Five Islands and the Pop-up Typhoon

There is a small group of islands just in from the San Bernadino Straits (a site of a WWII battle between Japanese and American fleets). One our chart they are shown as the Naranjo Islands, but cruisers call them the Five Islands or Medio Islands. Some cruiser had said how wonderful they were, so Dave wanted to go see them. Overview of Naranjo Islands (Five Islands)
We took off from Catbalogan with our friend Paul on Ttaaack. It took us 2 days to get up there, stopping overnight at Kirikite Island. Here again we saw the devastation from COVID. A once thriving dive resort was totally abandoned. We were sailing in light SW winds, so we did actually get some "pure sailing" time in. TTaak
The next day I went on a drift dive with Paul. That was one crazy dive. Where we were anchored, there were a few swirly currents. I figured we were going to dive on the reefs along the wall near shore, out of the current. But Paul wanted to see what it was like out in the blue. Instead of the wall we expected, it was just a slope, gradually getting deeper, and the current getting stronger. We ended up in 5-7 knots of current (towing Paul's lightweight dinghy). You can't really do anything when there's that much current, so we decided to surface slowly.

That was a crazy trip up to the surface! The current was swirling so much, it was all we could do to just hang onto the dinghy painter and try to control our speed going up. Several times there were strong down-currents. For less experienced divers, this could have been a very dangerous dive. When we got on the surface, Paul said "That was fun, want to do it again?" "Heck no!"

That afternoon, we moved around to an anchorage off of "Pink Beach". This was a beautiful white sand beach with a pinkish tinge to it, from bits of red coral being mixed in with the sand. Pink Beach
We had hardly gotten our anchor down when a guy on a jet ski approached us. This turned out to be Karl, who was a friend of a friend. Karls owns a resort/house on Crystal Sand Beach. He encouraged us to come around to his bay and come in for drinks and dinner. So we did.

We'd been watching the slow development of a tropical wave to the east of us. It wasn't forecast to develop. By the next afternoon, the forecast was for 30 knot winds and squally conditions the next morning. We weren't in a perfectly sheltered place but we could manage 30 knots. We went ashore to have dinner with Karl, and when we returned to the boats at 10pm, the storm had been upgraded to Tropical Storm Conson, and they were now forecasting winds to 50 knots where we were, tomorrow. Shit! Not much we could do that night. Overnight we had wind gusts to 25 knots, and the currents in this bay swirl around. Taack bumped into us in the middle of the night, and opted to move a little further away. At 0530 we had a conference via Radio with Paul, what to do. The bay where we were had 3-5 swells rolling in. There is no fully protected allweather place in the Medio Islands. The wind seemed to be shifting toward the NW, so we decided to go around to an area between the islands, that looked the most protected from NW winds. Well, all the local boats had gotten there first. There wasn't any place to anchor out of the wind, and trying to anchor in 50 knot winds--we abandoned the attempt after 3 tries. Trying to Anchor in 50 knots of Wind and Pouring Rain
Ultimately, we decided to just hang out on the lee side of the island (not really anchorable due to depths and swell) for a couple of hours. We just motored slowly back and forth to stay in the less. The wind was shifting fast, so we could tell the low pressure area was moving through quickly. Taack went back around to Crystal Sands Beach and told us the conditions were better. So we went back around there and anchored. But as the winds kept shifting, it became untenable as the wind shifted south. So we moved again--back to Pink Beach, which was well protected from the now-south wind.

We were lucky, as Typhoon Conson/Jolina eventually strengthened up to a pretty strong storm.

We needed to get back to Catbalogan for a checkup for Charlie (the cat). So that afternoon we dinghied around to Karl's place to say goodbye.

The next day we headed back to Catbalogan via Libucan Island. It was a gusty day with wind close on the nose, and for a time we were doing 8 knots. But the wind switched and we bore off for Libucan Island.

The next day we were back in Buri Beach, and the cat went off the vets.

All the anchorage waypoints for this trip have been given to Terry Sargent of s/v Valhalla. You can download Terry's collection of waypoints for the Philippines, and a lot of other good stuff, from here: http://svsoggypaws.com/terrystopics.htm

Exploring N Central Visayas - Camotes to Malapascua and Catbalogan, Samar

August 2021

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 Cruising Track for August
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

The Sand Spit at Calangaman Island
(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.

Dive Bangkas Laid Up on the Beach at Malapascua
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.

The Evolution Dive Boat--typical of Filipino Dive Boats
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!

Sherry Trying to be Inconspicuous
While Waiting for the Sharks
A Big Thresher in Profile--see the tail?
And This Friendly Guy Came a Little Closer
Our Friend Mike with his Rebreather Setup
We also did a couple of very nice "critter dives" in two good spots on the north side of Malapascua.

