Cebu, Malapascua Dive Report (6-13 April 2007)
[Thanks to Dorothy, who has written this wonderful Dive Report!]
{> Photos <} by me {> Underwater Photos < } by Dorothy Mabuhay!
Yeah you got it. It's my dive report again! (warning, this is a very long one)
The trip to Malapascua was a 3-hr flight + 3-hr bumpy road trip + 1/2 hr scenic boat ride = very tired travellers. This hasn't taken into account the lack of sleep, the transfer to the mid-sized outrigger (Arbert) on a small pole-rowed boat, the dylan-carrying-his-suitcase-on-his-head episode, and the waiting for batches of supplies to be transferred onto the outrigger on those same row boats. Our original plan was to do 2 dives on the first day after breakfast, but fatigue took a hold of us after dive 1 and we decided to just rest for the day and pump up the no. of dives on days 2 and 3. Our DM Renelo (we call him "Rey") was accomodating, nice and went out of his way to help us during our surface intervals....and he's really good at pointing out the macro stuff.
The Scubapro BC I loaned worked fine, except for the less-than-satisfactory inflator/deflator buttons. I had difficulty deflating 90% of the time underwater and had to twist myself in odd positions everytime i wanted to dump out some air...but this didn't occur often.
Due to rules about OW divers not going below 18m, Kenny and Vincent decided to take their AOWD right here. So we got introduced to Tim, one of the owners of the dive shop, who was their instructor.
Day 1
#1 East Garden - This site's of coral patches and sandy bottom. There were juvenile and adult harlequin sweetlips, manila puffers, lots of sand perches, schools of lined catfish of different ages, mimic filefish, a snake eel, anemone crab, quite a bit of urchins, and nudibranchs i've never seen before - morose tambja, Bayer's thuridillia, and one so small it was hard to identify, but I think it's a siboga cuthona. This was also the first time i saw a crinoid shrimp on a whip coral. Gosh! The thing is sooo tiny. I couldn't get a focus on my canon, coupled with the fact that it was difficult to photograph anything on a whip coral, with a current pushing you. I began to appreciate the photos of crinoids on the forums more after this.
A few in the group didn't feel too well and ascended early. I felt fine while underwater, but the moment I got onto the boat, I was hit by an immense headache and had to lie down. We discovered the weight belt we found on the sandbed to be Dylan's and they sent one of the boat crew, a skin diver, to retrieve it.
When we got back to the dive shop, I headed straight for one of those inviting hammocks on the beach and knocked out for about an hr. This was when we decided that everyone was too tired to do a 2nd dive. Rey brought the rest of the group to Bounty Beach, by cutting through the kampong behind the resort, where they had italian at La Dolce Vita. I rested another 1/2 hr more on the hammock before heading back to the room for a shower.
Day 2
#2 Monad Shoal - We were scheduled to depart at 6am this morning, and so it was rise and shine at 5am to pack, suit up and go. There were already 4-5 boats there when we arrived, and it was a surface paddle before we descended. The terrain was flat with some soft corals (that got more and more kicked up, disjointed and killed as divers rested their fins/ hovered over them) and patches of sea grass. There is potential for much macro life there, if the focus weren't to hang on to rocks, or perfect your fin pivots while training your eyes into the blue to watch for the thresher sharks. Kevin pointed out a crab, which, while I photographed it, missed seeing a thresher, which only Dylan saw, and Reggie and Jo caught sight of its tail. The rest of the dive, I just hovered close to bottom watching a giant puffer swim away from me, a boomerang triggerfish passing by, and finally photographing a white-eyed moray before ascending.
#3 North Point - Not the one in Yishun. Rey brought Dylan and myself down to a sea fan where there were 3 pygmy seahorses. I tried,photographing one of them, which refused to turn it's face towards me. Think I only caught a bit of one eye. We were to follow Rey to look for a big black frogfish thereafter, but upon passing by a large rock, we spotted some filefish we never saw before (strapweed filefish) and started photographing them. This was when we lost Rey. We could hear him tapping his tank but we could not see him in the 6m vis. We ended up searching around and then shooting up our SMBs as we abandoned the dive after barely half an hour underwater....but not before I photographed a pustulose phyllidielia.
Only Kevin and Vincent followed Rey for the dive and saw the frogfish. Argh...
