An Island Somewhere. Bombonon to Kota Kinabulu via the Cagayens: April 04-May12 (2012)

From Bombonon to Puerto Princessa is around 300 miles; that is if you go north up the coast of Negros to Sipilay and then run west, pretty much across the middle of the Sulu Sea. Most of the other boaty types that we know were going further north and day hopping up through Cuyo, but what with Gini on board and her longing for a trip to the Kinabatangan River over near Sandakan, the pressure was on to move a bit faster than usual and head south back into Sabah. We were down to two crew for the next month, Gini back to escape for a whle the approaching winter in Tasmania and getting back to PP with all haste was going to require at leat two overnighters after we cleared away from the Negros west coast. The good thing here though was we would no longer be pushing hard against tradewinds but hopefully picking up some of the last of the NE monsoon (Amihan) or at least get the transitional variables. So after about three weeks of idle lassitude, beach Karaoke (and normal boat repairs) we slipped out past the fishing boats at the Bombodon entrance, waved good-bye to Nigel and the bar by the water and headed west then north-west for a day hop to Sipilay. By the way, the beach bar Karaoke here was a scream, half a dozen Philippino fishermen sitting in a dirt floor bar drinking copious quantities of Rhum, not a woman in sight and all taking it in turns to sing love songs to each other; just brilliant.

We spent a couple of days above Sipilay at Cartegena Beach north of town and decided our lives wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t visit ‘Coral Beach’, described in a well known travel guide as one of the star beach attractions in SE Asia. Finding the place became a bit of a dilemma with our tricycle driver getting comprehensively lost along the way and then having to get a (banka) ferry ride to get there. After our visit we were left to marvel at the creative nature of travel book writers and to ponder what incentives those travel writing, researching, back-packer types get paid to write some of their stuff, enough said!!! The next day bright and early (2.00 AM) it was off for the longest hop of our Sulu Sea sojourn with a longish run of 150 miles to the Cagayens way out on their own in the middle of nowhere. The departure was great, pitch black, dodge the fishing boats and do not run onto the reef in the middle of the bay. Of course for our two days the wind went quite variable, all over the shop really requiring just about every combination of sails and trim imaginable; at least it wasn’t on the nose for the trip. The word here though is hot. Think of hot in the back of a boat then try and think even hotter, yea and then hotter again. With the sun frying our transom, rising as usual in the east and us running west, the only way to survive was temporary awnings using the dinghy cover. Nigel was on the money when describing the transition as the summer and bloody hot. Apparently this part of the world up until a few years ago was also something of a no go zone for many yachties with the ‘pirates’ chasing away any brave soul that ventured out on the water. Well at least that’s how it comes across from the locals when you talk to them although Nigel has been up this way for years and hasn’t at this point suffered any piratical outrage. There is of course the possibility that the stories are somewhat apocryphal or that after raising enough money the pirates are at home enjoying hard earned air-conditioning!

Anyway after two days of sailing sauna we got our first sight of the Cagayens and wondered whether our waypoints would get us into the lagoon. The charts here have an offset of around a quarter mile (500 yards) and when one plots the GPS latitude and longitude directly onto the electronic charts you end up running across the reef and eventually onto dry land behind the village; somewhat disconcerting. Of course the appropriate course of action would be to get out a paper chart and plot ones entrance using a compass, but when in Rome as they say, trust the force and follow the fishermen. So after seemingly running across the reef and becoming quite amphibious we dropped the pick in front of the town pier just in time to see most of the towns people jumping onto large banka’s’ (big Philippino style, outrigger, spider boats) and leaving. Initially we thought that perhaps we had offended everybody without even trying but then discovered that we had arrived in ‘Holy Week’ (basically Easter) and after doing the family thing half of the islands population was going on holidays for a few days.

Great place the Cagayens, clear water, reef to snorkel on, a really cool village to check out and aside from some diving types on live-aboard banka’s’, not a tourist in sight. The town here has to be one of the cleanest you could find in SE Asia and spectacularly different to the open tip and rubbish strewn waterways we had seen in many parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. At the local church (they are quite religious here but somewhat flexible on their application of religious pursuit….), they even keep score on how the local congregation is managing in the tidiness and sustainability stakes. Out in the lagoon there is the mandatory seaweed farm (Calerpa racemosa) and according to that guide book again, the main diet out here is fish and seaweed, shades of the sea-gypsies; the town is of course much more salubrious and not nearly as poverty-stricken as that guide book makes out.  There is a huge Spanish-Colonial church here that the locals are fixing up, interesting walls with hundreds of large sea-shells embedded in the mortar rendering. There is also the worlds smallest ambulance that for any average westerner would require amputation of ones feet before getting in. The locals still draw their water here from wells and after watching the water carriers it became very clear why it’s handy around these parts to have children.

The next part of our Sulu-Sea sojourn was the hundred odd miles across into PP running again almost due west trying to find somewhere to hide from the sun. This was another overnighter with an arrival nice and early into Abanico and a revisit of the old haunts of Puerto. Thyme (Simon and Amanda) and Rubican Star (Tim and Barbara) were not far behind and after getting in we were all forced to check out some of the local nightspots; Gini starred here with her cave-woman routine literally dragging Trevor (on his back) to the dance floor while Tim’s secret hippie background was on display with his attraction to the bands Bongo drum. A week later it was southward bound for another 300 miles in company with Thyme and island hopping back into Malaysia. More beaches, more villages, more pearl farms more sea-gypsies. After stops on Sombrero Island, Arrecife Island and Brookes Point we had plotted a night off Bowen Island, north of Bugsuk. Unfortunately we weren’t terribly welcome here and the pearl farm security very nicely and with many smiles escorted us through their farm to Pandanan Island five miles further west. It was explained of course that this was for our own safety (this is the standard line in this part of the world when the authorities or others want you to go away) and we weren’t inclined to argue too vociferously given the large piece of artillery the security guide was carrying (M14, big bullets and no photos allowed).

Next island on the southward progression was Candaraman, almost out of the Philippines and a few drinks for Trevor’s birthday. We had arrived here in the middle of  a ‘Christian Youth Camp’ although the local Parish Priest explained that anybody up to 45 was welcome as long as they were single; he explained that they patrolled the sleeping area and tents to make sure the genders stayed separate!!!  We were down into part of the more Moslem area of the Philippines and the army and police had a presence at the camp to discourage any ‘trouble’ although there “is no trouble around here”. Probably not very likely given the serious amount of hardware stacked in the trees next to the military and police hummocks. Next day it was off to Balabangan in Malaysia and an evening and morning thinking of things to give to the sea-gypsies; petrol, soap, apples, biscuits…etc etc etc. Thyme bid their farewells here heading for Kudat and new crew while the good ship Gadfly slipped around the most northerly point of Borneo and headed south for a one hundred mile overnight run into the Sutera Harbour Marina at Kota Kinabulu.

The plan at KK was to leave the boat and travel overland to the Kinabatangan River and Sandakan where Gini would take lots of photographs of every animal that passed in front of her camera.  There are a number of ecolodges along the Kinabatangan River where tourists can go to check out what’s left of some of the previously abundant and spectacular Borneo wildlife, orangutans, monkeys, elephants, birds, deer and so on and the visitors get taken on river cruises, day walks and night spotlighting trips. The trouble is that most of the rain-forest (jungle) has been removed, logged and then replanted with palm oil and what one sees is small remnant forest areas along the margins of rivers or isolated refuges around sites such as the Nyah Caves Park inland from Miri. The Kinabatangan elephants might be easy to keep track of but no surprises there really as most of their habitat has been destroyed and they have to stay next to the river. There are orangutan refuges and shelters at a number of places (Sepilok at Sandakan) with no shortage of animals as their habitat is being constantly destroyed and the orangutans are shot or persecuted if they walk into the palm oil plantations. These isolated and fragmented forest areas are also a problem for the larger mammals and especially apex predators of the forest as there is no opportunity for them to move between locations and the loss of habitat and fragmentation of the forests places survivors under significant (environmental) stress from multiple sources. The smaller mammals, birds and bats may manage to adapt but for the larger animals there is probably insufficient range to maintain long-term, viable breeding populations (not to mention loss of genetic diversity). Sadly this is the trend and a problem for most of SE Asia.

