A Slow Boat from China - Berk's Revenge.

Wednesday 11th April 2012 - Day 7

The night before I was quickly asleep at 6pm due to the beer and being gently rocked to sleep by the boat.

I was woken up by Berk telling me it was my shift and I reckoned that I might have had more beers than I reckoned because I felt a bit foggy and rather tired.  Still, a man has to do . . . . 

So I got up and took the controls and looked around to see if I could see if Jim was about to join me.  No sign of him so I soldered on with steering the boat.  There was a mass of fishing boats out there, like fireflies dotted all over the place so I felt I needed to be alert to make sure I didn't collide with one.  It was only then I looked at my watch and saw that it was only 9pm!  It was way before my shift and Berk had disappeared below deck - revenge I wondered?  It was little surprise then that I was feeling tired.  

I looked around the rest of the boat and there were bodies slumped everywhere, like a navy ship after shore leave.  I figured there was no point in trying to wake any of them up and so I just knuckled down to steering the boat.  I struggled to stay awake so what I did was to point the boat on the right heading and then walk port side and take a look, then walk to starboard side and take a look, and then back to the wheel to correct the course had the boat drifted off, but as the sea was calm and there was no wind it generally stayed on course.

From 9pm through to 1am I managed to do what England expects - my D.U.T.Y. - but by 1:00am I needed someone to take over so I went and found Jim and roused him.  I stayed on watch until sunrise. Again, we were poodling along, more so than normal, so that we didn't arrive in Subic too early and by sunrise we were just approaching the entrance to Subic Bay. Berk re-appeared and took over to bring the boat in.

Sunrise on the approach to Subic Bay

There was wonderful sunrise again and the sea in the bay was like a looking glass.  It was a fabulous feeling.

On the final approach to Vascos

The team at the end

Coming into dock

Our final destination was a bar/dive shop/hotel called Vascos on the shores of the bay. There was a small welcoming committee, mostly consisting of concerned friends an relatives.  On arrival at 6:30am I had a big fry up breakfast and then went straight to the office to do some urgently needed reports.

Once I'd finished them I rested my head on the edge of my desk and just zonked out, which is hardly surprising as I'd only had 3 hours sleep in the past 36 hours.  I awoke a short while later as the sharp edge of the desk was digging into my forehead and had made a groove in the skin making me look decidedly like Frankenstein.

Here's the final GPS plot for the last part of the trip:

. . . and the final lap of honour

A Slow Boat from China - Break Down in Bolinao

Tuesday 10th April 2012 - Day 6

After our shift had finished I didn't really go back to sleep.  I was keen to watch the day arrive again and see our progress into Bolinao. Whoever was supposed to be on shift with Berk wasn't around so I thought I'd do the right thing and fill in doing the watch because as we approached the coastline the shipping traffic became heavier. Plenty of badly illuminated fishing boats and the occasional passing freighter. We didn't want to sink or be sunk.

The trip into Bolinao harbour was painfully slow but Berk was avoiding getting there too early and didn't want to have to navigate into the harbour in the dark. Seems like the most sensible thing he'd done for the whole of the trip.

By 6am were were tied up at the quay side. Jim and me volunteered to go and get provisions and diesel whilst the others just went to find a local bar. I left my camera battery, which was exhausted by now, plugged in at the coast guard's office.

Coastguard's office in Bolinao

We rented a trike and driver and went into town. Firstly we found a diesel supplier and bought another 45 gallons. Then went looking in the market for the provisions and some ice to chill the drinks. We arrived back at the boat by around 10am and unpacked the provisions and transferred the fuel. I started filling the cooler boxes with ice and drinks and Berk just started sticking his oar in, barking at me and telling me I was putting the ice in the wrong way! Well, I wasn't going to take any more shite from him and I told him to do it himself but probably not as polite as that. Jim could see I was furious and said, in all seriousness, that Berk was an ice expert, which only served to antagonise me even more.

Once the ice was expertly broken up and in the coolers and the provisions were loaded, Adam cooked a great tuna omelette for a late breakfast.  

Moored up in Bolinao

Kids entertain us on the quayside

Then we were ready to head off. Or rather we weren't because the engine wouldn't start. It just made a screeching sound, which to my learned ear I reckoned was the starter motor. John, being the mechanical engineer was the logical one to take a look at it but said he didn't have the tools to work on the starter motor and so gave up. Jim went to see the coast guard to see if he could help. He came back and told us that the coast guard said that there was no mechanics in Bolinao who could help but he would send for his brother who was in the next town and who would take 3 hours to get there (remember, 3 hours in the Philippines can be anything from 6 hours to the next day). Jim seemed to take this at face value, as did the others who all seemed resigned to our fate and a long wait. 