#4 Monad Shoal - We returned to Monad in the afternoon for potential Manta sightings. Tim brought us down for this dive, as instructor for the 2 guys on their "UW Naturalist module". On our way there, Tim spotted dolphins in the distance. We thought it was a good sign. There were other boats already anchored when we arrived, and we heard news that the groups ascending spotted Mantas. That raised our hopes high.
Underwater, as we found our places to hover and wait (again), I had to fend off Regina's fins to prevent them from landing on a humpback scorpionfish I was trying to photograph. It was tough doing a fin pivot here with current and being slightly positive in buoyancy. There was another group of Jap or HK divers there, and they mostly sat on their tanks. I thought I should try that too, and managed to deflate my BC, turn around, rest my tank and fins, exhale and kept myself there. There was nothing to do but watch...boring...cold...boring...cooolld....all i did was observe a butterflyfish swimming round and round some corals. No manta rays.
There it was. 2.5 unsatisfactory dives. Josephine and myself decided we had to do the 4th dive and it had better be good. Kenny and Vincent came along as their "Night Dive" module. We only discovered, back at the resort later, that actually, no other groups spotted Mantas either for that day.
#5 House Reef - The sunset dive here was cold, having already lost a lot of heat from the day's 3 dives, and with some fatigue settling in. Yet, it definitely did not disappoint. In fact, it was my best dive...an almost constant tank-banging affair. The moment we got down, we saw a small clown frogfish. This was followed by nudibranchs - dusky nembrothas, HUGE moving Forskal's pleurobranchus, a painted tambja trying to hide under seagrass. An ornate ghost pipefish took some of my time. It tried hiding behind some rope and corals, and I tried avoiding an urchin while photographing it. It finally found its way onto the sand and I was literally adjusting camera settings, leaning on one elbow, torch in one hand and camera in the other, no hands to adjust my mouthpiece that was coming loose and I was sucking in seawater....just to get a good shot of this littly beauty. (Things a UW photographer go thru...)
There were hermit crabs dotted aong the sand, we spotted bobtail squids (small and cute), a flounder, huge giant puffers and porcupinefish, manila puffers, another big white frogfish resting in a wreck, banded boxer shrimps, free swimming eels, a beautiful squid fanning its wings near the bottom, an octopus... everywhere we shone our torches we saw something significant.
Despite my coldness, I was thoroughly enjoying the dive. When we ascended, a gush of seawater splashed down my throat, causing me to retch. The water there seemed weirdly salty and minderalised, and tasted rather gross I was tired and shivering on the boat, but truly happy for having ended the day with an awesome dive.
Before this trip, I always thought hot water was optional. After this dive, I really appreciated the hot water. I was too tired for dinner. So left alone, with no one in queue for the bath, I just thawed under the hot water shower.
Day 3
#6 Kemod Shoal - We arose super early at 4am to head outat 5am in a bid to see hammerheads. The group that went the morning before reported spotting 7 and 1 thresher along with it. (so lucky...) This was to be a "Deep Dive" module for our 2 AOWD students, so Tim tagged along. I remembered having to write my name backwards on a slate at 23m for my advanced course. Here, Tim got them to dress up Mr. Potato Head...now that's a new and innovative one.
Kemod's another sunken island like Monad, but much smaller. We ascended and swam out to the blue to wait. My watch recorded a deepest of 28.9m but I remember keeping myself around 27m and watching my no deco time. Blue waters and nothing. NOTHING. So we headed back to the shoal, and I went into macro mode right away, spotting nudibranchs (just some common ones like varicose phyllidia and pustulose phyllidelia), a hermit crab and a lot of mimic filefish. Rey pointed out to brightly colour anemone, and I later found each housed a white-patchy anemone crab (i'm not good at naming crabs and shrimps...don't have a book on them....yet). Just before ascending, Jo pointed out a lionfish hiding under some rock.
Day trip to Calanggaman Island:
On our 1hr boat ride there, we came across a school of flying fish and a pod of breaching dolphins. Their dorsal fins popping up intermittently at various locations some metres from our boat. There was one traveling as a pair, kinda like mother and child. This occurred while most of the rest were asleep. They aroused, took one look and went back to sleep, while I continued spotting them excitedly...and Regina just accomodated me.
