Island hopping and snorkeling day in Coron, Philippines

Old story. I wrote earlier in February something about wreck diving in Coron. The area is also great place for snorkeling and there are beautiful islands. Here is something from our island hopping day.

Our boat left from Coron town, which is the centre in Coron area. Some beach resort near the Coron town.

Our first stop was Cyc Island.

Mask, snorkel and fins and to the water. I Feeeel Good...!

Lyn snorkeling.

Second place was Coral Garden.

Same place under water.

Next place was beautiful Kayangan Lake. In fact it´s only hidden bay, but it´s called lake.

Not bad?

Same place from the view point. 

When continue walking the stairs down there is a real lake.

This place looks very cool under water. It´s like snorkeling in the stalagmite cave.

Small seashells.

Lyn dives.

And explores.

I have never seen this kind of rock formation under water before. 

I have everything "ok". 

Our next place was Coral Eden. There was a lot of mangroves.

Leaves under water.

Our last stop was Twin Peak Reef. There was also more fishes than other places. Some people saw there also turtle, but we missed it. 

I took small peace of bread to the water and I had a lots of friends.

Corals and fishes. 

Lyn was like a dolphin in the water.

Staghorn corals and reef fishes.

It was great snorkeling day in the beautiful places. Price for the full day trip was 850PHP/15,30€ per person including great meal. 

This was also my first real under water test for my new Canon Powershot G15 and Ikelite´s housing. Before the trip I tested the camera and housing only in the pool. Package seems to work well with out problems.

Regards from Manila,

Mika

Diving day on the WWII wrecks in Coron, Philippines

I had a holiday on Coron, which is also wreck capital in Philippines. There are many Japanese WWII wrecks. I dived on three of those: East Tangat Wreck, Olympia Maru and Morazan Maru. Here is something from the diving day.


Dive #: 234
Date: 16.2.2013
Place: Philippines, Coron, East Tangat Wreck
Depth: 19,5m Average: 12,8m
Dive time: 37min
Visibility: 5-8m
Sea Temperature: +28C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: Short 3mm  Weight: 5Kg
Other: Torch  Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite Housing

Dive Center: Coral Aqua Diving
Price: 3000PHP/55,80€ including 3 dives, all the equipments, boat ride and lunch

Our first wreck was East Tangat Wreck. Originally the ship was Japanese submarine hunter. Wreck is about 40m long and highest point is only somewhere in the 3m and bottom is near 20m.

Coming to the wreck.

Bridge.

Somewhere inside the wreck.

School of striped catfishes on the wreck.

Dive #: 235
Date: 16.2.2013
Place: Philippines, Coron, Olympia Maru 
Depth: 29,5m  Average: 19,5m
Dive time: 34min
Visibility: 5-8m
Sea Temperature: +28C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: Short 3mm  Weight: 5Kg
Other: Torch  Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite Housing

Our second wreck was Olympia Maru. It was Japanese army auxiliary supply ship. It lies in the upright position on the bottom. Wreck is about 128m long. Deck is somewhere in 20m and the bottom is in 30m. 

First view when going down.

 Some structures.

We dived long way inside the wreck. Here somewhere in the cargo space. From this photo is also easy to see what happens when you use fins on the traditional way. Dust rises from the bottom and that´s not good for the visibility inside the wreck.

Under the hatch.

Some holes in the wreck.

Something mystical.

Are you still there? Some places were very dark and divers showed light for others when had to go through the some narrow places.

Another hatch above the diver.

Ladder.

  More hatches.

Nemo on the wreck.

Dive #: 236
Date: 16.2.2013
Place: Philippines, Coron, Morazan Maru 
Depth: 25,9m  Average: 17,3m
Dive time: 38min
Visibility: 5-8m
Sea Temperature: +28C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: Short 3mm  Weight: 5Kg
Other: Torch  Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite Housing 

Our third and last wreck was Morazan Maru. Wreck is on the side on the bottom. It´s about 12m below the surface and bottom is somewhere in 26m. 

We dived long way inside the Morazan Maru. In this kind of wrecks you must have torch. 

This was the narrowest place on the day. Steel bar above and under and you will feel the both of them. 

After that there was more space to dive again.

Somewhere inside.

Earth bubbling? No, I'm on the top of the wreck and there are some divers inside and bubbles comes from the small holes.

Giant puffer.

Corals on the wreck.

Back to the surface.

It was very interesting diving day. Some chinese guys on the group used lots of air and that´s why our all the dives were quite short. Also the torch which I got from the dive shop was bad. Together with the poor visibility it was difficult to take good photos. Anyway I really enjoyed the diving on the wrecks. If you like wrecks, you will like diving in Coron for sure.

Here more information about Coron wrecks and dive centers:

Coron Wrecks
Divecal
Dive Link
Rock Steady Dive Center
Sea Dive Resort

After last dive back to the boat. Boat ride from the last dive spot to Coron Town took about one and half hours. I feel good! 

This was also first diving day with my new camera Canon G15 and Ikelite housing. Now I tried few different settings for the camera. Poor visibility and low light condition were also quite different compared for the normal reef dives. So difficult to say yet, which are the best overal settings for the camera. Now I used mainly P and C1 (custom). 

If you have Canon G15 I'm interested to know what kind of settings you use for different diving conditions? Just comment for this story or you can send me also email.

Have a safe dives!

Cheers,

Mika