Peacock Mantis Shrimp
A Pair of Curious Cuttlefish
A Halgerda Batangas Nudibranch
A Nembrotha Nudibranch Feeding on Soft Coral
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.

On the Bow of the Dive Boat
Cave/Tunnel through Gato Island Behind Us
In the Cave
Beautiful Iridescent Anemone
Fire Urchin
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.

Charlie Did Not Like the Oral Antibiotics!
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.

Charlie Going in to the Vet for a Follow-Up Visit
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.

The Husband and Wife Team at Cinco Family Clinic
(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!

A Month After the Original Surgery, Our Charlie is OK
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

Doing the Carmen / Camotes Shuffle

June and July 2021

We finally broke out of Port Carmen on June 10, and headed out to the Camotes Islands, along with our friends on Java. We had met Evan on Java in Ecuador in 2009, and have bumped into him on and off across the Pacific. Evan is pretty much based in Port Carmen these days, where life is easy. We were excited to catch up with Evan and Nancy once again.


The Camotes is a group of 3 islands in the middle of the Camotes Sea between Cebu Island and Leyte Island, only 15 miles from Carmen. Most of the waypoints and accounts of cruising the Camotes that I had were from people cruising during the winter season, when the wind blows out of the northeast. But this was summer and winds were S-SW. So the NE season anchorages wouldn't work at all. We had to find our own anchorage on the north side of Pacijan island.

The Camotes, between Cebu Island and Leyte Island
We followed Java in to their favorite spot, off the east end of the beach at Talong Diot, close enough that they could take their dog Micro into the beach on the kayak. This was an OK anchorage, but lots of noisy banka traffic, and not very good holding. The bottom looks like sand, but is really slick rock dotted with small coral heads. There is a reversing current between Talong Island and Pacijan Island.

The Tulang Diot beach on Pacijan is normally a tourist beach--and mainly for picking up tourists and transporting them out to Tulang Island. But with Covid, not many tourists on the island.
The Beautiful Beach at Talong All the Tourist Bankas Waiting to Take Tourists out to Talong
After the weekend, Java left to go back to Carmen, and we explored a bit and found another anchorage we liked better, near the west end of the beach. I snorkeled around until I found a sand spot clear enough of coral heads and shallow enough to anchor in. We wanted to check out a dive shop we had been messaging with, about doing some diving.

Rock Dive is just around the corner to the SW (off the picture, lower left corner). We dinghied around from our anchorage and met up with "Uncle Rock". We eventually made about 25 dives with him, and became good friends.

Talong (Tulang) Island Anchorages for SW Winds
There were about 10 dive operations on Pacijan before Covid, and now there are only 2, and Rock Dive is one of them. Rock was surviving COVID by turning his low-end dive resort into a karaoke bar and restaurant. Plus he has a few amusing side businesses, including breeding horses and breeding Dalmation puppies.

Rock's original profession was accounting. But he hated the grind and hated accounting, so came to the Philippines to learn to dive, and eventually opened his own dive operation. His first shop was in Cebu, but he loved diving in the Camotes so much that he moved his operation to the Camotes a few years ago.

Rock's Dive Center and Karaoke Bar Great Waterfront View from Restaurant Rock's Pregnant Horse Rosemary
We spent a few days diving with Rock at Talong Island, along the wall on the north side. This is an amazing wall, with lots of life, nudis, sea fans, and just a little current to move you along the wall.
Some Soft Coral Along the Wall Sherry and Nemo
When we got a period of really light south wind, we moved to the pretty beach town at the south end of Pacijan, at Santiago Bay. Here we found the other dive shop, and made a few dives on the south side.
Camotes Fun Dive Shop on Santiago Beach Locals Enjoying Beach Volleyball at Sunset
We enjoyed the vibe at Santiago Beach. Lots of restaurants along the beach. But it's a long way in in the dinghy, the water gets very shallow, and the tides are a factor. You will wade to/from your dinghy, or find your dinghy high and dry. Both are friendly dive operations with good diving. Santiago Bay is better in NE season, and the Tulong area better in SW winds.

While in Santiago Bay, we rented motorcycles and Nerji, the Dive Shop owner, showed us all over the two islands. We hit all the tourist spots, including the Magellan Monument, and the cave.
Touring the Camotes by Motorcycle The Magellan Monument The Overlook at Buho Lake Danao Tourist Center (Restaurants, Boats, Zipline) Swimming Underground at Timubo Cave
There is a decent store, open market, and restaurants in San Francisco, the town at the center of the "butterfly" that the two main Camotes Islands make.