#7 Nunez Shoal - Sunken island with beautiful wall dive of soft and hard corals, large sea fans, and trying to spot nudibranchs - dusky nembrotha, huge crested nembrotha, morose tambja. Managed to photograph a stonefish before Dylan chased it away by going too near with his camera
We anchored by Calanggaman Island on our surface interval, and got awed breathless by the sheer paradise-look of the island. Lined palm trees, bright blue waters, white sand bar...postcard perfect. Rey went fishing for some sea urchins, while Dylan snorkelled after him. The guys snorkelled around while the gals jumped in for a swim. The water was so clear and inviting and the view just splendid. We then took turns at swallowing the orange spongy meat of fresh sea urchins. I never thought I'd see this day....but you know, year of new beginnings and this is just one of the already numerous new experiences I've been having.
#8 Calanggaman Island - We did another wall dive here and this was really fun, despite giant-striding straight into a school of tiny cute baby jellyfish. There were so many nudibranchs to spot - dusky nembrotha, varicose phyllidia, chromodoris magnifica, chromodoris willani...saw one crawling off a coral and falling down down down the wall...I felt sorry for it.... Also saw a stonefish, but Dylan chased it away again before I got to it...a small white-spotted boxfish, and we hovered behind some corals to watch garden eels swaying on a sandy plateau.
#9 Lighthouse Reef - Only Dylan, Josephine and myself went on this dive, accompanied by 5 other caucasians - 3 believably French and 2 from UK. Apart from 1 guy, the rest of them were "swimming" divers....if you know what i mean....they flailed their arms wherever they went, slapping any unsuspecting proper diver that finned by. I was quite certainly slapped on my head and face, and almost sure my butt and legs were not spared at sometime. And this was a sunset dive, meaning the torches, were moving in likewise circles throughout the dive. (got a headache...)
The site's main attraction was Mandarin fish...and of course, we just hovered and waited and watched as it got colder, some Mandarin fish mating....after wathcing 3 mating rituals, we went about looking for seahorses, which Rey seemed to know where they were. It was like fin fin fin, shine torch, there!...then turn around...fin fin fin...shine torch...tada!...the site was just full of staghorns and hard corals, and all we saw were mandarin fish and the seahorses, and we did manage to spot one harlequin sweetlip. The vis got worse and current stronger as we ascended.
Day 4
North Safari to Marpipi Island:
We headed out today with 2 Dutch couples. One of the men had a Oly C5050 as well, and the other couple each carried a huge camera with a strobe....the kind you needed 2 hands to handle. Paul was their DM (I believe Yingkai knows him)
Above water, the islands we passed by were green and lush, the waters calm and navy blue. There was a point where clouds covered a hill, and a slit allowed a narrow stream of sunlight beaming yellow rays onto a small area on the hill...i just stared in wonder of creation's beauty for a few minutes.
#10 Kinkiti Island - This was a site of large rocks covered in soft corals, bright colourful sea fans and pristine reefs. We spotted juvenile Oriental sweetlips, juvenile Harlequin sweetlips, trumpet fish, snake eel, a clouded moray, and it was damelfish and blennies galore. At one point, Regina was gesticulating violently at something and I finned there on time to see a mantis shrimp scuttling about before disappearing under a rock.
#11 Kinkiti Island - A gentle sloping bed of corals and huge sea fans, much like an udnerwater garden. Corals hard and soft came in myriads of colours, and the visibility helped to make it seem like a dive in a park. Kevin spotted a cute porcupinefish trying to look inconspicuous, nestled in a barrel coral. We also stayed near a hold where a mantis shrimp peeped out intermittently as I waited to capture it face-on. We saw the strapweed filefish again, looking pasted against some hard green coral (that stained my wetsuit when I accidentally bumped into one). There were new nudis here too - ocellate phyllidia, royal hypselodoris - and the usual varicose phyllidia and pustulose phyillidelia. I photographed a pink rose-like thing which I thought was pretty, and later found out it was the egg rosette of a spanish dancer. We also spotted yellow-ribbon sweetlips, banded boxer shrimps and after doing much UW somersaults going around and upside down a whip coral, I finally photographed the crinoid shrimp...successfully...with the Oly C5050. I really love the super-macro mode!
Lunch was served after this dive - BBQ kebabs of chicken and pork in their version of char siew sauce with plain rice, that was a really tasty treat after 2 happy dives.
