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So this is transfer day!

We have had a lovely time here in Fisherman’s Cove.

Being collected at 10.00

I thought now was a good time to show the ambiance of the place.

So about 9.00, we were having a drink at the restaurant watching other divers getting ready when we spotted a boat they looked very much like a water taxi.

Time to go!

Well, thank goodness that we have an enclosed boat. Video to follow.

33 mins resort to resort. Amazing.

So, here we are again, back in Buceo.

We received such a warm welcome from the staff here. ??

Pretty much the first question was when do you want to go diving. Our answer, of course, was ASAP!

Quick trip to the cameras room, then the room. Then out for a dive at 10.45. ??

Secret Bay

Great dive!

Muck dive on a sandy slope

All sorts of critters.

Lunch, followed by more diving

Daryl Laut

Lovely wreck

Low Viz at the top but on the wreck it was fine.

Beautiful Christmas tree worms
Lots of different nudis

After a surface interval in the boat we did Olympic Point

Sand with coral outcrops at the top going down to a rubble area

Harlequin shrimps
Coleman shrimps on a fire urchin
Many different nudis

Drink at the bar before dinner. New and exciting dishes on the menu. More info to follow…

Asleep by 9.00 pm.

Last day for diving in Puerto Galera.

We just arrived at our table for the penultimate breakfast here at Fishermen’s Cove and as you can see, the tide is out.

The food here has been absolutely amazing, mostly fish based, lots of things we’ve not had before including all manner of Carpatchio (beef, fish and octopus) as well as last night’s starter of calamari with spaghetti in squid ink!

I’ve decided to go all super healthy for breakfast and am having pancakes along with a couple of chocolate croissants which last time came covered in a mountain of icing sugar!

Hmm, well, it seems that the super lovely pancake and banana followed by the two croissants was a tad on the over enthusiastic side. Regardless, I held up my end of the bargain and ate the lot.

Needless to say, I was reminded of my breakfast extravigance during the entire dive, which was at A Laguna, a coral reef and wall which was festoon with shoals of current fish for the first part of the dive.

Eventually things settle down and we commence the hunt!

Many different Nudi’s were seen along the way! We make our accent and are picked up by the boat.

The surface interval is spent moored to outside Sabong Point with teas and coffees etc, after which we roll back for a dive at the same spot.

Not so many current fish at the start of this one, lots more Nudi action, including one which our guide is very happy to have found.

Imagine a kind of purple broccoli shaped thing and you won’t be too wide of the mark!

Several other interesting finds before we head back to the surface and back to base for lunch.

Lunch is salad and bread followed by more awesome kebabs (pork this time) with rice, water melon for pud.

At the time of writing we are taking some R&R before we head out for a night dive which will be our last dive at Fishermen’s Cove.

We are sitting in the hut at the end of the Jetty when the swankiest of all Ribs (you know the sort, long, black, 5 rows of twin air cushioned seats and a pair of 350’s on the back) arrives at the Jetty.

The passengers disembark leaving the two crew on board.. As they walk past they say hello and we start to chat. We talk about the diving and before long we are all invited to his place for dinner the next day, nice, if only we weren’t leaving the next day…..

We get on our boat for the dive and I ask our guide who the owner of the Rib was. Turns out he is a Philippino TV star, singer, game show host and movie star.

We have seen his mansion with the helicopter and swanky monster motor cruisers moored near by.

Wilfred Revillame is his name, he also owns and stars in a game show over here called wowowin!! He scores 7.5 on Imdb!

Maybe another time…..

Then the night dive with all manner of weirdness. At the end we encountered huge frog fish and octopus, all very exciting.

Dinner consisted of more lovely pasta, fish and potato in a white sauce, fruit cocktail and ice cream, all very lovely, washed down with a Negroni and a bottle of Red Horse (which turned out to be on the house, bonus!!!)

Penultimate days diving here at Fishermen’s Cove.

Here is a map of where we are.

Interesting fact…

The Philippines has 126 different languages and those languages have different accents on different islands. Without English they wouldn’t be able to talk to others in different parts of the country!

Anyway, yesterday Richard got his head burnt, so today lashings of suncream, and a hat.

On the boat before 8.30 for the first dive of the day which was Ernie’s Cave.

Went to see the cave. Not the biggest cave, in fact more of a ridge. It was filled with hatchet fish and Joseph, our guide, spotted Ernie, the grouper.

Also saw, dragon shrimp, various nudies and the current fish.

Pretty wall/slope with pretty coral garden at the top

Second dive, Dungong Wall, now known as the wall of Korean divers.

Did this site again as Barry missed it when he was unwell.

Unfortunately there were divers everywhere! Absolutely, hoards of them!!