We moved back to the Talong area on June 20, when the SW wind came up to 10-15 knots. With a little current along the island opposing the SW wind, it was very uncomfortable off Santiago.

A few days later we motored back to Port Carmen. It was time for my 2nd Sinovac shot. Plus we had a few things to take care of... the watermaker boost pump quit working, and we had fried one of our alternator controllers.

We spent 3 weeks in Carmen this time. Partly doing boat work, and partly enjoying socializing. One Sunday morning we went by dinghy with our friends on Dream Reach up to a Hotel/Restaurant that served a great Sunday breakfast. After a massive "English Breakfast" we lounged in their pool.
Breakfast at Huna Huna Resort
We did at least one low tide Happy Hour on "Claudia's Island". This is a little "awash" rock outcropping next to the mooring area, and Claudia on s/v Tao has been piling rocks and planting mangroves to make it a little nicer for dog-walking and sunset Happy Hours. When the tides line up, it's big enough for cruisers to gather for a sunset happy hour. An old truck tire serves as the table.
Happy Hour on Claudia's Island
On our 2nd visit to Camotes, we finally found what we thought was the perfect anchorage for SW winds, on the north side of Talong Island, at the eastern end. 10° 43.181' N / 124° 19.613' E is the waypoint for a large shelf of mixed grass and sand, and a few scattered coral heads, in about 30-35 ft. We got 3-4 boats in this area. It is pretty protected even if strong S-SW winds are blowing. And it is mostly out of the way of the noisy fishing bankas.

Our Favorite South Wind Anchorage at the Camotes Our Favorite South Wind Anchorage at the Camotes Another Nice Sunset
Diving with Rock, he would come by and pick us up off the boat, and we'd dive the wall. Once or twice a week, we'd dinghy in to Rock's place for dinner. One night Rock prepared us a traditional Korean barbecue dinner.
Korean BBQ at Rock's Place
We also had Rock out come out to Soggy Paws. The people we meet are always intrigued by our lifestyle.
Rock Asking a Million Questions about Life Aboard
We spent a great couple of months between short stops in Carmen and diving at Talong Island.

If you go to Camotes, be sure to check out Uncle Rock's Dive Center.

Escape from Davao!

Davao to Port Carmen, Cebu Island, Philippines
May 11 - June 8, 2021

We finally completed our battery upgrade project in early May 2021. See results here. Things around the Philippines were starting to loosen up a little. A couple of our friends had already escaped the marina and were doing OK cruising.

The Philippines were gearing up for the first rounds of Covid vaccinations. They had already completed most of the front line worker vaxes, and were getting organized for a big push with the rest of the population. The first step was to count how many doses they needed in each locale. We got registered with the folks on Samal Island. We were thankful that the Philippines weren't distinguishing between "visitors" and citizens. We were slated to be in the 3rd tier behind the front line workers and the "poor" old people. But we had no firm schedule for when vaccinations would actually come to Samal.

Moving Out of the Condo
Where are we going to put it all?
After being confined to the marina for over a year, we were itching to get going.

We debated staying until we got vaccinated, but who knows when that would really happen. A couple of our friends had already escaped the marina and were doing OK cruising.

The twice-a-month marina shuttle van to Davao hadn't been running in over a year, so we got together with another boat and hired a tourist van from Samal to take us to S and R and G-Mall for a big provisioning trip. Plus I took the local marina shuttle into Babak nearly every day to buy as much as we could carry. So we stocked up for 6 months of cruising, and checked out of our cushy condo on May 7. That was our cats' first night aboard.

It took us a few more days to get organized to leave. We finally left the marina on May 11, 2021. Oh, what a relief it was! This had been the longest time ever, since my ex and I bought our first sailboat in the mid 80's, that I hadn't been out on a boat on the water. (Living aboard in an enclosed marina doesn't count!)

Sailing Again!!
We didn't have any real concrete plans, other than to go up into the central Philippines and cruise parts of the Philippines we hadn't spent much time in. The central Philippines has a mostly enclosed area of islands known as the Visayas, which is a great cruising ground. There's no real open ocean sailing once we get up the Mindanao coast--we only had to keep an eye out for Typhoons.

Our Helm Station
We had already been up and down the east coast of Mindanao in 2018, so we motorsailed up the coast as fast as reasonably possible. As before, between morning calms, currents, and widely spaced anchorages (ie long day hops), there wasn't much sailing on this leg. As before, we day-hopped the entire way, due to the risks of nighttime unlit fishing boats, nets, and FADs.

Happy Hour on the Foredeck at Sunset in Bucas Grande
On May 23, we motored through the Hinatuan Passage at 9 knots! (with 3-4 knots of current behind us). You really have to time this small 5 mile stretch for a favorable tide. We were lucky that the tides were right as soon as we wanted to go through.

