Pansipit River Expedition
A couple of weeks after doing the occular inspection of the river mouth. The expedition was on. Other than the power dinghies there were also supposed to be a couple of kayaks joining the trip. but for some reason they backed out.
I invited Cholo to come along, and surprisingly he was game. I told him what to expect, an hour long, 20km motor trip to the river mouth and an hour long trip down the river to the sea, and camping out by the beach. and he was pretty excited. I’m very proud of the little guy for accompanying his old man on this trip, and much more for seeing the whole trip through. what a trooper!
Most of the words from here on are not mine, but instead it’s a narrative by a fellow PHBYC member and Pansipit River "expeditioner", Kuton. I’ll be filling in other details that are relevant for our side of the story. Okay Kuton, take it away….
…It was an expedition that traversed a lake, a river and the sea, spiced by a problematic bridge, graced by beautiful views of scenery and birds, and livened up by good company and excellent cuisine.
As expeditions go, we started late, Piper going ahead on the Spindrift after an initial hello at Walter’s where Tato and I were loading up SummerBreeze, and trying to fix a recalcitrant engine. 
After installing the Plan B 2 hp Yamaha, we proceeded to Club Lake to find Maligno, Marte and Weremermaid loading up PawPrint. By around 9 AM, off we went pointing our bows straight at the right edge of the false volcano.
The boats: Pawprint, Spindrift and SummerBreeze. The characters: Rollie, Marte and Cherrie on Pawprint powered by a 5 hp Merc, Roy and Cholo on the Spindrift powered by a 2.5 hp Tohatsu and Tato and me on Summerbreeze, powered by the 2 hp Yamaha.
The initial going was a bit rough with Taal Lake dishing up some rollers. By the time we got to the fishpens near the false volcano, the waves calmed down and everything went smoothly. We had to zigzag the fishpens and it was here that we lost the fuel cap of the Yamaha. The small ob only has a fuel capacity of 1 liter enough for one hour of running and we had to refill twice.
After tiptoeing around the fishpens, and Maligno taking what should be exquisite shots of birds and scenery, we went straight to the mouth of Pansipit, where Piper was patiently waiting for us. After a toilet break for me, we motored towards the mouth of the river, 
which was overgrown with weeds. However, the tide was rising and soon we were at the first bridge. We tied up to the bridge where we had the usual picnic lunch of rice and adobo, but which tasted like five michelin stars cuisine.
Then further downstream the river. There were spots where fishpens hugged the riverbanks, some spots where the river was wide and shallow, or narrow and deep. We had to keep a constant lookout for weeds and garbage that will foul the props, or 
underwater obstacles. But all thoughout, we were rewarded with beautiful scenery and flocks of birds of all kinds: gulls and herons and egrets, mostly white but some colored.
We were going at a quick pace pushed on by the current. Soon we reached the fork of the river. We went to the south fork, but were soon stopped by water hyacinth blocking the entire channel. A man said that the river was blocked for a few kilometers and reluctantly we went back up. Maligno gave an analysis of the situation: we could take the 
north fork and possibly cross over the dam but how do we go back? After some discussion, the adventurers suggested that we just go down the north fork and see for ourselves the dammed river and decide from there.
Just after the fork, we saw underwater obstacles, fallen girders from a bridge that could easily have wrecked a wooden hull if hit hard enough. Fortunately, we saw the obstacles in time and eased around them. Soon we reached the 
bridge and saw that the water had risen and was flowing smoothly. We asked the men swimming nearby to ask how deep the water was. Deep enough, they said. So Tato and I dared to cross and we went through without incident. Piper followed closely behind and soon Pawprint was through. We had crossed the problematic bridge!
The next few kilometers were anticlimactic. But the river was now deep enough that weeds were no longer a problem. Again beautiful scenery, but now signs of civilization. Crossing the large highway bridge brought us to flatter land, with bancas moored on the side of the river. But new obstacles presented themselves: low bridges that cleared Pawprint’s motor cover by only a few inches, and a steel cable that crossed the river like a snare just waiting to catch some unwary props. Fortunately, we cleared both without incident except for the cable. A quick cry from me acting as a lookout powered down the Yamaha, and Tato pulled it up. A surprised Piper was not quick enough to stop and the prop then proceeded to gouge some scratches on the Spindrift’s immaculate finish. Scars of honor.
