little did I know that she was not competent to do so, no matter what age Charlie was.
So, the morning of our last day at Malapascua, about a week after the "surgery", Charlie started having trouble urinating. She was straining to "go" and only producing a few drops of urine at a time.
We should have aborted our diving that day and taken care of Charlie. But we'd already signed up for the dive, the dive boat required a minimum of 6 divers, and if we pulled out, our friends wouldn't be able to go. So we went, but I fretted about Charlie the whole day.
On returning from the dive, the dive shop tried to hook us up with a vet on the Cebu Island mainland nearby, but the only vet answering the phone was closing soon (it was already late Friday afternoon), and would not agree to see Charlie on Saturday morning, no matter how much we begged. What to do? We could go all the way back to Carmen (a full day's motor sail), but we'd still be faced with the same problem of getting access to a vet other than the one that butchered Charlie in the first place.
Meanwhile, we'd been talking to a contact at our next planned stop on Samar Island. Dave was looking for adventure, and had heard that Samar had a bunch of caves, and a "Caving" Tour company in Catbalogan City. He contact the famous caver... Joni Bonafacio and had asked him about anchoring in the area. Joni had put us in contact with Gary Munoz who lived at Buri Island near Catbalogan. When we explained to Gary that we might not be coming to Catbalogan because of our cat emergency, he said he knew of a vet in Catbalogan that lived on Buri Island, and he would arrange for that vet to look at Charlie when we arrived. We checked the charts and found that the distance from Malapascua to Catbalogan was far (almost 60 miles), but we could do it in a day if we got started early. So at the crack of dawn the next morning, we set out for Catabalogan and Buri Beach.
It was a long and tiring day. For awhile we were making great time--able to sail and doing 6-7 knots. But after we rounded the northwest tip of Leyte, we encountered a squall and wind on the nose at about 20 knots. Normally in those conditions, we would find an anchorage and just hole up and wait for better wind, but Charlie needed urgent attention, so we HAD to get to Catbalogan. We eventually made it in to the Buri Beach anchorage at around 4pm, wet and salty. Gary had arranged for the vet to meet us on the beach soon after our arrival, and take Charlie back to their office for a look at her incision. Remember, this is Saturday afternoon... the vet was crazy worried about COVID, so they didn't want us to accompany Charlie, but promised to keep her overnight and do what they could for her.
Long story short, it took 2 surgeries and about 2 weeks for this vet to fix the mess that the previous "vet" in Carmen had made. The immediate problem--Charlie's urinary tract being pinched due to a breach in the stitching--was solved on the first surgery.
It turned out that the non-invasive approach the vet took the first time was not enough to repair the total damage. A second, more invasive, surgery was required to open up the abdominal wall, try to properly position the organs that had been floating around in there, and re-stitch the abdominal wall and the outer skin covering. On the second surgery, Charlie's uterous was finally removed. This second surgery took a couple of hours, and the exhausted vet was not sure Charlie would pull through and recover completely. She does have some major scarring in that area, but she did thankfully recover completely.
(Pets Unlimited)
Treating Charlie on the Beach
These wonderful people literally saved our kitten's life--a husband and wife team who went WAY out of their way to help us out--evenings and weekends--and then refused payment for the second surgery. We are forever grateful!
Catbalogan and Samar Island are technically on lockdown due to COVID. All the normal tourism routes are shut down. But coming in by private boat and anchoring off a small island away from the city, we were flying under the radar. By this point in time we both had been double-vaxxed and had one of two planned Moderna vaccinations as well. So we didn't feel we were endangering anyone by traveling to Samar. Our mode of travel was very safe--little chance of catching COVID on our private boat vs traveling by crowded bus/ferry, or plane.
Next: Our Samar Adventures
