Randal and Carol on the zigzag path. You can see the stones better.  They were underfoot too, though not so stuck out.  It did slow one down.  Good picture of the new hats. 

Not sure if that’s one of the bronze urns in front.  We weren’t able to get anywhere near the front of the building.  Really too bad

.

See the sign?  Unfortunately the small part of the museum we were allowed into was about as makeshift.  It was quite run down too.  No food, drink, touching exhibits or photos allowed.  You couldn’t really get close enough to the photos to see them or even read the material that went with it.  There was no official start of end point.  Not good.  Too bad. 

We could see the stained glass from a distance. This is with my zoom.  But again, we couldn’t enter the part of the Colonnade to see the windows or much else.  Just the basement museum. Nothing in the booklet explains the window’s images.   Too bad.

  Carol set up her tripod for this photo.  Randal and I have the same hats. I think the hanging lines are from the 18 Flag Poles that hold the USAFFE Division/Units colors.  But that’s a guess and I cropped most of it out anyway.    C.C.

Carol setting up the tripod for the photo.

This is not a photo taken by Carol. 

While she was setting up her camera I was taking a series of photos of her doing it.  I then tried to take a photo of Randal and me, you know stick the camera out arms length and “click.”  I took all of the photos of Carol setting up her tripod and then added this at the end instead of the photo she took and emailed it to her.  We tricked her into looking at her email while she was on the boat and we all really laughed.  I’m still laughing.

  Randal and I wait in the shade while Carol calls her driver to come get us and our matching hats. C.C.

Toyota SUV

Then it was on to Balanga for an early lunch.

Carol and I waited in the short line and took the elevator to the cross arms.  Neither of us wanted to admit to friends that we were there and didn’t do it. We weren’t afraid,  just impatient and there was a line.   In some ways that was the only reason to have done it.  There was nothing up there, and the view wasn’t so great and the line to go back down was as long as the one coming up, which makes sense.  But I’m glad that we did it and here’s proof.  Randal opted out and sat in the shade swapping stories with a Philipino women there with her family.  When Randal told us about her, he referred to her as an old woman.  Carol asked how old?  60 said Randal and Carol and I both had the same reaction at the same time!  Randal will be 60 in September.  We asked how he could call her old and he said, she just seemed old and her life story of caring for several “unwanted” children made him see her as “old.'”  Unfortunately just as Carol had been about to surreptitiously manage a photo of her with Randal,  it was our turn to get into the elevator. 

This is the inside of the cross arm.  Carol with her tripod and her new hat.  Did I mention that Randal bought us all new hats?  Randal and I have the same kind, Carol opted for the camouflage version.

  I had my camera strap around my neck!  C.C.

  I stuck my camera our the window and snapped this picture.  You can see the road up the mountain, the Colonnade from the back and a little side stage area and some of the zigzag down from where the cross is.

Our next stop was the museum in the Colonnade.

We’re walking down the hill from the Cross to the museum. 

You can see the Colonnade with it’s stained glass window.  C.C.

Carol made us pose for this photo and she really liked it.  You can see Randal sitting waiting for us to catch up.  We had commented that it was difficult to walk on the path because of the raised stones.  The little booklet we bought in the souvenir stand says this about the stones.  “From the Colonnade to the Cross is a 14-flight zigzagging footpath on the mountain slope, paved with bloodstones from Corregidor Island.”  I looked up “bloodstone ” and it said that in the Philippines red colored sandstone is called bloodstone. 

I guess that the 14 flight means the different sections.  C.C.

You can see the cross and the zigzagging path.  C.C.

  This photo was taken much later during the day.  But my sister requested it so you could see the cross in relation to the mountain and area.   “The Bataan Peninsula encompasses and area of  137,296 hectares.  Upland hills and mountain regions cover 80.9% of the total area while lowland and plains extend  to 19.1% ”   from the little booklet we bought at Mt. Samat.   C.C. 

From The Battle for Battan  by Prof. Ricardo T. Jose.   It shows Mt. Samat.  It also shows Balanga (silent g) the capital of Battan where we had lunch and Orani where we visited Carol’s aunt. To avoid the Japanese during the Bataan invasion, Carol’s parents, children at the time, escaped with their parents to the countryside.  I can’t remember if Carol said it was her mom or aunt who said the kids had fun!  Most families and neighborhoods evacuated together and all helped each other survive.  One of Carol’s uncles didn’t remain with the family and he was never seen again, probably killed by the Japanese. 

