#119, Meditation Wall, Siamil Island, off Mabul

26meters, 52min

Last dive. 9 dives in 3 days (19.7.-21.7.2010) is enough, you start to get a bit tired. I was kicking bottom and lifting silt like a recent open water graduate!

A good slope though, not really a wall, the best coral formations during these three days, with some interesting nudey branches (in groups of three!), morays, big frog- and a big scorpionf.





Afterwards 70min back to Mabul, a quick burn of pics to cd and then another 70min or so back to Semporna. I noted that from Mabul to Semporna the boats two 200hp engines used more than 55 litres of gasoline. Thats pretty darn sick in about one hours time of driving.

Overall the Scuba Junkies have really grown up. In 2006 when I was here last time, the shop was a slimy little room in the shitty town of Semporna. I still remember their ugly home made logo, which literally shows a shark with an ok sign and scuba mask. Its so ugly and badly designed that it stays in your mind. Now they have kept the same logo, but everything is a few steps better. The shop is bigger, nicer and cleaner, and they have opened a big scuba training center at Mabul as well. The Mabul site is exceptionally well organised and run, the rental equipment is brand new and the rental-, boat- and DM procedures are highly professional. Not surpisingly the place is packed with youngsters doing their open water or another divecourse. Also five dive master trainees were doing their dm course. The staff is quite friendly and very international representing varios nationalities. The Junkies were at the right place at the right time, presence of Sipadan has really helped them to grow. Interestingly, the operating manager Tino remembered me from four years back when I visited here last time for just a few days!

Last night I saw a post on the Mabul SJ noteboard indicating that if some of the clients would like to play chess, they should contact one of the DMs so I did. We played a few rounds and it turned out that many junkie divemasters, barstaff and even the owner were a bit of chess junkies as well. They have to pick up ther game though since this round was Mike 6 (wins), Scuba Junkies 0. :-)

#118 : 1st Beach, Siamil Island, off Mabul, Malaysia

18 meters, 64min

HORRIBLE visibility, the weather was so crappy that everyone waited one hour surface interval in the water instead of the boat. Ha! Anyway, it was still better below the surface than above, even it was as clear as in the first dive. This was just off the beach, and it was sandy slope and bottom all way long with little pieces of coral. However it must be Siamil that makes Mabul so highly appreciated among muck divers. This sandy bottom was packed with small and creepy critters and creatures.

Scorpion, dragonmoth, cornet, flying gerrard, frog, cuttle, porcupine, squad & bubble coral shrimps, crabs, moray, dwarf lion, cleaning station (shrimps), etc


Porcupinefish


Flying gurnard

Full photo album

Not a bad day to dive with a camera with!

#117 : 2nd Beach, Siamil Island, off Mabul, Malaysia

GREAT visibility, 30meters depth, 49min divetime + buddyair

The weather was getting gray after leaving sunny Mabul during about 70 min boatride to Siamil. Expectations were high, people said good things about this place. And subconciously, looking from Mabul this was a Sipadan-like island on the horizon. Certainly this had to be better than Mabul.

Even the weather was getting bad, things were smooth below the surface. Water was calm and crystal clear. There is a coral slope going to the sandy bottom at around 30 meters. Instead of exploring the reef, the DM launches fiercely towards the boring looking bottom. We follow like lambs with some current against us. In 30 meters this means heavy air consumption. After circling arounf a while, we are shown a common seahorse (dont let the name fool you, it is not a common thing to find). Afterwards
we founf a strange purple scorpionfish, which eventually turns out to be a Rhinopias Scorpionfish. Not understandinf at the time, but this is the rarest seacreature I have seen during my dives switching the instructor community back in Mabul totally mental. Some of them had never seen it during their years of stay here. Its highly sought after by aquarium enthusiastics but rare even among them.



By the way, Marinecenter.com has a pricetag for this fish of 1399 USD, but (not surpisingly?) they are out of stock.

I never thought I would get excited about some goddamn fish. But excitement spread around and eventually I was very proud having seen and photographed one.

Spending too much time with my camera in relatively deep water, I run out of air quickly. Not a good combination with a ten minute deco stop looming ahead. So I decide its better go on buddy air, even though I eventually ascend with a good 25 bar.

There was also other stuff, regular scorpionfish, pipefish etc. but nothing that cool.

Scorpion leaffish


Fire Urchin

If you wanna go out there and look for the Rhinopian yourself - good luck! Instructions: Go about 50 meters from the slope towards the endless seabottom and when you find a 7 cm long purple weedy scorpiofish, then congratulations!

After ascend, the weather had really turned bad and now it was raining horizontally cats and dogs. This dive really didnt go by the book, first the buddyweiserair and then I dropped my mask on the surface so that the dm had to go and find it. Not cool Mike!

#116 : Artificial Reef, off Mabul, Malaysia (20.07.2010)

60min, 22m, air

Just like the House Reef at Kapilai (#111), this place was loaded with underwater structures, houses, watchtowers, boats etc making it a cool experience. It all resembled a bit like an abandoned sunk ghostown, taken over by marine life. The feeling is spooky. You can be exploring a watchtower just to see tha huge shadows of sunken boathangars looming in the distance. Everything is packed with big fish and small gems, little critter such as ghost pipefish (x2), pink and green leafy filefish (two separate fish that is), extremely well carmoflaged frogfish, and here they seem to make a big number out of a regular banded pipefish so yeah there are plenty of those as well. Also the big pharaoh cuttlefish is always impressive, even though not flamboyant.



Also a big school of jacks surrounded us, quite cool. Big groupers, cods, sweetlips, jacks all over. One of the best dives at otherwise slightly disappointing Mabul.

Few words about the accomodation here. I dived with scuba junkies, who have shops/dorms in mainland Semporna and here in Mabul. If you get the dorm at Scuba Junkies at Mabul, take it since it is a good deal. For 70 ringettes you get a dorm bed PLUS all your meals for the day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. And these are good meals, buffee all u can eat with meaty chicken, rise, noodles, veggies, fruits, tea, coffiee and its all good.

I stayed at one of the longhouses, which Mabul has plenty of. They also cost 70 ringettes a night and they also have all meals included, but these meals are not exceptionally good. We were served fishheads, bony chicken chumps and vegetables. Beer is expensive, 8 ringettes a bottle, as is everywhere in Malaysia. Our longhouse also had rats and ants, which for me just adds the fun but for some of you probably not. However the staff is friendly, local kids running (often naked) around kicking garbage bags as footballs and singing Shakira's World Cup theme Wakka Wakka ee ee... :)

Everyone salutes you as you pass by and its a good idea to reply with a smile and a hello since ignorance equals to arrogance. Its great how these people always have a smile on their face and are enjoying life as it is.

#115: Ribbon Valley (1/2/3?) Mabul, Malaysia

61min, 21m, air

Another relatively bad conditioned reef ith not much to see. Great visibility however made up for it.

#114 : Manta point, off Mabul, Malaysia

63 min, 21 meters. Air.

