ABW Sept 2020

ack, I assume we are cleared to go. That got one response,
of the eight emails sent, and instructions to send this to an
Admiral, which I did with no response.
It became clear the Coast Guard was not the way to go so
we went back local. Donna contacted the Mayor of our
Barangay’s office who said, come on in. Three weeks had
gone by since I received the Subic Bay Clearance and the
local certificates. After hearing my sad
tale of woe, the Mayor gave me a letter
authorizing our travel. We are going
home!
We cleared our bill and bid farewell to
the shipyard and our “isolation Island
Barge”. Stocked up and slipped the
lines pre-dawn on a blustery Saturday.
To add to the
drama, they strung
“DANGER” red tape
all around the boat.
Now we were underway, not sure if we would be stopped
along the way. I do not like to travel at night in the
Philippines, Donna refuses so we did long days, twelve to 14
hours, leaving first light and anchoring in last light. As we
did not have clearance to enter any other area, so we had to
be a bit stealth.
First stop was Gigantes Islands, normally we spend a few fun
packed days there. This year the white sandy beaches and
fresh scallops had to be missed. Next stop was Romblon
Rombon, another of our favorite places to spend a week.
We did not enter the usual protected bay, but anchored on
the outside near a sand spit, the dead calm winds made this
possible.
Like most trawler cruisers, I am obsessed with fuel efficiency.
We normally travel right at 7 knots burning just under 2 usg
an hour, (8 liters) if we go faster the fuel usage goes up quite
fast. We left Cebu with full fuel tanks and the news that fuel
prices had dropped to half what we had paid, so I said “petal
to the mettle” and we did 8 knots all the way. Actually, that
was only a 100 rpm bump, but it felt like a rocket.
Our friends at Puerto Galera Yacht Club contacted the Coast
Guard and asked if we might be able to anchor overnight.
They agreed, no one on or off the boat, out by daylight
24
clearance. We pulled into the familiar anchorage just as
dark fell. It was quite crowded with other quarantine boats.
Our good friend came over in his dinghy, maintaining social
distancing we had a chat. That was the first non-Filipino I
had talked to in 2 months, I did not realize that until he left,
and I went “wow that was nice”.
The last leg is a familiar one, Puerto Galera to Subic Bay.
We departed under a quarter moon at 3
am to insure a daylight arrival. This is was
done to facilitate the people that would
have to clear us in.
I had emailed the port, the yacht club,
and the coast guard four hours out with a
solid ETA. As is protocol we then radioed
the Port Authority as we entered the
bay. They responded, “we are expecting
you, cleared to the yacht club”
We entered the yacht club marina and were greeted by
staff in a small work boat. I had hoped to go right to our
berth, but they took me to an isolated dock across from the
marina. The staff and quarantine officers came to the boat,
inspected us, and took body temperatures. We supplied all
the paperwork needed.
At this point we all realized, we were the first boat to return
to Subic Bay from the lock down. The quarantine doctor was
quite frank, they had no idea what to do with us, this was
all new. I quickly discovered there was no water or power
at this unused dock so the idea of spending 14 days there
was unacceptable. We were assured a better solution would
come tomorrow and it did.
A cooperative effort of the Quarantine office and the yacht
club came up with a unique solution. We needed to be
isolated and unable to leave the boat, but we need access
to water, and preferably power. We were instructed to go to
our normal berthing area where we were greeted by a large
group. As both side of the berth were open, they suspended
us between the two fingers, so we could not leave the boat.
To add to the drama, they strung “DANGER” red tape all
around the boat.