MANY people may find crazy the idea of crossing open seas in a boat run by neither fuel nor electricity, using ancient technology, and handled by men and women known for climbing the world?s highest mountains.

Likely so, the plan to hop from Manila to the different islands of the archipelago, and from the Philippines to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and China by June.

But for Art Valdez, 60, a former undersecretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications and leader of the team of Filipinos who first scaled Mount Everest in 2007, it is something that must be done.

?We are adventurers,? Valdez says. ?But more than adventurers, we want to deliver a message.?

The message is simple: It is in dreaming that makes the seemingly impossible less daunting.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by what Valdez and his team propose to do ? retrace the trade routes of the Filipinos? forebears in two balangay, pre-Hispanic vessels made of carved-out wooden planks and joined by pins and dowels.

Seventh leg

Like a sculptor methodically chipping at a granite block, the journey that began some 1,000 nautical miles away in Manila in September last year is finishing its seventh leg.

The 15-meter ?Diwata ng Lahi? and the 24.7-meter Masawa Hong Butuan, and their crew of 30 ? Navy and Coast Guard personnel, members of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition Team, Badjao tribesmen, and Butuan City volunteers ? have gotten this far is nothing short of a miracle.

The Masawa Hong Butuan (The Radiance of Butuan), made of native woods from Agusan del Sur and built by craftsmen in Tawi-Tawi, is double the size of the Diwata ng Lahi and can accommodate up to 36 people. It is the exact replica of ancient balangays unearthed by archeologists at a pre-Hispanic settlement in Butuan City.

One by one, the scheduled ports of call have been ticked off the list. As of posting time, the boats are now anchored in the placid waters off Initao in Misamis Oriental.

Already, the expedition has sailed through eight typhoons and has had to undergo meticulous repairs in almost every port of call. Strong winds snapped the sails of the Diwata twice off Balingoan in Misamis Oriental. And the Masawa?s broken rudder had to be repaired in Cagayan de Oro City.

Crew members still managed to indulge in light banter in Initao on February 15 after 14 hours of travel from Cagayan de Oro, way beyond the expected five-hour period. The same distance is an hour?s land drive, but a persistent headwind caused the crew to paddle furiously most of the time.

Where?s ?Tiririt??

And then the motorized dinghy, christened ?Tiririt? by expedition members, got lost somewhere off Gitagum, Misamis Oriental, after the rope tethering it to the Diwata snapped in the gathering darkness. Tiririt had been vital in towing the boats to port, helping secure the anchors, and shuttling between the two vessels at sea.

With Tiririt nowhere, the two boats dropped anchors at 10:30 p.m. after being towed to port by a trailing Navy ship and a fishing banca. ?We have gotten used to it somehow,? crew member Nelson Ojano said after dinner at 11.

Sometimes, Ojano said, the elements seem almost alive. In his 18 years in the Coast Guard, nothing comes even close to the experience of sailing while being pounded in rough seas.

?We all have to undergo pain and suffering before reaching our goals,? he said. Ultimately, it is all a matter of persistence.

Nature-dependent

Valdez said he was also only too aware of the perils at sea. ?We are totally dependent on nature ? the wind, waves and of course, on how sturdy the boats are,? he said.

This is why, he said, they made it a point to tap both the knowledge of the Philippine Navy and the Coast Guard, as well as rely on the Badjao people?s sense of sea.

Valdez said he hoped their efforts could help stir national pride, especially among the young. Thirty years from now, people will look at what they have done and hopefully find inspiration, he said.

?Whoever thought we could climb Mt. Everest?? Valdez said. ?And yet we did. We want to finish this and show everybody it can be done.?

Now, imagine two balangays sailing up the Huangpu River in Shanghai in June. ?What a sight that must be,? Valdez said.