At the Tungog Rainforest Ecocamp, the guides speak in awe of the Australian fellow ‘Martin’ who had worked with the locals for 15 odd years to establish the ecocamp and encourage the locals to embrace nature based tourism and homestays as an industry involving their forest. Martin has been back in Australia for several years and since he has left stands of forest adjacent to the river and near the bridge at the ‘Kinabatangan’ village have been cleared and planted with palm oil. The locals in the meantime are growing seedlings, attempting to rehabilitate nearby, degraded areas and expressing interest in buying back areas to re-establish forest.  They explain that it is the ‘Chinese’ who are doing most of the damage but couldn’t elaborate as to whether that meant ethnic Chinese Malays, Singaporean Chinese, or Mainland Chinese. At the ‘Lubuk Bay’ Proboscis Monkey refuge near Sandakan the Chinese owners have made a video extolling their virtues for saving the Proboscis Monkeys in the area, this after they cleared the area to grow palm oil leaving a tiny fragment of habitat for the monkeys, habitat no doubt unsuitable for palm oil; quite staggering really. In the meantime the video they have produced waxes lyrical about the abundant rainforests that “stretch from the mountains to the seas of Borneo”, not to mention adjacent seas that apparently teem with huge schools of massive fish, clearly now fish and forest figments of somebodies imagination!  They also charge twenty dollars (Aus or US) a person to enter their ‘refuge’ and three dollars more to take photographs (one does wonder where the money goes but doubts it is going to forest rehabilitation). Still it is worth having a look at those parts of what was once a spectacular ecosystem and hope that common sense might one day prevail over greed and corruption. In the meantime the Government and operators in Sabah are selling tourism packages on the basis of come and see our abundant wildlife, spectacular forests and magnificent diving; just pay heaps and don’t look too hard!

After our river sojourn it was back to KK and Gini’s departure for her PhD program back in Tasmania researching Tasmanian Devils and Quolls. Fortunately her flight was cancelled and she was forced to stay another five days until the twelfth when Jeff, Hilary and Lasse arrived; new crew for southward moves to Labuan and Brunei.

Habitat fragmentation

 

As the name implies, ‘habitat fragmentation’ describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism’s preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation. Habitat fragmentation can be caused by geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment (suspected of being one of the major causes of speciation^]), or by human activity such as land conversion, which can alter the environment much faster and causes extinctions of many species.

The term habitat fragmentation includes five discrete phenomena:

Reduction in the total area of the habitat

Decrease of the interior : edge ratio

Isolation of one habitat fragment from other areas of habitat

Breaking up of one patch of habitat into several smaller patches

Decrease in the average size of each patch of habitat

Habitat fragmentation is frequently caused by humans when native vegetation is cleared for human activities such as agriculture, rural development, urbanization and the creation of hydroelectric reservoirs. Habitats which were once continuous become divided into separate fragments. After intensive clearing, the separate fragments tend to be very small islands isolated from each other by cropland, pasture, pavement, or even barren land. The latter is often the result of slash and burn farming in tropical forests. In the wheat belt of central western New South Wales, Australia, 90% of the native vegetation has been cleared and over 99% of the tall grass prairie of North America has been cleared, resulting in extreme habitat fragmentation.

One of the major ways that habitat fragmentation affects biodiversity is by reduction in the amount of available habitat (such as rainforests, boreal forests, oceans, marshlands, etc.) for all organisms in an ecological niche. Habitat fragmentation invariably involves some amount of habitat destruction. Plants and other sessile organisms in these areas are usually directly destroyed. Mobile animals (especially birds and mammals) retreat into remnant patches of habitat. This can lead to crowding effects and increased competition.

The remaining habitat fragments are smaller than the original habitat. Species that can move between fragments may use more than one fragment. Species which cannot move between fragments must make do with what is available in the single fragment in which they ended up. Since one of the major causes of habitat destruction is agricultural development, habitat fragments are rarely representative samples of the initial landscape.

Area is the primary determinant of the number of species in a fragment.The size of the fragment will influence the number of species which are present when the fragment was initially created, and will influence the ability of these species to persist in the fragment. Small fragments of habitat can only support small populations of plants and animals and small populations are more vulnerable to extinction. Minor fluctuations in climate, resources, or other factors that would be unremarkable and quickly corrected in large populations can be catastrophic in small, isolated populations. Thus fragmentation of habitat is an important cause of species extinction. Population dynamics of subdivided populations tend to vary asynchronously. In an unfragmented landscape a declining population can be “rescued” by immigration from a nearby expanding population. In fragmented landscapes, the distance between fragments may prevent this from happening. Additionally, unoccupied fragments of habitat that are separated from a source of immigrants by some barrier are less likely to be repopulated than adjoining fragments. Even small species such as the Columbia spotted frog are reliant on the rescue effect. Studies showed 25% of juveniles travel a distance over 200m compared to 4% of adults. Of these, 95% remain in their new locale, demonstrating that this journey is necessary for survival.

Additionally, habitat fragmentation leads to edge effects. Microclimactic changes in light, temperature and wind can alter the ecology around the fragment, and in the interior and exterior portions of the fragment. Fires become more likely in the area as humidity drops and temperature and wind levels rise. Exotic and pest species may establish themselves easily in such disturbed environments, and the proximity of domestic animals often upsets the natural ecology. Also, habitat along the edge of a fragment has a different climate and favours different species from the interior habitat. Small fragments are therefore unfavourable for species which require interior habitat.

Habitat fragmentation is often a cause of species becoming threatened or endangered. The existence of viable habitat is critical to the survival of any species, and in many cases the fragmentation of any remaining habitat can lead to difficult decisions for conservation biologists. Given a limited amount of resources available for conservation is it preferable to protect the existing isolated patches of habitat or to buy back land to get the largest possible continuous piece of land? This ongoing debate is often referred to as SLOSS (Single Large or Several Small).

One solution to the problem of habitat fragmentation is to link the fragments by preserving or planting corridors of native vegetation. This has the potential to mitigate the problem of isolation but not the loss of interior habitat. In rare cases a Conservation reliant species may gain some measure of disease protection by being distributed in isolated habitats. Another mitigation measure is the enlargement of small remnants in order to increase the amount of interior habitat. This may be impractical since developed land is often more expensive and could require significant time and effort to restore. The best solution is generally dependent on the particular species or ecosystem that is being considered. More mobile species, like most birds, do not need connected habitat while some smaller animals, like rodents, may be more exposed to predation in open land. These questions generally fall under the headings of metapopulations island biogeography.

(From Wiki…..).

Rhum and Coke. Romblon to Port Bombonon (Negros). (29February to 04April).

Sally leaving Romblon after potholing on motorbike!!!

It can be a bit difficult to buy beer in the Philippines, that is beer to take on the boat. Cans, the container of choice for most seafaring types (glass and all in a moving boat), can be hard to find and usually expensive. Bottles on the other hand are a lot easier to locate and whilst not in the class of the cheap cartons of beer in Langkawi or Labuan, is relatively inexpensive; relative to Australia especially! The procedure is to initially buy a plastic crate containing the beer and in the process pay a deposit for both the crate and the glass bottles containing whichever variety of beer one is keen to drink. Of course this is much more environmentally sound than the other system of no deposit and an observation any visitor to the Philippines would make (especially after Indonesia and Malaysia) is the noticeable absence of hectares of rubbish floating in the water and washed up on the beaches. However and before one gets too excited about environmental revelations one also needs to consider the state of the reefs here given the tendency for the locals to blow up their reef(s) or use cyanide, both in the interest of effective fishing; but on the beer.

They love their chooks here, well fighting chooks!

Wilson and the butterfly man.

When seeking out more beer one must locate a shop dealing in that particular brew, or a beer truck, or maybe pay somebody on a motorcycle to seek out the beer shop for you. The price usually comes in for the beer transaction, incorporating the change over on the crate and bottles, somewhere around 400-500 Philippino pesos; say $10-$13 Aus dollars. If however one simply buys a beer off the shelf at the supermarket it will cost anywhere up to about 65 Pesos per beer (remember you are here paying for the can or bottle also). Still seems cheap except that whilst buying the beer off the shelf at the supermarket you usually notice that those large bottles (yep, 750 ml) of local rum (Rhum) sell for about the same price as a single can of beer; stunning really!

Port Bombodon.

Wednesday night buffet!

Tagbilaran.

We are happily ensconced in Port Bombonon sharing a very secure, typhoon resistant anchorage with about 20 other boats, some that will probably never move again. Bombonon is on Negros and about 50 km south of Dumaguete, the largest city in these parts. Quiet here with the choice of eating on-board or ashore really any night one likes at the locals places and on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights a buffet can be procured after a short dinghy ride to the little, rickety, bamboo piers favoured hereabouts. The Gadfly has been here for two weeks after a 390 mile island hop from Romblon, passing through Sibuyan, Masbati, Malapascua, Cebu (Port Carmen and bus into Cebu), Bohol, Siquihor and finally Negros. After Romblon the move was direct and in an expeditious manner through to Port Carmen as Sally was trying to make a flight headed to Manila and on to somewhere in Malaysia for a month or two of boat minding. Wilson (apparently named after Woodrow!!) from the US joined at Port Carmen and there was also the matter of the autohelm part being shipped to Cebu (and of course the problem of dealing with Phi customs, as long as you have some money!). Sibuyan and Masbati were really just overnight stops in open roadsteads off the reef followed by an early (0230) departure from Masbati for Malapascua. This passage was around 65 miles so an early start then find an anchorage before dark was the go. The best option appeared to be a little island called Malapascua that we thought would be a rocky outcrop but turned out to be one of the bigger dive, tourist operations in the Philippines! We spent a couple of nights on Malapascua checking out the sights and apparently the attraction here is diving with the ‘Thresher sharks’, followed very closely by the bars although apparently you can also get a close look at the ‘Threshers’ in the market!