Subic Bay is also shown and Morong too where we have been with Bob and Audrey and Mariveles where we have been with Nick and Zaida.  When I had searched the web for directions to Mt. Samat they would tell me to go to Manila and  take the one hour ferry!  When we go to Puerto Galera from Subic you follow the coast line.  But you have to cross Manila Bay  just past the tip of Mariveles.  We don’t head into the bay, but just keep going south to the next island The Bay opening makes a large area of open water and that can make for lots of rocking and rolling!

To be continued

Ruth Johnson

DoraMac

We had such a wonderful day in the Bataan Peninsular with Carol that I am going to send several emails about it.  Carol and I took lots of photos of the sites, of each other;  and of there are several of all of us taken by passers bye or with her tripod.  Carol is the CFO of Wyeth Philippines and her company provides her with a car and driver, not only for work, but for all of her excursions.  Sunday morning, at 7:30 on the dot, we met Carol and her driver in the lobby of the SBYC.  Then it was off to Mount Samat.  I had seen the cross from a distance on our Mariveles outing with Nick and Zaida.  When I read about it afterwards, I learned that you could ride an elevator to the cross arms for the view.  I had also read that the complex had a museum dedicated to the Bataan Death March and other World War 2 history.  When Carol was in Subic over Easter we had made a plan to visit Mt. Samat, something of interest to her, also.  Family ties to Bataan  was another reason for Carol wanted to make the trip.

It was a pleasant drive; not so much traffic and an experience driver who knew the area.  For this trip Carol had left her Volvo at the SBYC and we had a Toyota SUV instead, very roomy and comfortable.  It took a little over an hour.  When Carol had told the head of security for Wyeth Philippines she was going to hike up Mt. Samat he suggested we drive.  There are poisonous snakes and things….in the jungle area up the mountain.  I must admit I was a tad disappointed, until I got there.  It was dense jungle, not a path in visible, and straight up.  Now, one could have walked up the road, but driving was more sensible as well as safe.  I’m not sure I would have even liked driving up the steep, winding road unless I absolutely trusted the car to keep going up.  It was quite pretty; like parkway pretty.  You’ll see in the photos.

Some facts about the Mt. Samat Shrine:

It is a memorial to the soldiers, American and Philippine, who were forced to surrender to the Japanese on April 9th, 1942 and then forced to participate in the Death March through the Bataan Peninsular.

It is Pilar, Bataan, Philippines

Inaugurated 1970

The Cross:

The Memorial Cross is 555 meters above sea level made of reinforced concrete and steel.

The height of the cross is 92 meters from the base.

The height of the arms is 74 meters from the base

The length of the entire arm is 30 meters

The viewing gallery 18 ft wide and 90 ft long and about 7 ft high

The first 11 meters of the base is capped with sculptural slabs and bas reliefs of battles and historical events, above the base it “chipped granolithic marble.”

The Colonnade:  (Most of it was blocked off in preparation for President Arroyo’s visit Wednesday.  April 9th is the official holiday to remember the surrender of Major General Edward P. King, Jr. senior American officer to the Japanese and the beginning of the Death March.)  Because we could only enter the Colonnade from the back and see only a small exhibit in the basement, I am just copying what the guide book says with no comment. 

   “The Colonnade is a marble-capped structure with an altar, esplanade and a museum.  There are several historical depictions on the Colonnade which include the following:

Stained Glass Mural behind the altar

19 Scriptural Marble Reliefs and Parapet

18 Bronze Insignias of USAFFE Division Units

2 bronze urns symbolic of the eternal flame

18 flag poles with colors of USAFFE Divisions/Units and Inscriptions of the Battle of Bataan

I have to admit that 56 year after the event, most visitors were far from somber or sad.  It was a beautiful sunny day with a cooling breeze. 

The C.C. after a photo indicates that Carol took the photo.  Anonymous means a kind passerby took the photo.

Beautiful valley visible below. C.C.

