Wacky 💦 Watersports - Travel - Philippines - Puerto Galera

by Covito, from Manila, Philippines

We went on a fun boat trip to some beautiful beaches during out holiday in White Beach, Mindoro.

The weather was changeable, hot sunshine with intermittent heavy showers. We knew we would get soaking wet again and again, so we packed into a waterproof bag a lot of quick drying sports clothes and rain wear for swimming in the sea. Our plan was to try swimming in a variety of clothes and find out what works best for wet adventures.

The boat arrived early in the morning and anchored off the beach in front of our hotel. We were nicely dressed in our sportswear with ponchos on top only to find out that we had to swim to the boat while a kind jet-ski rider carried our bag. So we were off to a soaking wet start.

As we climbed onboard, our wet clothes dripping, we noticed that the clothes and ponchos of the crew were also wet. They too had to swim to the boat to get it ready.

"Did you enjoy your morning swim?" Asked Chris, one of the crew.

"Yes. We were pleasantly surprised that we had to swim in our clothes to the boat. It was great fun for us," I replied.

"We always swim in our clothes every day, no time to get changed into swimwear every time we come to a beach. You'll have many opportunities to swim on this trip," he said. Chris was a cute boy and I was looking forward to see him swim.

A short but heavy rain shower soaked us as we left the beach. We headed off along a hilly shore line, past some beaches, then turned into a quiet bay to the first beach. They threw an anchor out and moved closer to the shore. Chris jumped into the water with a rope and swam to the beach where he tied it to a tree. Then he came back to the boat which was now anchored about 20 meters from the beach.

A small inflatable raft was used to ferry our bag ashore while we went down a ladder into deep water in our clothes and ponchos. The crew followed us with a raft full of food and drinks. They had put on their red sun protection hiking capes.

The crew came ashore with their hoods up to avoid sunburn.

The water reflects the sunlight up to 80%, they said.

Unpacking our Bag

When we unpacked our bag, the boat crew watched us with keen interest as we laid out our clothes collection over the rocks by the water. We explained that we were testing all this kit to find out what works best in the water.

"May we help?" asked Tony, the captain of the boat. "We have a lot of experience and always look for better kit."

"Yes, of course. There are enough clothes for everyone," I said. We were delighted that they offered to help. Dressed in dry clothes we enjoyed a snack and talked about what clothes work best in the water and for boating.

Swimming in Clothes

When the first rain clouds came up we knew it was time to go into the water or we would get soaked in the rain again. We waded in slowly to see how the feel and behaviour of the clothes changed as they got more and more wet.

Swimming in all these clothes was great fun and we learned a lot from the boat crew.

The sun capes of the boat crew felt really soft on the skin and are surprisingly easy to swim in.

Soaked in the Rain

On the way back we got soaked to the skin in a heavy downpour. The sun ponchos weren't waterproof, nor were our sports clothes. We pulled into one more beach and went swimming in the rain. We had a great time running around the beach, jump into the water and splash around in wet clothes. The ponchos were the most fun for me, feeling cocooned under a soft wet cover.