PUERTO PRINCESA – HAPPY DAYS

2 October 2024

Arriving in Puerto Princesa was easy, just motor up to the anchorage off the yacht club, drop anchor, launch the dinghy and go ashore to a warm welcome and a cold beer at the yacht club. 

Checking in with immigration, sanitation and customs was also an easy affair.  The various authorities came to the Abanico yacht club to undertake the paperwork with customs and sanitation needing to visit Truce to check everything was in order.  Once the formalities were complete I moved onto a mooring the following morning.  I feel more relaxed leaving Truce on a mooring when I am ashore for extended periods after an incident where Truce dragged anchor with almost disastrous results. The mooring field is fairly sheltered, we have had a couple of squalls come through, the worst was about 35 knots for a short period of time. 

One of my gas cylinders ran out in Malaysia. I tried to get it refilled there but ran into a bit of negativity, the can do attitude of Indonesia does not seem to extend to Malaysia. Things are possible in the Philippines and I was able to borrow a local gas bottle and decant it into my New Zealand bottle. It took a while, no problem crack a beer and let it happen.

The main item on top of the repairs list for Puerto Princesa was the sails.  My yankee had some serious damage to the clew and had split along the line of the Ultra Violet protection strip.  This needed some heavy duty repairs that were beyond my ability to undertake with hand stitching, it would take forever and not be very pretty.  Fortunately Ana on one of the other boats has a sailrite heavy duty sewing machine and can manage sail repairs.  I needed sail cloth and spectra webbing which I was able to procure from Hyde sails and get sent down to Puerto Princesa by courier from their production facility in Cebu.

The only clear space available to spread out sails locally is the Horizon Sun Charters seaplane hanger close to the yacht club.  There the owner and pilot, Raymond, most kindly let us use his hanger space for a few days.  In all we repaired three sails and hopefully they will get me back to New Zealand.  The mainsail is full of patches and looks a bit like a baggy patchwork quilt, not much use in light air but pushes us along when the wind picks up.

Ana spent long and hot days in the hanger making repairs. I am very pleased with the end result, its as good as I could have hoped for.

The big treat for me at Puerto Princesa was a visit from Jessica for a couple of weeks and also Steven and his girlfriend Felicia turned up for a few days later.

After a couple of days chilling Jess and I set off in a mini bus to Sebang. Unfortunately, the weather was not the greatest with many rain showers and mostly overcast.  We stayed in an interesting hotel in Sebang for a couple of nights.  The hotel had maybe half a star as the roof didn’t leak and the air conditioning worked slightly. 

Our visit to Sebang was to see the underground river, a big tourist attraction.  We arrived at the assigned place to board the boats taking us to the beach landing further up the coast where the entrance to the underground river is situated.  At first it seemed like chaos and I became slightly frustrated, but I need not have worried, it soon became obvious that there was a method to the chaos.  Soon everybody was herded into groups to board the various boats and we were on our way.  The visit to the underground river was great, we boarded small boats to enter the river and had individual recordings of the narrative as we passed through the underground system.  Bats and swallows fluttered overhead as we glided along in darkness, the lights from the guides picking out points of interest.  Everything was well organised and a good experience. 

That evening we tried to get some good food, a challenge that we failed.  Eventually settling for some concoction that the hotel produced.  My experience of dining out in Palawan has not been great, this aligns with comments I have heard from other visitors.  I am sure there is good food available, I just haven’t found it yet.  Fortunately the food in the Yacht club is good.

Steven and Felicia arrived, Jess and I met them at the airport. We organised a tricycle to take them to their hotel. After the novelty wore off I don’t think they were too impressed, Steven is quite large to fit into a tricycle comfortably. Great to see the children after so long, Steven shouted Jess and I a hotel room in their hotel for 3 days – luxury. In the air conditioned room we both marveled at the clean crisp beds as though it was something we had never seen before. I spent hours in the shower, so good after all the water conscious showers on truce, let it run!

As Steven and Felicia only had a few days we didn’t have enough time to explore further afield, we spent time in Puerto Princesa and did the shopping malls (air conditioned), parks and other attractions, dined out with mixed results and generally chilled.

Raymond was doing a tourist run and had seats for Jess and Steven on his seaplane. They went up for a ride, their first ever on a seaplane. A good experience and a lasting memory of Puerto Princesa.

Eventually it came time for them all to depart. So sad to see them go.  I am back to being alone again. There are plenty of repairs and maintenance jobs to get on with to keep me occupied.  The maintenance never stops on an older boat, thankfully the boat systems are simple and most repairs fall within my limited level of competence.

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