At the end of this passage, just north of the town of Surigao, was a new anchorage that our friends had weathered an almost-typhoon in. We wanted to check it out, and so spent the night in the enclosed area in Nonoc Island (09°49.73'N / 125° 35.61'E, 35 ft mud).

It definitely helps to have a satellite image to get into the anchorage. It would be a good choice for a mild Typhoon, but I don't think I'd stay here by choice if a strong Typhoon were coming. The reefs would knock the seas down, but there's a huge sector of the bay open to the wind. With enough notice, I'd sail south to several hidey holes along the top of western Mindanao.

The next night, we made it all the way up to the SW tip of Leyte Island. We had stopped here and dived with Southern Leyte Divers in 2018. But this time, we merely stopped overnight and pushed on to Port Carmen, 2 more days travel NW. Dave had booked a spot on Zeke's (Pinoy Boatyard in Port Carmen) catamaran ramp, and we needed to be there before the high tide.

We finally pulled into Port Carmen on May 25, 2021. Two days later, we went up on the ramp for a few days. Dave wanted to change zincs and outer saildrive seals. You can only do bottom work at low tide while on this ramp, so we worked odd hours when the tide was low.

Boats Med-Moored at Zeke's Docks
Boats are Stacked Two Deep in the Marina Due to Pandemic
Port Carmen is one of the places where the "budget" cruisers hang out. Zeke's Marina and Boatyard (aka Pinoy Boat Services) is chock-a-block with boats right now--a few occupied, but most stored and left by owners who flew out when the pandemic began. Zeke has them rafted 2 deep in some places. The Philippines is STILL not letting non-Filipino citizens in except in special circumstances, and "But my $100K boat is there, rotting!" isn't considered a special circumstance.

We heard around the bar at Zeke's that they were vaccinating older people in Danao, the nearby city. "Just show up in the morning with your passport and tell them you are living at Zeke's on your boat." That worked!

The Vaccination Registration Desk at Danao Health Center
The Briefing Before We Were Vaccinated
We got our first vaccinations on May 28. The only problem was, because I told them I was taking baby aspirin, they would not vaccinate me with Astra Zenica (what Dave got). They would only give me Sinovac. They told me I could stop taking aspirin and come back in a month, or get the Sinovac today. Something is better than nothing, so I accepted the Sinovac reluctantly. I did not have much faith in the Chinese vaccine.

I didn't feel any after-effects from my Sinovac jab, but Dave was feeling pretty poor for 24 hours after his Astra Zenica. Right during our haulout, too! He slept for about 24 hours and then felt good enough to go back to work.

Soggy Paws on the New "Cat Ramp" at Zekes
Dave Working on the Saildrives
In the Mud/Sand at Low Tide
Zeke CAN haul you completely out of the water and block you high and dry, but that's a fairly time-consuming and expensive proposition. And there was currently a boat out doing an extensive Copper Coat bottom job. I'm not sure there's room for two out of the water.

We finished our work on the ramp and launched on the high tide on May 31, and went out to a mooring in the "pond" outside Zeke's.

The Carmen South Mooring Field--In the Rain
We couldn't leave Carmen yet though--we needed to renew our visas and do some re-stocking. A couple of days later we hopped a bus heading for Cebu out in front of the shipyard. Our friend Evan on Java had given us precise instructions for the best/easiest/cheapest way to get to the best/easiest Immigration office--one that will give you a 6 month extension without begging (vs the 2 months that is the norm these days in the Philippines).

There were COVID checkpoints on the road into Cebu, but most were either not manned these days, or just waved the bus on through. We wore our super-masks (KN95) on this trip as we knew not many Filipinos were vaxxed yet. We had all our paperwork ready to submit, so getting the visa extensions was quick and painless--it only takes money (about $30 pp per month). Afterward we checked out a couple of malls near the Immigration office. The grocery stores were open, but a lot of stores were still closed. We took a taxi to the bus station near another mall, and found the right bus to get back to the shipyard.

Another thing we did this first week in Carmen was organize a vet to come out to Zekes to handle all the pet needs for all the cruisers. Our little Charlie was ready for her 2nd round of shots. We ended up with 6-8 cats and dogs waiting around the picnic table at Zekes. The vet arrived late and was pretty disorganized, but the only other way to get to a vet was to get on a trike or a jeepney or bus with the cat. The other vet in Danao is hard to reach and hard to schedule. We later had a really bad experience with this vet when it came time to get Charlie spayed. So I wouldn't let her near your pet with a knife. I don't think she has any formal veterinary training.

Up Next: Cruising the Camotes Islands