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.
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| 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.
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| Moored up in Bolinao |
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| 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.
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| John & Jim chew the fat |
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| 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):
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