Cruising A in the Philippines 12
dventure After finishing the last boat maintenance jobs in Subic Bay we eagerly departed for our holiday destination, Puerto Galera Yacht Club. We make this 95-mile jaunt in two legs, stopping at Pattaya Cove midway. We dropped the hook in the protected bay right next to the boatyard, making for a nice short 45 miles day. We arose at first light and made the second passage in relatively calm waters. This leg takes some weather planning as Verde Pass can be quite a bumpy ride. We use windy.com for weather planning although there are several other options. Back in what we call “one of our homes” we picked up the reserved mooring by early afternoon. Puerto Galera Yacht Club has a great mooring program with the big bonus of the “service boat” which takes us to shore or the yacht club. I am teaching our 5-year-old proper VHF radio protocol, so he loves to call the boat. Priam’s tiny voice calling “service boat please, picks up on Furthur” gives the drivers a chuckle. I don the 900 Christmas lights and we plan a party aboard, a Furthur tradition. The cruisers in the anchorage come by dinghy and others from the shore. The Holiday season has begun! Christmas and New Years are spent with our good friends at the Yacht Club. This is my eighth Christmas in the tropics, memories of cold rainy days, long cold nights and the insane hustle bustle of my hometown holidays are but a faint memory. Christmas should be spent in flip flops, shorts and a festive Hawaiian shirt! We now pick up our crew for the season, Maggie, a spunky gal from Oklahoma who has been studying in Australia. This gives her a unique accent, Oky/ Ozish. Weather looking good for the downwind leg down Verde Pass and around Civitte Point. This can As we get ready we talk to other divers who just saw a Hammer Head Shark, one of the view things missing from my “I have seen” list, so I get really excited. be a hairy bit of water as it rounds the north tip of Mindoro Island. We drop the hook at a protected anchorage inside Cumalog Point. This cuts the trip to Apo Reef, our destination, in half. Crack of light departure and we head to diving Mecca, Apo Reef. We drop the hook just inside the massive reef at a place where we find 13 meters of water. Most of the inside is deep, 25 to 30 meters so finding this mound makes anchoring easier. We drop the dinghy and Maggie and I do a quick dive, with Donna driving the tender. As we get ready we talk to other divers who just saw a Hammer Head Shark, one of the view things missing from my “I have seen” list, so I get really excited. Sadly, the sought-after shark has gone but we see a few of its smaller cousins plus the usual spectacular array of fish, great dive! The next day we make the short hop to El Rio Resort. This is our first time visiting this distinctive location. We have heard great things but others have reported that this is not a very “Cruiser Friendly” place, so we want to find out. As we approach and call on the radio a boat comes out to greet us and guide us to a mooring. We go ashore by landing the dinghy on a very well-built dock and are escorted to the office. El Rio is a 5-star resort, dream-like white sandy beaches, pools and a top-level restaurant. They charge us 500p for the mooring, and 500p a person to come ashore, 1000p if you want to use their pools or showers. The per person fee can apply to your restaurant bill. The dinner we had was superb along with live music. The prices are resort like, not local, so the 500p per person is eaten up pronto. This got us thinking about all the wonderful resorts in Palawan and how they relate to cruisers. I find there are three categories: first being “welcome!”, Words by BRIAN CALVERT Photographs as credited 13