May 01 2007
Sailing Trip
Toe’s note: today’s guest writer is my sister with six toes or Sixter. Read about her family’s adventure as they went sailing on their boat Marikit during the Holy Week.
During the Holy Week, Raul, my husband, Mariel, my daughter, Toto, a good friend of ours who doubles as crew, and myself, went on a seven-day sailing trip on our sailboat Marikit.
We sailed from island to island, following a loose itinerary, and just went where we felt like it. Raul plots our course on his laptop.
First, we went to Pandan Island off Western Mindoro – a small pretty island with fantastic snorkeling.
We swam with turtles for a whole morning! Ang dami nila, sometimes two to three at a time. Some of them were up to four feet long. They were very docile and never swam away from us and just kept eating sea grass even when we were very close.
Our main destination was Apo Reef, the world’s second largest atoll and one of the
most popular dive spots in the world. It’s a fascinating reef in the South China Sea.
Again snorkeling was amazing – we saw sharks (first time for Raul and Mariel), and fishes double the size and quantity we normally see. Apo Reef is a marine sanctuary tightly guarded by the DENR, the government army, and the WWF to apprehend illegal fishermen. Here are Raul and Toto with Joselito, a WWF officer, one of the admirable people who devote their lives guarding our marine sanctuaries:
Apo Island in Apo Reef is a turtle hatchery and camping and lights are not allowed at night as they “distract” the turtles. But we got permission to pitch a tent for one night because our anchorage was rough. When we woke up the next morning, the park ranger said three pawikans laid eggs near us while we were asleep!!!
These are not tractor tacks. Guess, what they are:
Here’s the whole family from the top of the lighthouse on Apo island.
And here’s a breathtaking view from the lighthouse. On the background is Marikit.
Except for that one rough night in Apo, the rest of the trip was very calm. We were blessed with spectacular sunsets and moonrises every single day.
We ate proper meals (I refused to eat de lata or canned goods) and enjoyed cocktails and prepared dinner every night. I bought a portable grill and we had barbecue several times.
We would look for civilization when we would run out of ice and water. Here’s Raul hitching a ride with a bancero to buy ice and fresh water from town.
The inside of the boat sleeps six…
… but we slept on the deck every night but only after watching the stars. Daming stars the whole week! Several times, I had to pinch myself and ask if this is really happening (naks!). Kasi dream namin ito ni Raul e 
We had our share of excitement, too. We crossed the infamous Calavite Passage three times and it lived up to its notorious reputation. We crossed it at twenty to twenty-five knots gusting to thirty knots with ten to fifteen foot waves. Our boat was great – it handled Calavite beautifuly, of course under the skillful hand of Raul (naks!).
On the second to the last day, we decided on a whim to go to Lubang Island. This is especially significant to me because my siblings and I always looked at Lubang from Matabungkay as kids and yet we’ve never been there.
After two hours of rough waters in Calavite, when we reached Lubang, we rounded the first cove and spotted what looked like a little bit of paradise – white sand beach, palm trees, with spectacular rock formation on both sides, and with glasslike anchorage.
It was a great way to spend our last night. The beach caretaker came out in his little banca to greet us.
He was this dear old man who lived in a shack on the beach with his family. He was very excited to meet us and you’ll never believe this. AHis name is Primo MENDOZA and he’s from Lian!! (Toe’s note: Daddy is a Mendoza and he comes from Lian, Batangas). It felt like a reunion and he spent a long time telling me who his relatives in Lian are. Of course I had no idea who the heck he was talking about. So could these be our long lost relatives?
Although Mariel kept saying she missed her computer, we really think she
had a great time too. She enjoyed the turtles, the snorkelling, kayaking, etc.
And btw, she turned thirteen during the trip.
What a memorable vacation.
Technorati tags: Sailing
Sail boat
Snorkeling
Apo Reef
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Wow! Kakainggit! I wish I had a boat, or maybe a yatch (hehe, ambisyoso!) so I could just sail away into the sunset and forget about… whatever it is that needs forgetting.
That was one cool adventure your sister and her family had, toe. Marunong palang mag-navigate ang bayaw mo. Is he a sailor by any chance?
Ang galing! Wow! Naku, Toe, I can just imagine how ‘inggit’ you are, hindi ka kasama! haha!
And what a memorable birthday for your niece! Superb talaga!
I think your sister will make many people jealous! Including me!
Snglguy, no, he’s not a sailor. He’s actually an executive or something boring like that.
Naku, pagmakabili ka ng yacht, I’m sure you’d have no problem talking to “her.” 