Ok come on this is truly sad. They call this Manta point, since probably someone sometimes maybe have seen a manta here. Or maybe he saw a stingray and confused it with a real manta. But hey, compare to the Manta point at Malapasqua where 5 meter mantas are met on daily basis...

You knew that things were bad when the DM starts to bang his tank in order to show us something cool and all u come up with is a hairy crab chilling on a pathetic anenome. Well at least they call them Orang Utan crabs here, making it at least a little bit cool!

This reef slope was full of small holes and hideaways, perfect hiding places for fish, stingrays, octapus, lobster, etc. But time after time I had to leave my search with empty hands, all of the spots being basically empty. After reviewing literally tens of holes, I managed at least to find one blue spotted stingray which is always nice. Also one brown moray and a couple of "Orang Utans". And at the end, the biggest bubble coral shrimp ever. These guys are usually found at around 1-2cm but this was a gigantic 5cm+ transparent blue monster?!

Divebuddy Pierre, the french guy did a great job replacing the aussie

#113 : Eel Garden, Mabul, Malayisia

19m, 61 min (air as all dives here, Nitrox not even available ?!?!?)

The first "normal" reef dive on this beautiful 19th of July. The reefs here are quite sad, considering that the truly amazing Sipadan is really visible on the horizon. And considering that having been a couple of months now in the Philippines, I am used to the coral reefs meaning coral reefs and not some sandy slopes with occasional spots of coral.

But yes there are garden eels and they usually rest on the sandy bottom. You know the ones who stick their heads out of the sand and then hang left and right according to the current, and then stick their head quickly in to the sand when feeling threatened. Maybe not so cool but when they come in dozens, they can put some amusing entertainment on indeed.

This time my beloved aussie divebuddy found a lobster. Nice spot indeed. Probably wanting to steal the show, he tried to pull the lobster out from his hole by pulling his antenna. Nice idea??? The lobster was left with one antenna less the aussie reeflife destroyer was left with indeed a dumb look on his already creepy face.

The best thing here by far was not the couple blue spotted rays, golden morays or occasional fish but the superbly carmouflaged white frogfish/anglerfish that I managed to find. Looking at the white coral rumble, there was a weirly shaped stone that looked like a fish made of bone. This surely couldn't be anything but a well carmofalged fish, but it still felt more like a stone that could be picked up. Frogfish, even though master of carmouflage, is usually resembling himself into soft coral and not rock or coral rumble. Therefore stonefish or anglerfish come into consideration. Most likely the fellow was however a either the relatively rare a false stonefish which in reality is a scorpionfish, or the devil scorpionfish ((Scorpaenopsis diabolus) to be exact - or the much a like flasher scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis macrochir) This was a cool one and had never seen one before.


(Example of a devil scorpionfish photographed at: Lembeth Resort - Indonesia by fishx6 from http://www.whatsthatfish.com.

#112 Seaventures oilrig, Mabul ,Malaysia

56min, 18 meters

So this is the famous Seaventure oilrig that you have seen in all the advertisement pictures. Here it is:



Not surprisingly, the bottom beneath the rig is totally covered in all kind of junk varying from scrapmetal to barrels, tools, pieces of wood, boats, toilets, and all kind of imaginable junk. The barrels are not oil though since oil was never drilled here but the rig was towed from elsewhere.

Once again the metal structures provice good shelter for big fish, and there are loads. We encountered an enormous school of jacks, a school of trumpetmouths, and witnessed a pair of trumpetmouths doing not exactly sure what, but putting up a show including cheeck to cheeck swimming, "swordfighting" with their long mouths, and just dancing around for quite some time. Whether mating or friendly (?) fighting, it was an amusing show to watch.

Other more typical sights included two large crocodilefish who seem to be attracted to junk metal - remember the wreck of Coron Bay in the Philippines, where crocodilefish is often found. And again good sized potato cods and sweetlips and a lot of other variety of BIG fish. Which of course is nice since the reputation of Mabul and Kapalai rely heavily on its muck sightings. (Which as I was to found out, were quite amazing indeed!)

Was diving with an autralian older dude, a familyman with his family, who had some issues controlling his boyancy and eventually had a nice head kick from him in the 18 meters depth. It wasn't a gentle push but a reckless kick and I needed a good moment or two to recover. Quite unexpected. I let him live and moved on.

#111 House Reef, Kapalai off Mabul, Malaysia

60min, 21 meters

Not bad, since most of the structures at Mabul and Kapalai islands are built on water, it cant come as a surprise that some of them have sunk over time. This house reef has plenty of sunken reef houses, boats and all kind of junk that the locals have "sacrified" to the gods of the sea. All this provides great hiding places for the big groupers, sweetlips and jacks who have decided to occupy the area. The big fish really don't have so many places to hide, and even they are big, they are not exactly the attention whores you might expect. Quite the opposite, they prefer to stay in hiding too.

For example, I penetrate a small shipwreck and swim around the hull. Only when I decide to have a look at the top part, I realize there are three gigantic groupers chilling about a meter above me. These guys are all 1 meter plus fish and I am indeed happy I didn't bring any spearfisher with me. The biggest of them all is however not inside the wreck but a potato cod chilling inside one of the used to be houses, looking wrencky but reminding me more of a cow underwater than anything else.

A big variety of large fish here, not shy of divers, which makes this place pretty interesting besides the unusual structures which certainly kept quite a few secrets from us to be revealed the next time. Maybe!

This was btw my first dive as an official divemaster, having recently received the id number from Padi.

#110 Barracuda Lake, Coron

Awesome! Cool "hidden" lake where you have to walk a bit all geared up, just to find a paradise-type inland lagoon where you can actually dive with some interest. There are underwater thermoglydes, resulting to different water temperature layers. You start with the typical 27 degrees or so, but around 10 meters depths the temp increases suddenly to 30+++, closer to 40 to be exact. Wetsuit is absolutely unnecessary here, all I had was a pair of shorts. Below 18 meters you get back to the "cool" 27 degrees. At least one underwater cave connects the lake to the sea, around 50 meters depth. Diveable, but not this time. Great visibility. Apparently there is one barracuda here, but did't see it.

A lot of shrimps, little crayfish, catfish, rabbitfish

You can see the clouds at the sky from 30 meters deep.

Superb experience just for the pure beauty of it. Even there is not coral and not so many fish, this is as unique, special and different as it gets. It's an awesome place to visit even if you wouldnt care a crap about diving. Five star rating any time.

#109 Tangat Wreck (Olympia Maru), Coron

Three of the biggest lionfish I have ever ever seen, half a meter each.
Biggest two scorpionfish I have ever seen, half a meter each.
A crocodilefish. Giant puffer diiba daaba. Cool wreck, visibility quite lousy in the local standards that is, 5-8m. Dived with Suvi, who is really getting the crack out of wreck diving.


Directly from www.coronwrecks.com:

A Japanese Freighter sitting upright in approximately 30 mts of water and located very close to Tangat Island in Coron Bay. N11*58. 291', E 120*03. 707'S
The Olympia Maru was 122 metres long and almost 17 metres wide, displacing 5612 tons. The ship was originally powered by a steam engine but during 2 June to 2 August 1930, an oil two stroke six cylinder engine producing 582hp was installed. The ship was built for Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Ltd and was owned by them right up till it sank. It was requisitioned by the Japanese Defence Forces during the War but was still owned by Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Ltd.