Port Carmen is around 40km north of Cebu and you have the choice of riding the ‘Ceres’ liner buses into town or getting in the local Jeepneys to watch the touts trying to lure potential bus riders into their clearly superior transportation. The crew changeover went swimmingly, Sally was off to other adventures, Wilson arrived fully equipped with her Banjo, while customs extracted ‘duty’ from Trevor of greater dollar value than the autohelm part actually sent from Australia; we had been warned. After  Carmen it was a south-east day hop with wind and current assist to inside the ‘Danajon Bank’ and a very dubious anchorage just inside the NE corner of Lapinin Island off the NE corner of Bohol. There is a definitive shortage of good anchorages on the east and south of Bohol so next day was a longish run around to a little bay on the south at Loay where we arrived actually after the sun had gone down but with just enough light to not run over the fishing nets strung in multiples across the entrance. That night one of the fishermen came over to say hello and tell us how not to run aground to the west when leaving, rather nice of him and all. He had his two school age children with him and after we gave them some food treats and him a beer he offered (we declined) to give us some of his evening catch, that is one of the two small fish he had to show for an evening fishing; they really do it hard here!!!

Tagbilaran is the capital of Bohol and we arrived just in time to celebrate Amanda’s birthday as Thyme was about with their two Swedes (Robin and Pontis) doing some snorkelling and sightseeing before the Swedes headed for Cebu then Japan; interesting night out with Robin doing Tagalog songs and impersonating (trying anyway) Tom Jones at ‘Sexbomb’. Bohol is also the place to visit the local ‘Tarsier’ population, Tarsiers being the smallest of the primates, they  are haplorrhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all the species living today are found in the islands of Southeast Asia.

Stuff about Tarsiers! (From Wiki).

Tarsiers are small animals with enormous eyes; each eyeball is approximately 16 mm in diameter and is as large as its entire brain. Tarsiers also have very long hind limbs. In fact, their feet have extremely elongated tarsus bones, from which the animals get their name. The head and body range from 10 to 15 cm in length, but the hind limbs are about twice this long (including the feet), and they also have a slender tail from 20 to 25 cm long. Their fingers are also elongated, with the third finger being about the same length as the upper arm. Most of the digits have nails, but the second and third toes of the hind feet bear claws instead, which are used for grooming. Tarsiers have very soft, velvety fur, which is generally buff, beige, or ochre in color. Unlike many nocturnal vertebrates, tarsiers lack a light-reflecting area (tapetum lucidum) of the eye and have a fovea.

The tarsier’s brain is different from other primates in terms of the arrangement of the connections between the two eyes and the lateral geniculate nucleus, which is the main region of the thalamus that receives visual information. The sequence of cellular layers receiving information from the ipsilateral (same side of the head) and contralateral (opposite side of the head) eyes in the lateral geniculate nucleus distinguishes tarsiers from lemurs, lorises, and monkeys, which are all similar in this respect. Some neuroscientists suggested that “this apparent difference distinguishes tarsiers from all other primates, reinforcing the view that they arose in an early, independent line of primate evolution.” Tarsiers are the only extant entirely carnivorous primates: they are primarily insectivorous, and catch insects by jumping at them. They are also known to prey on birds, snakes, lizards, and bats. As they jump from tree to tree, tarsiers can even catch birds in motion.

All tarsier species are nocturnal in their habits, but like many nocturnal organisms, some individuals may show more or less activity during the daytime. Gestation takes about six months, and tarsiers give birth to single offspring. Young tarsiers are born furred, and with open eyes, and are able to climb within a day of birth. They reach sexual maturity by the end of their second year. Sociality and mating system varies, with tarsiers from Sulawesi living in small family groups, while Philippine and western tarsiers are reported to sleep and forage alone.

Tarsiers tend to be extremely shy animals and have never formed successful breeding colonies in captivity. This may be partly due to their special feeding requirements. However, a sanctuary near the town of Corella, on the Philippine island of Bohol, is having some success restoring tarsier populations. The Philippines Tarsier Foundation (PTFI) has developed a large, semiwild enclosure known as the Tarsier Research and Development Center. Carlito Pizarras, also known as the “Tarsier man” founded this sanctuary where visitors can watch tarsiers up close in the wild (naturally without touching them). The trees in the sanctuary are populated with nocturnal insects that make up the tarsier’s diet.

The 2008-described Siau Island tarsier is regarded as Critically Endangered and was listed among The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates by Conservation International and the IUCN/SCC Primate Specialist Group in 2008. The Malaysian government protects tarsiers by listing them in the Totally Protected Animals of Sarawak, the Malaysian state in Borneo where they are commonly found. As the Tarsiers are nocturnal they are pretty much asleep or nearly so when you visit. The attendants at the sanctuary spend all day making sure that tourists don’t poke the animals, use flash photography, shake their tree or try to handle them. The attendants are also not sure how secure the population of Tarsiers is on Bohol and indicated that nobody knows how many there are in the wild!

After our Tarsier trip and visit to the ‘Chocolate hills another excursion on Bohol is to spend the day checking some of the local caves followed by an 8 km walk up a river gorge (actually mostly in the river) to a waterfall. With the Thymers we sallied forth on Jeepney and after our spelunking exercise (and avoiding the annoyed bats) we clumped upriver and did the bombing thing off the rocks.

Chocolate Hills. Apparently they go brown in the dry season.

River pictures from the Thyme.

Thyme, hull down.

From Tagbilaran to the south of Siquijor and San Juan is 45 miles and an open anchorage, off the reef sheltered by the island from the prevailing north-easterlies. We anchored here with Thyme almost on top (well about 400 metres away) of a steel shipwreck in about 5 metres of water. Some of the locals here have a dive barge and are happily attempting to remove said wreck in pieces, raising sections of about a tonne at a time and selling it for scrap. They were more than happy to have us watch and let us use their hookah (surface supply air) which was really just a compressor (no filters) with little, long, plastic tubes you stick in your mouth, positive pressure here so sort of breathe with your mouth open letting the air keep water out! The barge is equipped with lifting tackle and ‘Broco’ (cutting-burning gear), so after burning off a wreck piece they lift it up under their barge then float/drag it ashore and haul it to the scrap man; 17 pesos/kilo! Siquijor is also renowned for its ‘healers’ so we went to visit the local faith healers to see if one of them could help us out (probably not enough faith here really). Afterwards we were dragged by one the locals into his developing butterfly sanctuary, ah well spread the love around and all, he was very happy to have some visitors and it didn’t cost much.

That wreck getting smaller. Thyme pictures.

The Gadfly, full rig.

So after a short, day hop from Siquijor the boat is residing in Bombonon with Trevor catching up on a multitude of boat repairs before Gini arrives for a month away from her studies on Tasmanian Devils and Quolls, in funnily enough, Tasmania. Thyme is here planning to leave early tomorrow (04April) headed west, while Daryl on Metana, here also, has headed to Aus for three weeks before he also departs for more wasterly longitudes. We should be away on the weekend but it’s holy week here (Easter) and buying food or beer might slow us down a day or two. Maybe we should buy Rhum? At the beach bar on Malapascua after getting clarification on prices we definitely decided Rhum was the go. It did require confirmation but a beer was 75P, a single Rhum and Coke was 60P, a double was 50P and a triple was 40P; Coca Cola is more expensive than the rum you see!

Rhum and Coke. You have to love the pricing.

How to make a dive industry? Coron to Romblon (February14 to Febuary 29).

From the number of people traveling about in Asia seeking the latest in dive sites you would have to assume that diving has become one of ‘the’ traveling attractions in this part of the world. It also seems that the very best way to lure multitudes of deep pocketed, narcosis seeking punters is to sink lots of ships, preferably as violently as possible! It worked at Truk in Micronesia where the American Navy during world war 2 sank a fleet of Japanese supply ships (operation Hailstone).  The Germans at the end of world war 1 provided a plethora of wreck dives at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands (north of Scotland) when they scuttled their fleet, but warm water is probably preferred if you want to attract the crowds! In Malaysia the Japanese did their best to support a future diving industry when they got stuck into the battleships Repulse and Prince of Wales just off Malaysia in the South China Sea; but they could have picked shallower water and arranged for the Prince of Wales to sink upright rather than upside down. At Bikini Atoll after the war the Americans were clearly planning ahead when they set about sinking or trying to sink half a fleet of captured warships and lots of unloved American ships no longer required after the cessation of hostilities. At Bikini however it was probably a bit of overkill using nuclear weapons to do it as a Geiger counter is not generally considered normal diving equipment (although there is every chance it will be included in the next possible PADI, specialty course, ‘Diving around radiological hazards’!!).

