Annnnnnd….brownout, just as I step outside. No bother, not going to be home anyway.

Out swimming around was pretty good although visibility was poor. Got about 1.5 kilometers out and saw many schools, large schools of sea catfish both juvenile and young adult. Things should never be left alone so I dove down five meters to wave hands thru them. I’ve done that a hundred times and touch them always but never once getting pricked by the poisonous spines.

Turning south, I had to keep more aware of the surroundings because it was now the boat traffic lane closer to Angol coral gardens than shore… Whats that, 2 or 3km out? I keep looking up for jellyfish that’ve been edging in and I was glad for my long hair growth, half stuck under the mask like some cheesy 1975 yearbook picture.

It was out here that I saw some strands….then wiggeling strands… then small darts… then WTF is this trying to rape my mask?! In hindsight, it was a beautful example of a black/white flatworm about an inch long. Now, this was about 10 meters up and it was undulating wildly like a damselfish and seemed intent to land on my mask….but damselfish have tend to have fins, tails, heads, eyes….everything this didnt. Had to look it up later.

There use to be a lot of brain coral down on the south end but now it looks like its been used for construction platforms, not just dead on top from COT but also crushed and flattened like a standing platform. The new resort down there ripped out the cliff a year ago and now seems to have sliced into the cliff face and ground to hide a buried pipe that extends into the sea… tried following it but there’s all sorts of sand out there (where it was a rocky area before) and the fine, angelhair moss growing dead-centered in the sand. A type of moss that I’ve only seen growing around high phosphate areas like stagnant waters or drain pipes. I’ve never seen this type of moss/algae grow in the ocean with moving water, honestly I’ve only seen it in freshwater runnoff.

The surface over there had a nasty foam floating all over and it burned my eyes a bit. A small cut on the hand got infected pretty fast and still hasn’t healed many days later.

It was a good swim, almost 3 hours but when I came back we still had a brownout. Power came back about 9am and went out at noon again for 7 hours. Then out again at 8pm and back shortly before midnight. All total, Boracay had 15 hours of poweroutage in a single day…..again.

A Korean national drowned while snorkeling at vicinity waters of Coral Garden snorkeling area at Angol Point, Barangay Manoc-Manoc, Boracay Island, Aklan on June 13, 2010 at 10:30 AM.

Personnel of Coast Guard Detachment Boracay received the drowning incident report from a certain Mrs Sojen Lee of La Isla Hotel Beach Resort, Barangay Manoc-Manoc, Boracay Island.

Immediately, Coast Guard Detachment Boracay personnel proceeded to the said area onboard a Coast Guard rubber boat to conduct search and rescue operations and were able to recover a floating body approximately 250 meters off the shoreline of Barangay Manoc-Manoc.  The victim was identified as Chang Hyun Lim, 20 years old single and guest of La Isla Hotel Beach Resort.

According to investigation, Lim was with a group when they rented the motorboat Biha MPC-2 which is owned and operated by Boracay Island Hopping Association. While snorkeling at the said area, Lim had difficulty in breathing and fell unconscious.  

At 11:30 AM, the Coast Guard team immediately brought the victim to Caticlan Baptist Hospital Barangay Caticlan, Aklan but was declared dead on arrival.

  Copyright (and thanks) to the Philippine Coastguard for the press release as retrieved 2010-06-20T17:11:38. Future corrections and edits will not be reflected here unless specifically annotated.

I’m posting this as general news for clarification since the islands coconut telegraph had a few different stories.

In response they declared plans to make Boracay a Gun-Free Zone.

The Philippine National Police will bar the unauthorized carrying of guns on Boracay Island as part of measures to tighten security and stem violence in the country’s top tourist destination.

Chief Superintendent Isagani Cuevas, Western Visayas police director, said in a statement that his office was finalizing plans for the implementation of the ban on the 1,032-hectare island-resort.

So there I am in a trike on the main road, at that new shopping mall One MGM is building, and the single largest sign of new stores moved in— Guns and Ammo Trading.

The SEAIR flight out was delayed by 3 or 4 hours.. telling us, and I quote “the plane is broken”. Great PR skills. Around 11:00, they fed us. It was fried bits of fried bits. I couldn’t tell if it was chicken, pork, beef, dog, cat, or what. its was pure crunchy fried meat with a slight bit of flexibility… barely. See that fork? Took me a while to stick it in there and the tine broke off. This isn’t SEAIR’s food but something from the airport cantina they bought for us. I always fly SEAIR because they’re cheaper and I like the small planes and they have some of the best pilots. Unfortunately, this ticket was expensive – likely because they’re carrying extra fuel in case they have to divert on a weather basis.

We waited, they fed us this while waiting to get to Boracay. Fried bits of fried bits anyone?

Giving credit where credit is due. The Caticlan cantina.

At the last minute the weather turned foul and the plane was slammed into the runway, causing people to scream… no crash, just a massive hard landing. Finally made it back to the Land of Brownouts. Sure enough, we have them every day so it’s a good thing I sprang extra for a 7 hour battery on my new laptop. Boracay itself isn’t bad, but the trip getting here is never pleasant. I’m just glad I didn’t have to suffer that horrible, uncomfortable, packed-like-sardines trip from the Kalibo.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=484134&publicationSubCategoryId=65

Of the 38 foreigners, there were nine Indians, six Americans, five Koreans, four Bristish, three Germans, two Australians, two Canadians, and one each from Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Iran, France, Malaysia and Switzerland.

In the January 2009 crash, (truly a crash), they painted over all the Zest Air markings and colors within hours of impact. Seems that almost all their cashes involve landing and I can recall one that slammed the landing on a trip Manila. Having been in 2 minor plane crashes in the past 8 years, I was surprised the Asian Spirit landing gear didnt collapse from our landing.

• 1996, April: Asian Spirit starts operations.
• 1999, Dec 7th: Let L-410 Mountainside crash near Kasibu killing all 17 pax, (Asian Spirit).
• 2002, Sep 4th: de-Havilland Dash 7 from Manila to Caticlan (Boracay) could not deploy the right-side landing gear and returned to Manila for a crash landing, (Asian Spirit).
• 2005, Nov 14th: BAe-146-200 overshot the landing and stopped in a rice paddy at Catmaran, (Asian Spirit).
• 2008, Jan 2nd:  NAMC YS-11 overshot the landing and skidded off the runway in Masbate City, (Asian Spirit).
• 2009, Jan 11th: An MA-60 undershot the runway upon landing at Caticlan (Boracay), swerved sharply to the left and smashe through a concrete barrier, finally stopping parially insite of an airlines waiting lounge. Seriously crushing its nose. The plane’s landing gears and propellers also suffered major damage. Multiple injuries. (Zest Air)
• 2009, June 25th: An MA-60 overshot the runway when it landed at Caticlan, the airport serving Boracay, (Zest Air).