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

Snorkeling day with the whale sharks in Donsol, Philippines

Whale shark - the biggest fish in the world. All the bigger creatures in the oceans are mammals. That´s the fact. I have swum and snorkeled with whale shark 4-5 time before in Philippines near Puerto Princesa in Palawan. Those days were very special. There are also some other places in Philippines where it´s possible to see whale sharks. The most famous one is Donsol near Legazpi City. Anyway like this map shows it´s possible to see whale sharks almost everywhere in the Philippines, if you are lucky.

Easiest way to go Donsol is to take a flight to Legazpi from Manila or Cebu. After flight by van or bus to Dolsol. Travel time is about 1h 20min. 

We went to Donsol on Friday 25th of March and our hotel was Vitton Beach Resort. Already on the hotel it was easy to see whale sharks are big thing in Donsol. 

Just in the neighbor of Vitton is Donsol tourist information center. That´s also the place where the whale shark trips have to book. There are three trips every day and each trip is three hours. First trip for everybody is 885PHP/16,90€. Next trips are 585PHP/11,10€. On the first trip everybody have pay permit for the area and that´s the reason why first trip is more expensive. Permit is valid about 1 week. We booked the trip for the next day.

I heard already before our trip to Donsol, that there has not been so many whale shark on this year. There has been several days that people haven´t seen any whale shark. Here you can check the calendar markings for January, February and March 2013. March and April is usually the peak season for the whale sharks in Donsol. 

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

Our boat trip was on Saturday 26th of March. Morning was perfect. Blue sky and no wind. Sea was also very calm. We came to the tourist information center just little bit before 7am. Every boat take max 6 customers. In our boat was me and my girl friend, our friend Peter from Japan, couple from Germany and one guy from Spain. Everything was ready about 7:30am and jumped to the boat.

One of the best point in Donsol is that there is no need to ride on the boat first hour or two. Boats are immediately on the same area where the whale shark are also. Starting from the first minutes.

We joked with Peter that we will see whale shark in Saturday. Question is only how many and how long we have to wait the first one. 15min or even 30min. In fact our last evening plan worked very well. We were on the boat only about 20min was the first alert. Quickly mask, snorkel, fins and camera ready and then we sat on the edge of the boat. Then our boat man just rode us to correct place and our guide said: Everybody ready…? Yes! Jump NOW!!

Very soon we saw our giant underwater friend.

This whale shark was about 8m long. 

Huge pectoral fin.

Finally I was three times on the water and every time I could swim long time just beside the whale shark. Visibility in Donsol is usually not the best possible. Also in this time it was only few meter and it was impossible to take as good photos I wanted. Compared to Palawan there is huge difference in visibility.

Anyway it was great to see those majestic creatures again. It´s always something very special to see whale sharks close.

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