Hole in the wall and Discovery Scuba Diving in Mindoro, Philippines

I had a diving day in Sabang Beach area in Mindoro and I did two dives. First dive was normal fun dive. Second dive was Discovery Scuba Diving (DSD) for my girlfriend, so that was her first dive ever. 

Dive #: 243
Date: 25.1.2014
Place: Philippines, Mindoro, Sabang Beach, West Escarceo / Hole in the wall
Depth: 27,7m Average: 16,7m
Dive time: 54min
Visibility: 20m
Sea temperature: +26C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: 3mm wetsuit  Weight: 5Kg
Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite´s housing  Computer: Suunto Stingray

Dive Center: Tina´s Reef Divers
Price: 2000PHP/32,67€/2 dives


Beautiful lionfish.

Nudibranch.

Feather starfish.

Hole in the wall. 

Hole is big enough to dive through.

Morey eel hiding.

White frogfish.

Dive #: 244
Date: 25.1.2014
Place: Philippines, Mindoro, Sabang Beach, Sabang Point / Monkey Beach
Depth: 14,3m Average: 7,9m
Dive time: 40min
Visibility: 20m
Sea temperature: +26C

Price: 2500P/40,85€/Discovery Scuba Diving

Second dive was Discovery Scuba Diving for my girlfriend. She has watched my divings already long time, so it was time for her also to try how does it feels to breath under water.

Instructor and Lyn checking the gears.

Then it was time to go water and try some basic skills.

After some basic training I came to water also and we were ready for the dive. Let´s dive!

Begining of the dive we saw banded sea snake.

Clownfish hiding.

School of yellow striped snappers.

First time together under the water with the bottles. Before only when snorkeling.

Reef fishes.

Another banded sea snake. This time bigger one. 

Lyn has everything ok in the end of the dive. 

Here is a short video clip from the second dive.

Relax diving day. On the second dive was great to see there was no problem on the DSD for Lyn. In practice it means the next step for her will be the Open Water Diver course. Let´s see when and where it will happen.

Regards from Manila,
Mika

Plane wreck and sardines in Cebu, Philippines

I had a weekend trip from Manila to meet my friend Petri in Cebu. We did also two dives in Mactan area.

Dive #: 239

Date: 21.6.2013

Place: Philippines, Cebu, Mactan, Tambuli

Depth: 29,5m Average: 14,9m

Dive time: 43min

Visibility: 20m

Sea temperature: +30C

Equipment

Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: No wetsuit, only shorts and sleeveless Weight: 5Kg

Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite´s housing Computer: Suunto Stingray

Dive Center: Scuba Haven

Price: Special friend price

Divers: Petri, Jari, Minna and me.

Our first dive spot was Tambuli. There is plane wreck, which is of course the most important target on the dive. 

Plane a bit closer.

Jari inside the plane.

"This is your captain speaking…". That´s me.

Petri comes out from the plane.

Jari takes some photos.

After the wreck we dived to more shallow area, where we saw banded sea snake.

Minna with the snake.

Finally the snake swam to the surface.

Small reef fishes.

Feather starfish.

Nudibranch.

End of dive and back to the surface.

Dive #: 240

Date: 21.6.2013

Place: Philippines, Cebu, Mactan, Kontiki Reef

Depth: 15,8m Average: 8,2m

Dive time: 73min

Visibility: 15-20m

Sea temperature: +31C

Equipment

Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: No wetsuit, only shorts and sleeveless  Weight: 5Kg

Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite´s housing  Computer: Suunto Stinger

Our second dive spot was Kontiki Reef. There our goal was to find school of sardines, which usually are on the area.

Small striped catfishes.

Oh yes, we found the sardines.

More.

Corals and some kind of worms.

Soft corals.

Nudibranch.

Lionfish.

Our friend "Nemo".

School of striped catfishes.

Later on the dive we saw more sardines.

Closer.

Jari under the school.

In the end of the dive we saw lots of sardines. Visibility just in that place was not the best possible. 

Here is a short video clip of the sardines.

Water temperature especially on the second dive was very warm. Amazing +31C! Nice and relax dives.

If you are interested to dive in Cebu area just contact to Petri.

Regards from Manila,

Mika

Diving in Mindoro, Philippines

I had a weekend trip from Manila to Sabang Beach in Mindoro and I had there two relax dives with South Sea Divers.

Dive #: 237

Date: 27.4.2013

Place: Philippines, Mindoro, Sabang Beach, Sabang Wrecks

Depth: 19,5m Average: 14,9m

Dive time: 49min

Visibility: 20m

Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment

Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, only shorts Weight: 5Kg

Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite´s housing

Dive Center: South Sea Divers

Price: 2200PHP/41,20€ (2 dives)

Our dive spot was Sabang Wrecks. There are three small wrecks very near the beach. 

Giant puffer.

Engine.

Another wreck.

Black frog fish on the wreck.

Wreck.

Pipe fish on the bottom.

Bright colors.

Star fish.

Dive #: 238

Date: 28.4.2013

Place: Philippines, Mindoro, Sabang Beach, Coral Cove

Depth: 25,9m Average: 14,6m

Dive time: 51min

Visibility: 20m

Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment

Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, only shorts Weight: 5Kg

Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite´s housing

This time our dive spot was Coral Cove. The place is full of different kind of soft coral and lots of reef fishes.

Sea cucumber.

Black ribbon eel.

Black frog fish.

I have seen electric clam only ones before in Bunaken in Indonesia, so it was interesting to see it finally again. 

Some kind of trigger fish. I have never seen this before. 

We saw two different sea snake on the dive. This one is just going up to breath.

"Nemos". It´s always great to see beautiful clown fishes. 

Sea cucumber on feet.

Nudibranch.

Almost transparent glass shrimp on the anemone.

Dives were very relax and it was great the dive again after two months. I had also some problems. I forgot the flash diffuser of the camera housing to home, so I couldn´t use flash normally. The lens port of the housing blocks the flash so badly, that it´s impossible to take good macro photos with the flash without diffuser. I got the slave flash from the dive shop to use and it was very simple to click to single hand tray. When camera´s own flash fires the slave flash detects the flash and fires in the same time. It needs lots of practice and It was not so easy to take good photos with the slave, because the photos easily overexposed. The real external flash would be the best option.

During the weekend happened also something which divers never want to hear or see. Serious dive accident. Just before my dive on Saturday when we were still on the dive shop we heard there has been a serious dive accident on the next dive shop. I don´t know the detail, but anyway one French woman died. Which makes the case even worse there was just 2-3 days before also serious accidents where two divers died. I heard some rumors for all of these accidents, but  only rumors. Not facts. Everything would be only speculations and it doesn´t help anybody. Very sad cases anyway.

Where ever you dive, dive safely!

Regards from Manila,

Mika