#12 Sembauan Island - We descended to a rare sighting of a turtle (0.8m length) swimming by off the reefs. So excited was Rey on this sighting that on my way up after my safety stop, and before I even hit surface, he gestured to ask me if i managed to photograph it. I told him the visibility was too poor to do so.
This site bore more beautiful corals and colourful huge sea fans. I spotted a tiny shrimp goby on a whip coral, some translucent anemone shrimps (once again, i can't name my shrimps well), purplish scorpionfish, yellow-spotted scorpionfish, a longfin bannerfish, many fairy wrasse, and another new nudi for me - elegant phyllidia.
On our 3-hr trip back to Malapascua, we were once again met with dolphins.
Day 5
#13 Monad Shoal - A last attempt as spotting Thresher Sharks...which we travelled all the way here for...proved futile again, despite us being the only boat out there this morning. As I peered out into the blue, ignoring all macro life beneath me, I saw schooling barracuda, a large silver mackerel. There was a tense moment where Kevin deliberated pointing out a giant puffer to me. I went over, snapped two shots at it, and continued my glance into the blue...no thresher sharks.
The Dutch couple with their huge cameras spotted a devil ray, the 3 French (i think) were only remembered for sunbathing topless on the boat deck.
#14 Gato Island - This dive ranked no. 2 for me after house reef. It was what Dylan described as a "guided tour". This site is also Rey's favourite site. He seemed to know where everything was. Tim came along as Kenny and Vincent were to do their Navigation module here.
We descended next to a wall and right away, Rey pointed out another new nudi - a skyblue-coloured serpent pteraeolidia. This was followed by a series of tank banging as Rey pointed out 2 black seahorses, then a mantis shrimp that eyed us suspiciously from the sandy floor before jumping high onto the rock (I didn't know it could propel itself so high), then a banded sea krait glided past into the distance, then among some bright orange coral polyps, I spotted a large brown cuttlefish, then Rey pointed out 2 more new nudi - a rather big fine-lined tambja and the other I had difficulty photographing and identifying until this morning cuz it was dim, and there were many sea urchins next to it - batangas halgerda. As I finned away, I felt a frantic tugging at my fins, turned around in the narrow channel to smack face into soft coral, and saw Regina pointing at another banded sea krait coming in my direction. It glided away under some rocks.
This was followed by a cave with a sleeping white tip shark, that Rey asked everyone to see before letting me in, shoving my camera into the darkness and randomly snapping in hope of capturing it (small fish keep getting into the screen instead). Tank banging from the rest of the group got us out of there and into a sandy area where I saw 3 white tips, one resting and 2 swimming about. As I captured one on video, I suddenly saw Kenny's bubbles coming from the corner of my eyes. Then he thought I was done, and decided to fin off in front of my screen. I think i might have slapped his tank as it passed by and acted frustrated, cuz Tim saw it all and laughed over it when we got back onto the boat. Then it was a white sea horse, followed by a frogfish on a wall, I saw another serpent pteraeolidia and just before our ascent, Jo spotted a lionfish.
We came up from this dive happy and excited and chatting about everything we saw.
#15 Gato Island - Looking forward to another good dive to end the trip with, I jumped into the water to hissing bubbles from my tank. Tim checked to confirm a burst O-ring...my first experience of a burst O-ring in water. (the other was in Sydney where I discovered it when I turned the air on my tank on land) I could see my SPG going down as I floated on the surface. Thank God I was still on the surface.
We descended into a kind of cavern where Rey pointed out another black seahorse, followed by a crinoid shrimp on a whip coral, and a green spider crab that was camouflaged against the green tuft of sea grass. We then proceeded to some small caves where Rey shone his torch in to reveal several sleeping sharks. Then to a huge cave where we hovered in the nice warm water and shone the torch in to reveal a white tip shark swimming round and round. We were there for a good 10min or so, and when we came out, the water felt super cold. Just round the rock wall, Rey pointed out another fine-lined tambja, big and fat, with eggs on it. On our way up, we spotted a hermit crab and nearby this, a varicose phyllidia.
Apart from North Point, I think Josephine and myself were perpetually the last ones out of the water for every dive. Here, our last dive for the trip, we stayed on the surface to attempt taking photos of each other against the Gato rock, with much difficulty as the waves kept throwing us up and down.
No threshers, no mantas but lots of good reefs, superb scenery and wonderful macro. All in all, great diving.