At Coron the Japanese seem to have had the best interests of future residents in mind when they moved their supply ships from Manila to Coron to avoid the depredations of American carrier aircraft. It seems they had got sick of losing ships in Manila and probably in a spirit of magnanimity decided to spread their future diving attractions around the Philippines where the ever obliging American Navy was more than happy to drop bombs on them. This happened on September 24, 1944 when dive bombers from carriers in Task Force 38.2 flew 350 miles across the Philippines from east of Leyte and sank 10 of the Japanese ships, the day after they arrived.  On this occasion they got everything pretty much right, water depth 20 to 40 metres, sheltered waters so nobody gets seasick, warm and tropical conditions, close to shore so nobody need travel far, wrecks close together and most of them big. To make things even better for intrepid yachties, the locals nowadays put a bouy on each end of the wreck and all one needs to do is tie up to one and jump in. If the locals are there with their boats (Banka(s)), you just tie up to their boat, if you are there first they just tie up to you and have maybe three or four boats hanging off the bouy.

We were in Coron for around ten days alternating between Coron and the wrecks and managed to dive on most of them whilst there. Great fun swimming around on bloody great artificial reefs covered in the usual tropical growth and fish. Big, open cargo holds, towering masts and derricks, cargos of war material all set for the Japanese army to build yet more fortifications (concrete, wire, tractors etc etc) with the biggest wreck the ‘Irako’, a 10,000 odd ton refrigerated, supply ship, upright and pretty much intact from the weather deck down; also the deepest at 40 metres to the bottom. The two smaller wrecks (probably submarine chasers/gunboats) are inshore near the surface and one can snorkel  around the pointy end of them, but the favourite for the  Gadfly crew would be the ‘Akitsushima’, a 5000 tonne, naval, seaplane tender laying on its side in 36 metres of water with bits blown apart and bullet holes in evidence.

Some of these ships had been salvaged after the war with engines and deck gear removed and a whole load of gear has presumably been taken away by enterprising, hardware seeking divers. Apparently up until two years ago it was a free for all on finding hardware to take home but the dive shops now frown upon people looking for the usual souvenirs that any self respecting wreck diver generally keeps an eye open for. Not that there is much chance in the charter, PADI world of diving for anything more adventurous than sightseeing, what with the dive-masters and instructors herding people around their usual circuit carefully holding hands. Of course diving on ones own gives much greater potential for looking ‘around’ but diving with a pinch-bar does make one stand out from the crowd; pinch-bars, hammers, cold chisels and lift bags not as a rule being included in the PADI world of wreck-diving courses. To avoid drawing the crabs the best course of action is probably to just dive when the masses have gone home but then the charter-boat, dive masters were very quick to assure us that the wrecks have been pretty well stripped and there is nothing to find anyway (there is of course plenty in the dive shops and associated bars). If one did find something like, maybe a porthole what you might do is use a cold chisel and hammer to turn the nuts off the bolts, or maybe break up the steel plate around the porthole and then break the ‘rivets’ holding the thing to the steel plate. To lift it you could use a lift bag (PVC watertight bag with webbing straps) or you might use ropes to lift the thing to the surface; if of course there was anything there to get given that the wrecks have been stripped!

After our shipwreck adventures we once again embarked on our push to windward with a 30 mile day hop pretty much north to Tara Island and a BBQ on the beach with Tim and Barb on ‘Rubicon Star’ out of Tasmania and five years into their SE Asia travels. We had seen Ruby way back in the Andaman Islands and had also spent some time with them in Sabah. Whilst at Coron we also acquired more crew with Danish Maja after working in China joining us for the trip to Romblon. The trip across to Mindoro from Tara is only about forty miles, close hauled and hard work but at least relatively light. We stopped here at the bottom of Mindoro off Ambulong Island in a little bay next to the incomplete ‘Grace’ resort fully equipped with their own zoo, man-made waterfall and floating rooms; one wonders where the water will come from and a waterfall with desalinated doesn’t really seem terribly viable. From Ambulong we had a better angle for a day passage to Caluya Island in heavier conditions and a shore run to visit the local University campus. Next day it was off to the bright lights of Borocay, the tourist epicentre of the Philippines and the obligatory visit to immigration for a visa extension. We picked up a mooring for our four days inside the reef at Borocay, and after sculling about the cafes, bars, etc moved north on Feb22 still in company with Tim and Barb headed up the western side of Tablas Island across the top and easterly over to Romblon.

New hats for the lads!

Romblon is the place in the Philippines to buy marble statues, tables, stools, tiles etc etc and Simon and Amanda when here bought a flash marble basin for their boat; bummer we had no room for that spa! Ollie and Maja headed off here, braving the perils of the notorious Philippino ferry service, Maja to head for Malaysia and Ollie off to Russia to procure a sled and warm clothes to man-haul himself and sled across the ice of Lake Baikal!!!  After waving goodbye Sally and Trevor decided a trip around the island on motor-bikes to check out the marble statuary production was in order but we ended up at the local hospital instead after Sally and her motorcycle were both swallowed by a rather large hole conveniently located almost on the road where she was turning her motorbike around. Next day in the interests of good health we went by tricycle (motorbike – sidecar/shed combination), not as much fun but clearly, infinitely safer.

Kite boarding on the east of Borocay.

The local marble manufacturing on Romblon is something to behold, nothing like a three metre wide circular saw slicing through marble blocks being pushed effectively by hand past the blade; safety first! Here there be mountains of marble, literally with all manner of passed over statues and statue pieces being piled up behind the factories (well open air sheds). The carvers use lathes, grinders and saws to shape the statues then hand tools and hand labour to polish them. The older women down the road sit all day breaking large pieces of marble into smaller pieces to fill holes on the road (lots of them); here they do it tough.

Safety first!!!

On 29Feb we picked up our anchor and headed south-east for Sibuyan and then on to Port Carmen and Cebu. Top of the list of things to do at Cebu is to pick up a part for the autohelm, the solenoid-clutch having given up back in Borocay. On the bright side the non-functioning autohelm gave Trevor the motivation to wire up the still brand-new tiller pilot and strap it to the wind-vane. On the weather, the wind is still east, definitely the way of things here.

Task Group 38.2 and how to provide future diving attractions!

The losses of the IJN at Coron Bay between 24 Sep and 9 Oct 1944 were caused by AG (Air Group) 18, AG 19 and AG 31. AG 18 departed from Pearl Harbor on 15 Aug 1944 aboard U.S.S. Intrepid CV-11, AG 31 on U.S.S. Cabot CVL-28. In company with U.S.S. Enterprise CV-6,  U.S.S. Bunker Hill CVL-25 and various escorts they were to form Task Group TG 38.2

On 23 Sep reports from Combat Air Patrol (CAP) missions revealed unusual enemy activities in the Calamian Island Group, south-west of Mindoro. AG 18 and AG 19 each received orders to equip 12 Curtiss SB2C-3 “Helldiver” bombers with wing tanks and to send them out on a fighter-bomber attack on Japanese shipping in and around Coron Bay. The planes from AG 18 were to carry two 500-pound bombs each. The planes of AG 19 carried a single 1,000 pound / 454 kg bomb. These “Helldivers” were the latest models already fitted with the APG-4 automatic low-level bombing system. In the dive bombing role these planes dove at their target until they had the ship centered in their Mark VIII gunsight and released their bomb(s) at 2,000 feet (600 m.) altitude. Hellcat fighters were also ordered for this attack, some to provide fighter escort and some were armed with bombs to attack the shipping. As a “fighter bomber” the F6F Hellcats would also dive on their target and center it in their gunsight before releasing their bomb. AG 31 was one of the units ordered to provide fighter escort.

Mark Zalick led AG 18`s bomber group VB-18. Taking off at dawn, they surprised 15 Japanese ships in the Bay, the Coron Passage and just west of Coron Island. Ships ranged in size from small freighters to 15,000 ton tankers.

Commander R. McGowan led AG 19’s bombing squadron VB 19 on this raid. Twelve SB2Cs took off but two had to return to the ship. One bomber had engine trouble and another had a fuel system malfunction and couldn’t draw fuel from its’ external wing tanks. Only 10 of the squadron’s planes made the 332 mile flight to Busuanga Island.