A very good dive spot with a variety of marine life. Large shoals of banana fish, giant bat fish and giant puffer fish, especially around the mast, bow and stern. There are also specimen crocodile fish and scorpion fish so be careful where you put your hands. Easy penetration at the cargo rooms. It offers a good opportunity to discover wreck diving.

#108 Kogyo wreck, Coron

30,6 m

Awesome wreck, in quite murky water, but this one isn't just put down there for the sake of divers (like Boracay, Mactan, Gulf of Mexico, etc. ) but is a direct hit in the naval battles of WW2. (check also Battleship Yamato)

text from www.coronwrecks.com:

The Kogyo Maru, located N 11*58. 782' E 120*02. 413', was a Japanese freighter carrying construction materials for building a runway for the Japanese war effort in the Pacific.

The Kogyo Maru was built in 1938 by Uraga Dock Co Ltd, Uraga, Japan for Okada Gumi KK. The ship was 6353 tons, 129 mts long, and 18 mts wide. She was powered by two oil fuelled steam turbines (517Nhp) geared to a single shaft. The engines were built by Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Tokyo. Her home port was Osaka.

Lying on her starboard side in 34 meters of water the Kogyo Maru offers swim throughs into all six holds and through the engine room and bridge area. Kogyo Maru's second hold contains an incline of cement bags which tumbled as the ship sank. A small bulldozer draws your attention as you swim into the hold. Complete but encrusted, you can imagine the operator sitting in the seat and working the control levers to carve a runway out of a tropical island. Engrossed in the bulldozer you might fail to look up the incline of cement sacks and so miss the tractor and air compressor perched above it. Take the time to swim up and look at both pieces and see how many of the engine parts you can identify. It's complete. Check out the metal wheels on the tractor. Coming out of the hold swim up the front mast, now horizontal, and on your left side. At the top of the mast look at the crow's nest and imagine what a lookout would experience when perched 30 meters above the water in a Japanese winter storm. Swim back over the deck to the bridge and engine room below it. Enter both from the stern side for easier access. Swim through the cavernous engine room and look at the hardware then out through the bridge. If air is low go up to the port side of the bridge and look at the soft corals growing there and the fish life living on this artificial coral reef at 22 meters. If you have enough air continue below deck level to the stern looking at all of the deck hardware for moving cargo and working the ship. Pass around the stern and then go forward over the port side to return to the mooring line. You pass over hard and soft corals covering the side of the ship. On this dive keep your head and eyes moving like a fighter pilot's to see the school of barracuda which will swim by. If you only look at the Kogyo Maru you will miss the barracuda.

#107 Lapus Lapus, Malapasqua

OWD training (Matt) dive
Lapus Lapus good soft corals

#106 Manta Point, Malapasqua

#104-105 Gato Island, Malapasqua

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#102-103 Monad Shoal, Malapasqua

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#100-101 Dona Marilyn Wrteck, Malapasqua

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#99 : Manta point, Malapoasqua

#98 Mandarin point, Malapasqua

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#96-97, Kalanggaman island, Malapasqua

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#93-94 Gato Island, Malapasqua

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#92 Monad Shoal, Malapasqua

DM Dive 1 Monad Shoal
1 Manta ray (3m)
details to be added

#89 - #91 Hilutungan, Talima, Tambuli around Mactan

A three dive daytrip inc Hilutungan island, Talima and Tambuli off Mactan. Good stuff. A crazy old French fart called Bernard spotted a good sized octapus who soon escaped into a small hole. Bernard just sticks his hand into the black and tries to grap the poor creature, without gloves etc. Eventually he pulls the whole octapus out of its cave...

During the process my regu gets tangles with his ascend flag system so when he takes off, my regu is pulled off from my mouth with quite a force. Interesting!

Dive goes on, lots of "lapu-lapu"s, (groupers), sweetelips occupy the area. A giant triggerfish totally snaps and starts to charge on me some viscious attacks. Kicking it away it keeps on launching until it sees the next diver as an easier victim or a bigger threat to her eggs. Some serious underwater bouncing taking place, its hilarious to see a 40cm creature causing so much havoc in fully grown men.

But yeah, so much talk about triggerfish attacks and never really seen one, so it was an educating experience. Lesson: do not mess with a triggerfish, she will fcuk you up.

Funnily the aggression seemed to have spread among other fish, since after exiting from the triggerfish range, a small black usually harmless reef fish launches and bites my hand. Totally hilarious!

Good dives overall. Stingrays, nudey branches, lionfish, boxer shrimps, sweetlips, groupers, octapus, trumpetmouths, reef fish, all about 27-30meter depth range 45-55min each` using nitrox EANx33, EANx35 / reg air.

Talima has a small shipwreck, Tambuli has an artificial airplane wreck.

Dives with MSDC

#86 - #88 - Calibao Island, Philippines

Once the grouping point of hammerheads, today still good wall diving and occasional napoleon wrasses. In fact surpisingly good walls, gorgonians and healthy coral. Recommended. And yes spotted also the napoleon wrasse, about 1 meter long.

Divetimes 47 / 55 / 53min
Depths 31 / 27 / 27 meters
Air
With Mactan Scuba Dive Center MSDC which really offers you the best value for money in Mactan and really anywhere. You can negotiate three dive daytrips for 2000 pesos inc equipment.

#85 : Marigondon cave, Mactan

Awesome, a big cave just off Marigondon beach. Entrance off 100 meters from beach at 20-30m, it's huge, you could park a bus inside. Goes apprximately 50 meters inside, but its so big that you can see the entrance at almost all times. Went all the way in, with the great lead from Jens/MSDC. Some people have apparently died diving here, there are a few graves and memorial crosses. Tough luck.

We were quite excited in here, and since already had a deep dive this morning, ended up doing a 25 minute decompression stop at 5 meters. It was worthwhile, encountered two branded sea snakes / kraits, a toadfish (!) usually only in Mexico, a red lionsifh, nudey branches, a spotted crab, pipefishes etc. Nice but totally destroyed aafterwards, thats what the nitrogen does for ya.

MAx depth 36m, divetime 65min inc. 25 min deco

#84 Tresher shark hunting (1hour from Mactan)

Off Mactan again at unspecified location where there had been recent thresher shark encounters. No luck for us though, 27 mins with apretty cool wall though just staring into the blue.

Depth 38m, divetime 27min

#83 Kontiki Wall, Mactan

The "official" nitrox test dive after completing the "theory", not exactly rocket science but still somehwhay relevant. Did a EANx32 dive at a wall that probably used to be great, but now was full of junk including some plastic bottle markers left by divers and all kind of crap thrown from the boats. So discovered the wall at around 30m for a good half an hour an that was pretty much it.