I wasn't having any of it, so it was either do something proactive to get it fixed or I was on the next bus to Subic. So I told Jim I just didn't accept that a town the size of Bolinao didn't have any mechanics and I was going into town to find one. Jim said he would come with me. John's disparaging remark as we left was that if we found one to make sure he brought his tool kit, which would be a shifting spanner and a hammer.

But here's a universal truth about the Philippines that I've learnt:  they have very little concept of preventative maintenance but they are exceptionally good at keeping things going when they should have been consigned to the scrap heap years ago. You can see this by the state of the cars, trucks, trike and jeepneys on the road.

We rented another trike and told the driver to take us to a mechanic. Off we whizzed through Bolinao and then out the other side and up the hill. Jim commented that it looked as though we were heading to the next town where the coast guards's brother lived but at the top of the hill we pulled in to a garage. Now, forget any concepts or minds eye you might have of a shiny Kwik Fit, this was a rickety old lean-to with the soil being soil soaked with years of oil and grease.  

Under a bus there was a pair of thin brown legs sticking out to which the trike driver spoke to and evidently asked him if could come and fix a boat. Without removing himself from under the bus the legs replied, asking what the engine was? Jim said a Perkins. The legs said (through the trike driver as an interpreter) that he had no experience of working with a Perkins engine so couldn't make any guarantee he could do anything, although we tried to explain that we thought the problem might be electrical rather than mechanical. The legs slid out from under the bus and out came a tall (for a Filipino), gangling, scowling old guy who was either very, very brown to the point of being black or was soaked in old engine oil and wearing a nothing but a tatty, oily pair of shorts. 

The mechanic collected up his tools, a shifting spanner and a hammer and a little light bulb with two wire hanging out of it and placed them in a plastic bag. We piled onto the trike and went back to the boat. John was even more dismissive and the others highly sceptical that this guy could get the boat started. I had high hopes, even just to prove them all wrong. The mechanic went down below and I went to the helm. He shouted up to turn the motor over, which I did. We did this several times.  He did a lot of shouting to the trike driver. After bashing around for a while he motioned for me to turn the engine over again and hallelujah, the engine started! I'm not sure who was happiest, me or the mechanic. Actually, I think it was the mechanic, he was absolutely overjoyed and his scowl went to a large, toothless smile. And good for him.

So we were on our way. Berk was looking for volunteers to tie off the boat and then jump back on board as the boat departed. I wasn't going to be doing anything to help him so it was left to John and Adam.  As the boat was tied off Berk immediately started throttling away and yelling, and I mean YELLING for John to jump on the boat but even for someone quite agile it would have been difficult but it was going to be impossible for John and his beer baby. Hence, Berk had to manoeuvre back to the key side all the time drifting towards some shallow rocks and still all the time hollering at John to jump on. There were loads of Filipinos on the shore watching us leave, as they are want to do (anything different to break up the daily monotony) and this little performance was all very undignified.  

Anyway, John did manage to get back on board and Berk did manage to avoid the shallow rocks and off we went with the coast guard scowling on the shore, probably because we didn't drop any diesel in the harbour so he could 'fine' us and because we'd fixed he boat without having to wait for his brother, which was going to be a good little earner for him. And all the while Berk was cursing John and John was cursing Berk.

At 1145am as we pulled out of the harbour and into the open seas, being waved at by all the other boats, parts of the sea were literally boiling with jumping fish, and large ones at that but John still couldn't catch anything.

We were on our way back to Subic and a quick check showed we should be back by early tomorrow morning. I was looking forward to it. And the sun was shining.

John & Jim chew the fat

Beer and sunshine

That afternoon there was probably too much beer and wine consumed. I figured that being on the midnight to 3am shift if I went to sleep at 6pm and slept for 6 hours I'd be fine and sober enough to do my shift with Jim.

Progress for the day (in green):

A Slow Boat from China - The Weather Breaks

Monday 9th April 2012 (Easter Monday) - Day 5

Last night the seas calmed down significantly and this morning the sea was significantly calmer.  This is what I had imagined the whole journey was going to be like.  Being on the 3am to 6am watch meant we were able to see the sun rise.

Wonderful sunrise

The cabin downstairs was stinking. I mean really stinking, a rancid mix of bad feet and good old fashioned BO.  I hadn't spent too much time below deck so I'm sure I wasn't the main cause.  I think Brian's feet had a lot to answer for.

In fact none of us had had a wash since leaving the hotel on Thursday morning.  None of us were expecting to be at sea for this long.  I decided as the boat was no longer rocking around and the sun was shining I was going to have a wash, so I stripped off on the front deck and hosed myself down.  Fortunately, no diesel came out of the hose so we either had plenty of water still or Berk was wrong about mixing up the fuel/water tanks. 