It was only after the first American strikes on Palau in early September 1944 that Admiral Toyoda, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Combined Fleet, realized that a fleet of almost 40 supply vessels had been anchored in Manila Bay or moored in Manila harbor. When TF 38.2 started their strikes against enemy shipping around Luzon in the second week of September, Japanese shipping in Manila harbor suffered severe damage, and numerous Japanese ships were sunk. Toyoda advised Field Marshall Terauchi, commander of the Japanese Southern Army to transfer all supply ships to Coron Bay which had served as a secure assembly place in the past. Terauchi was reluctant to make this decision. When he finally gave orders on 21/22 September 1944 to relocate the vessels he had already sacrificed 15 ships which were bombed and sunk in Manila Bay by repeated air strikes from TF 38.2.

Kogyo Maru (Auxilliary Supply Ship, IJN/Navy)

After she had survived TF 38`s air attacks on Japanese shipping in Manila Bay and Harbor on 21 Sep 1944 she received sailing order to transfer to Coron Bay and weighed anchor at 1730 the same day. She arrived in Coron Bay on 23 Sep 1540 and the night was spent in trying to camouflage bridge and main deck. In the morning of 24 Sep at 0900 she was attacked by U.S. dive-bombers. After she had received several bomb hits the vessel sank with 39 men.

Okikawa Maru (Civilian oiler)

Okikawa Maru arrived in Coron Bay on 23 Sep 1800 and dropped anchor near the town of Concepcion and was attacked at 0855 on 24 September. The first two or more groups just strafed Okikawa Maru and continued to head for the seaplane tender Akitsushima anchored a few cables to the West. At 0910 the dive-bombers scored numerous hits and the vessel began to sink. Three gunners and 5 or 6 sailors were dead. The rest of the crew abandoned the ship.

Olympia Maru (Army cargo ship)

On 24 Sep around 0900 the Olympia Maru had weighed anchor and while trying to evade the attacking planes direct hits to the engine room caused an explosion of the oil tank on the port side. Fire spread after another bomb went through the engine room and with the engine stopped, another series of bombs hit the galley and cargo holds. At 1330 fire spread all over the ship bending the mid-ship section. At 1426 the ship sank by the stern taking 14 crewmen, 3 gunners and 2 passengers.

IJNS Irako: (Navy Provision Store Ship/Reefer)

The Irako arrived in Coron Bay around 22 Sep 1944 and tried to hide her presence between Tangat and Lusong Island. On the morning of 24 Sep a number of fighter bombers of Airgroup 31 expended their bombs on the vessel. Their first strike scored direct hits into the midship section. Set ablaze on the bridge superstructure Irako began to sink by the bow.

IJNS Akitsushima: (Navy Seaplane Tender)

The vessel had suffered minor damage inflicted by U.S. air attacks near Buka Island on 1 Sep 1942 and received two direct bomb hits during “Operation Hailstorm” in Truk Lagoon on 17 Feb 1944. After being repaired in Japan she was back in service by July/August 1944. Akitsushima arrived in Coron Bay almost at same time as Irako and anchored in the narrow sound separating Lajo Island and Manglet Island. Strafed by Lt. (J.G.) Tuaspern and his wing she was first mistaken to be a destroyer escort (DE). VB-18 later scored one direct hit into the aft part of the vessel causing a tremendous explosion most likely of the AVGAS (aviation gasoline) fuel tanks for the flying boat.

She capsized within a few minutes and sank in position 11deg; 59` 20″N / 119deg; 58` 15″E.

The Fish Frighteners; Kudat to Puerto Princessa, more coral blasting and into the Philippines. November 28 to January 08 (2012).

When boats arrive at Puerto Princessa on Palawan in the Philippines, the local fisherman have their own ways to use them to catch fish. The procedure is to lay a net around one end of the at-anchor boat, say 50 metres across in an arc, then move around the boat at the other end in your boat and frighten the fish into the net. The best way to do this is take a long pole with a large ‘drain or bath  plunger’, (the same piece of high tech equipment the Daleks in Doctor Who used to carry about) and use said hi-tech equipment to make loud banging noises while striking the water.  It does seem to be very effective although the fish they catch are quite small and probably easily frightened.  However and all the same, size presumably doesn’t matter that much when something to eat is better than not much else.

Puerto Princessa is half way up the eastern side of the island of Palawan, one of the most southern islands in the Philippines. This is the preferred island to travel along while headed north from Malaysia. The island is long and skinny so you can go up either the east or western side of Palawan and give Mindanao a very wide berth. In Mindanao (SE about 280 miles) abduction and ransom is still very much a growth industry and while some of those unfortunate enough to run across the modern incarnation of the Moro Pirates may have friends affluent enough to bail them out of trouble, it’s extremely doubtful these yachties could raise the funds to get themselves out of such shite.

The passage up from Kudat involved 220 miles travelling in either very light conditions or motor-sailing, close hauled into the north-east monsoon; with of course the occasional squall and the usual thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Off ‘Brookes Point’ the rain was so heavy we were obliged to run something of a race track a mile offshore while waiting for visibility to get better than 100 metres. We stopped at Banggi down in Malaysia, Balabac town (on Balabac Island of course), skirted east around Bugsuk Island to spend a night under Iglesia Point near Rio Tuba, Brookes Point on November 01, a night off the mangroves at Rassa Island and a longish hop direct into Puerto Princessa just in time for the Sunday Buffet at the ‘Abanico Yacht Club’. After all of the doomsayers on weather and conditions the trip up was straightforward if to windward and hot! So hot that on one day of sweltering along the fishermen in their little boats hiding under a towel a couple of miles offshore looked so parched we decided they were in need of a beer. These guys sit in the blazing sun, no shade, a few miles offshore, in the smallest of boats jigging for a few fish; the beers appeared to go down well. Around Bugsuc Island we marvelled at the inshore fishermen engaged in far more high tech fishing pursuits happily blowing what’s left of the reef here to pieces. You could actually watch the columns of water leaping into the air after they tossed their home made hand grenades away from their boat and into the water. They didn’t appear to be particularly perturbed by our presence and enforcement would appear to exist only as a fantasy. It shouldn’t however be to hard to catch them, apparently you can pick the explosives fishermen by counting the number of fingers. We did manage to catch one fish (a tuna) ourselves coming up but also managed to lose our last good lure on something very big; probably a really large model of those smelly Barracuda.

The Abanico Yacht Club at Puerto is run by (Big Nose) John and Cissy and is such a chilled and laid back place to spend time that in Amanda’s words, it seems to be something of a ‘black hole’ for passing yachties; many of whom takes months or years to leave. Sissy is the driving force here with John acting as social organiser in the open lounge each day; good place to visit and hard to leave, would you like another glass of wine? John also has some moorings out in the harbour so this was a good place to leave the boat and head back to Australia for Christmas and New Year. Of course the best laid plans and all almost came to grief as two days before flying out the cyclone season gave it’s last hoorah. There we all were, two in the morning, extra anchors ready, sails off and everything conceivable lashed down while waiting the passage of tropical cyclone ‘Washi’ which in the end was supposed to pass directly over Puerto. An eventful night with all the boaty types waiting, waiting, waiting, but by the time it passed 60 miles or so north the winds up there were only about 40-50. The storm did however manage to kill around 1000 people in Mindanao with flash flooding along rivers washed through the shanty areas where so many of the poor people live.

The island of Palawan is becoming apparently one of ‘the’ places to visit while at the moment not suffering from the excesses of tourism that abound in parts of Malaysia and most of Thailand. Top of the list of things to do here is visit the ‘Underground River’ on the islands west coast at Sabang. The river is in a large national park and was in 2011 declared one of the seven, natural wonders of the world. The only way to visit the river is to utilise the local (parks) boatmen who take you in their little ‘paddle-boats’ about two and half km upriver. The (underground) river system actually extends some tens of km underground with tributaries and smaller offshoots all over the place having carved an extensive network of tunnels through the limestone bed-rock.  We are back in Karst country here similar to Phang Nga Bay back in Thailand, except without the same scale of crass, over-development (at least not yet). The tunnel trip was interesting although the boatmans observations about the landscape were pretty much restricted to, ‘the rock to your left looks like an onion’, ‘this rock to your right looks like a mushroom’; many vegetables involved here. There were also the obligatory religious observations, ‘the face on this rock looks like Jesus’, ‘that rock looks like the Virgin Mary’, ‘this rock looks like the last supper’, of course they all looked just like rocks. Ollie did make the observation that one rock might look a bit like a Priest doing interesting things to an alter boy, this did draw a few strange looks from others in our boat party! There are also the vestiges of past visitors (described as vandals) who left their names or boat names painted on the walls of the tunnel. Interesting thing that some of the writing is barely legible, while some of the more notable graffiti (English and Japanese soldiers for example) all seems fresh and new and appears to be have been touched up with the same white paint; now who would have thought?