Afterweard discussed for quite a while about the DM course to be probably done with Greg, let's see now where to go from here though. Rescue with Nitrox is already a nice combo.

Max depth 31,0m, divetime 42min, weights 5kg with 1mm suit

Whale sharks at Limasawa, Leyte, Philippines

Limasawa Island : 9°53′37″N 125°31′18″E / 9.89361°N 125.52167°E / 9.89361

This is not really a dive, but how could I possibly not log this?

Friday morning, 14th May 2010 about 7 AM I jump to the water, not exactly knowing what to expect. I mean yeah, we came here to see whalesharks but still, seeing one coming right at me right away was quite a thrill. Even this was a baby, only about 4 meters long (the grow up to 12 meters) I was stunned. I mean this guy has a tremendous mouth and it was coming right at me!

Nah, whale shark is a plankton eater. It wouldn't eat you even if you tried to get into its mouth. But still, come one, get that thing off me!

Seconds later when the shark was gone I felt stupid having frozed like that. Now I could catch it anymore, I was just feeling silly in the water. Darn it! But yeah, that was my first ever whale shark appointment!

But it was not the last. Only about 10 minutes later, our captain is able to spot one with help of the local fishermen. Everybody from the boat jumps in, but again the shark is drifted away.

Third time to come. People start to get tired after the some hard swimming. Adrenaline pumps in. I can swim I keep thinking. Mike, just relax. Shark is spotted and we jump in and this time I can keep up with it, swimming right on top of it. First hesitating, is it going to worry about me swimming so close to him? All it needs to do is one vigorous slash of the backfin and I will get the message to remember, but really it couldn't care less of my tiny presence. My confidence grows and I concentrate on keeping my swimming and breathing steady. I feel jellyfish burns in my hands, neck and face but go on, no question about it. Only one fellow is swimming with me anymore and together we spend a good ten minutes observing this enormous creature. At around 6 meters it's still a youngster, just feeding plankton and getting bigger. The name "whale shark" comes from the fish's physiology. As large as a whale, it too is a filter feeder. This really is one of the most beautiful I have EVER witnessed in my entire life!


Img from Aims Research


The next morning we come back the same site, but the whale shakrs appear to be gone along with the sun. Some wind breaks the surface of the sea, and the sky being grey, spotting the shakrs become nearly impossible. We spend a good half an hour looking for them, again early in the hours of dawn, tired, but thrilled. A local fisherman directs us closer to the shore, apparently having maube spotted one. We continue, but it seems to be a false alarm. There are no sharks. It's the end of the season and in late May they leave these shores and continue their unknown paths.

We stand on the deck and skim the horizon, when the least expected (maybe most dreamed) happend and an enormoush shadow crosses right under the boat! WTF?? Doesn't it even care about our boat??!? Crossing us from less than 3 meters distance he catches ALL of us by surprise, and we fail to jump into water even we are all geared up. People screaming, we lose the moment, but now we have seen which way it is going and turn the boat. We spot it easily this time against a crystal clear spot of water, and everyone jumps in. Negletting some more jellyfish damage, we get all close and personal with this 7 meter fellow just to realize that a second figure about same size appears from the blue. I mean goddamnit, all those walldives, you stare into the blue hoping (before: fearing) for something like this and now suddenly you are swimming with two fish, weighing about two tons each. We continue swimming vigorously trying to keep up, but the first one gets nervous and fastens it's pace being only barely visible. People are tired after swimming, so again it's just me and a Englsih-Chinese-becum-Filipino fellow diver who can keep up with the pace. It's so enormous, that even when swimming at ease and slowly, it keeps a decent pace in human standards. Wetsuit and fins=mask=snorkel are necessary to keeping up this pace, but there is nothing that could stop us now. I am literally less than 2 meters away, and just follow its every move. A good 10 minutes goes by with both sharks in close visibility now and I could as well swallow those damn jellyfish who tries to put my whale shark encounter in jeopardy.


Img by Ken Knezick, not our shark

I know that after this moment, in diving, nothing will remain the same. Two approximately seven ton fish (biggest ones weigh more than 20 tons) swimming gently and smoothly just inches from you is just awesome. Not all big is scary, as these two gentle giants have reminded me!

Dive #82 : Unspecified site, off Limasawa

Allright, after the tremendous thrill after seeing the whale shakrs again this morning, we jump into the blue all geared this time, hoping to spot some giants from their own, deeper point of view. This wasn't a real divesite and we didn't expect much, least some tiny nudeybranch or some hairy crab to provide any excitement.

After getting used to the big, murky shadows actually BEING the whale shark(s) you've been waiting for, you get used to it - I was swating out of my wetsuit for the thrill of seing a TEN METER figure going slowly close to the surface. Quite soon after I realised it was our boat. It seems one can embarass himself also underwater:)

But no whalesharks anymore. However, spotting a ghost pipefish here was a rare occasion. I've seen it only once before, in Moalboal in 2006. It's a master of carmofalge, belonging to the seahorse family.


Two ghost pipefishes in their usual heads down position.

entry time 14:31, max depth 24,4m, divetime 40min, Nirox EANx34


Also normal black/yellow striped pipefishes were here.

Dive #81 : Paluarte, Southern Leyte, Philippines

This site was by far the lousiest of the day, but it still offered some nice stuff that you only rarly see, such as the always fascinating manta shrimp. Also scorpionfish was a nice spot here, and I am becoming better and better with "muckking", spotting shrimps from their holes, nudie branches, moray eels and other small/hiding/carmoflaged stuff.

This was a drift dive, the current moving us about a quarter of a mile.

Lots of fishtraps set on the bottom, boring. Luckily they were mostly empty.

entry time 14:31, max depth 24,4m, divetime 40min, water 28 deg celcius, Nitrox EANx34

Nitrox seems to work fine, no difference in taste, a bit more relaxing dives since no worries about deco stops in 18-30depth. The real benefit is marginal, since the tank runs empty far before deco limits anyway. The biggest benefit at this point seems to be that I don't get that tired, even after 3 dives a day, waking 5:30AM three days in a row. Thta IS a real benefit.

Dive #80, Zach's Cove, Southern Leyte, Philippines

OK THIS IS WHAT DIVING IS ALL ABOUT! So fellow diver, u have spent 2000,- for flights, another 2000,- for equipment, spent trmemendous amounts of time planning and organising, and you are wondering if it's REALLY worth of all the hussle?

HELL YEAH!

Zach’s Cove offers something different, and challenging. Its sheer drop-off sometimes exceeds 180 ft and as we made our descent, we noticed an abundance of corals in their most pristine state, from huge sea fans to soft corals to a wide variety of sponges, coral foliose and hard corals, including countless plate and table corals. For the trained eye, one can make out that clams and other marine life, like nudibranches and other invertebrates seem to feel at home in this marine hideaway. The reef residents stand out as well, from adult snappers, sergeant-majors, parrot fishes, angelfishes, groupers, large trigger fishes, sea snakes, and an almost limitless flow of pelagics and schooling fishes, adding more life to this blue undisturbed world. And the barracuda always provide a sense of thrill and awe as it makes its occasional visit to the reef.

