i be sailing

Sailing with me this time was Andrew and another friend Butch. I asked permission from Gil if I can leave the boat there until after the RTV, so I can get more sailing time in before the race. sure enough he said yes.

We arrived at club lake Just before 23:00. Gil and his pals were in one of the huts having a few drinks and playing cards. so after exchanging some pleasantries. we unpacked the boat and assembled it on the beach. The wind was actually pretty good for sailing and I recommended rigging up the boat as well. So we did, but I was eventually out-voted from going out on a night sail. So we just unpacked the beer and other "essential" camping paraphernalia and proceeded to party on the beach

The classic skyflakes and spicy tuna was the pulutan and we each had a couple of one liter bottles (grande) of beer for each of us.

First one to get plastered was me, as I was pretty much tired from a full day of work, packing up the boat and driving. So I went to bed at around 01:30. I first tried to sleep in the L300 but I found it a little too warm for my liking. So I transferred to the pool side hammock and slept there. I spent around 10 minutes looking for a good sleeping position on the hammock but when I found it, I was out like a light. I was awoken by the sounds of roosters crowing and some sunshine reflecting on the sky that was around 05:30.

So I got up and saw Andrew sitting inside the van, and I went there to get some water. he told me that he hadn’t had a wink of sleep all night, Butch was in the van with him and sleeping like a baby. apparently, Butch is a real loud snorer. Andrew said it was like sleeping with a hybernating bear inside a cave.

with Andrew still imobilized and butch still happily snoring and me, being the morning person that I am, I then proceeded to the beach, dragged the boat into the water and got set for a quick sail. the wind was really, really light and it barely got the boat moving. 


but being on the water at sunrise is something I wouldn’t exchange for anything . I was just basically drifting, but it really felt great to be out there, with the cool morning air and the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon. it was Wonderful.

Soon the sun was up and I was getting hungry. so I sculled back, (still very little wind)

When I got back, Andrew still hadn’t gotten any sleep and Butch was still… well snoring. So I had breakfast of ham and cheese sandwitch, milk and juice. Butch eventually got up a few munutes later.

The wind was starting to pick up, but it still didn’t affect the water yet and was still mostly flat. Great time to get a first timer out on the water. Butch was ready to sail but Andrew wasn’t, so we just left him and hoped he can get some sleep in. So it was just Butch and myself.

I told Butch to have breakfast out on the water. since the water was still pretty calm anyways. the wind was nice and steady, but still fairly light, and Butch was able to have his breakfast. I put in brass horn cleats the weekend before and I was able to use them for the first time. So it was easy single handed sailing,

I asked Butch if he wanted to try to head for Alexandra’s rock and he being a son of tanker captain he was game. It was around 07:30.

After a few minutes at the helm, I decided to turn it over to Butch since we’re on a pretty straight reaching course for the rock anyways and with the sheet cleated all he had to do is keep a straight heading.

all way to the rock the wind was nice and steady and the water very calm. it gradually picked up when we got the middle of the lake but not by much, and we were making good speed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it only took us an hour to get to the rock. We were supposed to round the island but we found a few fishnets marked by bouys between the rock and volcano island. so on going back we just went by the same way we came.

At this time the lake was now at its normal self. The wind was steady and slightly gusty. The chop was there as well. We encountered 2 to 3 foot swells and white caps were all around. Butch was still at the helm. But he was doing such a good job that i let them stay at it. I on the other hand handled the sheet. This was so far my wettest sail on Ceol Beag. The swells were pretty big and we were getting a lot of spray. at one point, I had to bring out the bailer as there was already more than two inches of water in the forward area.

Even if it was Butch’s first time on a sailboat and his first time at the helm, he did pretty well, he wasn’t at all intimidated by the chop. but then again, he told me he was out on the water between Bataan and Coregidor in his dad’s tanker when typhoon Milenyo hit, so i’m sure two foot swells were nothing.

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We were back at club lake 1 hour after starting our journey back. even though the wind was stronger it was the waves that slowed us down.

Upon getting back to club lake, Andrew was sitting in the pavilion mulling over the reasons why he couldn’t gain entry into lala land. He told us that when we left he transfered from the van and into the hammock to try and get some zzzz’s. Just as he was getting comfortable, a bus load of kids came into club lake for a swim. This just wasn’t his day.

I made some beef curry the day before and we had that for lunch.

Butch was game for another sail and so was I, Andrew was still another story. So it was Butch and I again.