Briefly saw the back of a seahorse’s head.

Beautiful coral garden at the top and no divers.

Richard found some treasure. a very nice podger!

When we got back, the room was in the process of being cleaned. So we had a swim and a quick lay in sun.

Lunch was a seafood kebab, savory rice and lettuce. Excellent.

Back out in the boat at 2.30, to the dive site, Secret Bay.

Bit embarrassing… Richard and I tried to put the wrong wet suits on!!

This was a better dive than when we did this site before.

Sandy bottom.

We saw lots.

Small red frogfish
monster nudis
tiny cuttlefish
Two beautiful risbecia both with large emperor shrimps

Tonight’s dinner might not have been to everyone’s taste.

A starter of squid ink pasta with calamari.

Followed by carpatchio of fish with salad.

We watched a couple of fireflies at dinner. Something that we had not experienced before this holiday.

Here is a shot of the jetty at night.

Today is of particular note in as much as we forgot nothing and arrived early at the boat!

A nice couple of dives. First one on St Christopher’s Point to  wreck at 30m. A proper ship type wreck called Almer Jane. Then a second wreck which was all broken up, actually called St Christopher.

The second dive was on a site called ‘Giant Clams’, can you perhaps guess why?

Indeed. One area is festoon with the giantest of clams, propper Tarzan leg grabbers.

Back on dry land, it’s time (again) for food! Lunch today is Grilled Pork Chop, rice and salad with a panacotta for pud, yum!

Before long we take to the seas for the afternoon dive. We head back to ‘Giant Clams’ to do the sandy side where we met Picachu (the elder and the younger) and their couzen as well as Shawn the Sheep, Christmas Tree Worms, Seahorse and Skeleton Shrimp to name but a few.

Back to base for a wick dip in the pool then camera work to process the days catch.

Tonights dinner is a departure from the Italian Fish Fest as we have Philippino food including soup, chicken curry and a dessert of fried banana.

Whilst between courses we are watching fireflies in the trees next to the diving area, awesome, never seen that before.

Sunny today!!

Today, we started earlier. Breakfast was at 7.00 as normal then as we had no catastrophes with cameras, we were down at the jetty by 8.20.

We went round to Sabong Bay where Puerto Galera is.

The first dive was Sabong Point.

We went down to the top of a wall at about 23 metres to look for an absent slug. We looked around there for a bit then went to a rubble area for slugs. The end of the dive was over a coral garden.

Good dive.

The usual coffee, Calamansi tea and biscuits were enjoyed during our surface interval. We noticed that the goodies box had been named for us…

Here’s a picture of Barry and Judy with the Bikini Bar in the background…

Second dive was Sabong Wrecks.

Quite a large broken wreck and a tender next to it. Also a yacht wreck out a bit. Pretty site.

Unfortunately, too many other, manic divers, and once they disappeared it was so much nicer.

Cardinalfish, we couldn’t spot the ones with the eggs in their mouths.

Good dive.

After the dive Richard says to me, did you see the engines?

Engines?

What engines?

Back at base, it was pizza for lunch. Even for me!

Here are a few shots of the resort…

Barry and Judy are in the room on the bottom right of the large block and we are on the bottom of the small block.

Finally, a picture of our room…

Third dive was at 2.30.

This was the same dive as our first dive here, also known as Pizza Surprise! Dreadful heartburn on the whole dive.

Sandy bottom, muck dive.

Lots of cuttlefish

Two seahorses, fluffy slug that looks like soft coral, big fat green and orange slug. Took some pictures for tiny fan worms.

We have another dip in the pool before looking at today’s pictures.

Time to relax in the restaurant looking out to sea. I ordered a double Malibu and pineapple. Think I got two double Malibu’s and one can of pineapple. Hopefully, that should help me sleep tonight!

Dinner was very different to anything we would have at home.

The starter as always was a pasta dish…

The main course was a carpatchio of octopus. It actually was very delicious.

The pudding was, for those that could eat dairy, was panacotta. Richard said that he would take one for the team and eat mine…

Looks like an early night for us! A little picture work before bed.

Another day starts. Off to a monster breakfast of cinnamon buns, scramble eggs and bacon and fresh fruit, yum!

The we’re off for the first dive which is out to the left and along a bit! A site called Aninuan Beach.

This was a sandy bottom with lots of octopus action (mimic and wonderpus). During the entire dive there were three Ramorus constantly eyeing us up. I’m pleased to report that there were no attachment issues.

We tied up at a sandy beach in glorious sunshine for the surface interval of coffee and biscuits, lovely.

Before long we are heading down the coast a little to the next site which is billed as being a coral area. The site was called White Beach Coral. This was an excellent bimble around coral outcrops with plenty of nudi action as well as a Indian ocean walkman and a mahoosive grey (pink when illuminated) frog fish.

