Sailing in the Philippines
At the end of 2018 I was trying to figure out what to do at the end of my 10 months backpacking trip in Asia. I had planned to do some hiking in Nepal and make my way into Tibet in October/November but I did not have any plans for the 2nd half of November/December yet.
My first thought was to make my way back to Europe through China-Mongolia-Russia by train. But after some research, it turned out that getting a Russian Visa while not in your native country is almost impossible. One of my other options was to return to one of my favourite countries on this planet – the Philippines. It would be a perfect way to finish a year-long trip on a beach in December while it is snowing back in Estonia. And what would be a better way to dig deeper into a country with 7500 tropical paradise islands than by boat?
How to find a sailing boat anywhere in the world?
One option is to just turn up at a random harbour and to approach the captain. I was limited on time so I wanted to make thing clear beforehand. After approaching a couple of friends who are familiar with the sailing world, it turned out that there are many websites around where vessels and their captains are looking for helping hands. Just to name a few:
I managed to find myself a suitable one, we agreed on the terms and next thing you know I was on a sailing boat in the Philippines and cruising from one remote island to another. And all of that with no previous experience in sailing. I had never even been on a sailing boat before.
2 weeks of sailing in the Philippines
I boarded the vessel in Cebu and the route for the next 14 days turned out to be the following:
Day 0 – Arrival in Cebu City
Day 1 – Cebu to Pacijan Island
Day 2 – Pacijan Island to Palompon
Day 3 – Palompon
Day 4 – Palompon to Kalanggaman
Day 5 – Kalanggaman to Malapascua
Day 6 – Malapascua to Silion(Virgin) Island next to Bantayan
Day 7 – Virgin Island
Day 8 – Virgin Island to South Gigantes Island
Day 9 – South Gigantes Island
Day 10 – South Gigantes Island
Day 11 – Gigantes Island to Olotayan Island
Day 12 – Olotayan Island to Batan (Kalibo)
Day 13 – Disembark the vessel to Kalibo
From Kalibo, I made my way to Boracay Island where I spent my last week in Asia before taking the flight back to Europe exactly in time for Christmas.
Huge thanks to Pirate Captain BBJ who took me in on his boat Bindy Too!
And here comes the short summary video of these 2 amazing weeks!
