MANILA, Philippines—Today will be a good day for the replica of the ancient balangay boat of Filipinos’ ancestors to sail off on its quest to retrace ancient migration routes.

The weather bureau Monday gave the all-clear for the departure of the balangay, saying its latest forecast did not show any storms in the coming days.

“Yes, the balangay can sail. We don’t expect any bad weather,” said Blessie Bartolome, a weather plotter at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

The first Philippine expedition team to Mt. Everest, led by former Transportation Undersecretary Art Valdez, will begin their voyage on the balangay to other parts of the country on Tuesday after the maiden launch off the boat in June.

The team will take the balangay, christened “Diwata ng Lahi,” around the Philippines the rest of the year, then proceed to other countries of Southeast Asia in 2010, and on to Madagascar off Africa in 2011.

Whatever rains the country will experience on Tuesday will be due to a monsoon trough, a meeting of winds from the northeast and southwest that causes cloudy weather and rain, possibly over southern Luzon and the Visayas, and not because of any brewing storm, Pagasa said on its website.

According to Pagasa, cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms are expected in southern Luzon and eastern sections of the Visayas and Mindanao.

“The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon or evening,” the weather bureau said.

Pagasa, however, warned that a surge in the southwest monsoon was expected to affect the seaboards of the Visayas.

It advised fishing boats and other small sea craft from venturing out while larger vessels were alerted against big waves.