Rhodora, naku… no, not for me. I’ve stayed in a yacht overnight and when I got home, my body was heavily bruised. No, I wasn’t a victim of violence. I just kept on falling all over myself and hitting stuff. I’m a big klutz, you know. So while my siblings are all into adventure water sports, I joined the choir.
Oh dear… that reminds me… Mariel is my inaanak… may utang pala ako. 
Sidney, but you’ve had a lot of great adventures yourself, diba?
>>These are not tractor tacks. Guess, what they are
turtle tracks?
had no idea the philippines had such huge turtles. apo reef looks pretty awesome. good to hear it’s being protected.
wow, now that’s what I call a real holiday adventure
my husband is a keen sailor but like you, I’m not big on sailing ( I get sea sick). I’ve had a share of adventure going round’ the coast in England, but that’s about it… frustrating actually
great adventure, mateys!! nice boat!! 30 footer boat?
Ah, sailing! The ultimate symbol of freedom! Though, I’d still prefer flying.
Wil, yup, they’re turtle tracks. Ang laki no?
I didn’t post the picture but the people on Apo Island put the baby turtles in a tub until they are strong enough to be on their own.
Pining, apir tayo! We should stick to safer pursuits like blogging.
We could just blog about their adventures. 
Datu Panot, I don’t think it’s that big. But wait… I will teach her to reply to the comments.
Eric… aaaaah… like Richard Bach.
what a wonderful vacation your sister and her family had! she knows how to have a good time! what a romantic way to celebrate 13th birthday for your niece. the views are spectacular. boat is beautiful!
though, am not fond of sailing either as i get seasick. short trip and not far from the shore is okay. we used to have a boat, too, and kids would love to jump from the boat into the wate, back and forth, until their lips turned purple and looked puckered.
How I wish I would also have the same sea experience as your sister in law! Nice! My husband and I dream of going around the Philippines when we retire which is a long time from now.
“the WHOLE family on top of the light house???”
hmmm…. Just MAYBE you’re missing SOMEBODY mom???
Wow! These are amazing adventures. Nag live aboard pala kayo. Seeing these pictures again makes me want to go back to that place. It’s one of the best underwater marine life I’ve seen. And those turtles! Amazing aren’t they. And they seem to be used to human presence as well. Great adventure! And you should be the one called “Toes” hehe
Oo nga naman, Ichay, that picture is not the whole family. I noticed it the moment I read that part of the entry. You still have Marina who is in Cebu. It was nice to be with the whole family last night.
Wow what a lovely sailing adventure c/o of your sister and her family. Great shots.
Good idea too that you have your family posting on your blog, that way you are not under pressure to think of new posts.
amazing!!! these are two of the many islands that i wanted to go to before i die (promise hehe), the more i look in the pictures, the more i want to go there ASAP! kainggit naman. sure they enjoyed their vacation.
oh cool!!!!!
Toe please tell Sixter that I am so green with envy!
actually medyo blue na ako ngayon lol
Stargazing with the one you love is perfect! gagawin ko rin yan but well, baka sa bubong na lang namin gagawin yan kasi parang suntok sa buwan naman na magka sailboat ako o kami unless na lang mayaman ang mapapangasawa ko heheheh
btw i never understood na concept of snorkelling. even under water if you have the snorkel makakahinga ka? ganun? sorry wala sa probinsha ati hehe anyway i would love to learn how to do that
Belated happy birthday (surely super late na tong greeting) to Sixter’s lovely daughter. I can see her sunburn hehe
Awesome; this is just the way to spend a vacation. A friend who had been to Apo Island had neat stories about it. The pictures here reinforces how the isalnd is one rare gem.
Hello, all. Thanks for all your wonderful comments. I will try to reply to all. Thanks first to my baby sister who posted by story.
Most important: correction- the picture at the top of the lighthouse is not the whole family. My eldest daughter Marina unfortunately couldn’t join us as she had class
To everyone else, I want to say that everything starts with a dream. My hubby and I have had this dream for a long time so we worked towards that. A lot of you said you want to sail, own a boat, etc- go ahead and do something about it. It takes some planning, forward thinking and GUTS but anyone can do it. You’d be surprised to find out that buying a boat is not that “unreachable”. The popular SUVs and luxury cars in Manila are even more expensive!
To reply to your comments:
Snglguy- my hubby & I are both sailors, started out windsurfing then sailing a hobie kat and other small sailboats but this is our first time to buy a “big” boat
Wil- yes they are tracks of turtles who go to the beach to lay eggs
Pining- sailing around the coast of England? Wow sounds great! Tell me more about it.
