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

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