In our June issue, Tom Zydler recounted the second portion of Whale Song’s great round-the-world adventure from Antarctica to the Philippines. We rejoin the ship, a 94-foot Trinity Halter Global Explorer yacht, and its crew — owner Grant Wilson, captain Tom Zydler and first mate Nancy Zydler, Tom’s wife — as they set off for Palau.
Cebu to Papua New Guinea
A good while ago, Magellan, the great navigator, leading the first Europeans into the Philippines, met a violent death on Cebu Island. We felt considerably safer than he must have in Lapu-Lapu City on Cebu, our last stop in the country. Among our guests was Johnny Bivera, Grant Wilson’s son-in-law, a top U.S. Navy photographer and a direct descendant of Chief Lapu-Lapu, who led the fight against the Spaniards some 500 years ago. We began thinking about the fate and lasting curse of history when the windlass died suddenly while pulling off the fuel wharf. The housing of the oil filter cracked, spilling gallons of oil. Lucky for us a hydraulic shop across the channel had the replacement. With that fixed, the bow thruster tunnel began dripping seawater, and its repair would require a haul-out — later, in Australia, we decided.
Typhoons became a distant memory on the way to Palau — the glassy ocean reflected towers of cumulonimbus like a trick mirror. At sunset and dawn, cloud heads aflame seemed like a vision of nuclear holocaust. Palau, a nation of 200 islands populated by 21,000 people, is divided into 16 very small states; the state of Hatohobei (two square miles) has 44 inhabitants. The natives are friendly; tourism flourishes because scuba divers flock to the reefs, wrecks and atolls, which are some of the Pacific’s best. The most unforgettable Palau memory is the dinner ashore before our morning departure for Papua New Guinea. When the lid came off the bowl with the fruit bat pie, a well-done whole bat bared its teeth at us in a silent scream of pain. Bon appétit!
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