This year has seen it’s share of boating accidents, in the Philippines. It started with the capsizing of the M/V Princess of the Stars, in June, where many lives were lost.
Then, in November, the ferry boat Don Dexter capsized near Masbate Island, in the Samar Sea.
And now, another ferry boat capsizes. This time the “wooden-hulled Maejan” capsized in Cagayan Province.
Now the scary part is that this boat is like the pump boats we take to Almagro Island. Yahoo news explaines what happened:
“The ferry, loaded with more than 100 people along with a cargo of pigs, cows and water buffaloes, was traveling from Calayan islands in the Luzon Strait when it encountered huge waves and currents that broke its bamboo outrigger, causing it to flip over.”
About the same time as the Don Dexter sank, we were on another trip to Almagro. There were high seas, and one of the supports for the outriggers broke. There are normally 4 large beams going accross the boat, that attatch to bamboo outriggers. In our case, only 1 of those broke, but it was serious enough for the boat to stop and do a temporary repair job. These boats have a very narrow “V” shaped hull, so the outriggers really are necessary. Here is a picture from last weeks towing incident that shows a pump boat’s narrow design.
Expat 2 Phils 
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