  You can see some of the bas relief at the base.  Anonymous

  Carol’s photo of me gives a sense of the height.   Just over my head is Jose Rizal being executed, shot in the back by the Spanish.  C.C.

  The back side of the base.  The top right relief is a cameraman, but the guide book doesn’t tell what all of the sculptures are.   C.C.

Randal buys hats!  Randal wanted a hat to keep the sun off his ears.  We all got new hats.  C.C.

Carol and I wait for our turn up the elevator.  We are both wearing our new hats.  Anonymous

The clouds moving rapidly past the top of the cross made it look as if it were pitching forward!  Very disconcerting!!  The elevator up to the top was small and crowded.  We couldn’t see out of the windows.  The relief at the bottom, just over the door into the cross is Lapu Lapu.  C. C.  

“Lapu-Lapu was a native chieftain on Mactan , he was known as the first native of the archipelago to have resisted Spanish colonization. He is now regarded as the first National hero of the Philippines.”  from Wikipedia.

Hi Everyone,

  Randal and I are fine.  My Red Sox are not so fine.  3 wins, 4 losses and they are at the bottom of the AL East.  Only one way to go!  I have no sense of panic yet.  They’ll be fine.  It’s amazing how a World Series Championship the prior year calms one’s fears.

Our friend Carol Carino came back to visit this weekend and we have had a wonderful, too short time. This weekend is a holiday weekend to honor the memory of the  Bataan Death March.  Mt. Samat. in Bataan,  has a memorial and museum dedicated to the Bataan March and we went there Sunday. It was an all day Bataan adventure with Carol as the leader and her driver for the guide.  It was great!   Saturday we took DoraMac into the bay to test our new anchor, and the redone “fish” which, sadly,  still aren’t perfect, but are getting better.  Everything needs to be tested to make sure it will work; and then it will be galvanized.  Our friend Greg came with us too, to help and offer advice and support.  The weather was slightly overcast so that made it nice; not so hot!  That evening we all went back to our new favorite restaurant,  Aresi for a meal of good food and conversation. 

  Earlier this week we had tested the anchor in the sand on the beach.  Nick had suggested this test and it did seem to go well.  Some of the sand was really too hard for the anchor to dig into, so that part of the test didn’t work out.  Here are some photos of the test with Nick and then the bay test with Carol and Greg.

Arriving at the beach with the anchor.  Nick and Randal make a plan.

We didn’t bring the real anchor chain, but just a heavy duty rope for the test.

Attaching the line to the suv.

The anchor has dug into the sand.  The man on the right owns the Lighthouse Hotel and also the sailboat, Purpose Driven.  Randal had sat with him at the last awards dinner for the races.  I opted not to go to the dinner.

First the anchor had been pulled straight back. 

This test pulled it sideways to see if it would turn itself around and dig in.  It dug in well enough to spin Nick’s wheels.

  The anchor

  This is actually not far down the beach from our land test.  We needed to get into shallow enough water and the depth goes from like 100 ft to 5 feet very sharply and that is only a very slight exaggeration.

  The anchor seemed to work well.  We had forgotten our washdown hose so the anchor is a bit mucky.

  Randal, Greg, and Carol on our way back to the SBYC

Ruth Johnson

DoraMac

Last Saturday I walked over to the Olongapo Cemetery to take race photos.  I didn’t get any race photos, but I did get some river photos that I like.

  The Kalaklan Gateway, one of several gateways into and out of Subic.  It is an odd experience; but one more of an issue for Filipinos than westerners.  I just walked through either way, any gate.   This is looking out from Subic towards Olongapo.

  The Olongapo side of the river

A boy and his small banca. 

A very reclusive scavenger.  Not far from here, around the point on the bay side is a public beach. There is a tower with a navigation light overlooking the bay entrance and it was there that I tried to go for photos.  But it was closed to the public and had a guard. 

This might be one of my favorite photos of the area. 

How many guys does it take to move one thin line?  These 5 plus 2 others.  You can see how they keep the sun off; they do look like terrorists!  But obviously they aren’t.  They were parading along single file holding the wire over their heads.  When they saw that I had taken out my camera, they preferred to pose.  At this point I had already crossed back into Subic and was on my way down Dewey Avenue back towards the yacht club. 