Back to base for lunch which today consisted of BBQ shrimps and rice, some.

Before we know it we’re off out again for the third dive of the day. This time we’re diving on a wreck in the middle of the channel followed by a bimble across coral rubble and then coral outcrops.

The wreck was a sailing vessel, approximately 40′ long had clearly been there some time as it was festoon with soft corals and home to plenty of marine life.

The bimble revealed plenty of nudi action as well as a nice colony of sea squirts.

Back to base for a quick dip in the pool, rinse off then after downloading the pictures, straight to the bar for some blogging action (today’s post sponsored by Red Horse)

Dinner was epic. Pasta starter with vegitables. Main course was calamari with sauteed vegitables and ice cream for dessert, yum!

What will today bring?

The first news we got was that Barry was unwell. ??

So the three of us for breakfast. Such a choice. Today, I had muesli with fresh mango juice, mango and banana. Delicious!

First dive of the day was Dungon Wall, a gentle wall going to a depth of about 27 metres.

Very pretty.

We saw a pygmy seahorse. Lots of red toothed triggerfish. A large white slug with yellow frilly edge

Used the snoot without the snoot attachment and got much better results.

Lovely dive.

Our surface interval was taken in Puerto Galera bay, it even has its own floating bar.

Second dive was Sabong West.

Descended on to the wreck of a yacht at about 18 metres. Richard thought it was a bit like descending down to the Teapot (wreck out of Selsey). Large black frogfish sitting on the top of the wreck (don’t get that in Selsey).

As we moved away from the wreck we were on a sandy bottom where we saw an emperor shrimp on a huge sea cucumber and a large pink snake eel protruding about a foot out of the sand.

We came up the slope over a rubble area where we saw orange Shawn the sheep slugs on slug eggs. These slugs only eat eggs of other slugs!

Picture to follow

At the end of the dive, in the coral area we saw an orangutan crab.

Back to base for lunch. They certainly feed you well here!! The food is a set menu for everyone but they are good at taking into account food issues. Seafood salad (calamari, mussels and prawns) with rice and salad vegetables.

Back out diving at 2.30. We dived Secret Bay.

Sandy bottom. A little dark.

Very pleased to see two hairy shrimp.  Also saw a beautiful risbecia, robust pipefish, other colorful slugs.

When we got back to shore, we found Barry waiting for us. Good to see him up and around.

Richard and I went for a dip, before camera and picture stuff, before dinner.

Barry joined us for dinner although he limited himself to dry bread.

Every evening meal starts with pasta, not a surprise when you consider that fishermen’s cove is run by Italians. The main course today was carpatchio of beef, basically extremely thin (almost see through) slices of raw beef with fries. Mine came with lots of parmesan cheese. It was sent back. When I got the updated version, it was very tender and once I covered it in salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar, it had some taste. It came with fries, so that was a bonus!

Pudding was a homemade jam tart. One waitress said I couldn’t eat it as it had milk in it. Another came over and was completely sure that it didn’t have milk in it. I had one bite, perhaps it had no milk but it had plenty of butter! Had to spit it out, shame.

Every meal I always ask if there is milk in the meal, now I shall be asking about milk, butter, cream and cheese!! It is an absolute pain in the arse but it has to be done. ??

More picture work before bed. Considering the issues we have had, we are doing ok.

Having partially recovered from the long transport out as well as having a slightly Better understanding of how things work – Today was a much better day!

After another belly busting breakfast we head out to the first site which was Lalaguna point which is just off the main town area of Puerto Galera. Lots of dive centres and lots of small dive boats though we did not see anyone else underwater. Sandy bottom with coral outcrops and a large turtle!

We spend the surface interval moored up on a beach whilst tucking in to hot coffee and various biscuits!

The second dive was in the same area, sandy bottom, seahorses and lots of Nudi’s.

Back on dry land, lunch consisted of locally made sausages, beans and onion, all very lovely.

The afternoon dive was also in the Cove, more seahorse action, loads of tiny cuttlefish and a couple of flamboyant cuttlefish, one small and one even smaller.

Back on land, dinner consisted of seafood pasta for starters, the main course was a whole grilled fish with salad and topped off with a super creamy panacotta, super yum. Tonights beverage was supplied by the Red Horse corporation.

We started later today, as we didn’t get here until 1.45 this morning, after a 37.5 hour journey. Phew!

The resort is very pretty, plenty more pictures will follow.

Breakfast was on the jetty. We had a mixed fruit plate of mango, pineapple and banana followed by eggs (in a variety of ways) and bacon.

