CRUISING 2026 part 2

After bidding our old friends and new at Busuanga Bay adios, we weaved through the hundreds of “pearl farms” and made our way to another Filipino hot spot, El Nido.  We did the 2 day jaunt in near perfect weather, rounded the tip of Palawan Island and anchored at the back side of the peninsula that makes the town.

With so many things to do at El Nido, we pick a few favorites and some new. I absolutely love the public market, one of the best in the country, so provisioning fresh prawns, veggies and fruit came first.

Unlike Puerto Galera which is a day hop from Manila ergo mostly Filipino tourists, El Nido draws the foreigner back packer crowd. Ther are several ways to get there, one of the most alluring is the two-day bangka ride from Coron, a floating party. Others arrive via more conventional methods and all wonder about the town looking for adventure. Many venders offer standard 2, 3 and 4 stop bangka tours. Dive shops also draw big crowds but I have found diving there pretty ordinary and don’t bother.

There is a large French population in El Nido which means extraordinary restaurants! We hit my favorite Greek resto, then another place famous for its sunset view. The choices are endless. Both nights we top off with stops at gelotti ice cream stands, yum.

The fun of having a new guest aboard is sharing old wonderful experiences. Donna takes her sister Darlene on the “canvas walk” a series of stairs, ladders, swinging walkways above the jungle tree level. While they take that route I do my usual hike up to the cell phone tower.  I discovered this steep trail a few years ago, following a couple strong local guys packing 20kg of rocks up the hill. These guys made this trip over and over building a rock retaining wall around the tower.  That year we shared the anchorage with another old Hash House Harrier friend who had made a semi-permanent home there. Together we did the first El Nido hash with 15 folks complete with “sitting on the ice”.

Another famed El Nido excursion is the kayak trip into the “lagoon”.  We take the dinghy and tie up to one of the many excursion boats. The girls rent a kayak while I nap in the sun, I know this will be a photo laden venture I can skip.

After hitting all the hot spots, we hoist anchor and head back towards Busuanga via the ominous Black Island. We grab the one mooring which puts us in deep water, but the steep bank also makes it close to shore. The girls, neither of which can really swim, don life jackets and flail their ways to shore. I take this opportunity to dive and clean the bottom as I noticed our speed had begun to slow down.

As we have done every two years, Furthur had just gotten a fresh bottom paint job a month earlier. So, I was amazed to find the bottom fouled with thousands of tiny barnacles. I did a cursory cleaning hoping for improvement. Not ten days later I hired divers to do it again and again it was completely fouled. Later when we got home my neighbor, who had the same paint at the same time had found these critters as well. I have asked the yard to contact the bottom paint rep as it appears this invasion is not daunted by the paint.

Off the mooring we find a more suitable place to spend the night. A pre-dawn departure takes us across to Mindoro Island once again in flat calm water. We had planned on spending the night back at Paluan Bay and doing the last leg through the dreaded Calavite Pass the next day. A look at the weather forecast and some quick calculations and we decide to go for it, all the way to Puerto Galera that day. This made for an eighteen-hour passage, arriving just past dark. Remember this is all without our trusty Auto Pilot so it is a bit exhausting. Furthur tracks like she is on rails so very little steering in flat water so do most of it with my left foot. The next day I was puzzled why my left leg and knee were sore, until I remembered the long day with foot steering.

Back at Puerto Galera, with a week to spend before the Easter Regatta. So, we take Darlene to trek up to the Tukuran Falls. We are greeted by a couple of nice local ladies who lead us up the path. This can also be done in a Carabao Cart, a great photo op but bumpy so that is a onetime deal, and I have my picture.  We do the easy hike, crossing the river 6 times. This time of year, the water is low and easy. We did this on one of our rainy season visits and the river was raging. Priam and I floated most the way back down.

The ladies prepare us a remarkably good lunch of chicken, pork, pancit and rice. I cool my weary bones in the pool below the falls, playing with some of the local kids.  We make the easy trail down, gift our lady guides and ride off down the jungle road.

Upon returning the Furthur, I spot a beautiful Fleming trawler in the anchorage. I recognize the boat as they had contacted me before they arrived seeking “local Knowledge”.  We saw them boarding and elaborate large tender, so I went up to say hi. They invited us to see their new boat, fresh from the Taiwan factory.

This was another Asian built yacht owned by Americans taking advantage of the Asian delivery. No shipping, no taxes or tariffs and you start right in paradise. Who could ask for more.

We invited them to the Yacht Club Saturday night gala. Then we talked diving. I joined them for a nice dive on the wall out of town, they appreciated the local dive knowledge, and I loved diving with them.  

Our good friends and SBYC neighbors on Masallade show up and invite us to their Pirate Wedding. We join a crowd on their boat and partake in the ceremony; tears cheers and laughter fill the air. These are two wonderful people who joined their hearts at sea.

This takes us right up to the Puerto Galera Yacht Club Easter Regatta and that, as the Conan legends go, “is another story”