Boat trips cancelled due to bad weather

CEBU, Philippines - Over 500 boat passengers were stranded in ports all over Central Visayas yesterday after 36 trips were cancelled due to the surge of the northeast monsoon.

This was disclosed  by  Philippine Coast Guard Station Cebu Commander Butch Bibat after the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration issued a gale warning yesterday.

The gale warning issued by PAGASA prevents vessels below 250 gross tonnage to sail out. With this, PCG recorded around 510 passengers stranded in different ports in the region, as of 8 p.m last night.

In yesterday’s 5 p.m. weather bulletin of PAGASA, the Southern seaboard of Southern Luzon and the Eastern seaboard of Visayas were advised to take heed of the gale warning.

Once PAGASA will lift the gale warning, Bibat said the small vessels will be allowed to navigate. The next weather bulletin will be at 5 a.m this morning and another one by 5 p.m.

Based on the 5 p.m. bulletin yesterday, seaboards affected in Visyas were in Samar and Leyte Provinces, Guimaras, Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, Antique, Negros Provinces, Bohol and Cebu.

This area experienced cloudy skies  with  light  to  moderate rains with 52 to 63 kilometers per hour and/or 28 –34 kilometers per hour. The sea condition was “rough to very rough” with 3.4 meters to 4.5 meters wave length.

In Luzon, the areas affected were Batanes, Calayan, Babuyan Group of Islands, Cagayan, Isabela, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Pangasinan, Aurora, Zambales, Bataan, Metro Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Mindoro, Palawan, Marinduque, Romblon, Masbate, Burias Island, Camarines Provinces, Catanduanes, Albay, Sorsogon and Quezon including Polillo Island.

The area experienced cloudy skies with light rains with 55 kph to 75 kph and/or 30 kph to 40 kph. The sea condition was “rough to very rough” with 3.5 meters to 5.0 meters wave length.

The weather state bureau advised fishing boats and other small vessels not to navigate while larger sea vessels were alerted against big waves.   

PAGASA-Visayas Director Oscar Tabada said Cebu City will experience light to moderate rains today until Thursday due to the northeast monsoon.

 “Walang LPA (low pressure area). Kusog lang nga amihan ang naa,” Tabada said.

He said the weather condition in the city will not intensify.

On Friday and Saturday, he said it will be sunny while rain shower will be experienced on Sunday morning.  (FREEMAN)