‘Sunny’ Safe and Sound in Subic

by Guy Nowell, Sail World Asia on 24 May 2008 ‘Sunny’, the rowing boat that was to have been the first to be rowed across the China Sea from the Philippines to Hong Kong – but instead got involved in two major tropical storms, and weathered them both without her crew – has been found in “good and seaworthy” condition and is now back at Subic, right where she started.

Last week we reported that one of Sunny’s crew members had chartered a 65’ ketch to go and look for the boat that had been abandoned in a tropical storm a few days earlier – and sailed into another storm and had to be rescued all over again. At the time, the alternative plan was to drive a RIB up the coast (by road) to the general vicinity of Bolinao, nip smartly out to the boat’s last known position, and then trailer the rescued boat back to Subic. This plan was rejected as having “too many variables in the logistics”.

After the second mayday-and-rescue, some lads from Subic went for v2.0 – they trailered a 7.5m Hammerhead RIB with 115 hp engine up the coast, and came back with Sunny – missing a few bits which had been ‘liberated’ by the local fishermen - but with hatches intact and watertight, and the hull in good shape bar some small damage to the keel sustained when getting the boat on to the trailer.