The Voyage of the Balangay begins!

"We've talked enough and read enough about this. Now it's time to sail." (Something like that, anyway.)

That's what I remember from team leader's Art Valdez's chat with the press before boarding the balangay with the rest of the crew. I jump-started out of bed and into the shower this morning (ah, memories of GamePlan shoots) to clap, shriek, and cross my toes with the rest of the crowd at the Balangay site.

I felt the collective pride, affection, and concern of the crowd for the crew as they boarded the balangay, waved goodbye, and started rowing away.

My heart was in my throat (together with a bunch of screams). And Karen's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious gadget was in my shaky hand. Windows Movie Maker is a biyatch, though--I could barely trim video and audio clips without Evita hanging--but it was fun to play around. (If there are jumps or badly cut shots, I apologize. And I'm sure you'll hear me screaming my head off, so I apologize.)


You can check a real-time location update of the Voyage of the Balangay via Spot Beacon. (Thanks, Erik, for the tip!)