Saturday 1st March 2008

Malinao Inlet
Dinagat Island
Philippines
Position : 10.14.98N 125.38.65E

After leaving Palau 4 days ago we are now in the Philippines! Thank you Valiam and Captain Bill. We did well traveling 550nm in that time. We sailed quite fast for most of the trip and motored since 6pm yesterday. Yesterday we already spotted a Philipino fishing boat with its trimaran type outriggers spread like spiders legs. This morning Bill saw a couple of smaller craft still quite a long way out to sea. We aimed Heath the electric tiller pilot strait forMalinao inlet, Dinagat Island. We discovered this was a good first stop on the Puerto Galera yacht club website. On this site there was a whole section on how to enter the Philippines via Surigao Strait. It's difficult to know what the tides and currents are doing but the next suggested stop in Hibuson Island.

The sea was glassy with an undulating swell a deep deep blue colour. The weather is perfect and at 10 degrees north is slightly cooler than Palau. Linda first sighted land at 9am Brisbane time (7am Philippines) and had great pleasure in waking the captain with "Land Ahoy!" We could see lots of mountains and imagined an inlet with rugged mountain sides. In the far distance out to sea a big plume of black cloud could be seen. Bill thought perhaps one of the bangkas may have caught alight. (They use recycled car motors and often smoke cigarettes.) After another nap each and a cold beer we gradually got closer to Dinagat island. At first I thought I could see another yacht mast but as we got closer it was a waterfall coming down the mountain into the sea. We weren't sure whether to trust the electronic charts as in PNG the close up charts were out of alighnment with the large scale ones. It was a clear day and with Polaroid sunglasses we could just make out breaking waves either side of where we were supposed to go. Glancing behind us we spotted two bangkas coming towards us. The boats were brightly painted with outriggers each side. There were several people in each boat swathed in long sleeves and cloth around their heads and faces. We could just see their eyes. We waved to them in a friendly manner. As they came closer a man opened a polystyrene box and pulled out a bright pink glistening fish. As we couldn't stop and weren't sure what they were saying -" pito or kito??" we just smiled and waved. They must have thought we were idiots. Anyway they took off again. We pointed to where we were going and they did the same. Linda was stationed to stand on top of the upside down dinghy in front of the mast. As we got closer large swells began to form breaking waves directly in front. "I don't like this! Turn around!" The captain obeyed. Switching from the depth sounding back to the electronic chart we could see the boat was positioned too far to the right of the channel where it was beginning to become shallow. Motoring further to the left but quite close to the breakers on that side we slowly found our way in.

After anchoring in 5metres of water we cracked open the cold bottle of champagne and soaked up the scenery. On either side of the channel there are dense rugged mountains. One side has a beach with coconut trees. On the other side we can see a waterfall trickling down. Looking towards where we came in we can see and hear the surf breaking. As we sipped our champagne we watched several bangkas (motorized canoes) go by. One had 8 kids and the driver. Some of the people wave and some don't. We noticed some of the women wearing head scarves. Although the Philippines is 80 percent Catholic there are a minority of Muslims mainly living in the southern end (Mindanao) which isn't far from here. We observed some people swimming and snorkeling near the reef. Most of the bangkas were heading towards the end of the inlet where we could just make out a village. We expected people to come up to the boat as they did in PNG but no-one has apart from the ones outside the entrance where it was difficult to talk. How we wish we had purchased that fish! Maybe they went and told everyone here we don't want fish! So we had chicken curry instead from our trusty longlife Prodin supply. It was still quite tasty. Hopefully our new fishing gear will work soon. It's been quite disappointing so far!

Tomorrow will be another day of exploring. We may try to go to Maasin (bottom of Leyte island) in the next couple of days to make contact with a forestry colleague of our friend Jerry's. Jerry suggested that he would be quite pleased to talk to Bill and show him around. We'll see if we can get there easily. The Lonely Planet guide describes the town as quite interesting with a beautiful old church surrounded by jungle. That's it for now. We should sleep well tonight.

All well on board Valiam

Linda and the captain