Pretty soon, we caught glimpses of the sea. We had made it. From lake to see. There was a way. But we were soon stopped by the imposing sight of breakers on the sea. Could we make it through? Locals advised us against going on. But the intrepid advernturers just had to try. Soon we were braving the breakers, turning north to Nonong Casto barrio. The boats rocked on the waves but the hardy trio of homebuilts just laughed off the waves. Soon we were docking on the beach. Mission accomplished.
We found a nice little resort in lemery where we could camp out for the night after un packing the boats, we were all surprised by how 
much gear we had. Here we are having breakfast and you can pretty much see "some" of the stuff we had with us. All of us pitched in to get a cottage and a hut. and tents were pitched. After having dinner, a few beers and a bottle of red wine, it was time to sleep. However, with Karaokes blaring from nearby resorts it was near 
impossible to get any.
Cholo had a very active day playing on the beach and in the resort’s pool and was asleep almost immediately when he laid down. His dad however, had to suffer through all 8 hours of karaoke hell, getting only few quick blinks here and there. Rolly and Marte being and scouts that they are had ear plugs with them and had no problem getting their z’s.
Breakfast was tasty french toast courtesy of Cherrie.
We had to wait for the tide to start coming in before setting out. It is a wonder how much stuff you can load on three small boats, and 
it took quite a while to load all the stores and launch the boats.
The water was much calmer this time and we went inside the river and Tato and I immediately got lost. There were at least four branches on the river delta and we trusted our instincts rather than
the GPS. Fortunately, the other boats had better navigators on board and soon we were motoring up the right channel.
The steel cable was now above the water rather than submerged and was easy to spot. Instead of going over, now we went under and saw how thick and potentially dangerous the cable was.
Then we got to the problematic bridge. There was a hint of whitewater as the tide was not yet up. We moored on one side of the river to survey the situation. We decided to cast a rope from upstream and try to pull ourselves across the "hump." I volunteered to be at the upstream anchor. Another use for the blue foam as it was the floatation that brought the rope down the river. At first, Roy tried to make it but he was sitting on his foredeck and there was no directional control whatever to his boat. Then ‘Breeze tried with Marte on the foredeck. At first she tried to pull the boat up, but the current was still too unsettled and the boat just went around in circles. Then she tied the rope to the painter. I pulled from the other side and Marte used a paddle to push against the bridge sides. Success at last.
Roy followed, with Marte again at the foredeck and finally Rollie. By then the water was high and current was slower and Rollie felt that he could have powered his way across, but couldn’t signal me at the other side.
Further upstream we got our next bit of trouble as Roy hit submerged bridge girders and knocked out his shear pin, 
and had to stop to replace it. At about this time, Rollie picked up a big piece of plastic on his prop. They had to stop too. Tato and I didn’t know what was going on and we went ahead, safely maneuvering around the underwater obstructions only to stop when we found the two other boats not following. But after a while, we went on ahead, as ours was the slowest boat.
Since the boats were not following, Tato and I stopped at a nice place in the river, with a shady portion and spot to moor the boat. We went for a swim in the cool water. Soon we heard the sound of 
outboards and stopped swimming and started motoring. Soon the boats were motoring together. At this time people were hungry and we picked the perfect sport for lunch: a cool, shady spot with a picnic hut.
Lunch was filling as different kinds of canned goods were opened. We saw that the spot had a spring that gushed cool clear water that 
locals collected for drinking. We didn’t dare. Roy and Cholo though went for a quick dip in the River before departing.
Then back on board the boats, slowly making our way upstream. The next stop was just outside the entrance to the river to clear the props from the weeds, and load gasoline on the tiny tanks of the Yamaha and Tohatsu.
Going across Taal, I followed closely the GPS track and tried to cut some corners. I saved some time that way, except that I miscalculated at the fishpens and turned when I should not have. Again, I lost time but found my way back to the main shipping channel. After rounding the false volcano, the 
only thing left to do was aim the bow straight at walters and spot Pawprint disappearing in the distance.
Back at Walters, we loaded the boat on the pickup and surveyed the damage to the boat. Rotted parts that failed needed to be repaired. But all in all, I’m 
proud of the inexpensive, easily built ‘Breeze. It was a little boat that could…
More photos of the expedition can be seen on the pinoyboats.org gallery