On January 08 we dragged ourselves away from Puerto headed north for El Nido, about 16 miles south from the top of Palawan on the west coast. On board now were new crew, Ollie and Sally from the UK and Jamie from Canada. Ollie is headed generally back toward home after 18 months of travel in India and Asia and after sailing in the Philippines is looking toward a train ride across China and Russia with a skiing sojourn thrown in on Lake Baikal!!!  Sally is fresh from Thailand and Malaysia after completing the 2011 Sail Indonesia rally, while Jamie is taking a couple of weeks of boaty travel before braving the travails of a five star holiday around Papua New Guinea. Jamie is also quite the creative type and artist so before he leaves we will finally get our special ‘Gadfly’ T-shirt design. The weather of course is still NE, sometimes ENE and we are departing amidst tales of doom about what the NE monsoon is going to do to us if we dare move north. Must go though before being swallowed up by the Abanico black hole.

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park

PPUR (National Park) is located about 50 kilometres (30 mi) north of the city centre of  Puerto Princessa, Palawan, Philippines. The river also called Puerto Princesa Underground River. The national park is located in the Saint Paul Mountain Range on the northern coast of the island. It is bordered by St. Paul Bay to the north and the Babuyan River to the

east. The City Government of Puerto Princesa has managed the National Park since 1992. It is also known as St. Paul’s Subterranean River National Park, or St. Paul Underground River. The entrance to the Subterranean River is a short hike from the town of Sabang.

Geography

The park has a limestone karst mountain landscape with an 8.2 kilometer navigable underground river. A distinguishing feature of the river is that it winds through a cave before flowing directly into the West Philippine Sea. It includes major formations of stalactites and stalagmites, and several large chambers. The lower portion of the river is subject to tidal influences. Until the 2007 discovery of an underground river in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the Puerto Princessa Subterranean River was reputed to be the world’s longest underground river.

The area also represents a habitat for biodiversity conservation. The site contains a full mountain-to-the-sea ecosystem and has some of the most important forests in Asia. It was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site on December 4, 1999.

Flora

The Park has a range of forest formations representing eight of the thirteen forest types found in tropical Asia, namely forest over ultramafic soils, forest over limestone soils, montane forest, freshwater swamp forest, lowland evergreen tropical rainforest, riverine forest, beach forest, and mangrove forest. Researchers have identified more than 800 plant species from 300 genera and 100 families. These include at least 295 trees dominated by the dipterocarp type of species. In the lowland forest, large trees such as the Dao (Dracontomelon dao), Ipil (Intsia bijuga), Dita (Alstonia scholaris), Amugis (Koordersiodendrum pinnatum), and Apitong (Dipterocarpus gracilis) are common. Beach forest species include Bitaog (Calophyllum inophyllum), Pongamia pinnata, and Erynthia orientalis. Other notable plant species include Almaciga (Agathis philippinensis), Kamagong (Diospyros pulganensis) Pandan (Pandanus sp.) Anibong, and Rattan (‘Calamus sp.)

Fauna

Birds comprise the largest group of vertebrates found in the park. Of the 252 bird species known to occur in Palawan, a total of 165 species of birds were recorded in the park. This represents 67% of the total birds and all of the 15 endemic bird species of Palawan. Notable species seen in the park are the blue-naped parrot (Tanygnathus lucionensis), Tabon scrub fowl (Megapodius cumunigii), hill myna (Gracula religiosa), Palawan hornbill (Anthracoceros marchei), white breasted sea eagle (Halitutus leucogates ).

There are also some 30 mammal species that have been recorded (Madulid, 1998). Most often observed in the forest canopy and along the shoreline feeding during low tide is the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), the only primate found in the area. Other mammal species in the park are the bearded pig (Sus barbatus), bearcat (Arctictis binturong), Palawan stink badger (Mydaus marchei) and the Palawan porcupine (Hystrix pumilus)

19 species of reptiles have been identified, eight of which are endemic (Madulid, 1998). Common species in the area include large predators like the common reticulated python (Phython reticulatus), the monitor lizard (Varanus salvator) and the green crested lizard (Bronchocoela cristatella). Amphibian fauna include ten species. The Philippine woodland frog (Rana acanthi) is the most dominant and frequently encountered. One species, Barbourula busuangensis, endemic to Palawan was also observed in the area.

Notable are the nine species of bats, two species of swiftlets and whip spider (Stygophrynus sp.) found in the cave, and the sea cow (Dugong dugon) and the hawksbill sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) that feed in the coastal area of the park.

International notability

Puerto Princesa Underground River was entered as the Philippine entry – and topped the first round of voting – in the New7Wonders of Nature competition, and on July 28, 2011, after the second round of voting, it was declared 1 of 28 finalists. Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn extended his gratitude to all those who supported and voted for the PPUR.On November 11, 2011 it was provisionally chosen as one of the “New7Wonders of Nature”, together with the Amazonia, Halong Bay, Iguazu Falls, Jeju Island, Komodo Island, and Table Mountain.

The voting was criticized, especially the Philippine voting. Nothing in the New7Wonders voting procedure prohibited repetitive voting, making the results subject to government and tourism industry campaigns to vote often for local sites with the financial incentive of increased tourism. Philippine president Benigno Simeon Aquino III, in his speech during the official proclamation launch of the Puerto Princesa Underground River as one of the 28 finalists, urged the country’s 80 million cellphone subscribers to vote PPUR via text: “We send two billion text messages a day, all we need is one billion text votes for the Puerto Princesa Underground River so (we can accomplish) that in half a day,” the President said. “I urge everyone to vote to the maximum for the Puerto Princesa Underground River as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature” he reiterated.

Now who would have thought????

Sandakan and the ‘8-mile camp’; anchors and trawlers. November 08-28, Sandakan to Kudat.

On the site of the big tree above the Australian camp.

Eight miles outside the town of Sandakan is one of the most melancholy places you might visit in Borneo. It’s easy to get to, just take a bus from in front of the market, get off after going past the ‘Giant’ supermarket at about 7 miles, then walk up the hill between the houses. Go past the community centre and turn right just after the new townhouse development. You will probably get funny looks from some of the locals walking down to the main road and from others who jog along the road and in the memorial park at the top of the hill; there after all aren’t that many non-Malaysians out here or tourists getting about on foot.

For that matter Sandakan doesn’t really rate very high in the tourist destination stakes except perhaps for people headed out via boat to go diving on island resorts like Palau Lankayan. In fact if it wasn’t for the Japanese occupation of Borneo during the second world war, the town of Sandakan might be just as unknown to Australians as places like Kudat, Miri and Lahud Datu. Instead, Sandakan sits high in the pantheon of Australian military history albiet for all of the worst reasons, and most Australians have probably heard some mention of it.

The Japanese in Sandakan in1942 in one of their standard moments of appalling behaviour decided to use Asian prisoners and Australian and British prisoners of war to build a new airfield to support their expanding empire. Some 3600 Asians and 2400 Australian (largely) and British troops were shipped in and by the end of the war almost all of the prisoners of war had died. By 1945 after two years of neglect and torment and just before the end of the war the Japanese for reasons they could only explain, decided that as the Australian army was approaching, those that were left and could walk would march through virgin jungle and swamp all the way across Borneo to Jesselton, now Kota Kinabulu; carrying Japanese supplies of course. None got to KK but some made it to Ranau, 260 km away on the flanks of Mount Kinabulu where, except for six Australian excapees, they stayed until moved to the war cemetery at Labuan. In most circles the ‘Sandakan Death Marches’ are widely considered to be the single worst atrocity suffered by Australian servicemen during the Second World War; not to mention the fate of British and Asian prisoners.

Jack Cameron.

The ‘Memorial Park’ is on the site of the original ‘8-mile’ camp, largely where previously the Australian compound was situated with the memorial marker on the location of the big tree that used to stand above the Australian’s camp. Nowadays the area and park is a jungle/forest enclave with a small lake, boardwalks, signs explaining the past, and a memorial pavilion containing the standard pictures and accounts of what happened here along with a model of the camp.

Little remains of the camp proper, the old boiler and alternator for providing lighting, an old excavator that hasn’t moved since being sabotaged by an enterprising but unknown Australian soldier; the site of the British compound is currently in the process of being built over by encroaching housing development. Inside the park the footpaths are perfect for the locals out for their afternoon jog while one must wait patiently for the visiting school groups to finish up before taking a few photographs. It’s in the pavilion and after reading the background and accounts of the few survivors that one is left with a very deep sense of sadness for those who thought that one day they might have made it home. Of course from sixty-five years after and without personal involvement it is difficult to really comprehend and engage with the scale and tragedy of what happened here. For others though it is much closer. Jenny (The Librarian), a friend from Melbourne has an uncle who died here; John (Jack) Kenneth Cameron, he died 15th May 1945. Jenny would like to visit but in her words, some photos would be nice. Jack is possibly in the war cemetery in Labuan, but many didn’t make it that far.