  Two of our favorites; Magnolia ice cream and San Miguel beer.  This was the distributor where we go to stock up on beer. 

Hi Everyone,

  These are just some recent, semi-related photos.  By the way, the photo with the sailboat Purpose Driven was an oxymoron because the image of the crew just sitting there waiting to do something was just the opposite of the boat’s name.  Oh well.

  I was testing the 6X zoom on the Canon.  The local police department was out for a morning jog in the heat.  The front of the group was smiling…..

  Back of the line needed help from their buddies.

Usually the police, (pulis here in the Philippines,) are on bicycles.  There were lots of people here over the long Easter holiday, but nothing needed crowd control which is what horses are usually for. 

  I guess their speed was being monitored.  Good guys with black hats!  Nice horses.

   Across Rizal Highway from the SBYC pony rides are now available. 

I’m taking a pass after my Chinese experience. 

These 2 kids don’t look like riding with be their thing.  The little girl in her pink Easter bonnet is adorable.

Anxious moms. 

My mother had a huge red bag and by the end of any outing everything no one wanted would be in that red bag; sweaters, you name it.  One home movie shows my mom with the loaded red bag and holding our  dog on a leash.  We were visiting Fort Ticonderoga in New York State.  My sister and I are skipping along unencumbered and my father is taking the home movie.  This image of the lady on the left loaded with bags reminded me of that.  Plus, when we were about the size of these kids,  it was my mother who took us for riding lessons. 

Yesterday morning one of the racing boats had its huge spinnaker flapping in the very little breeze. Maybe drying it out from yesterday’s race. 

The sail is designed to look like the Philippine flag.  The Philippine boat, Full Metal Jacket did win the Hong Kong to Subic race, but I honestly don’t know if that is it or not and I am honestly too lazy to walk over to the other dock to look.

Randal had his camera on the boat yesterday.  Here are some of the photos.  I think they still came in 6th of 8.  That seems to be their position everyday.

. Ray wolfe is on the left in Yellow. 

I think this is when they were just waiting for the race to start.  They have to wait for the wind to be in the correct direction; race rules,  and for there to be any wind at all.

What to do while you wait.  Ray and 2 of the Taiwanese crew members

Performing rap songs to fill the time.

  Oxymoron.  Get it?  One of the other sail boats in the same class.

Just waiting.

Here comes Jon Kerner. 

His Philippine wife had returned to school and Jon had been that morning to her high school graduation ceremony.

I believe Purpose Driven is the other half of the Taiwanese group.

One of the bigger boats racing along

Mandrake is one of the larger boats too.  They are our neighbors in SBYC. 

I don’t know if I would really like that.  I know I don’t like it when Doramac rolls though sailboats are supposed to and we try to avoid it.

Not a great photo, but these are the big boys, the Rolex race group.

Hopefully Randal will write up his racing experience.

This morning I was up at 5:30 because we had to be ready at 7 to move the Nagle’s boat to another boatyard where it would be painted.  Dave and Dorothy are in Hong Kong so Randal was asked to move the boat.  Since I didn’t know if my help would be needed I was ready to go too.  It’s about a half mile walk back from the boatyard, so I needed to be dressed for that kind of adventure.  My help wasn’t needed, but I did do a laundry and then made 6 peanut butter and jam sandwiches for Randal to take on today’s last race.  No food is provided and they are out there from 9am until almost 3pm because of the “no wind” problem that comes up mid-race.  I sent Randal off with a batch of brownies yesterday.  At 9am I loaded my camera, watercolor journal, and some flavored drinking water and went to walk over to the Subic church for some preliminary sketch photos and then on to the Olongapo Cemetery on the hill to see if I could photograph the start of the race.  I took photos at the church, some on the Kalakan Bridge and then realized that my camera batteries were dead! Damn!!!  I actually had charged spares on the boat.  Damn!!!!  I walked back across the bridge and down the road a bit to a convenience store and bought some barely useable batteries and then walked back across the bridge again and up the hill road out of Olongapo.  There are a few places where I could sort of see where the boats were waiting for the race to start, but they were really too far, even with my zoom lens.  By then I was getting hot and out of fuel.  I hadn’t brought Gatorade or a pb and j sandwich,  just flavored water so that wasn’t much help.  My climbs up into the cemetery didn’t take me high enough and I was just really getting too hot.  And from what I could see it would still be a while before any action would take place, either from the boats waiting to start or from any passing back from earlier start times.  I walked across the road from the cemetery and followed the little walk through the brush that takes you to a beach area and a tower.  Since there were families going to the beach I felt comfortable to go too, but a guard stopped me when I started up the tower stairs, like Great Wall steps at this point.  The tower was not open to the public.  Definitely time to go.  I bought a mystery ice cream treat from a man selling them and headed back across the road to the cemetery for one more try.  But I still wasn’t high enough and some of the “living cemetery residents” were starting to wonder what I was doing there.  Time to go. Back across the bridge and through the Kalakan Gate  ( the guards made a comment that I must be having a busy day.)  I was broiling by then so stopped at the convenience store again for water. 

