Diving Tubbataha Reef with M/Y Sakura

[moorish8idol]

Thanks for the great report! I'll be on the Sakura April 29th and was starting to get nervous after all these comments. I researched pretty thoroughly before booking and hadn't read anything like total flooding or bare electrical. Out of curiosity which was the luckier guide, I'll try to join them.

To be fair, I think both of the DMs were good but I had Igor - he seemed to know when and where to drop down to find things and he was usually right on point. We didn't really get a choice of our group though you could try for switching if need be - they had divided us up ahead of time and it appeared to be according to experience. Igor took the more experienced divers and after a check-out dive where it appeared we were all problem-free divers and had very similar air consumption, we just kept it that way.
As for other stuff, take only a small bag with the necessities for the trip and keep it in your cabin so it can stay as dry as possible (and still pack clothes and electronics in airtight plastic bags) - if you have bigger bags along with you, I am confident that you can store it at the office in Puerto Princesa. Hopefully mother nature is good to you guys on your trip!

 

[outofofficebrb]

I would look into a drybag for sure.

 

[whatacoolfish]

Ya this thread made me pick up a dry bag yesterday haha

 

[akeary123]

The v-berth cabin is directly in front of the double cabin. The two divemasters shared that on our trip and on the way out, because of the rough seas, got all wet as it’s below deck. No windows I believe in that area. They called it the panic room lol. So maybe make sure your clothes that you want to keep dry, ask them to put it somewhere on top or better yet, maybe bring A garbage bag to wrap your bag inside. In any case, if the weathers nice, just sleep on the mats where we eat on the deck. It’s really nice there when the weather is calm. And it wouldn’t hurt to ask if you could sleep on top because they don’t assign people to that area since it’s technically not a cabin. Hope you have a wonderful and safe trip. Let me know how you liked it

Hello again, just got home from my Philippine trip today. What can I say, after experiencing the M/Y Sakura I can only imagine how bad you had it! We had rough seas on the way over there but we made it.......eventually. Not even joking, it could possibly be the worse night of my life. The boat is not suitable for these trips in my opinion. I was on the same trip as 'morish8idol' (Hello). She is not wrong with her assessment, we were lucky to not sink on the way over.
But we did make it and it was the best diving experience of my life!!!! Tubbataha lived up to my expectations. We came across 4 different whale sharks, a group of 6 hammerheads, 2 manta rays, an eagle ray, 3 marbled rays, countless hawksbille and green turtles, countless white tip, black tip and grey reef sharks, also pretty sure a couple small silver tips. Huge dogtooth tuna, massive giant trevally, schools of barracuda and jacks, huge bumphead wrasse and parrotfish. The walls were full of life and the corals on top colorful and the most life I have ever seen. The only thing I didn't see that I was hoping for was a tiger shark. But I'm definitely not complaining.
The owners Dino and Let are very nice people, fellow customers were all nice and easy to get along with, the DM's Igor and Chie were awesome and the crew were all awesome. The only thing wrong was the boat. Even though its budget, I have done 2 budget liverboards before, this was not acceptable or safe. Needs some serious maintenance and renovations. I can't see how this boat will last much longer.