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Sunset sails in Manila Bay are fantastic, but just as nice is sailing at night. |
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A day sail to Corregidor from Manila is fun. If the wind is available and not blowing directly from the south west. The heading to go to Corregidor would usually be 240 degrees wind allowing. The shoals are just past Sangley Point. The San Nicolas shoals and this marker will be on the port side if you follow the 240 heading from Manila Yacht Club. Boats with deep keels usually stay well away of the shoals. A map called Manila Bay and Approaches is useful for checking the depths of the shoals. It ranges from 6meters to 1 meter in depth so I prefer to stay on the correct side of the marker just to be safe. When sailing at night sometimes a bunch of fishermen are near this marker. So stay alert they don't always have lights, and even when they do they sometimes don't use them. |
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I always wondered how these shoals got their name. It was given that name since the Spanish time. The shoal of San Nicolas had a sand bank, and it was well known that a loaded Galleon could not come in or go out of it. Well, San Nicolas is the patron saint of sailors, so its no surprise the dangerous reef is named after him. After all he has always been called upon to save sailors from drowning or shipwreck, so I guess it must have happened often enough here for the name to stick. In the course of investigation I found that the name Cavite came from the description of the land mass we now call Sangley Point. Cavite was called Cavit or fishhook because of the land (Sangley Point) which juts of to the sea. The Tagalogs used to call it Tanguay which means a point of land which juts into the sea. |
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The Spanish who were here since 1571 never liked the Chinese merchants who would come to trade. The Chinese were called xiang-li. They were only allowed to trade on a narrow strip of land across the bay, what we now call Sangley Point. The Spanish despite their distrust hired the highly skilled xiang-li to build the galleons that were the backbone of the trade between Manila and Acapulco. In 1871 the age of steam was overtaking the age of sail and the eastern end of Sangley Point became a coaling station to support the Spanish naval base in Cavite. |
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Corregidor is a great place to visit for nature tripping. Not too many people, great views, lots of historical sites and lovely sunsets. The resort area and hotel is 2 star or so, the island itself is much nicer than the accomodations. Food is available in the Hotel.If you are staying overnight the hotel is much nicer than the cottages. There is a very good shuttlebus that takes people around. The water begins to get much bluer around Corregidor, I saw two dolphins here last January. |
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This is an aerial view of the two piers taken by David MacLean in 1982. The south side is the one with the one long pier. The north pier was called the Army dock and it has three large piers. I have not tried docking on the North side but on occular inspection it seemes like the sailboat friendly side. We did drop anchor on the North Side because the wind at the time was coming from the South. I will update this when I visit the next time. The boaters should bring a dingy cause the island does not have one and the only boat around for hire was a banca so it would be difficult to get that near a boat. |
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The only unsinkable ship in the world. It can't sink cause its an island made to look like a ship. It is Fort Drum or El Fraile Island. The island is inbetween Corregidor and Caylabne. Or for those who think in nautical terms, from the Manila Yacht Club take the heading 240 degrees for 20nm then switch to 210 degrees. You will see it on your port side. To find out more about Fort Drum look at this link |
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