[Thanks to Dorothy, who has written this wonderful Dive Report!]
{> Photos <} by me {> Underwater Photos < } by Dorothy Mabuhay!
Yeah you got it. It's my dive report again! (warning, this is a very long one)
The trip to Malapascua was a 3-hr flight + 3-hr bumpy road trip + 1/2 hr scenic boat ride = very tired travellers. This hasn't taken into account the lack of sleep, the transfer to the mid-sized outrigger (Arbert) on a small pole-rowed boat, the dylan-carrying-his-suitcase-on-his-head episode, and the waiting for batches of supplies to be transferred onto the outrigger on those same row boats. Our original plan was to do 2 dives on the first day after breakfast, but fatigue took a hold of us after dive 1 and we decided to just rest for the day and pump up the no. of dives on days 2 and 3. Our DM Renelo (we call him "Rey") was accomodating, nice and went out of his way to help us during our surface intervals....and he's really good at pointing out the macro stuff.
The Scubapro BC I loaned worked fine, except for the less-than-satisfactory inflator/deflator buttons. I had difficulty deflating 90% of the time underwater and had to twist myself in odd positions everytime i wanted to dump out some air...but this didn't occur often.
Due to rules about OW divers not going below 18m, Kenny and Vincent decided to take their AOWD right here. So we got introduced to Tim, one of the owners of the dive shop, who was their instructor.
Day 1
#1 East Garden - This site's of coral patches and sandy bottom. There were juvenile and adult harlequin sweetlips, manila puffers, lots of sand perches, schools of lined catfish of different ages, mimic filefish, a snake eel, anemone crab, quite a bit of urchins, and nudibranchs i've never seen before - morose tambja, Bayer's thuridillia, and one so small it was hard to identify, but I think it's a siboga cuthona. This was also the first time i saw a crinoid shrimp on a whip coral. Gosh! The thing is sooo tiny. I couldn't get a focus on my canon, coupled with the fact that it was difficult to photograph anything on a whip coral, with a current pushing you. I began to appreciate the photos of crinoids on the forums more after this.
A few in the group didn't feel too well and ascended early. I felt fine while underwater, but the moment I got onto the boat, I was hit by an immense headache and had to lie down. We discovered the weight belt we found on the sandbed to be Dylan's and they sent one of the boat crew, a skin diver, to retrieve it.
When we got back to the dive shop, I headed straight for one of those inviting hammocks on the beach and knocked out for about an hr. This was when we decided that everyone was too tired to do a 2nd dive. Rey brought the rest of the group to Bounty Beach, by cutting through the kampong behind the resort, where they had italian at La Dolce Vita. I rested another 1/2 hr more on the hammock before heading back to the room for a shower.
Day 2
#2 Monad Shoal - We were scheduled to depart at 6am this morning, and so it was rise and shine at 5am to pack, suit up and go. There were already 4-5 boats there when we arrived, and it was a surface paddle before we descended. The terrain was flat with some soft corals (that got more and more kicked up, disjointed and killed as divers rested their fins/ hovered over them) and patches of sea grass. There is potential for much macro life there, if the focus weren't to hang on to rocks, or perfect your fin pivots while training your eyes into the blue to watch for the thresher sharks. Kevin pointed out a crab, which, while I photographed it, missed seeing a thresher, which only Dylan saw, and Reggie and Jo caught sight of its tail. The rest of the dive, I just hovered close to bottom watching a giant puffer swim away from me, a boomerang triggerfish passing by, and finally photographing a white-eyed moray before ascending.
#3 North Point - Not the one in Yishun. Rey brought Dylan and myself down to a sea fan where there were 3 pygmy seahorses. I tried,photographing one of them, which refused to turn it's face towards me. Think I only caught a bit of one eye. We were to follow Rey to look for a big black frogfish thereafter, but upon passing by a large rock, we spotted some filefish we never saw before (strapweed filefish) and started photographing them. This was when we lost Rey. We could hear him tapping his tank but we could not see him in the 6m vis. We ended up searching around and then shooting up our SMBs as we abandoned the dive after barely half an hour underwater....but not before I photographed a pustulose phyllidielia.
Only Kevin and Vincent followed Rey for the dive and saw the frogfish. Argh...