I had planned to stop at the church on my way home to make a sketch in my watercolor journal that I could later paint.  I picked a bench under a tree near the front of the church and sat and sketched for about 30 minutes.  People were working, decorating the church pews with flowers.  They worked and I sketched and no one came to see what I was doing which was great.  I was in the shade and quite enjoyed it.  Then I had to walk the mile back to the boat, ugh!  I am still hot and tired, but at least I am out of the sun.  It is 3:05 pm and Randal still isn’t back.  Luckily he had the pb and j sandwiches.

It is 5:17 pm now and Randal is off to the awards ceremony.  I was just too pooped and far less interested.  I really saw too little of the racing and the ceremony might not start till after 6.  Their is a shuttle bus for the crew members over to the Lighthouse Hotel on the beach.  It is where I watched the boats the first day.  The Hotel is the Race headquarters and one of the sponsors.  Our friend Carol stayed there and said it was quite nice.  The lobby is all glass with a lovely view of the beach. 

Ru

Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 3:18 PM

Subject: Race Day part 2

Crew members, Ray in blue hat, Randal and Jon Kerner going over the route. 

Folks here still smoke! Bad!!

Actually a good hair day!  So cool.

Jon and Randal as they motor out of the marina over to the far side of the bay where the race would start.  The pink flag indicates what race they will be in.  Doesn’t the flag look a bit like the VA flag?  Though a comfortable place to sit and stay out of the way of the crew, Randal got a fairly bad burn on his thighs so he wore longer shorts and lots of sun screen today.

The crew.

A photo of the boat.

A parade of boats leaving the marina for the race starting point.

Just before the start they line up and try to be in the correct position when the starting gun goes off.  The small boat is just out there fishing.  It really is a good distance from the sailboats. 

I didn’t get a good shot of the big boys, the one’s with the rounded billowing sails.  One of them, Jelik will compete in the America’s Cup representing Hong Kong.  Many came here during the Hong Kong to Subic race which was won by a Philippine boat. 

It wasn’t so fun to watch because I wasn’t really close enough.  My 6x zoom and some cropping makes it look more exciting than standing on shore.  Randal came back starving and sunburnt.  The boat came in 6th of 8.  Hopefully all will improve as the races continue.

Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 2:36 PM

Subject: Race Day ! part 1

Hi Everyone,

  I hope my emails are back to normal.  We shall see.  Also, www.Odgamer.info should be back online soon.  It looks a little different, but Darlene and Marino will work with it so that’s great.  Thanks guys!  I really do love my library.  I will divide this up because of all of the photos.

