Sailors are happy people. There is little which dampens our sailing fun! Storm is wind in our sails and rain merely a by-product of interesting wind conditions. And interesting they sure were during this year's Independence Day Regatta in Subic! The two-day event has seen it all: wind, no wind, rain, no rain, and a combination of all or none.

We soon found out we had chosen the right boat to crew on! Helping out Dale and Richie on their 30 foot cruiser turned out to be a perfect choice! Being a cruise boat it might not be the most competitive dog out there but surely the most comfortable.

Although the little sun roof proved to be an accessory rather than a protection from the elements we were given rain jackets (just like the ones we had forgotten in our car!). We were fed apple pie with cream and delicious tuna sandwiches! The latter started flapping in my face like a chatty mouth when the wind suddenly picked up. All I could do is quickly put my wet thumb on its lid to keep it from flying!

Drinks, just like food, come in handy when the wind dies for an hour or two... And trust me we had a lot of no-wind-time to cover. Time for me to take over on the helm and practice some light wind maneuvering!

The board engine becomes the sailors best friend when the open bar at the marina calls with free drinks but the wind decides to not collaborate at all. Called it a lack of enthusiasm or simply being practical. After two days on the boat we had grown quite some sea-legs. Which turned out to be useful during the tropical depression which wet the 113th Anniversary of the Philippines' Independence!

Back on track!

After 4.5 months forced retirement from sailing, team Tiger Gambas is finally back in the game! With low expectations (from our out-of-shape performance and from the seasonal low to non-existing wind) we joined the Taal Lake Yacht Club Sunday race. To our surprise, we came in second overall, scoring first place twice in 4 races! Seems our sailing spirit hasn't faded in the past months! My (according to my doctor) fully recovered arm did a great job in pulling ropes and fixing sails. I even dared helming for a little while and maneuvered some maneuvers.

While on land, we paid a visit to the office of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvocs) at the shore of Taal Lake. The office is rather unimposing. It houses a few computers monitoring the seismic activities of Taal volcano. With 115 earthquakes in 24 hours, the staff should be rather busy. Or maybe not. For the longest time signal 2 has been issued. The status quo hasn’t changed in weeks now.

However, according to the office's own documentation pinned to a simple corkboard I would say it's time for signal 3! Interviews conducted with residents on the main crater (where permanent settlements are strictly not recommended since it is declared a Permanent Danger Zone) confirmed some of the earthquakes were 'felt'. According to Philvoc's documentation, 'seismic squirms of felt quakes' are indicators for signal 3. While seismic activities seem to increase, boat operators started 'sightseeing' tours on the lake again. In the wake of the current fish kill I wonder which 'tours’ exactly are being offered. Fishing for beginners?

At the bottom of it all

Yes, the current fish kill in Lake Taal started with an act of nature: a tropical storm. Wind blowing across the lake from the south moved the lakes' oxygen enriched top layer water to its northern shore. On the southern shore the bottom layers of the lake surfaced. Suddenly, thousands of fish floated in the water with their bellies turned up.

The effected fish farmers are quick in pointing their fingers at climate change and a somewhat active volcano causing the fish kill. Wrong. It was their irresponsible behavior that finally killed the vulnerable eco system of the lake. It’s the result of overfeeding the way too many fish cages with feeds based on chicken manure. Unused feeds sink to the bottom and create the perfect breeding ground for weeds using up oxygen.

What was washed up during the storm was oxygen-deprived water from the lake’s bottom. The waste buried at Lake Taal’s bottom finally turned up. (For an explanation read Bernie Lopez’ opinion piece. I don’t think the polarizing and finger pointing at “foreigners” exploiting the lake's resources adds journalistic value to the article. He does give a good explanation of what happened beneath the surface though.)

A lesson learned you say? Wrong again I fear. Laguna de Bay is a living (or rather dead?) example of recklessly abusing aquatic resources. Obviously, the Philippine’s largest lake with its 950 square kilometers surface are was not a big enough lesson to learn from.

Pirates, Penélope, and Prosecco

Germany's Premiere of 'Pirates of the Caribbean 4 – On Stranger Tides' in Munich had style, indeed! As a premiere guest I had the utter pleasure to walk down the same red carpet (unfortunately not at the same time) as producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Rob Marshall, the charming Penélope Cruz, and newcomers Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey (the mermaid) and Sam Claflin (the missionary). The only one missing was Johnny Depp. Although, given his wit I'm sure he was there semi-incognito in his Captain Sparrow outfit mingling with the hundreds of fans who imitated his infamous pirate style.

While sipping our Prosecco before the show I rubbed shoulders with Germany's next top models, the comedian Sissy Perlinger, and ad testimonial 'Joko'. Problem is the sea of 'celebrities' was lost on me since I am as out of sync with German celebs as I am with Philippine stars and starlets. I'm floating in a celebrity-free peaceful world with no one to envy and admire but me. While some girls fell over themselves to be photographed with the top models (now why would I emphasize and preserve the obvious...?!) or catch an autograph I flirted with the buffet. Less talkative, too.

Captain Jack Sparrow's journey to the fountain of youth is yet another, the fourth, pirate story spun with the same old sailors’ yarn, one could claim. And in fact it is. However, the great acting, the funny and charming characters of Penélope Cruz and Johnny Depp tangled up in a love-hate romance, an aging Keith Richards on a side show as Sparrow’s dad Captain Teague, and a wise use of 3D technology made the somewhat predictable story a fun and worthwhile movie experience! Go watch it!

