My wife Marilyn made arrangements for her sister to watch our house in Naga City, Cebu while we went to Holiday Oceanview Marina, Island Garden City of Samal, Davao del Norte, Mindanao, Philippines to visit the True North 34 sailboat Indra. Her sister arrived Thursday night, 5 February 2015, as we planned an early morning departure the next day. Our daughter, Mary Ann, would skip school on Friday to come with us to see Indra and she had no reservations about tagging along. Besides bringing a change of clothes along, packed a bag of cameras, tools, calipers, rulers, flashlights, and notebook for inspecting the boat.
We departed our rental duplex at Oceanside Subdivision, Naga City, Cebu on 6 February 2015 at 0330 in the morning driving our Suzuki multi-cab truck. As traffic was sparse, we arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport on Mactan Island, across from Cebu City, at approximately 0500 and parked the truck in the paid storage parking lot. We checked in our bags at the airport and boarded our flight on schedule. We arrived at Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Davao City, Mindanao less than an hour later, about 0830 in the morning.
Terry Sargent (website VALHALLA) arrived shortly thereafter in a Ford Ranger pickup truck to collect us. Terry being retired Army and me being retired Air Force got along right off - he seemed like a genuinely nice guy and was assisting Margie Jesson, the owner of Indra, anyway he could. We drove a short distance through Davao City to the Sasa Ferry Wharf, boarded a ferry, and crossed Davao Bay to Samal Island. Our first stop was at Precious Garden of Samal Hotel & Restaurant, where we checked in and dropped our bags. We then had a short ride and arrived at Holiday Oceanview Marina located at the northern tip of Samal Island. Terry escorted us to Indra, tied up to a finger pier in the water, and stated if we needed anything come find him, and he departed back to his boat.
At a distance, the outside appearance of Indra did not disappoint. The wife and daughter expressed positive approvals and stated how "cute" she looked. It was readily apparent that the exterior of Indra had recently been cleaned and spiffed-up to enhance its appearance - probably in anticipation of our arrival. Someone had washed the exterior very thoroughly as no evidence of bird deposits or mold growth were present.
A closer detailed look at Indra was very revealing.
The name Indra was placed on a board attached to the mask pulpits and a section of wood at the top of the companionway entrance. Strange, the name Indra or its home port was not labeled on the exterior hull topsides as required by regulations.
Through the clear blueish water could clearly see the growth below the waterline as indicated in the picture below of the propeller. A haul-out, scrub, and bottom paint job appeared to be needed.
Visible in the picture of the mast and rigging below: Starboard side spreader deck light is missing. Both the forestay and inner forestay furling swivels are too far below the furling wrapstops - both sails are improperly installed on the furling system and are lacking a pennant extension.
As the next two pictures illustrates, both the forestay and inner forestay furling system extension plates are improperly mounted directly to the boat structure stemhead fitting instead of a toggle that would provide the required free articulation.
Both the bowspirit bobstay whisker shroud turnbuckles were not properly attached - their length was improperly extended with shackles with pins smaller than the cranse iron attachment holes.
The picture below shows the starboard cap shroud cover plate missing its mount screws. The picture also reveals a significant amount of dirt and grunge present and lack of sealant. It raises the question as to what the true condition the deck is in and was the recently applied fresh paint used to conceal issues.
The man overboard pole attached to the backstay rig wire was severely damage by sunlight exposure.
The tiller handle was constructed of three pieces of wood laminated together. The middle piece of wood was soft and severely rotted due to water intrusion from the autopilot attachment screws not being sealed when installed.
Took literally hundreds of detailed photos of the exterior of the boat from deck level. Did not go up the mast, but took many pictures at max zoom magnification. Numerous screws and bolts were missing on exterior surfaces and fixtures based on the empty holes present. All the turnbuckles were not secured properly with cotter pins. Did not unfurl the sails to check the serviceability, but most of the material had some level of crispness to it - did not understand why the sails where not removed and stored considering how long this boat sat unused. All the running rigging was checked at deck level revealing some lines had chaff and mildew issues. Leather chaff covers on the blocks were literally falling apart, degraded by sunlight exposure. Discover under the wooden built tender (row boat) a emergency lift raft was attached to the cabin top - it was not mentioned in the advertisement, maybe due to lack of servicing since the year 2012. The cockpit seating area had two hatches with hinged lids, but no hinged hardware was installed. The stainless work and winches had numerous spots of surface rust corrosion, it had been sometime since they had been cleaned and buffed. The material in the weather cloth around the cockpit had thinned out due sun exposure and was due replacement. The new dodger hard top was freshly painted white, but the plastic windows already had numerous abrasions in its surfaces degrading visibility. The stern navigation light lens was extremely weathered and needed replacement - did not electrically check the navigation lights as we were not sure the missing spreader deck light wiring was properly isolated.
Mounted on the boomkin starboard side rail was a Yamaha 2HP motor. Checked the gas tank and discovered it still had a small amount of gasoline inside. The gasoline had a layer of congealed muck on top due to length of time it had sat there - the routine storage preventive maintenance obviously had not been performed. The LifeSling flotation bag was degraded due to sunlight exposure and inside the bag mold and mildew growth was rampant.
Marilyn and Mary Ann had spent the day inside Indra, inspecting, taking pictures, and exploring the contents of the cabinetry.
Time had passed all to quickly as Terry and Rose stop by to remind us that the traditional Friday night cruisers potluck/barbecue was about to start (6:00pm). We accepted their invitation and headed up to the marina's main building. We did not have anything to contribute to the potluck, but was assured by Terry it was not an issue as Rose always cooks more than enough to share. Mary Ann met a boy, Nikita, of the approximate same age and had a partner to play with even though common language was an issue. Marilyn and Rose got along right off, as if they had been long-time friends.
Present at the evening cruiser potluck/barbecue was (missed the names and yachts of a few others in attendance):
- Rose Palban and Terry Sargent of yacht Valhalla.
- Sherry and Dave McCampbell of yacht Soggy Paws.
- Suzi Mcduffie and David Sobolewski of yacht Sidewinder.
- Kathy and Jerry McGraw of yacht Po'oino Roa.
- Damagnar Yahm and European man (German?).
- Svetlana Gushcha and her son Nikita of yacht Challenger.
A good time was had by all and many asked what our impressions of Indra was. Marilyn and Mary Ann expressed a desire to "get it now", while I expressed reservations, as there were many issues, but still needed to look further at more areas. About 8pm as the event subsided, Terry provided us a ride to our lodgings at Precious Garden of Samal Hotel & Restaurant. It had been a good day!
