Channel Steve

UPDATE: 17 Jan, 2012

Images from this trip have now been posted to Flickr: Malapascua Dive Trip

Hi everyone.

I’m on my fifth diving day in Malapascua, a small island off Cebu, and
I’ve finished the last dive for the trip – my 12th.
I haven’t had internet until today, and I don’t want to spend the rest
of the day tweeting and blogging so this is just a quick update on the
week so far along with a map of the sites from a photo Joepi took.

The purpose of the trip was to dive with Thresher Sharks. Here is a
brief summary of the week’s quest.

Day 1
North Point – checking out my new gear; highlight was a banded sea krait.
Deep Rock – small, orange frogfish & sea urchins camouflaging
themselves with rock
Lighthouse – night dive; crab city & large seahorses
No sharks.

Day 2
Chocolate Island – muck dive; different shrimp varieties, nudibranch,
seahorses & pipefish. First dive with my new dive computer.
Monad Shoal – Manta dive; One batfish but no Mantas. Others said they
saw some. My 60th dive.
No sharks.

Day 3
Monad Shoal – Thresher Dive; 1st dive on Nitrox; 2 large octopi, no
sharks underwater but back on the boat 2 breached the surface,
clearing the water, while feeding.
Donna Marilyn – wreck dive, on Nitrox; very open wreck with glass
shrimp & not much else.
Gato Island – a lot of reef creatures & coral, but not many fish, and
a swimming sea snake. Gained my Underwater Naturalist specialization
on this dive.
No sharks.

Day 4
Monad Shoal – Thresher Dive; 50 hours underwater plus gained Deep
Diver specialization. Other group saw sharks, but not us.
Calanggaman – beautiful wall dive similar to Tubbataha; barracuda,
moray, seahorse & more. Gained Underwater Navigator specialization on
this dive.
Calanggaman – large cuttlefish, barracuda came very close. Tigers &
Hammerheads have been sighted here, but not today.
No sharks.

Day 5
Monad Shoal – Thresher Dive; Finally! Two or three arrived 10 minutes
into the dive and circled us for 30 minutes, after which we needed to
begin our ascent. I switched masks with the DM underwater as mine was
fogging badly. Very well worth the wait as they came very close and
moved quite lazily.

We had planned to do two more by the end of the day but the weather is
not so good and I’m pretty tired after a long week of diving and
certification procedures. Oh, I should state that I am now an
Advanced Open Water Diver and Nitrox Certified. This removes the
limitations that can stop me from diving many sites and also allows me
longer bottom time on most sites.
I still don’t own my own gear, but I don’t plan to dive Vietnam and my
free time only allows me to do one major diving trip a year.

I don’t have many photos as most of my time has been spent underwater,
studying, eating or sleeping, but I’ll post what I have when have
time. I’ll also post a link to Joepi’s underwater shots when they are
available, as they represent what I saw too. She was using a Canon G11
for the first time and the shots have come out really well.

I’ll see Vietnam again on Tuesday, after doing some shopping and
resting in Manila, but right now it’s time to sign off and get a
well-earned drink.

The Dive Sites  posted by Joepi Paloma

Posted via email from RockPortrait in Vietnam