I am using a new set up of my camera, basically just the camera and snoot. Not ideal, but due to our inability to pack the correct gear, I am lucky to even have that. Thank you, Barry!!

First dive, meet at the boat at 10.30.

We stayed in the bay as the wind had not dropped.

Montani Bay.

First dive of the holiday.

Brrrrr! 25°

Rolled back. Cold took my breath away!

Very shallow. The sun was shining so nice and bright under water.

Lots to see.

Trying the snoot out. It was ok but it is so different to my normal set up.

Large fat seahorse.
Cuttlefish, two, one small and one very much smaller. 
Pretty nudibranchs.
Cuttlefish eggs.

Good to be back in the water.

After the dive, we put our new wetsuits on. Nice.

Interval of hot drinks and skyfkake biscuits, although others had chocolate fudge cakes.

More of a muck dive in this one. Sandy bottom. Dive site was Lighthouse! It was on 24° and the cviz was quite poor only about 3-4 meters. Cloudy by now so darker underwater.

We went in search of the elusive blue ringed octopus. Didn’t find it.

Spent more time trying to learn the snoot.  Hmmm…

We saw some slugs and skeleton shrimps

On the way back, some stupid women let go of her towel and we had to do a man overboard drill. Yes, that stupid woman was me!

Back to base for lunch, a late lunch at about 2.30. We were offered fish or steak with rice and salad. Richard, Barry and I asked for the steak whilst Judy ordered the fish. When it arrived, we all had the same… Fish steak! Actually, it was very delicious. I had more mixed fruit for pudding whilst the others had purple ice cream, made out of ube, purple yams, doesn’t sound good but it got thumbs up from everyone. ???

Lazy afternoon, Richard and Barry did some camera stuff whilst getting bitten by mozzies.

I had a nap and when I woke up it was time for dinner!

Starter, tuna pasta, main course, fish with capers, pannacota for those that can eat dairy.

Early night! Need to catch up on some more sleep.

Ebo picked us up nice and early for the run up to Heathrow, which at 04.15 on a Sunday morning took all of an hour and ten.

At the airport, checkin is not officially open so we stroll up, ask nicely and they check us in anyway, which was nice.

We make our way through security, no real drama but both ladies were frisked liberally. Judy claims she was further delayed by an African curtain smuggler!

Once in the departure area we decide we already have enough Rolex, Burberey and Louis Vutton so we head over to Hestons gaff for what turned out to be a really nice breakfast, yum.

Being the wrestless type I soon tire of the endless waiting so I manage to pursuade the team that we could perhaps move on to the next holding pen where a gaggle of planes were waiting to whisk us away.

Endless moving walkways and escalators later we are at the gate, spot the plane and eventually board.

Extra bonus on board. No one sitting next to us, nice.

Singapore airlines looked after us well, plenty to eat and plenty to drink.

I’ve probably forgotten lots of the films I watched but they included ‘ask me to dance’, ‘menu’, ‘rogue agent’, ‘See how they run’ . There was at least one other…

We arrive at Changi and make our way to a lounge as we have almost 6 hours to while away before the next flight. The Non stop eating and drinking continues…

Finally it’s time to head over to terminal 2 to pick up our next flight. Whilst in the lounge we receive word that the private water taxi transfer has been cancelled due to bad weather (disappointing) and we would instead be taking a larger ferry from Batangas to C…..

So that’s some drama and excitement that we had not planned for.

We get seated on the plane and before long, the food and drink resumed its flow.

For this flight I watched a nice movie about the search for Richard the 3rds remains, highly recommend.

We land at Manilla and after a tiny delay we are out, through passport control, got our bags. And are met by our driver.

Our research suggested that there was a ferry at 20.00 and another at 00.00, sods law dictated that we arrived at the ferry terminal at 20.10.

It turns out that we are on the 21.00 ferry, phew, no waiting.

The ferry terminal is a hive of activity. The van is beseiged by porters and all my training and experience told me that I had to fend them off whilst handling own luggage.

Well, it turns out that they were all legit. Tiffany from fisherman’s Cove was in charge and all was well. We are led through the ferry terminal, all swanky and new. All the Porters are paid for, she buys us all a drink and sees us all on to the ferry.

So here we are making our way along the coast, we are currently passing the large refinery which can be seen at night from Anilao.

We are assured that we will be met at the other end by equally willing, official and paid for porters, time will tell!

Thus far, the whole ferry change thing has been a welcome adjunct to our previously planned arrangements. There is mention of a 45 minute jeep ride at the other end, a full report will be made.

We arrive at our destination port and learn that the representatives from the resort had in fact travelled with us on the ferry. The moment we arrived at Calapan they had our bags off the ferry and ready for us. We tow them through the port and join our waiting vehicle, a propper authentic Jeepney!