The ‘big tree’!

After visiting the 8-mile, further sightseeing around Sandakan did seem somewhat self indulgent so the next step was to get organised to head back around to Kudat and to then head north. The boat however, did need some work including new batteries and seats for the cockpit and eventually we were ready to leave on 20Nov; that is until we tried to pull our anchor up the day before. A week earlier at night during one of the usual squalls that slip through this part of the world we were almost mowed down by a German boat whose anchor was proving somewhat slippery. Given that Thyme also appeared to have moved around a bit, Trevor was somewhat suspicious that our anchor might have been attached to something more substantial than sand or mud.

The battery carriers.

Sylvie and the new seats.

After their evening of squall induced anchor dragging the Germans had later anchored unsuspectingly inside a sunken fishing boat and as suspected, it turned out that our anchor was attached to something formidable enough to defy all our and the local Police boats attempts at extraction by either diver or engine. The bottom here would appear to be a full on scrap-yard and fishing boat graveyard which with zero visibility, strong current and enormous amounts of submerged logs and rubbish makes for interesting diving.

Love the way they name boats here.

Big engines and bending the anchor!

The eventual answer for the Police was to press gang a fishing trawler to use their winching gear to extract our recalcitrant CQR. After breaking two sets of gear the answer became, we will tie the chain to the back of the trawler and pull the thing out; now these fishing trawlers are big, very heavy and have very big engines. In spite of Trevor’s pleas of don’t do it, they did manage to pull the thing out while completely redesigning the anchor and converting 10 metres of 3/8 short link chain to 5/16 long link. Next day was spent at the local engineering works converting the anchor back to something approaching its’ original shape.

Not supposed to look like that is it?

We eventually got away on the 21st, this time with Canadian Ron coming on for the trip around to Kudat then up to Puerto Princessa in the Philippines (never had heard of Puerto Princessa before coming up here). First stop was the Turtle Islands where we weren’t allowed to go ashore. At Lankayan we could go ashore but not on the beaches at night where we might see some turtles, we were told that this was for our own safety. While one wonders how fast those turtles can actually move we eventually decided this was more about the resort not making money from grotty-yachties. Well after some persuasion that night the local, Sabah Parks fellows relented and let us, that is crew from Gadfly, English Andy on Shah and the same Germans from Samba, go with them where we found a big turtle hauling out to lay her eggs. Problem here was that instead of laying her eggs she actually dug up another nest where the eggs were hatching which had us running about at two in the morning carrying little turtles to the water; though they really did actually seem to know the way without our help!

The next day from Lankayan we slipped across to Tigapil and beers that night with English Andy on his starship ‘Shah’, then a longer hop to Malawali before a good day of sailing the last thirty miles down into Kudat and the basin in front of the non-marina (never got built of course). We were in the Basin for a week, shopping, buying cheap beer from the Chinese, yet again fixing things and chatting to the Navy guys in their new, fast boats. Quite amazing really, six metre runabouts with mounts for four (yes four) 50-calibre machine guns. That’s really a lot of firepower for a biggish, potential fishing boat; wonder where they will put the rod holders?

Sandakan market.

These boats also carry two, two hundred and fifty horsepower outboard motors on the back making them without too much doubt probably the fastest and most heavily armed fishing boats getting about, but they probably need the horsepower. In Sandakan even the local fishing boats that they launch from the yacht club are not short on horsepower with twenty foot, flat bottom fishing boats (barges really) having as much as 500 horsepower of outboard motors hanging off their transom. This does make one wonder what the average smuggler or aspiring pirate might run around with?

The numbers say it all!!!

At the Sandakan Yacht club.

The program now after getting sorted in Kudat, was to day hop the 210 miles up the east coast of Palawan to Puerto Princessa stopping at nights of course in true cruising mode. The only problem with this plan though is that the direction we need to go is north-east and by now of course the north-east monsoon had set in. We had been regaled with tales of woe from a number of sources about the problems of moving north in December and the weather which had set in during our trip around from Sandakan seemed to support said woe; you will never get there, it will be horrible! Anyway, operating on the basis that ‘I bet it doesn’t blow hard all day and for that matter every day’, on 28 November after sitting through some really crappy weather we recovered our stern lines, pulled up our still working anchor and with the wind ENE at 5-10 we quietly slipped out headed north for Palawan and the Philippines; must be getting soft even worrying about the weather up here, can’t be that bad?

After the marches; (from Wikipedia).

Due to a combination of a lack of food and brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese, there were only 38 prisoners left alive at Ranau by the end of July. All were too unwell and weak to do any work, and it was ordered that any remaining survivors should be shot. The prisoners were killed by their guards during August, possibly up to 12 days after the end of the war on August 14. In total, only six Australian servicemen managed to escape. During the second marches, Gunner Owen Campbell and Bombardier Richard Braithwaite managed to escape into the jungle, where they were assisted by locals and eventually rescued by Allied units. During July, Private Nelson Short, Warrant Officer William Sticpewich, Private Keith Botterill and Lance Bombardier William Moxham managed to escape from Ranau and were also helped by the local people, who fed them and hid them from the Japanese until the end of the war. Of the six survivors, only three survived the lingering effects of their ordeal in order to give evidence at various war crimes trials in both Tokyo and Rabaul. The world was able to receive eyewitness accounts of the crimes and atrocities committed. Captain Hoshijima was found guilty of war crimes and hanged on April 6 1946. Capt Takakuwa and his second-in-charge, Capt Watanabe Genzo, were found guilty of causing the murders and massacres of prisoners-of-war and were hanged and shot on 6 April 1946 and 16 March 1946 respectively.

Don’t think the weather is worth worrying about really!!!!

The Pirate Wind; Lahud Datu to Sandakan, October 30 – November 07

“Piracy is only a sea term for robbery, piracy being a robbery committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty. If any man be assaulted within the jurisdiction and his ship or goods violently taken away without legal authority, this is robbery and piracy.” Later, “…to the most remote parts of the world; so that if any person whatsoever, native or foreigner, Christian or Infidel, Turk or Pagan, with whose country we have no war …. shall be robbed or spoiled in the Narrow Seas, the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Southern or any other seas …. either on this or the other side of the line, it is piracy within the limits of your enquiry and the cognisance of this court.” (Sir Charles Hedges, Judge of the High Court of (British) Admiralty, October 13. 1696).

In the 18^th – 19^th centuries in the waters around Borneo and especially in the waters of the Celebes, Sulu and South China Seas, a tradition of piracy developed that was so widespread it became quite the local, major industry. By all accounts it was also practised in such a violent and homicidal manner as to make your Spanish Main buccaneers (Pirates of the Caribbean) appear to be quite well behaved. Most everybody was involved in some way it seems as one was either or a pirate or not a pirate and if you weren’t a pirate then you were likely to be robbed, killed or enslaved by pirates, or get paid by pirates. It also became a major source of income for the various Sultanates, especially the Sulu and Bruneii Kingdoms where even their own people could be captured by pirates, have ransoms paid to obtain release then shortly after be taken again by other pirates; with commissions paid to ‘Government’ Officials. If a captive couldn’t obtain a release ransom they would almost certainly be sold into slavery. Bruneii nobles would buy slaves from one set of pirates while Bruneii people would be captured and enslaved by other pirate groups. If there was no room for slaves, captives might be hacked to death, decapitated, buried alive, burnt or killed by whatever methods of despatch the pirates dreamed up at the time. Killing with their swords or ‘Kris’ was a favoured option however as the wielder of the scythe got to put little brass or gold rivets on their weapon; numbers here were important.

Amongst the Sulu pirates it was said, “To catch a fish is hard, but it is easy to catch a Bruneii”. Piracy became eventually so entrenched in the Sulu kingdom to the north-east of Borneo, that the easterly winds that followed the SW monsoon became known in Bruneii as ‘The Pirate Wind’, as the pirate sailing vessels moved out of the Sulu sea toward Bruneii following the prevailing winds. One does gather however that in this part of the world and at the time, that the term might just as easily be applied to the SW monsoon by people who lived to the NE! Just a matter of perspective really.