#4 Monad Shoal - We returned to Monad in the afternoon for potential Manta sightings. Tim brought us down for this dive, as instructor for the 2 guys on their "UW Naturalist module". On our way there, Tim spotted dolphins in the distance. We thought it was a good sign. There were other boats already anchored when we arrived, and we heard news that the groups ascending spotted Mantas. That raised our hopes high.
Underwater, as we found our places to hover and wait (again), I had to fend off Regina's fins to prevent them from landing on a humpback scorpionfish I was trying to photograph. It was tough doing a fin pivot here with current and being slightly positive in buoyancy. There was another group of Jap or HK divers there, and they mostly sat on their tanks. I thought I should try that too, and managed to deflate my BC, turn around, rest my tank and fins, exhale and kept myself there. There was nothing to do but watch...boring...cold...boring...cooolld....all i did was observe a butterflyfish swimming round and round some corals. No manta rays.
There it was. 2.5 unsatisfactory dives. Josephine and myself decided we had to do the 4th dive and it had better be good. Kenny and Vincent came along as their "Night Dive" module. We only discovered, back at the resort later, that actually, no other groups spotted Mantas either for that day.
#5 House Reef - The sunset dive here was cold, having already lost a lot of heat from the day's 3 dives, and with some fatigue settling in. Yet, it definitely did not disappoint. In fact, it was my best dive...an almost constant tank-banging affair. The moment we got down, we saw a small clown frogfish. This was followed by nudibranchs - dusky nembrothas, HUGE moving Forskal's pleurobranchus, a painted tambja trying to hide under seagrass. An ornate ghost pipefish took some of my time. It tried hiding behind some rope and corals, and I tried avoiding an urchin while photographing it. It finally found its way onto the sand and I was literally adjusting camera settings, leaning on one elbow, torch in one hand and camera in the other, no hands to adjust my mouthpiece that was coming loose and I was sucking in seawater....just to get a good shot of this littly beauty. (Things a UW photographer go thru...)
There were hermit crabs dotted aong the sand, we spotted bobtail squids (small and cute), a flounder, huge giant puffers and porcupinefish, manila puffers, another big white frogfish resting in a wreck, banded boxer shrimps, free swimming eels, a beautiful squid fanning its wings near the bottom, an octopus... everywhere we shone our torches we saw something significant.
Despite my coldness, I was thoroughly enjoying the dive. When we ascended, a gush of seawater splashed down my throat, causing me to retch. The water there seemed weirdly salty and minderalised, and tasted rather gross I was tired and shivering on the boat, but truly happy for having ended the day with an awesome dive.
Before this trip, I always thought hot water was optional. After this dive, I really appreciated the hot water. I was too tired for dinner. So left alone, with no one in queue for the bath, I just thawed under the hot water shower.
Day 3
#6 Kemod Shoal - We arose super early at 4am to head outat 5am in a bid to see hammerheads. The group that went the morning before reported spotting 7 and 1 thresher along with it. (so lucky...) This was to be a "Deep Dive" module for our 2 AOWD students, so Tim tagged along. I remembered having to write my name backwards on a slate at 23m for my advanced course. Here, Tim got them to dress up Mr. Potato Head...now that's a new and innovative one.
Kemod's another sunken island like Monad, but much smaller. We ascended and swam out to the blue to wait. My watch recorded a deepest of 28.9m but I remember keeping myself around 27m and watching my no deco time. Blue waters and nothing. NOTHING. So we headed back to the shoal, and I went into macro mode right away, spotting nudibranchs (just some common ones like varicose phyllidia and pustulose phyllidelia), a hermit crab and a lot of mimic filefish. Rey pointed out to brightly colour anemone, and I later found each housed a white-patchy anemone crab (i'm not good at naming crabs and shrimps...don't have a book on them....yet). Just before ascending, Jo pointed out a lionfish hiding under some rock.
Day trip to Calanggaman Island:
On our 1hr boat ride there, we came across a school of flying fish and a pod of breaching dolphins. Their dorsal fins popping up intermittently at various locations some metres from our boat. There was one traveling as a pair, kinda like mother and child. This occurred while most of the rest were asleep. They aroused, took one look and went back to sleep, while I continued spotting them excitedly...and Regina just accomodated me.
