"Escape from Subic"

I'm almost finished down here , so today i escaped the marina which has been my home , or jail , for the past 4 months . I took the boat 2 hours north to a deserted bay and i'm finally enjoying the Philippines like i should have : No noise , no crowd , great beach and an amazing sunset !!! Spent the day diving to clean the hull and went for a long swim , my first since i got here !
And sorry for not updating the blog more often but the past months have been totally uninteresting : waiting for parts , fixing stuff , painting ... boring stuff to write about ! But it's all finished now (well , almost) and Kalakuta is in one piece again . I'll be waiting for the cyclone season to start the trip down south , this will probably happen around Mid-December . And i promise i'lll post a few pictures of the ship when i get back to Subic , it's changed quite a bit since my last crossing :)
Cheers
Ben

"Smurf and Bryson , aka Santa Claus"

There's a south american feeling to this place . It doesn't feel like Asia at all . I constantly have to remind myself that I'm not in some mexican border town . The place is full of U.S Navy retirees , expats with a dodgy past and like Mexico , the local law enforcement gentlemen have a deeply american-influenced sense of fashion . I could also be lost in some Caribbean ex-Spanish colony . The Filipino's genes are deeply mixed by centuries of colonization . And the local alcoholic delicacy is called Tanduy : Not another one of those lethal Rice based fire-starter beverage but a really nice brand of locally distilled Rum !!! I recently stopped buying the really cheap one as i learned from an acquaintance that making a 75 pesos (about 2 dollars) full-size bottle of Rum is quite impossible unless it's ethanol based :) I'm now spending a little bit more for the really really nice one , and the morning headaches have magically disappeared . At night , driving through Barreto , the Tijuana-flavored part of town , really reminds me of times spent south of the border . David , aka Smurf , calls that place the Dark Side , and he's quite fond of it .
The Skipper was born in New Zealand and he's now enjoying life aboard Lady Emma , his beautiful 55ft sailing yacht . Smurf , an australian passport holder , replied to his ad on the internet asking for a crew and joined him aboard his ship . Both of the are making a great couple , and perfect partners in crime . I truly believe they'll never leave this place , life for them is just too good here .
The cruising life is a good life .

"Around The World"

The List is Dead , Long Live The List !!! I finally left Hong Kong yesterday and i'm on my way to the Philippines right now ;)
I was on watch this morning and i enjoyed my first sunrise onboard ! 130 miles away from Hong Kong and 420 miles to go !!! What a great feeling , watching the world go by at 6 knots . It's so much more than what i was expecting , i don't know how to write about it ! I just can't get rid of that big smile on my face :)
James Brown blasting from the speakers in the Pilot House , Kalakuta gently rolling with the South china sea swell , I'm like a turtle , slowly moving my house to a new country .
Big Kisses to all who believed in what i was doing, and supported me and my crazy dreams . And a big FUCK YOU to all the others who tried to make me doubt :)
Free Your Mind , And Your Ass Will Follow !

Ben , Transmitting live from the South China Sea : 20° 32' 054 North , 116° 18' 067 East

Hong Kong !!!
At last I'm out of the yard and at this moment enjoying my first relaxed morning at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in Causeway Bay . Sorry for not posting anything yesterday but i had no more energy after the departure from mainland China ... Why ??? , well it went like this :
Woke up early on Friday morning , It was going to e a hectic day as the final cosmetic repairs were done to the Boat (at the last minute of course) . So i packed my bags and checked out to be at the yard around 8 a.m , the plan was to leave around 1 p.m . Got to there only to discover that the guys had punched a hole through the roof while taking the mast down ( to get under the bridges on our way out to Sea ) !!! Instant nervous breakdown , we were not going to leave that day : I suddenly felt the urge of strangling a couple of my little chinese friends . So instead of spending my life in a communist jail cell , i went for a last bike trip through town . When i got back after a hour , they were already fixing the damage . They're so used to breaking and repairing that i got confident again : i'll be leaving this place soon . By the end of the afternoon everything was ready at last and it was time for celebrating : I invited all the guys (close to 60 people) to eat dinner at a local restaurant and ended up doing shots of some very strong rice alcohol at every table for the all evening . I barely ate that night and stumbled back to the boat for my first night onboard .
4.30 a.m next morning , Mr.Gong , Fido (the co-owner of the yard) and I slowly motored down the river towards the Doumen customs , met the workers there to raise the mast and they only managed to break my radio antenna this time : Good job guys !!! Immigration officials were super fast to clear us out and at at last i was on my way !!! We got past Zhuhai , Macao and out to sea for an 8 hours trip to Hong Kong . We had a bit of a rough sea and very little food to eat but it felt great :) I was cruising on my ship for the first time and all the stress accumulated for the past 2 1/2 years disappeared in a second . It was a feeling of pure Joy , even if i was seriously regretting the previous night's drinking !!!
After a very bumpy trip in 25 knots of wind , it was already night time when we got to tie down at the dock in Hong Kong . We were surrounded by brightly lit skyscrapers , it looked like i was in a scene from Blade Runner ;) We quickly went for dinner , checked in at the immigration building and went back to sleep to the Boat .
Sunday went by very quickly as i was in a bad shape : the drinking and the stress had taken it's toll and i slept on the boat all day , only getting up to go get some food . In the evening i went out to eat sushis , watched a movie in bed and passed out very early .
So here i am on this lovely Hong Kong Morning . It's holiday here today (Buddha's Birthday) , so i'm taking it easy , sitting in the pilot house writing this post , listening to music and watching the ladies in their little wooden water taxis (San-Pan) going back and forth between the dock and the yachts . I'll soon be using one of them to get to town and send you this little message !!!
The trip has begun .
See you soon for more Hong Kong report live from Kalakuta , Ben Ben's new home .