Having a Whale of a Time - Day 2

The following day we were up early for a dive trip to what is called the manta ray cleaning station.  We were on a boat with a French girl, who was travelling on her own, and a two Filipinos.

Our dive master for the day was Bobby and there were a number of dives planned.  To begin with we were asked what dive experience we had as the area we were diving in has strong currents.  When I told them about my weedy experience, the dive master looked concerned but when we told him about Luis' even weedier experience he looked distinctly worried.  He should worry: I wasn't exactly looking forward to jumping into the open ocean off of Luzon and being picked out of the sea 3 days later, having been found floating face down off the beaches of Mindanao.

Our first dive was on a reef that Bobby claimed to be his own discovery and hence was known as Bobby's Reef (original, eh?).

We headed out from Donsal into open seas and around 90 minutes later we were mooring up just off an idylic beach between a tiny limestone island called San Miguel and its neighbouring island, located at the north end of Ticao Island, in the sea between the southern tip of Luzon and the island of Masbate.  The island of San Miguel had steep cliffs and caves all along its flank and this is where Bobby's Reef is located.

Beach between islands

Once we were moored up it was into the rubber outfits and were soon in the water, swimming along admiring the corals.  There seemed to be a distinct lack of fish to look at though.

Limestone caves

After this dive was completed, we were off to the manta cleaning station (Longitude 123.750  Latitude 12.661 in case you're interested). Here, apart from the manta rays, we were told we could hope to see hammer head sharks and black tip reef sharks.  Once at the venue a plastic tub on a rope was thrown overboard to assess the current speed before taking the plunge.  In the water the pull of the current was immediately noticeable and being 3½ miles from the shoreline did nothing to assuage my fears.

Visibility was good, which was a shame because we didn't see anything. To begin with we spent some time sitting, or rather clinging to the sea bed trying no to get swept away, waiting for something to come along and after a while, when nothing did we swam off in search of something to see.  But didn't really see anything.  And then we had to surface because the biggest bloke in the group, you know, the one with the biggest lungs, the biggest heart (in more ways than one) and the biggest bulk (hence more drag in the current and so had to swim harder, had run out of air.  Of course, I didn't get any understanding from anyone else in the group and was made to feel like I'd spoilt the dive on the supposed premise that if we'd stayed down for another 10 minutes we'd have seen every aquatic animal known to man.

Head into the current looking for mantas

Back on the boat we headed to Tico Island Resort for a very pleasant lunch and for Luis to catch up on his sleep - ZZzzzzzzzz.

Then we headed back out to the same location for more of the same. But alas, still no mantas and no sharks either. After which we headed back to the shore and the hotel.

The crew take it easy

Despite not seeing any big game it was a wonderful day, being on and in the water and messing around on boats.