Tuesday late afternoon, our friend and boat surveyor Ray Wolfe came by to recruit Randal to be the navigator for Jon Kerner’s sailboat for the President’s Cup Races.  Jon is a retired College of William and Mary sociology professor.  I thought the flag on the back of his boat was from VA, colors were right though the symbol wasn’t.  Actually it is from Belize.  A sailing club from Taiwan has chartered Jon’s boat to begin learning about racing. Ray would be the captain and teacher.  But, last minute, Ray needed a replacement navigator who owned and could use a handheld GPS.  Well, it took a while, but Randal found our handheld GPS and figured out how to use it.  Because we have other nav gear we don’t use the handheld GPS.  Now, however, if our electronic system should fail and our back up system should fail, Randal can use the handheld GPS.  So this all was a good thing for us too.  Randal spent the evening plotting the course on another chart plotter product we have so he could bring it up on his laptop screen and trace the route.  Randal wanted to be totally prepared for his first racing experience.  You have to navigate from point to point because the course covers lots of the bay and goes as far as Grande Island which is an hour’s cruise for us; you can’t see ahead where your next marker is.  That’s why you need a navigator to tell you what your heading should be from marker to marker.  Hope that makes sense.  If Randal writes up his experience I’ll forward those.  He did take his camera today, the second race day.  Though it had been fairly windy up to race week, the winds seem to be lessening for the actual race days and today’s race was delayed for lack of wind.  The wind picked up and the race started about an hour late.

Wednesday was the first race day.  There was an opening ceremony.

Getting ready to perform  The man in black in President of the Yacht club.

They were quite cute and seemed to enjoy performing.  They must have been roasting in those hats though.  It was in the mid 80s.

  They set of air guns and yell, let the races begin…or something along those lines.

Ray has just taken a photo of the Taiwanese crew.  They take turns going out for different races. You might not be able to tell from the photo, but there are both boys and girls.

Hi Everyone,

Look through any door, window, or porthole on Doramac and you will see racing sail boats and green and gold ROLEX flags.  It is the time for the President’s Cup Regatta that comes with all of the trappings of any high priced sporting event.

“The 16th President’s Cup Regatta (PCR) organized by the Manila Yacht Club and hosted by The Lighthouse Marina Resort and Subic Bay Yacht Club will unfold in Subic Bay in the Easter summer week in 2008 for 7 glorious days of sailing competition. It will be in two parts. The first from March 21-24 will run races in the one design class (Platus), dinghys (mirrors, lawins, optimists and hobies) and the second from March 25-29 for the keelboat class.

This prestigious annual regatta  which is very much part of the Asian Yachting Circuit draws participants not only from the Philippines but from all corners of the world, attracting great global media attention owing to the big names who take up the challenge, as well as the exciting and adventurous races it offers. It immediately follows the China Sea Race (CSR) which is now included in Rolex’s distinguished portfolio of offshore races along with Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Rolex Fastnet Race, both considered the pinnacle of ocean racing. The Rolex China Sea Race, is 565 nautical miles long and will start in Hong Kong on Thursday, 20 March 2008 and finish in Subic Bay. The CSR and the PCR attract and bring in the international yachting fraternity of grand prix keel boats and sailors and participants from all over the world and highlight Subic Bay as a popular sailing arena in the Philippines in the week long activity.

          Because the participants and the hordes of personalities they attract have been distinguished by their own affluence and predisposition to high life, sailing being an expensive sport, the event has become a great launching pad and showcase for many interests that cater to and purvey to their expensive tastes.”

It really is not only quite a sight, but with all of the Brits and Aussies, it sounds very different than our American Diesel Duck contingent.  We definitely didn’t arrive with flags waving and bagpipes playing.  But that is exactly how the Imagine did arrive.  She is tied up directly across the way, Fortis Mandrake is to our left and MoonBlue  to our right. 

I did take lots of photos.

  The Jelik arrived yesterday with very little fanfare.

  The Fortis arrived a bit earlier to a fairly large crowd and camera crew.  She was the first to arrive.

  Imagine’s bagpiper.  He looks a bit the Curt Schilling of the Red Sox!

Here she is backing into the slip.  Not so easy at all.

  So different in shape from Doramac.

I am sitting in our pilot house taking this photo.  I think this works because most folks are ready to turn in early and know what is the expected Marina behavior.  No radio blaring at midnight or that kind of thing.

  She was a crew member on Imagine and I just liked her hair!

  Guess who the big sponsor is?

  Lots of boats and crews.  Most crew members look to be between 30 something to 60 something. 

Oddly with all of the arrival hoopla and the increased number of boats, the marina is very quiet this morning as I finish up this email.  I stopped writing yesterday when our friend Audrey came to collect us for our “scuba diving introduction.”    That will come next email. 

PS for Bob.  Audrey says that you will be sorry to have missed the sailing boats.  I think you will be sorry to have missed our scuba lesson!