I was feeling less excited about the 5 day sailing cruise with Tao Philippines with a 39 degree temperature and a throat feeling like sandpaper. But hey it was still going to be an adventure.
The group we were with seemed fun and friendly and there seemed like a lot of crew. Things got off to a good start when 5 minutes after leaving El Nido tropical fruit was produced and animated chatter amongst the travelers got underway.
There is nothing for me like being on the water to clear the head. And there is a lot going on In my head right now - two jobs across two time zones, theoretically a move in the new year to Miami and lots and lots of work bloody emails waiting for my return. The lack of wifi appealed the most about the sailing trip. So I did the sensible thing - swallowed my bio-flu tablets and got mesmerised by the South China Sea. It didn't take long for our first stop - I was expecting great things under the surface of the water. I wasn't disappointed - over the 5 days I discovered a huge love for snorkelling. So easy when the visibility is often > 15 metres over here. You don't need to dive when the coral, fish and even turtles come so close. The point that I was completely in underwater heaven was on the 4th day. Roy said that we didn't want to miss this stop - so I followed him - wonderful pancake shaped corals presented themselves and I swam through hundreds and hundreds of fish. I couldn't stop smiling. Paradise.
The day before Sarah spotted a turtle - we all remembered the diving sign for turtle and I swam my socks off swimming alongside the beauty for a magical 5 minutes. Wonderful.
I was hoping to see a shark underwater - oddly when you were in water this wonderful - the sense of fear seems to disappear. Sadly I didn't get my shark but I did have a surreal moment seeing a whale come to the surface when we were sailing. Surreal because it was totally unexpected and also because only 1 other person saw it. Was it real? Did a huge whale just appear or did i imagine it? It was real, and very rare. My nickname became ' Gemma Doolittle'.
When we weren't sailing our homes were rustic little huts - Maartje and I were spectacularly bad at putting up mosquito nets - and I would be totally lieing if I told you I was at home with this level of roughing it. I'm not. Give me a 5 star with Egyptian cotton sheets anyway. But if this is the way you discover beaches with no other tourists, Seas with no other snorkellers - then I am happy to rough it for a few nights. My eye mask, sleeping pills and ear plugs all helped 😉
I think the only downside to doing a trip with Tao is that beaches, snorkelling, and in fact islands in general are never going to be the same again....
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