One of the goddamnd greatest wall dive's ever. WHY AM I NOT GETTING TIRED OF THIS??????????? (I usually get bored with pretty much anything after a ... day or so)

entry time 11:50, max depth 22,9m, divetime 47min, Nitrox EANx32, water temp 28

Dive #79 : Adrian's Cove, Southern Leyte, Philippines

OK, this dive was planned to go to 45-50 meter range, which was quite a bit more that I was used to. However given the conditions and the recent training, I was confident I could manage it.

Instructor makes a safety check at 40m, I roger and we move to 50,2. My instructor Paul, a South-Korean navy seal with 10.000= dives asks if I want to continue deeper. I am tempted, but decide not to. We start a slow ascend.

No signs of narcosis, but changing diveplan spontaniously ain't my cup of cake. Looking back now I am happy I stayed cool headed.

The sites beauty was a bit left behind, since most of the concentration was dealing with the depth and possible consequences. Afterwrds I was told by the people who stayed at the 30 meter limit, that this was one of the best dives here with a wall, a lot of coves and overhangs, nicely covered bushes of black coral, staghorn corals and many sea squirts. I did enjoy the corals during ascend and saftey stop, but was worried about air (no nitrox at this depth baby). I am surprised actually why this dive was planned to be the deep dive, but given the extremist instructor I guess it was just his game.




Photos by Yvette Lee

The corals again (during ascent) were truly fantastic, zillions of small fish like in an aquarium, ut nothing really spectacular. (I mean, we saw 3 whale sharks [ to be posted ] earlier when snorkeling so bloody hell what could have been spectacular here anymore!??

Entry time 10:07, divetime 32min, max depth 50,2m, water temp 28 celcius (all Leyte dives with Mactan Dive Center)

Dives #77 (Coral Garden) and #78 (Heaven's Gate), Southern Leyte (off San Roque), Philippines (Nitrox EANx34)

OK, the game is on! I was invited to a private safari tour, since by instructor had to collect some cylinders and equipment, he asked a few fellows to join him for the tour with minimimal cost. It was a 5 and a half hour boatride from Mactan Island off Cebu, so lots of time to get close and personal with (nobody but) my new Suunto Zoop. Entry level [ dive computer ] it may be, but serves percetly to my current needs and allows a nitrox mix from 21 (obviously) to 40% oxygen, has visual and sound alarms, waterproof to 100 meters (not like your "waterproof 100m" watch), divelog and planner. This all for less than 200 euro by the way, thanks Suunto! This rare moments of pride for being a Finn!



After getting to know the people onboard and having a rough not-very-urban lunch, it was time to get to the business. We started from Coral Garden and continued with Heaven's Gate. Both interesting dives, and you can really tell these corals are very untouch EVEN THOUGH reports on dynamite fishing do exist. (But at Mactan I heard the blasts on myself, so this could not be worse for sure.) And yes, the virgin corals gave enough feeling of satisfaction and made a long and rough boatride worthwile. Actually at the time of the dives, I considered these very good ones (compared to Mactan at least) but now when I know better - read the future posts to come - these two were... well, just ok.

But it's woprth mentioning that these were my very first enriched air / nitrox dives, giving almost double no deco time underwater. Is this very useful given the same tank size can be questionned, but I think diving with enriched air with more oxygen has also other benefits. It's the nitrogen that really makes you tired after the dives, and having less of it (due to higher concentration of oxygen) really keeps you fresher after the day is over.

Coral Garden: entry time 14:00, divetime 35min, max depth 25m, water temp 28 celcius, gas mix EANx34 (34% oxygen / 66% nitrogen)

Heaven's gate: entry time 17:01, divetime 40min, max depth 25m, water temp 28 celcius, mix EANx34

Dive #76 : Rescue Diver Session 4, Mactan Island (Off Marigondon Beach), Philippines

So this was the last session of my course, including once more a "real life" scene where a diver started to signal for help from the distance, while I was chilling at the beach with no gear on. Then in split seconf you are supposed to think and act, whether it's smart to spend time gearing up, or would it be better just to gear up with fins and mask only and then go for help wuth some sort of floating device. Since it was a deeper spot (I supposed) and the dude could be sinking, I geared up with full gear and decided to make an underwater approach due to heavy waves and waterjet traffic on the surface. Off we go, the "tired diver" was sunk to the bottom, dragged him up, and started immediate rescue breath on the surface. This had to be done every five seconds, and in the meanwhile towing the diver to the surface as well as I could possibly could.

This had to at least look like real, since a couple of guys rushed from the shore to help me out. The victim had then to explain that this was just a simulation!

Overall a good course, even though I would have wanted some more unpredictable surprise scenarios. Now everything was explained beforehands and there was no real element of surprise. Yes, the scenarious were close to real life situations, but in reality nobody is going to explain you beforehands that hey, I will soon panic and sink, would you please rescue me?

However it feels great to advance as diver and I am looking forward to my nitrox and divemaster certifications.

Dive #75 : Rescue Diver Session #3, Mactan Island, Philippines

Rescue diver sessions continuing with more rescue scenarios and missing diver search patterns. First however for of mentioning that scored full 50/50 points from the theory part, guess I really had time to study my book due to a couple of weeks delay of the course. I picked the book two weeks before, fell with a strong flu and had to postpone the practical sessions. Seems like the studying paid off!

We started with another missing diver search patterns, practicing the expanding square, U-pattern and the expanding circle with a line. Then to the most useful stuff, a diver panicking in 20 meters depth, surging to the surface full speed holding breath. So what ya do, let the sad bastard go an experience the free thrills of lung expansion combined with the joy of decompresson sickness? I mean those nitrogen bubbles in your bloodflow cant be that bad right! Oh well for the sake of the course the poor fellow had to be saved, so grabbing and controlling the dude underwater, providing you air supply and taking him calmly to the surface with safety/deco stops. This was great stuff, we actually should have more this which I think is closer to a situation that might happen (and did happen in Belize) in the real world. However we also concentrated quite a bit to rescuing unconscious diver from the bottom, something I dont see THAT common. Anyway, a crapload of time was spent to on-the-surface rescue breaths and ventilations, oxygen masks usage and towing the victim onto land. Pretty good, and tirening, stuff. The burning jellyfish patrolling the area didn't make it much easier, neither the zillions of locals who were spending their sunday afternoon playing at the beach. Once when we surfaced, a waterjet roamed about 5 meters from us...

Ended the session with some free diving excercises, to approximately 3-4 meters and swimming around without equipment.

Dive #74 : Rescue Diver Session 2, Mactan Divers (Mactan Island, Philippines)

Continuing the rescue course with missing diver search patterns and rescue breathing and other first aid on the surface.


- Missing Diver Procedures
- Surfacing an unconscious diver
- On the surface first aid equipment and first aid procedures.
- Towing unconscious diver to the shore while simulating rescue breaths

This stuff gets quite tirening at times, so it really pays off to exercise regularly. Its still the haunting experience from the Belize Blue Hole that motivates me to do this stuff. After seeing a panicked (buddy!) diver in 35 meters launching for a vigorous emergency ascent leaving u speechless incapable for proper reaction is something I DONT want to experience again. And indeed, next time I know what to do.