#7 Nunez Shoal - Sunken island with beautiful wall dive of soft and hard corals, large sea fans, and trying to spot nudibranchs - dusky nembrotha, huge crested nembrotha, morose tambja. Managed to photograph a stonefish before Dylan chased it away by going too near with his camera
We anchored by Calanggaman Island on our surface interval, and got awed breathless by the sheer paradise-look of the island. Lined palm trees, bright blue waters, white sand bar...postcard perfect. Rey went fishing for some sea urchins, while Dylan snorkelled after him. The guys snorkelled around while the gals jumped in for a swim. The water was so clear and inviting and the view just splendid. We then took turns at swallowing the orange spongy meat of fresh sea urchins. I never thought I'd see this day....but you know, year of new beginnings and this is just one of the already numerous new experiences I've been having.
#8 Calanggaman Island - We did another wall dive here and this was really fun, despite giant-striding straight into a school of tiny cute baby jellyfish. There were so many nudibranchs to spot - dusky nembrotha, varicose phyllidia, chromodoris magnifica, chromodoris willani...saw one crawling off a coral and falling down down down the wall...I felt sorry for it.... Also saw a stonefish, but Dylan chased it away again before I got to it...a small white-spotted boxfish, and we hovered behind some corals to watch garden eels swaying on a sandy plateau.
#9 Lighthouse Reef - Only Dylan, Josephine and myself went on this dive, accompanied by 5 other caucasians - 3 believably French and 2 from UK. Apart from 1 guy, the rest of them were "swimming" divers....if you know what i mean....they flailed their arms wherever they went, slapping any unsuspecting proper diver that finned by. I was quite certainly slapped on my head and face, and almost sure my butt and legs were not spared at sometime. And this was a sunset dive, meaning the torches, were moving in likewise circles throughout the dive. (got a headache...)
The site's main attraction was Mandarin fish...and of course, we just hovered and waited and watched as it got colder, some Mandarin fish mating....after wathcing 3 mating rituals, we went about looking for seahorses, which Rey seemed to know where they were. It was like fin fin fin, shine torch, there!...then turn around...fin fin fin...shine torch...tada!...the site was just full of staghorns and hard corals, and all we saw were mandarin fish and the seahorses, and we did manage to spot one harlequin sweetlip. The vis got worse and current stronger as we ascended.
Day 4
North Safari to Marpipi Island:
We headed out today with 2 Dutch couples. One of the men had a Oly C5050 as well, and the other couple each carried a huge camera with a strobe....the kind you needed 2 hands to handle. Paul was their DM (I believe Yingkai knows him)
Above water, the islands we passed by were green and lush, the waters calm and navy blue. There was a point where clouds covered a hill, and a slit allowed a narrow stream of sunlight beaming yellow rays onto a small area on the hill...i just stared in wonder of creation's beauty for a few minutes.
#10 Kinkiti Island - This was a site of large rocks covered in soft corals, bright colourful sea fans and pristine reefs. We spotted juvenile Oriental sweetlips, juvenile Harlequin sweetlips, trumpet fish, snake eel, a clouded moray, and it was damelfish and blennies galore. At one point, Regina was gesticulating violently at something and I finned there on time to see a mantis shrimp scuttling about before disappearing under a rock.
#11 Kinkiti Island - A gentle sloping bed of corals and huge sea fans, much like an udnerwater garden. Corals hard and soft came in myriads of colours, and the visibility helped to make it seem like a dive in a park. Kevin spotted a cute porcupinefish trying to look inconspicuous, nestled in a barrel coral. We also stayed near a hold where a mantis shrimp peeped out intermittently as I waited to capture it face-on. We saw the strapweed filefish again, looking pasted against some hard green coral (that stained my wetsuit when I accidentally bumped into one). There were new nudis here too - ocellate phyllidia, royal hypselodoris - and the usual varicose phyllidia and pustulose phyillidelia. I photographed a pink rose-like thing which I thought was pretty, and later found out it was the egg rosette of a spanish dancer. We also spotted yellow-ribbon sweetlips, banded boxer shrimps and after doing much UW somersaults going around and upside down a whip coral, I finally photographed the crinoid shrimp...successfully...with the Oly C5050. I really love the super-macro mode!
Lunch was served after this dive - BBQ kebabs of chicken and pork in their version of char siew sauce with plain rice, that was a really tasty treat after 2 happy dives.
#12 Sembauan Island - We descended to a rare sighting of a turtle (0.8m length) swimming by off the reefs. So excited was Rey on this sighting that on my way up after my safety stop, and before I even hit surface, he gestured to ask me if i managed to photograph it. I told him the visibility was too poor to do so.
