shugar
Contributor
lifted from my trip report on my blog
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Last October - after the last DOR - I asked Imee "can I dive in November?" she said "yes"...
November came...
and went...
December came...
it was cold...
and went...
January came...
it was fmuckin' cold...
and went...
February came...
and went...
But March! Oh, March, my most favorite of months! Came and I got to (drum roll) dive!!!
Spent the day in Anilao with Jon, James, his GF Maxine, Raine and her BF Jay. Jon's wife Dea came along too for her usual Batangas massage but apparently it didn't push through so instead she slept.
The objective was a photo dive - Jon and James were practicing for the MAD About US competition (I was tagging along to remember how it felt to breath through a reg). We were hitting Secret Bay then Secret Garden (Yes, Anilao is getting full of "secrets"... malapit na daw magkaroon ng Secret Cathedral hahahahaha).
There was a ghost pipefish in the bushes in Secret Bay, and a whole bunch of nudibranchs in Secret Garden. So here's the dive overview.
Dive #1: Secret Bay
Max Depth: 78'
Bottom Time: 47 minutes
Water Temp: Cold (79F/ 26C)
Secret Bay is all sand so I'm not going to bore any of you with the first 60+ feet. We came upon two soft coral bushes and Jon and James got to work.
The smaller of the two was home to a whole bunch of sawblade shrimps and a gorgeous (and mid-sized) white ornate ghost pipefish. Between the white soft coral, the white squid eggs and the white ghost pipe, taking photos was a challenge. Not only was it hard to find the little bugger, it was hard to get a good exposure because of the color.
We spent most of the dive there and realized we were heading low on air (hehehehe... Same Ocean Policy in effect) so started to move up. Along the way most of them saw a seahorse in the open, a weird cross between a lizardfish and flying gurnard - probably a type of dragonet? And I was taking some photos of a small mantis shrimp (w/ eggs) that kind of attacked me! The @!()&%!@$&*#!%&*@!!!!
A pretty good dive... I could have spent a few more minutes but I had used a good chunk of air from my tank when salt water splashed into my eye after I cleared my mask. The effin' distraction caused me to breathe off-key. Bwiset.
Dive #2: Secret Garden
Max. Depth: 60'
Bottom Time: 78 minutes
Water Temp: Fruckin' Cold (78-79F/ 25-26C)
Air Temp: Fluckin' ColdER! (lecheng hangin yan!)
After a surface interval that was partly cloudy, partly sunny, and mostly windy, we did a shore entry down to the Secret Garden.
Although not a solid reef per se, there was much more color here with crinoids abounding and a good amount of fish swimming around.
Soon after the DM (Jake) pointed out a tiny nudi for me... tiny being the operative term as this thing was the size of my pinky nail.
The rest of the dive was fairly relaxed with about 3 kinds of nudis that I'd never seen before, and at the end a small white-eyed moray playing peekaboo with me through the xenia.
We swung by Balai to see Edvin Eng (to us he's like a huge rockstar) but he had left earlier that morning as his group wanted to swing by SM before flying back to KL. At Balai saw Maristelle and Armin and got to swap a story with Larry. With regard to that story all I can say is "if you're going to harm marine life just to take a picture, you're no better than a K diver".
The boat ride was... well... "cool" hahahahahaha!
With the cold rain that suddenly came up, the overcast sky, the cold water and the oncoming wind it was a challenge not to freak about the cold.
Over lunch at the resort we began to review our photos.
Luckily we all got some money shots... according to Jon "ghost pipe palang boundary ka na"... and although it was a good harvest personally I don't find it a particularly rich one...
Have to go back there... have to get better at this picture-picture thing... have to get wet more often...
** disclaimer: the above photos are just "auto-leveled" for report purposes... processed photos to follow below
--------------------
Last October - after the last DOR - I asked Imee "can I dive in November?" she said "yes"...
November came...
and went...
December came...
it was cold...
and went...
January came...
it was fmuckin' cold...
and went...
February came...
and went...
But March! Oh, March, my most favorite of months! Came and I got to (drum roll) dive!!!
Spent the day in Anilao with Jon, James, his GF Maxine, Raine and her BF Jay. Jon's wife Dea came along too for her usual Batangas massage but apparently it didn't push through so instead she slept.
The objective was a photo dive - Jon and James were practicing for the MAD About US competition (I was tagging along to remember how it felt to breath through a reg). We were hitting Secret Bay then Secret Garden (Yes, Anilao is getting full of "secrets"... malapit na daw magkaroon ng Secret Cathedral hahahahaha).
There was a ghost pipefish in the bushes in Secret Bay, and a whole bunch of nudibranchs in Secret Garden. So here's the dive overview.
Dive #1: Secret Bay
Max Depth: 78'
Bottom Time: 47 minutes
Water Temp: Cold (79F/ 26C)
Secret Bay is all sand so I'm not going to bore any of you with the first 60+ feet. We came upon two soft coral bushes and Jon and James got to work.
The smaller of the two was home to a whole bunch of sawblade shrimps and a gorgeous (and mid-sized) white ornate ghost pipefish. Between the white soft coral, the white squid eggs and the white ghost pipe, taking photos was a challenge. Not only was it hard to find the little bugger, it was hard to get a good exposure because of the color.
We spent most of the dive there and realized we were heading low on air (hehehehe... Same Ocean Policy in effect) so started to move up. Along the way most of them saw a seahorse in the open, a weird cross between a lizardfish and flying gurnard - probably a type of dragonet? And I was taking some photos of a small mantis shrimp (w/ eggs) that kind of attacked me! The @!()&%!@$&*#!%&*@!!!!
A pretty good dive... I could have spent a few more minutes but I had used a good chunk of air from my tank when salt water splashed into my eye after I cleared my mask. The effin' distraction caused me to breathe off-key. Bwiset.
Dive #2: Secret Garden
Max. Depth: 60'
Bottom Time: 78 minutes
Water Temp: Fruckin' Cold (78-79F/ 25-26C)
Air Temp: Fluckin' ColdER! (lecheng hangin yan!)
After a surface interval that was partly cloudy, partly sunny, and mostly windy, we did a shore entry down to the Secret Garden.
Although not a solid reef per se, there was much more color here with crinoids abounding and a good amount of fish swimming around.
Soon after the DM (Jake) pointed out a tiny nudi for me... tiny being the operative term as this thing was the size of my pinky nail.
The rest of the dive was fairly relaxed with about 3 kinds of nudis that I'd never seen before, and at the end a small white-eyed moray playing peekaboo with me through the xenia.
We swung by Balai to see Edvin Eng (to us he's like a huge rockstar) but he had left earlier that morning as his group wanted to swing by SM before flying back to KL. At Balai saw Maristelle and Armin and got to swap a story with Larry. With regard to that story all I can say is "if you're going to harm marine life just to take a picture, you're no better than a K diver".
The boat ride was... well... "cool" hahahahahaha!
With the cold rain that suddenly came up, the overcast sky, the cold water and the oncoming wind it was a challenge not to freak about the cold.
Over lunch at the resort we began to review our photos.
Luckily we all got some money shots... according to Jon "ghost pipe palang boundary ka na"... and although it was a good harvest personally I don't find it a particularly rich one...
Have to go back there... have to get better at this picture-picture thing... have to get wet more often...
** disclaimer: the above photos are just "auto-leveled" for report purposes... processed photos to follow below