To be continued tomorrow.

Dive #73 : Rescue Diver Session #1 (Mactan Island, Philippines)

Allright the first rescue diver session started with some refreshing of the basic skills such as swimming in the bottom of the sea without mask and air.

- Missing mask or extended mask removal
- Out of air, finding loose octapus without mask
- Excessive feeding regulator (not in mouth) or "breathing bubbles"
- Overexertion and ascents on alternate air source


Plus on the surface
- Towing distressed diver
- Approaching panicked diver
- Getting rid of the panicked diver (exit)

Quite meaningful stuff especially the self rescue and stress management parts. How can u handle emergencies if u can't handle yourself in one?

Dive #72 : Gilutongan Marine Resort, off Mactan, Cebu, Philippines

Allright now this one was definately all worth it. A good wall at around 5-25 meters, with shitloads of hard and soft corals plus an amazing variety of coral life including a school of giant spadefish, groupers, and a lot of smaller, typical stuff such as parrotfish, morish idols, at least twenty triggerfish chasing each others as maniacs as they are, variety of wrasses and flutemouths, trumpetfish etc, a few shrimps and pipefish but no nudey branches this time.

Even though the site was great, a few dynamite blasts shocked us underwater. It really feels like someone throws the explosives right next to you, such strong is the shockwave underwater. Everyone were staring at each other in disbelief, however relieved that no-ones tank had exploded and that wach one of us were fine. So we continue the dive only to experience the second and the third blast in the moments to come.

This is exaclty the kind of bullshit that greedy attitudes bring up in people. You can easily make the buck by killing all the fish around with a few explosives, then pick the fish and sell it to the market, restaurants, or even worse the chinese morons who buy the fish after not much is left in their own country. Then you leave the corals destroyed and you must hunt the fish further and further away. Also the dive tourism which brings way more money to the local economy than fishing, will diminish. Of course, the fishermen dont get much benefit from divers, but they really must sort themselves out somehow. What the @#@# is the point to first to pay a speacial entrance fee to eneter a marine reservoir and still discover people dynamite fishing in the area. F U all greedy money blinded wankers who are just too lame, dumb or both to understand anything further than short term income.

It was still unclear how far the dynamites were detonated. In the water the shockwave is obvious, however people on the deck of our boat had not heard anything.

Weights 10kg ( because long thick 5mm wetsuit plus gloves), vis 25m, depth 25m, divetime 47min great one.

Dive #71 : Tambuli reef, Mactan Island, Cebu, Philippines

Took off with a few people from work, including my current boss who is an enthusiastic diver. After playing around with waterjets (surpsinigly quite fun!) time to get serious and put the divegear on. We rented quite a large boat, and started patrolling the reefs. Water turquise and crystal clear as the standard in the Philippines seems to be.

Fisr stop was Tambuli reef, where we faced some strong currents and a sea snake was immediately waiting for us. Another interesting thing here was the sunken airplane, a wreck to fool around with was quite unique. However it was a turnoff to realize that it was deliberatly put there for the divers sake. Thats really lame! Not that it's that new of an idea, in the gulf of Mexico they sunk a whole 250 meter long (888 feet) aircraft carrier the USS Oriskany just for the divers. Read more.

So, this was just a small plane, actually just a reminder of the stuff waiting at the Coron Bay, and those wrecks are the realk thing from WW2.

So yeah lets face it, it was a boring dive and diving with your boss is never a great idea since it definately takes some elements off the thing. Also visibilitywise, even Philippines do have good visibility, after Cozumel Mexico, nothing really is the same!

Wetsuit 5mm long, weights 8kg, divetime 35min, vis 20m

EFR, Savedra divers, Moalboal

Emergency First Response course done at Savedra Divers by an Englishman called Abraham Borg. An OK certification course focusing on emergency situations, first response, CPR and banding.

Eli suomeks, hyva setti, alussa onnettomuustilanteen analysointi ja lisavaaroilta valttyminen, tajuttoman potilaan kasittely, hengittamattoman potilaan kasittely, tukehtuneen potilaan kasittely ja haavojen sitominen. Kaytannon harjotuksia paljon, tekohengitysta, rintakehan pumppaamista (2 hengitysta, 30 pumppausta, breath check) ja haavojen sitomista.

Olihan toi instructori ehka parhaimmat paivansa jo nahny mutta ihan kokenu heppu silti ja piti ihan siedettavan kurssin. Ei tosta merijalkavaen kouluttajaa enaa tulis.

Anyway, now I am ready for the rescue diver course. Maybe next weekend!

Dive 70 : Tongo Point, Molaboal, Philippines

Well after the sardines this one just couldnt keep itself interesting, but it was still worth going I suppose. A nice dropoff wall that we followed in around 25 meters depth for a good half an hour, after which spent another 20 minutes exploring shallow corals. The wall was nice and the corals were good, but there was nothing spectacular to be discovered. Not even the mandarinfish showed up, those were likely to be seen here, but none was found. Too bad, its a splendid creature.

We did see a gigantic frogfish though, and seems that I am starting to find stuff myself more and more, and not just looking at things that are pointed out to me. A couple of pipefish for example, a hard to find creatures, as well as a well carmoflaged scorpionfish. Nice stuff.

Also signed up for the Emergency First Response course, supposed to do some studying now and attending the course tomorrow!

Divetime 55min, max depth 25 m, long 3 mm suite, weight 7 kg

Dive 69 : Sardines of Pescador (Moalboal, Pfilippines)

Back in Moalboal after four years. Pescador island had not changed, it still had its personal look, recognizable from the mainland. Last time I was here with Jenni, who did her open water course here. They were good times!

Anyway, this time Pescador island really had a surprise for us. I dived with Savedra divers, headed here on friday night from Cebu and started diving first thing in the morning. It was not the clearest of days, but the visibility is still expected to be ok. As it turned out, there were no problames with visibility, even though after Cozumel I am so spoiled that anything below 30 meters seem bad visibility. Cozumel, clearer than anywhere!

But Cozumel didnt have the sardines. A few million of them. As soon as we descended and fought some strong currents, we were enfronted with a gigantic uber large school of sardines. I had never seen anything like this, it was truly from Discovery channel directly. And where there are sardines, there are the predators. A treasher shark and a white tip shark was observed during this one. However, they did not beat the thrill of the sardines, the sea was literally black from them. At around 25 meters depth looking up, you could not see the sunlight because of this cloud of sardines so thick and dense. Its one of those moments to remember for years to come! The sardines were swimming around for the whole 40 minutes we spent underwater, u just could not get enough from watching them. Stunning, this is why I dive, this is why I live!


School of sardines. Image by Jon Bertsch.