Beautiful! It doesn't get any better than this.

Time to catch some rays

We had a cooked breakfast and cups of tea.  It's amazing how much everyone's spirits pick up when the sun was shining and instead of everyone falling asleep we were chatting, joking, telling tales and actually enjoying being on the high seas.   We were heading for Bolinao, which we expected to reach by tomorrow morning, and so I think making landfall and having the end in sight boosted everyone's morale.

By lunchtime someone cracked open a bottle of wine and the atmosphere was very relaxed and dolphins were spotted riding our (slow) bow wave.

We also spotted our first ship since we set off and Berk was able to contact them on the radio and asked them to e-mail his wife so she could spread the word to other worried family members as were should have been back days ago (in the event, the message did reach Berk's wife but she didn't pass it on for some reason that escapes me).

Our first ship sighting

Late that day we saw a passing Filipino fishing boat and hailed to them to ask if they had any fish for sale as John wasn't having any further success in catching anything.  They had two tuna fish, which at first they wanted to trade for cigarettes but there were no smokers on board.  In the end they settled for cash.  Dinner that night was sashimi.

A passing fishing boat sells us dinner

Jim and me were on the midnight to 3am shift.  I had a dream that night I was on the Star Ferry in Hong Kong, even to the point when I woke up and it took a moment to realise I wasn't, which was a strange sensation because the dream was so real.

Progress for the day is as shown in green below:

A Slow Boat From China - Miles per Gallon

Sunday 8th April 2012 (Easter Sunday) - Day 4

Early morning I'm checking my GPS again when I should be hiding Easter eggs for the lads.  I reckon we have a minimum of 367 miles to go - probably more with all our zig-zagging.  Our average speed is only 6mph and so our time to our destination is around 61hrs (2 days 13 hrs - ETA at Subic is Tuesday evening).  Our fuel consumption is estimated at being 12 litres/hr.  Fuel remaining (again estimated only) is 656 litres.

Hence:

61 hrs x 12 litres/hr = 732 litres required.  We only have 656 litres remaining so we are theoretically 76 litres short.  Bearing in mind these are estimated numbers based on questionable quantities extracted through questionable means, my thoughts are that we should err on the side of caution.  

I mention this to Jim but he can only assure me that Berk says we have more than enough fuel.  No other substantiation other than Berk's say so.  I speak to Adam and explain my fuel calculations and he agrees they are pretty much irrefutable and so Adam also mentions to Jim.  Jim just says there's no cause for alarm and that we have plenty of fuel.  Perhaps there's a BP garage in the middle of the South China Sea?  Or maybe we can sidle up alongside one of the many oil rigs we've seen en-route and ask them to fill us up with diesel, low sulphur of course, whilst we stock up with crisps and Mars Bars in the shop.  I don't think so.

Early morning we're trying to salvage the damaged timber from the front of the boat again as it's been shaken loose by the weather again and Berk hadn't exactly made a good job of lashing the timber to the deck.

John decided to risk it and cooks a breakfast of bacon, sausage and egg sandwiches and I volunteered to help him with.  A decent, if a little messy cooked breakfast was well received by all.

After breakfast a pod of dolphins was spotted and that certainly raised my spirits - seeing dolphins in the wild is such an exhilarating experience, especially when you've only the sky, sea and 5 ugly crew members to look at all day.

Mid morning Berk is fuelling up again, transferring it from the drums to the tanks.  There's little improvement in the pump so there are the same problems as before - you would have thought he'd make more of an effort to fix the pump.  Like I say, I'm not a vindictive person (much) and I think Berk's suffered enough so I do what I can to assist from up on deck.  

Whilst filling up Berk must have had a Damascus Moment as I noticed we've changed direction and are now heading south-east.  I mention this to Jim who sheepishly says Berk has decided we won't have enough fuel to make it to Subic so we're now heading towards Bolinao where there's a port and fuel!  Apparently that's were we were heading for originally so there's nothing like sticking to a plan.

I cook lunch, consisting of spaghetti, tinned ham and pasta sauce - nothing too glamorous but filling and for me I feel a need to do something rather than just sitting around (or rather being thrown around)

In the afternoon, for want of something better to do, I take over from John with the fishing rod and actually manage to catch a small tuna, which wasn't big enough to eat so I threw it back and was criticised for doing so as John says I should have kept it to use as bait.

At this point the battery on my camera is getting dangerously low so I'm not taking too many photos, trying to conserve the battery for a special event (sinking, mutiny, a keel-hauling).

That evening Jim and me are on the 6pm to 9pm and 3am to 6am watch.

Our progress over the next 24 hours was as follows and shown in green:

Note the change in direction when we went from having plenty of fuel
to not having enough.