This site bore more beautiful corals and colourful huge sea fans. I spotted a tiny shrimp goby on a whip coral, some translucent anemone shrimps (once again, i can't name my shrimps well), purplish scorpionfish, yellow-spotted scorpionfish, a longfin bannerfish, many fairy wrasse, and another new nudi for me - elegant phyllidia.
On our 3-hr trip back to Malapascua, we were once again met with dolphins.
Day 5
#13 Monad Shoal - A last attempt as spotting Thresher Sharks...which we travelled all the way here for...proved futile again, despite us being the only boat out there this morning. As I peered out into the blue, ignoring all macro life beneath me, I saw schooling barracuda, a large silver mackerel. There was a tense moment where Kevin deliberated pointing out a giant puffer to me. I went over, snapped two shots at it, and continued my glance into the blue...no thresher sharks.
The Dutch couple with their huge cameras spotted a devil ray, the 3 French (i think) were only remembered for sunbathing topless on the boat deck.
#14 Gato Island - This dive ranked no. 2 for me after house reef. It was what Dylan described as a "guided tour". This site is also Rey's favourite site. He seemed to know where everything was. Tim came along as Kenny and Vincent were to do their Navigation module here.
We descended next to a wall and right away, Rey pointed out another new nudi - a skyblue-coloured serpent pteraeolidia. This was followed by a series of tank banging as Rey pointed out 2 black seahorses, then a mantis shrimp that eyed us suspiciously from the sandy floor before jumping high onto the rock (I didn't know it could propel itself so high), then a banded sea krait glided past into the distance, then among some bright orange coral polyps, I spotted a large brown cuttlefish, then Rey pointed out 2 more new nudi - a rather big fine-lined tambja and the other I had difficulty photographing and identifying until this morning cuz it was dim, and there were many sea urchins next to it - batangas halgerda. As I finned away, I felt a frantic tugging at my fins, turned around in the narrow channel to smack face into soft coral, and saw Regina pointing at another banded sea krait coming in my direction. It glided away under some rocks.
This was followed by a cave with a sleeping white tip shark, that Rey asked everyone to see before letting me in, shoving my camera into the darkness and randomly snapping in hope of capturing it (small fish keep getting into the screen instead). Tank banging from the rest of the group got us out of there and into a sandy area where I saw 3 white tips, one resting and 2 swimming about. As I captured one on video, I suddenly saw Kenny's bubbles coming from the corner of my eyes. Then he thought I was done, and decided to fin off in front of my screen. I think i might have slapped his tank as it passed by and acted frustrated, cuz Tim saw it all and laughed over it when we got back onto the boat. Then it was a white sea horse, followed by a frogfish on a wall, I saw another serpent pteraeolidia and just before our ascent, Jo spotted a lionfish.
We came up from this dive happy and excited and chatting about everything we saw.
#15 Gato Island - Looking forward to another good dive to end the trip with, I jumped into the water to hissing bubbles from my tank. Tim checked to confirm a burst O-ring...my first experience of a burst O-ring in water. (the other was in Sydney where I discovered it when I turned the air on my tank on land) I could see my SPG going down as I floated on the surface. Thank God I was still on the surface.
We descended into a kind of cavern where Rey pointed out another black seahorse, followed by a crinoid shrimp on a whip coral, and a green spider crab that was camouflaged against the green tuft of sea grass. We then proceeded to some small caves where Rey shone his torch in to reveal several sleeping sharks. Then to a huge cave where we hovered in the nice warm water and shone the torch in to reveal a white tip shark swimming round and round. We were there for a good 10min or so, and when we came out, the water felt super cold. Just round the rock wall, Rey pointed out another fine-lined tambja, big and fat, with eggs on it. On our way up, we spotted a hermit crab and nearby this, a varicose phyllidia.
Apart from North Point, I think Josephine and myself were perpetually the last ones out of the water for every dive. Here, our last dive for the trip, we stayed on the surface to attempt taking photos of each other against the Gato rock, with much difficulty as the waves kept throwing us up and down.
No threshers, no mantas but lots of good reefs, superb scenery and wonderful macro. All in all, great diving.
[Thanks to Dorothy, who has written this wonderful Dive Report!]
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