Other stuff included golden moray eel and a scorpionfish, some groupers etc. Divetime 40min, max depth 25m, visibility 20m, weights 6 kg + 1 kg added later, long 3mm suit

Dive 68 : Sanctuary, Balicasag (Panglao, Bohol) Philippines

Here we go again, this time without the israeli goof, it was all not just pleasant but superb diving. The 30 meter deep coral wall hosted some of the biggest sea gorgonians I have EVER seen (3 meters ++) and a lot, I mean a LOT, of other stuff. Couple of frogfishes are worth mentioning, otherwise impossible to point out specific species. But in a true Filipino manner, the corals were just packed with small fish including at least all kind of angelfish, turtle queens, parrotfish, puffers, anenome "nemo" fish, cigar wrasses, lionfish, flutemouth/pipefish, groupers, jacks, snappers and large schools of mackarel. No whalesharks, but the whole panorama is simply breath-taking!

One of the best wall dives ever, even though the Belizes Half Moon Atoll is not easily beaten. The visbility here, this time at least, is not AS good as in Cozumel or Belize, where even at 25 meters depth everything was crystal clear up to 50 meters. Here visib ility maybe up to 30m, still good.

Divesuit 1 mm "pyjama" long, 6kg weight, max depth 18m, divetime 55min, visibility 25m

Dive 67 : Black Forest, Balicasag, (Panglao,Bohol) Philippines

Dive 67 : Black Forest, Balicasag, (Panglao,Bohol) Philippines
GPS Coordinates Entry Point: N.09°30.890-E.123°41.336
GPS Coordinates Exit Point: N.09°30.779-E.123°41.182

A lousy start, when a dummy israeli divebuddy negleted everything the divemaster had told him. When others went down, he stayed up. When others inspected the wall, he was taken by current and had to be rescued from the blue. When others stayed still, he went down. Only after being able to join another group (still from the same boat of course) started to enjoy the dive. First strong current, but then a nice corally aquarium full of life, towards the Cathedral called divesite.

An aquarium with all kind of Anthias, Rockcods Groupers (serraidae family), Scorpion fishes (scorpaenidae family), Squirrel fishes (holocentridae family), Parrotfish (scaridae family), Wrasse (labridae family), Damsel fishes (pomacentridae family) and Anemone fishes (amphiprioninae subfamily). Two turtles, couple of medusas, a couple of barracudas OR spikemouths.

End part of the dive brings the memories from the Mualbual dives in 2006, such rich was the marine life. And again the nudey branches (didnt see them in Mexico, Belize, or Costa Brava) are back in the pictre, as well as the sea cucumbers, spaghetti like seaworms, and zillions of small aquarium fish (purple queens).

Divesuit 1 mm "pyjama" long, 6kg weight, max depth 25m, divetime 55min, visibility 25m

Nice to be back in the Philippines!

Dive 61 : Termentos, Cozumel

Hyvä dyykki aluksi hienossa kelissä, joka veden alla ollessamme muuttui kovaksi merenkäynniksi. Kakkosdyykille ei päästy ollenkaan. Hyvä Cozumel paketti, ei tarkempia tietoja koska tämä piti jälkikäteen lisätä, jäi paikan päällä merkkaamatta.

Merenkäynti yltyi niin kovaksi, että toiselle dyykille ei päästy ollenkaan vaan vene piti ajaa poukamaan josta autolla hotellille.

Dive 66 : Eagle Ray Wall to the Aquarium, Belize

EVEN BETTER than the one before, super super super good corals, loads of small fish topped with 2 barracudas, 2 eagle rays, 2 turtles and loads of small stuff mentioned in the previous post. Superamazing walls of soft corals, too good to be true.

3 mm shortie, 7 kg weights, visibility 40 meters ++, water temp 26, divetime 51min and 45 min in the previous dive. So cool, especially after Alex made it alive!

Dive 65 : Half Moon Atol (off from Caye Caulker), Belize

Amazing drift dive with super cool coral foundations and fish!

Redband parrotfish, Stoplight parrotfish, midnight parrotfish, bluehead wrasse, creole wrasse, squirrelfish, glasseye, Fairy basslet (royal?), tiger grouper, french angelfish, gray angelfish, rock beauty, queen angelfish, Hogfish (!), all kind of butterflyfish, yellow jack or tuna x 2, triggerfish, scrawled filefish (!), trunkfish or pufferfish, and ALL kind of corals : barrel sponge, giant tube sponge, vase sponge, seastar, leafy stinging coral, sea anenome, common sea fan, flower coral, scroll coral, blushing star coral, golfball coral, ivory tube coral, green cactus coral, elliptical star coral, elekhorn coral, scroll coral

AMAZING STUFF

Dive 64 : The Blue Hole, Lighthouse Atol, off from Caye Caulker, Belize

Amazing dive in the good and the bad. My dive buddy Alex inhaled water in 35 meters depth, and started chocking. Things were looking really bad. The divemaster jumped in right away, and started ascending and controlling the buddy in panic. They arrived to the surface in about 1 minute. Buddy given pure oxygen on the boat, and now after 8 hours doesnt seem to have symptoms. We are currently on alert in case we need to go to the decompression chamber. It was quite a rough experience.

The blue hole is supposed to be one of the most amazing dive spots in Central America, and indeed it's a beautiful spot. There is not so much marine life, but the formation itself is amazing. We descended to approximately 110 feet (30 m+) and entered a small cave (tippukiviluola, taa oli ennen fresh water maanalainen luola.) It was ok with pretty good visibility. Entered to 130 feet (40m) and swimmin in the cave or cavern to be exact. Then out from nowhere a great bullshark appears! It was amazing. I knew there were likely appointments with nurse, reef, even hammerhead or bullsharks, so it took a while to identify it. IT definately was a bullshark. So, my buddy gone in the surface in panic from 35 meters, I couldnt be sure how he was or was he even alive. I couldnt go up superfast myself to avoid doing anything harmful to myself I ascended slower with a proper safety stop. On the way up, two more bullsharks start circling us. That was quite a lot of excitment for one dive in the big blue hole of Belize!

3mm short swimsuit, 7kg weights, water temp 26, visibility around 30m, divetime 24 min.
3 x bullshark, 2 x grouper, some other stuff

The incident as I described it in the Scubaboard: (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/near-misses-lessons-learned/328449-emergency-ascent-110-feet.html)

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This happened a few days ago in the Blue Hole in Belize, the most famous divespot around, with very good visibility (100+ feet) and warm water. Our group, not too experienced, went down to 130 (!) feet to see the small cavern / overhead. We signal ok signs with my buddy every couple of minutes or so. The visibility is great, and everyone were (told to be) causios about possible signs of narcosis at this depth. We start to go up, when a lone bullshark arrives to check on us. We were informed on them, but it's a thrilling sight. I check my buddy and he is ok.

Starting ascend and at around 110-120 feet, my buddy doesn't respond to the ok sign anymore but shakes his head violently. Not understanding whats going on I get closer, supposing narcosis, the violent shaking continues, I see panic in his eyes and he starts to ascend rapidly. As just a recreational diver I don't know what how to react, but the instructor arrives instantly and replaces diver's regulator with his extra one. Together controlled by the instructor they start a rapid ascent. I join the rest of the group and can only hope for the best.

