WEEK 8 –Corong Corong

Saturday 25 Feb – Corong Corong
Went early to the big market (held Sats & Weds) and bought some pork and fruit and veg. The crew couldn’t walk through the meat section as it was all pigs heads and legs and horrible things! Braveheart and Cilantro went to town to try to organise us a tour while we tried to get our fridge/freezer working again, which we did eventually – yay! We joined the others in town and they had found us a tour. All the tours and prices are fixed by the Government and all the tours are Tour A, B, C & D but we wanted to do a couple of places from both A and B. Braveheart found Servant Tours who were willing to do what we wanted so we had a “private tour”. If you were staying here for any length of time (recommended) you would probably do them all. We checked out the boat – named Servant and paid our money - $16 per head including lunch! Found a local eating place and got a meal in a plastic bag (takeaway) and came back to the boat.

Sunday 26 Feb – Corong corong
A perfectly calm day for our tour. We caught a trike to town and piled on our boat with three lovely male crew and headed to Minaloc Island and the Secret Beach. This can only be entered in calm conditions so we swam through a hole in the rock and entered a “hong” – really lovely with towering very jagged cliffs. Then we went to a little beach where our lovely crew cooked us a scrumptious lunch(barbequed fish and chicken and rice,veges and fruit) and then we went past the shrine but didn’t go ashore. It was a house and church etc built by a politician who didn’t get re-elected and he ran out of money(!) and gave it up so now it doesn’t even have a caretaker. Then we went to Big Lagoon which was very shallow and just wide enough for two bangkas to pass (in and out) and we circled around the lagoon and went out – very beautiful. In the lagoon is an anchored platform (small) which is used for guests of the resort to have a special dinner (big enough for a small table). The resort is around $250 a night. We anchored outside the lagoon and had a snorkel and then went around to small lagoon and anchored inside it. We swam through the rock into another lagoon then Chris and I swam further in to see what was around the corner. We sat on a rock contemplating if it was worth swimming to the end when our guide Nel joined us and pointed out a small cave on the opposite side so we swam over and went in and found an underwater rock to sit on in the centre of the cave. There was an opening in the top and Nel told us the swiftlets used to live in there and 3grms of birds nest fetched 6,000 pesos but in 2000 when all the tourists started to come the birds moved somewhere else. It was a very special feeling being the only ones in there. Apparently in the mornings when Tour A comes in it is crowded (best to do the tours in reverse!). We returned at 4pm after a great day out.

Monday 27 Feb – Corong Corong
Well how lucky were we yesterday. Today is windy so don’t really want to leave the boats – quiet boat day.

Tuesday 28 Feb – Corong Corong
Very bored so took Bob around the point intending to go to a beach but there was a bit of a swell on the beach so we went to town instead. As we were walking in the crew stopped to take a photo which was really provident as a coconut fell and landed two metres to the left and behind the skipper! Round about where I would have been!! People walk along there all the time! We had lunch and got some supplies then adjourned to Braveheart to discuss the next move. There are now eight yachts in the bay.

Wednesday 29 Feb – Corong Corong – Diapila Bay
11°24.503N / 119°28.543E
Went to the market at 7 for supplies then had to hurry back to the boat as it had started to rain and we had left the hatch open. Upanchored at 9am and had quite a good sail to a little bay just before the top of Palawan. We had some gusts of wind on the way which heeled us right over. We arrived at 1pm having dodged the odd stick sticking out of nowhere and big buoys just beneath the surface in the bay. There were some huge fishing boats in the bay and we could hear a rooster crowing from the boats. The wind was really howling but the anchorage was ok. The wind howled all night – a horrible sound and music from the shore thumped all night so we didn’t get a lot of sleep!
Miles: 19 TTT: 971

Thursday 1 March – Diapila Bay – Corong Corong
11°10.068N / 119°23.605E
We left at 6.45 with the wind still howling but it was pretty rough and we weren’t making a lot of headway so we turned back and went all the way back toCorong Corong. We anchored at 11am. Very calm with sharp bullets of wind. Turned into another boat day just reading.
Miles: 20 TTT: 991

Friday – 2 March – Corong Corong
Read a book in the morning which was an awesome read called Facing the Frozen Ocean by Bear Grylls – couldn’t put it down. The skipper fixed the generator – he had broken the starter cord. We are having trouble with our house batteries not holding the charge and are afraid we need new ones – sourcing them may be a problem! We went ashore at 2.30 and took Judy off Braveheart and did some shopping then had a pleasant evening on board watching a movie.

And here we are sitting out a blow and will probably be here for a few more days yet waiting on the weather. Its one of those times when you are supposed to do all the maintenance on the boat but somehow never quite feel like doing!!

Hope you are all well. Stuart and Jean enjoy your trip and take time out to smell the roses (or the apples as the case may be!!).
Stay safe
A little less wind would be good.
Love
Dell and Peter