This time I was on the helm. I wanted to get some tacking practice and Butch wanted to snap some pics, so we headed west towards tlyc. Butch was able to get several good pictures and even some video of us sailing. (i’ll post them soon). It being a holiday, I was expecting the hobies might be out, but didn’t see any, all there was was another dinghy and a wind surfer. there we’re also a couple of toppers about to set out. It looked like as they were giving lessons as I saw them doing a capsize drill a little while before.

I was able to get some tacking practice and am fairly happy with my progress, but i’d definatey need to practice more while solo. maybe during the all saints.

After about an hour on the water we went back and we were both pretty exhausted. It didn’t stop us from getting a couple of beers in us though. after finishing a couple of beers each, we disassembled the boat and stored it in the pavillion.

This was supposed to be my first real point-to-point sail on Ceol Beag. Objective: Taal’s volcano island.

We were supposed to leave earlier than usual at around 7am, but I was only able to get in from the previous night at around 5am and Andrew got in at around 4:30am so scratch that. but we were eventually able to get our act together and were able to leave Las Pinas at around 08:30. not bad, with only 3 hours of sleep.

Leaving later than planned wasn’t such a bad idea after all, when we got to club lake the water was dead calm. But we proceeded to set up the boat anyways, hoping for the wind to pick up later.   The beach was a mess by the way, from last week’s typhoon, one of Gil’s boats was partially sunk and his fg banca was on the beach and so was loads of other crap from wrecked fish cages etc…

at around 11:00 we were ready to go,  but the wind was not there yet, so we broke out the paddles and see if we can try to paddle to our objective, after about 10 minutes of that, it was obvious that we should forget about that idea. So while waiting for the wind, we decided to have lunch. so we broke out a couple of chicken fillet sanwiches and had a quick meal. followed with a couple of cigarettes.  here you can see how  glassy the water was, despite the feeling action pose we were not moving at all. after a little bit of aimlessly floating on the water, I noticed that there seemed to be a steady wind line near the shore, so we decided to just head for that so we could atleast get a little sailing in. By the time we got to where the windline was, I noticed that the wind was starting to pick up everywhere.

So with wind finally in our sail, we headed out. time check: it was 13:15. the wind picked up fairly fast and soon we were on a broad reach for volcano island, too bad mario the living anemometer wasn’t there to tell us how fast the wind was.  around three quarters of the way there, the sheet came loose from my hand and slipped out the block, we had to sail the rest of the way without a purchase on the sheet. Andrew was holding it the whole time and he said the load on it was unbelievable. We could actually have fixed it by pointing into the wind, but we decided to leave well enough alone. Other than that incident with the sheet it was smooth sailing all the way, we were aiming for the tourist center on the island but there were just too many boats parked at the shore, so we chose a spot a little to the west. as soon as we were spotted by the locals everyone was directing us to different places to beach, we eventually took the one the was dead ahead of us.   Time check: it was 14:00. 45 minutes to cover around 7 kilometers, not bad. I was pretty surprised. we could have probably have cut that a little bit more if I remembered to raise the db since we were going down wind anyways.

We were met by a guy named Jason who was was into the horse hire and guide business, When I told him that we had no plans to head up to the crater today, and would rather prefer a beer or a coke, and rest our weary bums, he then led us to his back yard and set up a couple of chairs and a table and got us a couple of cold pale pilsners.

So we enjoyed our beers and settled our adrenal glands, as we were still fairly giddy from the trip. I couldn’t beleive it, WE MADE IT!

The original plan was to stay overnight and climb to the crater, but we just didn’t have the time or the supplies, atleast now we know now we can get there. think of this as a scouting expedition. 

We just had two beers each, and soon it was time to head back, the wind died down a little bit, and I noticed there were no more white caps, (there were lots on the way there.)

It was a close hauled course heading for TLYC on the way back.  and the wind was calm enough to be able to snap some pictures.

we decided to keep on that heading, and just start tacking when we got closer to shore. bad idea, the wind was pretty shifty near the shore I had a difficult time keeping a straight heading. now I know that it’s better to plan your tacks earlier.

route was something like this, but don’t expect it to be accurate though as I don’t know where the hell we landed. 

On the way back we passed by several hobies and a couple of topper dinghies on the water by TLYC. no pics though.

after around two hours after we left the island we were back at club lake.

I learned tons that day, and my confidence in my sailing skills and the boat has greatly improved. despite the gusty conditions we had on the way to the island and the big banka wakes we had to roll over, the boat was pretty dry.

I’m really contemplating on making a cleating system for the sheet, so I don’t have to hold it all the time. one’s hands can get a little stiff after a while. I’m also getting seat cushion, for me at least, as as of this post by bum is still a little sore.