Dive Day #10 – Buceo Anilao – Richard
Today was Bacon Day! Consequently I’m now suffering from bacon overload, as if there was such a thing!
Cameras are all prepped, dive gear loaded on the boats and all we have to do is to slip into something more suited to underwater operations and we’re set.
Rumour has it that the first dive of the day will be at Bethlehem which is basically along the seabed of a channel between two land masses where all sorts of strange looking critters are said to be lurking. It is of course dependent on the current when we arrive and if it’s all bad then we’ll head around the corner to Daryl Laut (the casino wreck) – let’s see what happens!
Dive #32 – Bethlehem
What a lovely dive, even if the current fish turned up half way through!
Several small nudis as well as a few larger ones, plenty for Jo to practice with the snoot torch that she added today. At one point I noticed that small clumps of coral were rolling past, this was when the current peaked!
The surface interval was spent with coffee and biscuits and a short hop over to Minilog for the second dive.
Dive #33 – Minilog
An exceptional dive with several new types of nudis, a good looking frog fish and a mostly obliging harlequin shrimp!
Back for a lunch of BBQ pork and coleslaw, a little camera prep and a bit of a rest before the next dive. Today we say goodbye to Nina (despite earlier reports of her departure) as and our boat buddies from Hawaii. This afternoon it might be just us on the boat, we shall see!
Post-lunch update, it is just us this afternoon, out at three for a couple of dives back to back is at least what is planned, let’s see how that plays out!
Dive #34 – Apologies Point East
This is a slope down to around 27m with lots of coal outcrops. The star of this particular dive was the Cinderella Nudi, or should I say Nudis as they were plentiful and all of them colourful. Right down to 27m where a pair were posing nicely for the camera. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jo was down to 2mins NCD then I’d never have prized her away getting them. I was also on 2mins NCD so nipped in for a few snaps before my NCD got zero so I chased it all back to 18 and no deco was allocated, phew!
Other stars of this dive were various other small nudis and an obliging pink frog fish.
Back on board for coffee and snacks as we wait out the hour until the next dive.
Side note: It got down to 27 degrees on this dive Brrrrhhhh..
Dive #35 Coconut Point.
The plan here was to dive down to around 18m to the black coral area. As it turned out, as soon as we hit the water we were ini to Shaun the Sheep nudis, Emporer Shrimps and a hairy shrimp. So we spend the entire dive under or around the boat at around 7m max!
Back to the bar where a particular boat was pushed out, Jo had two (no, not just the one!) Royals and I had a Red Horse beer followed by a Long Island Iced Tea.
Then a dinner of Tuna Sisig, fried rice and a mango and cucumber salad, awesome!
Now we are back at the room wading through todays crop!