Doing a rapid ascent from this depth is really dangerous. My buddy had deeply inhaled water and was choking (violent shaking). No safety stop was done, but he remained (barely) concious. In the boat he was pale and in shock, given instantly pure oxygen. Divesite is 80 miles from mainland and the closest chamber in San Pedro, both are put in alert. Mediheli is not immediately called since it comes with a price of 8000 USD My buddy is controlled, talked with, and especially asked if any timbling on feet or hands is felt. He appeared in shock but ok. They had come up from at least 110 feet with what the instructor said was ~80% from maximum speed with no safety stops, buddy almost fainting on the way.

This event shocked me for couple of days and still does, especially the feeling of not knowing what to do is something I never want to re-experience. It was the last day of the trip (for me) but I want to do te rescue diver and first aid courses immediately when possible. My buddy was controlled for symptoms for the next 48 hours - quite amazingly he seems to be totally ok.

There are quite a few points here - We were all inexperienced (10-60 dives) in a group of 7 going to deeper than most of the people had ever been. It was an exciting spot in the first place, and then the bullsharks. It turned out that there was an another emergency ascent, not at all so sever, but resulting for both divemasters/instructors ending up to the surface and the group of five including myself left alone - we were ok, did safety stop circled by three bulls and fear what of what was possibly waiting on the surface.

Later my buddy said he inhaled water while turning his head backward and chekcking the shark. The regu may have leaked or slipped. He was chocking and felt he couldn't breath. When chocking he also lost his mask but was able to put it back on. Some level of breathing was possible even with water in the lungs. So was panicing here an overreaction? Easy for us to say. The buddy was inexperienced with about 20 dives. He said the regu had been leaking "little bit" on the way down. Maybe it slightly slipped. How often the operators check their equipment and are leaking regus common? Luckily never had one myself.

I am interested to hear the lessons you readers come up with this incident. I have never witnessed such a close call before. My buddy said he was sure he would not make it. I wasn't sure either, at least I expected CPR or the chamber, but it seems pure oxygen took care of the job. This must have been crucial.

Blue Hole is the #1 attraction here, and everyone had paid a bug buck to get there. It's great business for the dive operators, they wouldnt stop taking us unexperienced people here even probably many of us think they shouldn't. Chamber and mediheli also sound obvious, but this wasn't done in fear of costs. Everyone should make sure what their insurance actually covers when jumping into the water - this time nobody knew. Don't the operators have insurances?

How can you ascend from 110 feet rapidly without any symptons - is 48 hours enough to recognise them? There were two people who ascended from this depth.
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Dive 63 : Villa Blanca Wall, Cozumel, Mexico

OMG! Näkyvyys jotain aivan mieletöntä, en muista onko koskaan ollut näin kirkasta meren pohjassa. 24 metrin syvyydessä näki vielä kevyesti 30 metrin päähän ellei enemmänkin. Vähän balsamia muuten hieman jo vituttamaan rupeavalle Cozumel-meiningille tämän dyykin myötä. Erinomainen saitti, tämän reissun ehdottomasti paras, jossa koralliseinämää ja isoa muodostelmaa riittää. Muutama swim-through ehosti kokemusta, samoin lukuisat suuret rauskut mitä pohjalla pyörii.
Dyykkikaveri Samin ensimmäinen dyykki kurssin jälkeen, aikamoista räpeltämistä flunssaiselta mieheltä, mutta ilmeisesti tykkäsi kuitenkin. Divemastereina mukavat Bianca (MX) ja Aldo (MX). Operaattorina Deep Blue Divers, Cozumel. Meininki kevyttä rahastamista kuten Cozumelissa kaikki, Thaimaaseen verrattuna helvetin kallis ja epäystävällinen paikka, onneksi tällä dyykkillä edes jollain tapaa voi perustella koko reissun. Mieletön näkyvyys, todella hienot korallimuodostelmat ja paljon korallielävää : Blue headed wrasse, big grouper, royal fish, angelfish, parrotfish, stingray x 4, (dead) lobster, loads of stuff

3mm short suite, 6 kg weights, water temperetaure 25 degrees celcius, visibility 30m +++, max depth 26m. Divetime 40min

Dive 62 : Punta Dilila or Palancar Bricks, Cozumel, Mexico

Ok, now its getting better! Loistava mesta, kunnon koralliriuttaa, pikkuluolaa, seinää ja paljon paljon fisua. (ei Mualbualiin verrattavissa kuitenkaan). Toadfish x 2, lobster x 2, turtle x 3, moray eel, small stingray x 1, grouper, paljon angelfish parrotfish butterflyfish osastoa. Pieni läpinäkyvä rapukin (caribbean anenome shrimp)löytyi, n. 10cm sinertävä. Tähän mennessä ehdottomasti paras dyykki meksikossa.

3mm short, 6kg, divetime 51min, max depth 20m, visibility 20-30m. Great stuff.

Dive 60 : Chankanaab, Cozumel, night dive

Haa, yödyykeissä on aina sitä jotakin. Keskellä yötä pimeään valtamereen, mikäpä sen mukavempaa. Aluksi hieman jännittikin, mutta vedessä osana ryhmää homma toimii. Tää on niitä juttuja mitä ei yksinään haluisi ikinä koittaa!

Ihan hirveesti ei taaskaan vedenalaista elämää ollut, mutta jotain kuitenkin. Yksi valkoinen mureena luikerteli ulos kolostaan. samoin yksi kuningasrapu tarttui valokeilaan, about puolimetrinen. Sitten peruskalaa jonkin verran, muttei esim. rapuja joita filippiineillä ja malesiassa yödyykeillä löytyi yllin kyllin.

Samoilla varusteilla kuin edellinenkin eli 3mm long wetsuitella ja kuudella kilolla, noin 45min ja 15-20m max depth. Erinomainen dyykki.

Dive 59 : California point, Cozumel Mexico

Kauan odotettu dyykki pitkän paussin jälkeen hehkutetussa cozumelissa. Cozumel paikkana täysi pettymys, dyykkiparatiisin sijasta löytyi karibianristeilijöiden pysähdyspaikka timanttikauppoineen ja turistirysineen. Jenkkituristeja lappaa vastaan oikeen urakalla ja hinnat on sen mukaiset.

Dyykkioperaattoriksi valittiin loulta Lonely Planetin kehuma Deep Blue, jonka kanssa eka dyykki California pointilla. Ei mikään erikoinen setti, mutta ihan hyvä kuitenkin. Kaltevaa riuttaa pitkin todellinen drift dive, vedenalainen siirtymä kilometrin luokkaa. Muutama rausku, yksi lobsteri ja toadfish, sekä muuta peruskauraa mitä nyt riutoilla usein on. Näkyvyys ok muttei lähelläkään hehkutettua 50 metriä.

Dyykin teki hyväksi se, että se oli ensimmäinen laatuaan yli vuoteen. Muuten aika peruskauraa. Painoja 6 kg, long wetsuit 3mm, divetime apprx 45min, max depth apprx 20m