Cebu, Philippines

We spent a few weeks in Cebu in the Philippines: 12 April – 15 May 2013, and I would like to share some ideas with regards to things you can do to upgrade your boat for cheap while you are there.  We were there in April 2013, so I am afraid I have forgotten some details. I am sorry I did not write this report earlier. However, I still think this might be useful.

Upholstery

First of all, we did upholstery of mattresses and cushions in the boat. I just found contact details to one upholstery firm on the internet and used them. The work was OK but not excellent. It was very cheap. My contact was Ken +639228549496.

I remember the Norwegian Captain Hansen, that has his office above the chandlery close to the yacht club, had a recommendation for a firm they always used in Mandaue city. They might be better. The upholstery men do not hold any samples/swatches of fabrics.  Ask the upholstery men where to go. We went to a part of Cebu City where you find all these shops. Remember this is an area where you should not wear jewelry or anything that could be stolen.  One shop that Ken mentioned was called Sun Gold. We found what we needed in a shop about 500 meters from Sun Gold. The name was Progress Marketing. The address on the cash slip: Borromeo & P. Lopez Sts., Kalubihan, Cebu City. Tels: 2553497, 2560893, 2560889 and 4123274. Tel/Fax: 2554906.

We also made new mattresses for the master’s cabin.  There is a shop in Mandaue that cuts mattresses as you like them. You could choose between firm and soft and two more combinations. I am sorry I forgot the name of the shop, but it was new, quite big and shiny. I think the name was Uratex foam. The name and address on the invoice: Multimax Industries Corp. Plaridel Street, Umapad Mandaue city. Tel 032-268-6868, 032-236-0222 and 032-236-2039. UCC hotline 888-6800. The prices were not so cheap but OK.

Deck Covers

Then we found a man with a sewing machine. He made us new cushions for the cockpit, new covers for the winches and loudspeakers and he made a copy of our old bag for the dinghy. He did a beautiful piece of work for almost nothing. He does not know anything about boats, so we made the design, made drawings and explained very thoroughly and in every detail how this should look. He speaks English to some extent and pay attention to what you say. As he does not have any fabrics you need to provide this your selves. We bought canvas, web band, cushions, buckles, Velcro and everything we needed at Hyde sails in Lapu Lapu (Cebu Yacht Club is also situated in Lapu Lapu). The Sunpoly awning fabric grey was 275 Php. ½ sheet PVC NBR (enough for 9 cushions) was Php 2675. The Sauleda fabrics (Chinese Sunbrella copy) was Php 490/mtr. They also have mesh if you want to make sun shades for the cockpit. My contact there was Raymund +63 906 774 5236. The man with the sewing machine is named Ronnel. His phone number is +63 908 758 2163. To find his shop you must walk from the Yacht Club up to the main road. Take right and walk about 800 meters. You will pass a hotel on the right-hand side. Before you come to the walk over the bridge you will find a small shop with two men and their sewing machines on the right-hand side.

Hardware

We found a good hardware store in Mandaue City, Belmont Hardware. Address: M.C. Briones Hi-Way Maguikay, Mandaue City. Phone 3461262/3461163/3471514.

Restaurants

I can recommend the Thai restaurant in the shopping mall 10 min walk from the yacht club.

Fees

We were at anchor outside Cebu Yacht Club in pos 10:19.73N 123:68.44E. We had to pay dinghy landing fee 200 Php a day. You find Wifi and simple shower at the yacht club restaurant. We also bought a SIM-card and loaded it with Gigabytes so we could be online with our iPad. We found the mobile phone company in a big shopping mall in Lapu Lapu. The smaller places that sell SIM cards and airtime usually do not know how to load gigabytes.

The day we arrived at the yacht club, the lady called the officials. We paid Customs 1230+ 115Php and Quarantine  2500Php. Both showed up at the Yacht Club. I do not think it is correct that we shall pay this much. A friend from another boat called the customs office and they were very eager to get the name of the officer that came to the yacht club. The impression was that they did not know anything about this fee. We had to go to the immigration office ourselves, and there we had to pay 2500 Php. We were two boats and the other boat asked for a receipt. Later we checked the receipt and saw they had charged us for inspection of the boat with transport and meals and everything. We later checked with our embassy, and they said it is no fees for the first visa. It is only when you want to stay longer you need to pay. When we cleared out we were able to get 2000 Php back after a long quarrel where we threatened with the lawyer at the embassy. We talked to the chief of Immigration, and it was obvious that this was corruption and that everyone was involved.  My guess is that we could have reduced at least the customs fee also if we had more patience left.

A comment about Port Carmen:

We had hoped to have a haul out there at Zeke’s marina, but he has only one cradle and that had been occupied for months by one boat.  What he can offer is to secure alongside his jetty and wait for a tide that is low enough so you can do some work.

Watching whale sharks close to Oslob, Cebu:

We anchored in position 09: 25.98N 123: 22.74E. Every morning they feed the whale sharks outside the beach with all the flags in different colors. It is very touristy and they charge as much as 1000 php for a 30 min swim. But it was worth it to see these fantastic gentle giants. The whale sharks visited our yacht as well for free a few times.  Here is a link to a video from the whale shark feeding: http://youtu.be/VNnfV_yepUE

Inger Johanne  “Johanna” Moen

S/Y Flow

Norway

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