Crissy, thank you again for this great surprise!

Friday the 13th...

... deserves a rehabilitation of its bad reputation! Why are the two digits 1 and 3 so suspicious that in some hotels there is no 13th floor? And what has Friday to do with it? Friday the 13th turned out to be a perfect travel date for me. Why?

Drive to Manila airport: smooth 45 minutes (an almost unique event in Manila's morning rush hour)!

Check in: smooth 30 minutes (my suitcase was perfectly fine within weight limits, lines at travel tax booth, passport & security check fairly short).

Flight to Amsterdam: smooth and “spacious” 14 hours (after my middle seat neighbor was offered an isle seat and had moved).

Transfer in Amsterdam: smooth and quick 20 minutes (Schiphol airport is huge but again, lines at immigration were surprisingly short).

Arrival in Berlin Tegel: smooth (with a friend pick-up and a late whole wheat bread midnight snack at her place).

So, why again does Friday the 13th have such a bad reputation?

Coffee Taste-Off

Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia – all of these travel destinations turned out to have “coffee value” as six of us traveling coffee aficionados learned. Returning from our respective holiday get-aways we all met up for a coffee taste-off!

Show me what you got!

As the host of this bizarre coffee party we offered our impressive inventory of coffee brewing devices and support equipment. We are the proud owners of:

• Filter drip coffee maker
• Espresso maker
• French Press
• “Phin” filter (a Vietnamese flat bottom tin filter)
• One cup stove top "Moka"
• Mill grinder (Much better than a blade grinder, so they say.)
• Mortar & pestle

Needles to say, it took us longer to decide which brewing method to use than to actually enjoy our brew!

We brought various coffees from Indonesia worrying we might need to declare them entering the Philippines. We have a precious collection of coffee from Bali, Sulawesi, and Sumatra. And, of course, the infamous Kopi Luwak. Yes, the coffee that civet cats poop out.

The Vietnamese coffee culture was represented by the good old Trung Nguyen coffee, which uses “Arabica, Robusta, Chari (Excelsa), Catimor, Liberica and other diverse varieties”. Special or weird, depending on your taste and point of view, is that the beans are traditionally “roasted in clarified butter to complement and enhance the effect of the natural oils that are released by the beans in the roasting process”.

Australia grows Arabica coffee! Given 'Down Under's' low altitude and Arabica's need for higher elevations (around 800m+) this actually surprised me. Whether or not the coffee from Adeleide was locally grown the label didn't reveal.

We started off with Balinese coffee trying to revive the holiday experience our palates associate with the strong coffee the Balinese call 'instant'. The roasted coffee beans are powdery fine (usually pounded due to lack of grinders), and hot water simply added (no need for a filter system). In Bali we learned quickly to not stir our coffee but to let the grounds settle. They leave a thick coffee mud behind in the coffee cup!

Going Balinese we crushed and pounded the coffee beans with mortar and pestle. However, the grounds were too coarse and floated! We spend 5 minutes fishing coffee grounds out of our mugs. We drank our coffee tight lipped to avoid swallowing any bean remains. While the coffee tasted great, drinking it was quite laborious.

We were smarter preparing the Sulawesi coffee. We first ground the beans in our mill grinder. Then Glenn worked on them with mortar and pestle to get a yet finer grind. We used the typical Vietnamese Phin Filter, a metal filter sitting on top of a cup, to prepare the Sulawesi coffee. A cross-cultural experience for the coffee and the filter! Filtering the Sulawesi, just as it was served to us in Bali using paper filter, proved to be a worthy technique. The coffee came out mild yet full in taste!

If it is the butter-roasting or not, the Vietnamese coffee has a rather mild, less acidy taste. We Phin-filtered the already super fine grounds to achieve perfection. The Nung Truyng website recommends the filtering process to take 4-6minutes. Our coffee definitely dripped faster. Which means we either used too little coffee or didn’t peck it well enough. Next time we’ll moisten the pecked coffee first to swell it before tossing hot water on top.

For maximum use of equipment we finally used our French Press for the Australian coffee. Before we ground the beans I noticed how “clean” the batch was. No broken beans, hardly any parchment remains. Just evenly sized glossy black coffee beans. I’d say they did a nice job sorting the beans!

The French Press starts to become my favorite coffee maker. I like to watch the coffee grounds swell and rise to the top when doused in water. Then they eventually settle down. Any lingering grounds are moved to the bottom of the brew leaving a clean cup to enjoy! The Adelaide coffee though roasted rather dark, came out great!

Embroidered Wisdom

Without discrediting the art of embroidery I do have my doubts with the wisdoms (or subtle indoctrination?) they display.

This one I found at my doctor’s office. I’d title it “Twisted Standards for Personal Success”. It reads:

To laugh often and much
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children.
To earn the appreciation of honest critics…

For the first time I thought “wow, this is actually nice…”. Then came the punch line that completely threw me off:

And endure the betrayal of false friends.
[...]
This is to have succeeded.

What?

First, what is a false friend? Isn’t a “false friend” an oxymoron? A person who is false is not a friend. Congratulations to everybody who can tell a friend from a non-friend.

Second, why would I endure the betrayal from anybody, let alone an identified “false friend” (read: non-friend or even enemy)?

Nobody with a spark of self-respect would endure betrayal. No matter who betrays. Friendship is based on mutual respect and trust. If one is missing or has been abused it’s time to call it off!