IS THE BASILAN STRAIT SAFE?

12 January 2025

The final days in Puerto Princesa involved fitting a new fuel pump on the engine and reprovisioning.  After such a long delay waiting for spares to arrive Truce is finally ready to head out again. 

My plans have changed, we have lost so much time, the winds have turned against us on our proposed route eastwards through the Philippines and down the east coast of Mindanao to Davao, where I had planned to check out of the Philippines before heading to Papua New Guinea.  Going east through the Philippines now will be a big fight against the prevailing winds and currents. 

The plan now (plan B) is to sail via the Basilan Strait, past Zamboanga and into the Celebes sea, then down to Biak in Indonesia where I can do a final reprovision before heading to Papua New Guinea.  This route will give us a far better wind angle and cut the corner saving us a hard slog and many miles. 

Of course when I informed my cruising friends of my intentions they all threw up their hands in horror and reeled off numerous stories of piracy and kidnapping around southern Mindanao.  Certainly there have been instances in the past of some nasty activity by Abu Sayyaf and other groups in the outer islands of Jolo etc.  To get an up to date picture of the situation I visited the Coastguard and let them know of my plans.  They said that things had quietened down considerably (some hard Government action I hear) and if passing through the strait and not stopping there should not be any problem.  They also let me know about the coastguard stations and VHF monitoring. 

With a bit more peace of mind I set off to do the clearance out of the Philippines, by visiting the Sanitation, Customs and immigration to get all the paperwork completed.  Then we were off. 

As we motored out of Puerto Princesa a good swell greeted us at the fairway buoy, quite bouncy as it met the outgoing tide, the interface marked with plenty of vegetation and logs from the river.  Once clear of the fairway a good breeze showed up and we were on our way, sailing fast and free.  The ride down across the Sulu Sea to the Basilan Straits was boisterous with a number of squalls coming through.  At night I reefed down to the third reef so I didn’t have to go on deck in the dark, a good precaution as we didn’t lose much speed but the squalls were frequent through the night.  Despite reduced sail we still did a couple of 100 mile plus days, lovely sailing.    

Two and a half days out from Puerto Princesa and we were through the Basilan Strait and Zamboanga was behind us.   The Coastguard called us up on VHF radio as we approached the Mindanao coast and monitored our progress. We entered the straits with a strong wind behind us, I had hopes of sailing through but as the sun went down so did the wind.  We ended up motoring through at night with a favourable current pushing us.  The strait has quite a bit of commercial traffic which made life interesting but thankfully very few fishermen around.

We were lucky with the tides in the Basilan Strait where the flow can exceed six knots according the chart.  I could not find any tidal flow data for the straits online and the tidal charts seemed to be confusing and contradictory.  I used the tidal stream information from the Windy App and this turned out to spot on correct.  Well done Windy. 

Once through the straits and into the Celebes Sea it became slow going.  Not much wind, days of calms and stifling hot with no breeze.  Many fishermen around and most came past to say hello, I don’t think they see many sail boats here.  One fisherman came over for a chat, it was calm, so we tied the boats up and had a chat for 30 mins.  He recommended a good anchorage where I could rest.  I tried it, arriving and anchoring at sunset.  The (Kaimba) anchorage turned out to be horrendous, just past midnight a southerly swell came in and we rolled awfully through the night.  I was away at first light, happy to be away. 

Further down the coast the wind picked up and we had some good sailing through yet more squalls and torrential downpours as we headed towards Sarangani Island.

I stopped at Patuco Cove, I had identified a good secure anchorage inside a lagoon off the main channel at Patuco village, where I anticipated I could have a good rest.  I entered the approach channel late afternoon and locals came running down to the shore to greet me.  Lots of shouting and arm waving, they seemed very pleased to see me and I waved back.  Then I realised they were also pointing at something and frantically gesturing at me to stop.  Eventually I understood all the excitement as I saw a low hanging single electric cable crossing the entrance to the lagoon.  I managed to stop Truce in time, turned around and anchored just off the village in the last of the daylight.  It was quite a tight anchorage but good enough for a quiet night.

The next morning I moved on to Bolaye anchorage just a short distance down the coast.  What a wonderful place, quiet, secure and protected with birdsong all around.  Finally, I had a good anchorage where I could get a good nights sleep.  I could have stayed a second night but decided to move along, this was my last Philippines anchorage, I had checked out of the country so didn’t want to linger too long.  Soon after departing from the anchorage the wind died.  It took a while to get clear of the islands, calm weather giving way to squalls and then calm again, a frustrating few hours.

The next stop was the island of Talud.  This is an Indonesian Island, I wanted to stop here for a rest and get some Rp. from the ATM and a sim card for my phone.  This is a lovely island and the people all very friendly and eager to help.  So nice to be back in Indonesia, the people are so vibrant, helpful and enthusiastic.  The Port officials and navy came to visit,  no I had not cleared into Indonesia.  I explained I just wanted to get some Rp. and a sim card for my phone to call my family.  They were OK with this and happy after checking my papers.  They even offered to take me to the market for supplies.  I declined and not wishing to test their generosity was on my way shortly after.

I planned my next top to be at Morotai Island.  As I approached the island there was a horrendous looking large black squall approaching from the south.  This was blocking my path and turned out to be a monster squall.  I gave up trying to tack into it and freed off to run north of Morotai and keep going towards Biak.

The final run down to Biak was a slow affair.  A lot of calms interspersed with even more squalls.  There is no moon at the moment, the squalls are hard to see in the dark and sometimes were almost upon us before I realised they were there.    

Finally, we Arrived at Biak on a Friday morning and anchored off the Nirmala resort. Ahmed at the resort was most helpful and arranged for me to clear in the same day did the check in the same day.  The immigration office was the best i have seen in Indonesia, very welcoming and even had a refreshment corner for the clients.

After clearing in I visited the main supermarket in town and was really disappointed with the produce and limited selection on offer.  My plan was to restock up here but it appears I have received poor information, the goods on offer are quite restricted and expensive.  Well, I suppose Biak isn’t a big place and catering mainly too locals, I should have known better.

The anchorage at Biak is providing good sleeps.