Not that there weren’t many tribal groups that weren’t involved in some way.  The Illanun and Balanini from Mindanau and the Sulu Archipelago were the biggest protagonists (with help from the Bajaus) but eventually many of the local river and sea  ‘Dayaks’ also became involved after serving apprenticeships in the Malayan war ‘prahus’. These Prahus would range from the Philippines to Sumatra to far NE Malaysia, often in fleets of up to 200 and in journeys such as circumnavigations of Island Borneo. They would prey on shipping and boats of all sorts, local foreign, large and small, at times challenge foreign warships (perhaps inadvisably) and also raid onshore for whatever was available and for slaves.  On Balambangan, an island just north of Kudat and in 1775 a Sulu pirate chief  ‘Datu Tating’ a first cousin of the Sultan even led a pirate attack and destroyed a British military settlement and stockade. The Dayaks of course applied their more bloodthirsty traditions to piracy with considerable enthusiasm and were just as happy hacking off peoples heads (anybody at all) as they were collecting swag.

While various foreign governments tried with limited success to reign in piracy in their various colonial realms, in Borneo it wasn’t until Sir James Brooke became the first white Rajah of Sarawak in1839 that the scale of piracy began to wane. Rajah Brooke exercised the standard levels of British diplomacy for the time and with help from Admiral Cochrane and the Royal Navy, Singapore squadron gave the pirates a lesson in ‘strength through superior firepower. While the Sulu Archipelago was left to the Spanish, the pirate strongholds in the river ports of Sabah, Sarawak and Bruneii succumbed in succession to the latest advances in colonial diplomacy involving, guns, cannons and soldiers.  The actual city of Bruneii also proved quite reluctant to withdraw from the financial benefits associated with piracy and in 1846 the Sultan was given an abject lesson in gunboat diplomacy!

Like elsewhere, piracy of course was never totally wiped out in this part of the world and piratical attacks have continued in various forms up to current times. We have in our sailing endeavours been hearing all forms of expression of concern from locals here, primarily telling us that we are very ‘brave’. However, while the locals tell us that there have been two attacks on shipping nearby this year we have yet to hear of any attacks on yachties in the recent past. To be honest there is not really that much to steal from the average yachtie, a couple of radios perhaps, some cameras and rice maybe; hardly compares to a cargo ship or shipping containers full of all sorts of good things. There were the attacks on tourist divers at Sipidan down past Semporna in 2000 where the locals from the Sulu archipelago decided to resurrect their forebears more questionable concepts of commerce. The result of this little incursion, robbery, abduction and murder, standard program really for your average ‘Moro’ pirate, is a police and military presence that is almost overwhelming. We were overflown twice by military surveillance aircraft near the Kinabatangan mouth on the way around from Lahud Datu and photographed by police while at anchor one morning.

Lahud Datu itself was we are told something of a pirate stronghold for years and the ‘Lonely Planet’ warns people about the perils of the seafaring life here; one wonders if the travel writer at the time even got on a boat or just listened to apophrical stories from locals. There are the stories of ten years ago pirates armed with automatic weapons robbing the bank at Lahud Datu and one of the teachers at the school on Tambisan tells us that the pirates made an attack on Tambisan in the nineties; wonder what they wanted from Tambisan, there isn’t a great deal there?

All things considered though, the Sulu Archipelago and Southern Mindanao are not on our list of places we are going to visit; there probably still be pirates there of some sort!

We got away from Lahud Datu on the 31^st and on glassy seas motored to Tungku Vil, a sort of point with an inlet 38 miles to the east. Hot here so swimming and bombing demonstrations were the order of the day including British ‘back-slappers’ from Lucy and a face plant from Trevor. Dent haven was next 30 odd miles east and north leaving Darvil Bay. Next morning bright and early it was off from Dent to our old haunt of Tambisan and a look around at the local school and recently painted pre-school.  Simon here offered Trevor’s services to talk to the grade sixers in English (or at least Australian) and the teachers took this seriously enough that next morning all four of us sallied forth for our cultural interaction with Tambisan’s brightest. This excursion was undertaken under some difficulty after our Melbourne Cup celebrations and cocktail party of the previous evening.  For the record, Simon won the sweep while Trevor got second and third. Back at the school, after having the students all join in a rousing rendition of Waltzing Matilda and discussing why we would want to travel so far on little boats off we went to watch the launch of the latest initiative in English teaching, a mandatory 33 minutes of communal reading.

The teachers tell us that it is obligatory for them to video proceedings and submit the video to the central education department for verification, it seems they are serious about their English teaching. The school here serves locals from a few nearby communities including some more permanent, Bajau groups who commute, quite appropriately, on boats. It seems that in spite of their stateless nature the school on Tambisan still takes them in, unlike Mabul where they are not allowed to attend the school.  The Bajau here have taken up residence along waterways in more permanent fishing communities and apparently they get by bartering with their fish for whatever else they need.

After our introduction to the Malaysian education system it was back to the boats in anticipation of a visit from the grade sixers who were dead keen to get a look inside the weird boats parked in their river; the strange white peoples boats come and go but none of the locals had ever seen the inside of one. So there we were giving the boys and girls of Tambisan a tour through our boats along with one of the teachers, the local boatman and one of the kids dads who happened to be passing by on his boat. They especially liked playing with the VHF radio and the chart plotter (lots of pretty pictures there) while the girls were fascinated with the on-board toilets. From Tambisan it was on to Dewhurst Bay and a revisit with the proboscis monkeys, then a 35 mile hop back to Sandakan to revisit the yacht club at Sandakan. Time for some new batteries, other boat fixes, a crew change and maybe a clearance to head direct to the Philippines.

Moro Pirates

The Moro Pirates, also known as the Sulu Pirates, were Muslim outlaws of the southern Philippines who engaged in frequent acts of piracy, primarily against the Spanish, beginning in the late 16th century. Because of the continual wars between Spain and the Moro people, the areas in and around the Sulu Sea became a haven for piracy which was not suppressed until the beginning of the 20th century. The pirates should not be confused with the naval forces or privateers of the various Moro tribes. However, many of the pirates operated under government saction during time of war.

The pirate ships used by the Moros were known as proa, or garays, and they varied in design. The majority were wooden sailing galleys about ninety feet long with a beam of ten feet. They carried around fifty to 100 crewmen. Moros usually armed their vessels with three swivel guns, called lelahs or lantakas, and occasionally a heavy cannon, proas were very fast and the pirates would prey on merchant ships becalmed in shallow water as they passed through the Sulu Sea. Slave trading and raiding was also very common, the pirates would assemble large fleets of proas and attack coastal towns. Hundreds of Christians were captured and imprisoned over the centuries, many were used a galley slaves aboard the pirate ships.

Other than muskets and rifles, the Moro pirates, as well as the navy sailors and the privateers, used a sword called the kris with a wavy blade incised with blood channels. The wooden or ivory handle was often heavily ornamented with silver or gold. The type of wound inflicted by its blade makes it difficult to heal. The kris was used often used in boarding a vessel. Moros also used a kampeli, another sword, a knife, or barong and a spear, made of bamboo and an iron spearhead. The Moro’s swivel guns were not like more modern guns used by the world powers but were of a much older technology, making them largely innacurate, especially at sea. Lantakas dated back to the 1500s and were up to six feet long, requiring several men to lift one. They fired up to a half-pound cannon ball or grape shot. A lantaka was bored by hand and were sunk into a pit and packed with dirt to hold them in a vertical position. The barrel was then bored by a company of men walking around in a circle to turn drill bits by hand.

The Spanish engaged the Moro pirates frequently in the 1840s. The expedition to Balanguingui in 1848 was carried out by Brigadier José Ruiz and a fleet of nineteen small warships and hundreds of Spanish Army troops. They were opposed by at least 1,000 Moros held up in four forts with 124 cannons and plenty of small arms. There were also dozens of proas at Balanguingui but the pirates abandoned their ships for the better defended fortifications. The Spanish stormed three of the positions by force and captured a remaining one after the pirates had retreated. Over 500 prisoners were freed in the operation and over 500 Moros were killed or wounded, they also lost about 150 of their proas. The Spanish lost twenty-two men killed and around 210 wounded. The pirates later reoccupied the island in 1849 and another expedition was sent but they encountered only light resistance

Also in the 1840s, James Brooke became the White Rajah of Sarawak and he led a small navy in a series of campaigns against the Moro pirates. In 1843 Brooke attacked the pirates of Malludu and in June of 1847 the rajah participated in a major battle with pirates at Balanini where dozens of proas were captured or sunk. Brooke fought in several more anti-piracy actions in 1849 as well. During one engagement with Illanun Sulus in 1862, Captain John Brooke, the Raja Mudah of Sarawak, sank four proas, out of six engaged, by ramming them with his small four gun steamer Rainbow. Each pirate ship had over 100 crewmen and galley slaves aboard and all were armed with three brass swivel guns. Brooke lost only a few men killed or wounded while at least 100 pirates were killed or wounded.