Datupanot- it’s a 27.7 ft sailboat
Erik- I would guess that sailing and flying give the same sensation of freedom
To everyone else, here’s a quote from Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.”
very nice. tnx for sharing. the more I miss the Phil and the sea.
when I was in high school, a friend and I went out to sea (Lagunoy Gulf) with a small rubber boat for a day. it was one of the best things (dumbest !?) that I ever did and also one of the scariest when the waves became rougher and bigger and dusk was setting in as we frantically oared our way back to the shore. lol
Last summer, I went sailing too with some friends who owns a boat on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. We had a blast but I still miss the blue waters of my hometown in Bicol.
We did the same thing on a local “bangka de katig” with a sail and small in- board motor owned by a friend’s uncle. There were 5 of us (then in our twenties) and none of us was a seasoned sailor, just crazy clueless guys! We knew how to fire the engine, maneuver the boat on the choppy waters around Guimaras Island with the ultimate goal of reaching Ilo-ilo and Aklan for the Ati-atihan festival…and that was the drive..period! That was one of the scariest experience of my life! Our inexperience with hoisting the sail almost got us all in the water at one point, then water started getting in the boat and sent panic amongst us clueless guys! Although the engine kept us going, our worry was more on running out of gas for the whole trip and end up stranded in the middle of the ocean. We pulled through and enjoyed our ati-atihan adventure but never again to go on a boat with 4 crazy sailor wannabe guys!
Hi Belle. Haha… I can just imagine your kids with their purple lips… so cute!
Hi Betty. I think you can still go around the Philippines before you retire. My parents go to like one island or one province every year for short trips and by now, they’ve been to most places around the country. I’m sure your kids would love to go with you.
Marina, wahahahahaha… sorry… I think that’s my fault… totally forgot about you.
Hey, I thought I was going to publish your film on my blog????
Ferdz, yeah you’d get along with my sister.
I’ve been to a liveaboard too… to Tubbataha where I also went diving with sharks… so cool! 
I’m such a klutz though that I’m a liability around the boat… so I just stick to blogging now. 
Mom, you were with the WHOLE family the other night? Are you forgetting SOMEBODY?
Daphne… you got me! Obvious bang walang ma-post?
Hi Toe/Ichay,
Thanks for the email re the blog. Pretty cool. Enjoyed reading your mom’s blog – yeah, we haven’t really been to the house in quite some time – though I have been having it repaired since New Year (termites! plus we’re adding a veranda). Nice sailboat! We should all get together and just make kwento about everything and maybe soon, hang out at the beach……ciao.
Raul (Son of “Tito Ric” and Casa “Belen”)…
Zherwin, better go now, while the weather is good… before the habagat season comes in.
Verns, if you can breathe under water while snorkeling, you can also talk… hahaha… parang Sealab 2020 na cartoons… remember that? Guess not.
But seriously, you can’t breathe underwater with a snorkel. You need scuba equipment for that (scuba is self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). If you’re using a snorkel, you hold your breath underwater but you don’t have to put your head above water when you surface. You just blow out the water in the hole and inhale through there… blah blah blah… we’ll just blog. 
Major Tom, you probably also have some interesting islands in Zamboanga.
Naks naman, Sis… para kang si Martin Luther King ah… meron ka pang… it all starts with a dream.
Your boat is almost 30 ft.? That’s as big as a junior olympic-sized pool! I thought it was just like 5 ft. or something… hrhrhr! 
I was wondering how you could all fit there. 
Mitsuru, oh going out to sea in a rubber boat is indeed scary. But I suppose that it would be experiences like that which teach us to respect nature. How exciting to go sailing in the great lakes. Yes, I’m sure it’s different (cold for one thing) but very exciting nonetheless.
Noypetes, I’m sure that was scary. I’ve been out at sea in very choppy waters myself in a big motorized bangka in Palawan. We were already with a seasoned bangkero but it was scary nonetheless… what more with amateurs and crossing islands at that. But your biking adventures are soooo exciting as well!
Hi Raul! I think I recall you, though probably the last time we saw each other was when we were four years old.
You’re the youngest too, right? Really exciting for me to have someone from my childhood to come and visit my blog. 
Hello Sixter, Wow, what a great adventure/vacation. I am so full of envy. Glad to know that you had a great time. btw, Great photos.
Hi Toe…meron ka na palang guest writer/s ha? Nice.
ang ganda ganda naman ng bakasyon na ito wow, parang yun napapanood sa lifestyle of the rich and famous.
