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cross first erected at that time.
Padre Burgos on Leyte was next. Like Limasawa, the topography here is characterized by cliffs, caves and white sand beaches. Anchoring was a real challenge. Had the wind stirred we would have dragged. From this area boats head out to look for Shark Whales. None had been sighted in the past few days so we missed an opportunity. Sogood Bay is quite spectacular and shelter from bad weather may be found where Panoan Island meets Leyte.
We carried on up Leyte's SW coast to Maasin, in time to view huge handmade Christmas lanterns competitively displayed in the town square amid pretty lights and happy throngs of people. Then it began to rain. It rained for five days solid allowing us no escape from the boat. It rained until a waterlogged hillside could hold no more and carried away two hundred squatter's shacks and buried many people alive. It was a huge loss of life just before Christmas.
When the rain stopped we attempted to leave, but the seas along the coast were too big to buck so we returned. The next day seemed better, and was, until that evening when gale winds began to kick up a wild chop. Sea Quest tucked up her skirts and surged along. We arrived at the entrance to Cebu Harbor hours earlier than expected. It was still dark and the lights we saw were difficult to relate to our old charts. After a terse hour of navigating the shoaling approaches we dropped anchor across from Cebu Yacht Club.
Mactan Island gives shelter for the coastline of Cebu. The narrows between them form the harbor which is spanned by two high bridges. Squatters shacks line the shores making no place outside of Cebu Yacht Club safe to leave a yacht. And CYC is not ideal. It is small and crowded. They have only one or two berths for guests. To keep even this space free, charges are scaled to become exorbitant in just ten days. We needed to pick up an express freighted engine part. As soon as we got it we left. Before going we checked out the shipyard there, but locals told us that Kudat in Borneo would cost us less and provide better facilities.
New Year's night in Cebu City cannot go un-remarked. From 11:00 PM private individuals vie with each other to put on the most spectacular display of fireworks. There is continuous explosions and shrieking rockets until nearly 2:00 AM. Millions of dollars must be spent by the rich that night and the poor do their best to keep up. When they run out of rockets they discharge their guns into the air. Every year people are killed by falling bullets.
Bohol lies a days sail to the south from Cebu. There we anchored at Tagbilaran Harbor, tucked into shallow water to stay out of the way of high speed ferry boats. We spent little time in town but hired a taxi to take us around the island to see the sights. The island is beautiful, especially the interior where you can raft on cool rivers. Highlight for us were the amazing Chocolate Hills and the tiny hand-sized Tarsiers, the smallest primates in the world.
Another long day's sail took us to Siquijor. The
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