We had learnt during our short 6 week stay in the
Philippines that the three B’s were the heart and soul of the people. The
population was profoundly Catholic attending church, listening to Christian
music, adoring their saints and covering their tricycles in biblical names like
Saint James or Christobel as if they were another family member. On the jeepney
trip in Palawan there was a sticker on the rear view mirror asking God to
‘Bless our trip’ (because we quickly learnt that the rear view mirror certainly
had no other practical purpose). We struck up a conversation with a Filipina in
Dapa and when she learnt that we were off a yacht that had come from Australia,
she was praising God and blessing us all the way home again! The love of the bible and Catholicism or other Christian denominations was nationwide and added a warmness to Filipino interactions and with us interlopers.
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| Divine assistance was required for a safe journey! |
There was an overt drinking culture, such a stark contrast
to neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia where alcohol is heavily taxed to impede
consumption for countries where the national religion forbids it. The national
beer brand – San Miguel cost $1 at a bar and as low as 50c from a store in
small brown glass bottles that were recycled, you could almost count the years
of its service by the scratch marks on the outside of the bottle (a very
efficient way to manage the glass needs and drive down the cost). The brewery
was another lasting legacy of the Spanish colonialism era, located in a town
outside of Manilla and servicing the entire country and all of its remote
islands with a beer they proudly consume as few other brands compete with its
sale, certainly an easy winner for this enterprise. Next is the Philippine made
rum – Tanduay where you can pick up a 1ltr bottle for $1.20, it may be a bit
rough but it also cleans the fibreglass very effectively. You can look at the
Philippine basketball competition to see the ‘San Miguel Tigers’ battling it
out with the ‘Tanduay Lions’, such is the role of alcohol in the society that
there is no regulation against advertising and sponsoring sporting
competitions.
Basketball has truly been embraced by the Pinoys, a gift
from the US era producing a sport loving culture that is evident in even the
smallest villages. When we were in Puerta Princessa, the NBA finals were being
televised from the USA and our tricycle driver was listening to the broadcast
over the radio on his mobile phone, while every shop we walked into had the
staff and their extended family glued to every minute of the action. The
unfortunate power crash partway through the final quarter almost led the locals
to riot. No matter what island or what language spoken, we saw hoops pinned to
tree trunks or stuck on walls and kids through to adults almost always shooting
hoops. Given the cramped and populous living conditions of the Filiponos, the
joy they derived from playing basketball outside was obvious and an escape from
the indoor life. Hugh was invited a couple of times to play, but often the rims
were lower than his eye height, not a particularly fair match!
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| Spurs champion of the future? Playing with a basketball stand fashioned out of welded pieces of metal, held down by large rocks. |
So we made our way through our last legs of the trip, upon leaving Port Carmen we noticed that 120lts of fuel had been siphoned from the jerry cans locked securely to the deck. A wave of anger and bitterness came over us, we had only been in Carmen awaiting our sail repair, so we had been most unfortunate. However, we were off on a 100nm overnight sail, bound for Surigao port for an unscheduled fuel stop and our last Philippine stop. We arrived there after a brilliant overnight trip with great wind and none of the nasty fishing obstacles that we had been warned about (such as 4m long metal drums that could do some serious damage to the fibreglass if struck). Surigao port was less than inviting and the town did not have much going on. So fuel stop completed, we sailed another 35nm to the small town of Dapa in Mindanao for our last fresh food stop and to pick our weather window for the 550nm Pacific Ocean crossing to Palau. Another tropical disturbance kept us in port for 3 more days while we waited for a clearer (and larger) window. A typhoon was forming east of Guam and we needed to be confident that it would head north and west, not south and onto us! Thankfully it made its intentions clear enough and we were able to leave, though the wind was high so we prepared for high winds by tying in the third reefing line in the main and leaving bright and early in Monday morning so that we had some good visibility picking our way through the reefy sections exiting Dapa and the Philippine archipelago. Another ocean and a new world awaited us on the other side of the Philippine Sea…the Pacific better get ready, because we were on our way!
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| Thanks for having us Philippines |
3/8/2014
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