I agree, not only that you have to dream, you must also work hard for your dream.
pero hindi kaya nasa swerte yun o dahil paborito ka ng diyos? kasi bakit kami tig lima lang binigay sa amin, samantalang ikaw anim
Sailing? Swell!
wow, iba talaga when you’re in the middle of the sea… exhilirating! sailing is also one of my dreams… and your sis’ story is so inspiring, yep tama sya about planning and doing something about, just like all of our other ‘dreams’.
maybe Sixter can also write about some background of the boat “Marikit”, how they were able to buy it… where binili? how much (to give us an idea)? and more pics of the boat sa loob. naks is that too much to ask…. sorry ha, na-curious ako dun sa boat… sana mabasa ng fairy godmother ko to at ma-grant ang wish ko for a sailboat, lol…
question for the sister of Toe
have you ever used that boat for fishing in the deep ocean? who takes care of your boat when you are both working? a caretaker? my husband wants a bigger boat that he can use to navigate in deeper water in catanduanes for fishing purposes as he loves the thrill of catching fish. right now, we have a 12 foot inflatable boat but it is only good for sailing around the lagoon and stuff.
Now that’s what I call vacation!!!! Lovely photos! I’m sure they had a swell time by the looks of it. That’s a great dive site. I love snorkelling!
See, these are photos that makes one HOMESICK! Maganda naman ang Pilipinas, bakit ba di mabenta sa foreigners na mga yan? Sabagay, di para sa kanila yan. there are plenty of beautiful spots!
hmmm…magtayo ng tourist agency, dali.
Hey, thanks Toe’s sis-guest blogger. Nice post you have! Mag blog ka na rin. About your hobbies and travels, ganda!
Leah, sneaky huh? Having guest bloggers saves me from having to think of stuff to post.
Mon, yeah… good that she was given six toes and not six feet. The nurse who first saw her when she was born was announcing to the whole hospital that my Mom bore a child with six FEET.
Abaniko, cool, huh!
Carey, tamang-tama, my Mom just sent me more pictures of the boat. Maybe I’ll post those.
Belle, cge… I’ll remind her to check this blog again so she could answer your questions.
Ipanema, sana nga more Filipinos would go around our country so that we ourselves could advertise our country to foreigners. And I hope when foreigners read this blog, they would be inspired to go to the Philippines.
Thanks for all your comments
Belle, we don’t fish (not yet, we don’t know how but want to get into it) but we sail a lot. The boat can go literally anywhere, it sleeps 6, it’s sturdy and fast (but remember it’s a sailboat not a powerboat). Just to give you an idea, we bought it in Langkawi malaysia and had it delivered to Batangas. The trip took 20 days in rough waters. Our Holy Week trip was 7 days and we crossed channels, etc. Marikit is docked in front of our house in Anilao, Batangas but when habagat season comes we will move it to Puerto Galera which is a protected harbor. Just tell your hobby to surf the net and he will quickly get into the boating circles where there are always boats for sale and a lot of learning to be picked up. That’s what my hubby did. The active boat clubs are Manila Yacht Club, Puerto Galera, Subic. Abroad- Langkawi, Phuket, HK.
Sis Toe, don’t know if my comments reach the recipient ikaw na bahala.
Sis, I think Belle lives in the States and is married to a foreigner. But she comes from beautiful Catanduanes.
Don’t worry, basta if you comment, they would definitely read it. 
I didn’t imagine that Mindoro could be beautiful as it is in the photos ! Kasi I have my tita there in the convent (mongha po) ! I was supposed to visit her the 1st time I went off for vacation in Pinas, kaso maalon daw ! Naku mahiluhin pa man din ako! I am a transportations sick person! Good thing that there are medicines right now for that kaya puede ko na syang madalaw
!
I love to swim with turtles one day! My kids would like to see that too! Ang ganda talaga sa atin ! Thanks a lot to SIXTER for sharing their escapades !
wow philippines talaga! so many places to explore. thanks for sharing the photos, Sixter–family must have enjoyed the sea, sail and wind!
Sexy Mom, Sixter’s family is always going places in the Philippines. I’ll try to get her to post more of their travels.
Wow. It must be real cool to have one’s parents teach him/her the principles of sailing and marine life. This is exactly what my parents would do! Haha. Both of them are mortified of the water! We were actually supposed to take Scuba lessons together but they chicken out during the last minute!
Apo Reef has been in my mind for quite a while now. Now I’m really interested to go!
That was so cool! My hubby and I want to have our own sailboat too. Matter of fact we have several magazines and we never get tired ogling at the pictures there. Whenever we go home to our province in Zambales, we always look at the sailboats docked at the Yacht Club there. Mindoro and Batangas, these are so beautiful!
To Sixter, how about having your own blog too?
Hi Benj! Our parents also taught us how to love the sea and the sand. Our whole family can dive… well, except for the parents.
Hi Julie, it would be really nice to go around sailing the islands of the Philippines. I do hope you could get your own sailboat one day.