The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson
Sailing Yacht Truce
As my shop bought bread had run out I decided to make some bread with fresh flour I had bought in Biak. When I opened the flour container I was greeted by whole bunch of Weevils. The second flour container was also similarly infested. I really dislike weevils, the flour went over the side immediately. Bread was off the menu but my craving for bread only intensified.
The plan now is to sail via the Basilan Strait, past Zamboanga and into the Celebes sea and 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. 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.
Six hundred miles and across the Sulu Sea twice to end up where I started. An unusual trip. I departed from Puerto Princesa headed towards Bonbonon on Negros Island, a trip of about 270 miles. This was to be my stepping stone for sailing east through the Philippines and then down the East coast of Mindanao to Davao where I intended to check out of the country.
I have made the horrific discovery of some wet wood in the rudder. The rudder construction is a sandwich with red cedar on the outside and laminated ply in the centre. Water has got into the central ply section from the tiller pocket and travelled, as it does, down through the ply. Luckily, I have discovered it early and after extensive prodding and digging around I can see the end of it.
The next step of the journey is sailing from Kudat in Malaysia to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. This will be my first visit to the Philippines and I am very much looking forward to it. The departure from Kudat was promising, for a while we had a tail wind until it disappeared mid morning and the sea went glassy, leaving us bobbing around going backwards slowly. The engine had to go on, otherwise we wouldn’t make any progress and the tide would take us back to Kudat.
The waiting at Labuan has been so stressful, If the anchorage had been safe and secure I would be in a completely different state of mind. Anyway, eager to remove myself from this place I bought a few last-minute fresh food items and without regret sailed out from Labuan. Both Truce and I happy to be back in clean waters and heading northwards up the coast.
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 