Wreck Diving Part Two
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2011
1
210
217
Trip End
May 05, 2012
Where I stayed
Coron Town, Palawan, Philippines
Saturday, April 28, 2012
We hadn't really wanted to dive again, although it was me who originally suggested the idea I had gone off it a little when I thought about my ear and any possible further complications.
My ear was my only concern for once, when we got to the dive shop I was genuinely excited to do another couple of wrecks (even if I felt one wreck maybe a bit shit). At the dive shop they were taking their time to sort stuff even though they told us to arrive at 7:30. Whilst waiting I remembered the camera and went back to the room to collect it, it's not in the room. Charlotte checks, not in the room. We rack our brains and come to the conclusion I must have left it in the laundry shop 2 days earlier. The dive shop still taking ages I half jog to the shop only for it to be closed. Closed? I thought everyone came to life at 6:30 here? I was gutted, not about the camera itself I don't care about that, but it had pictures and videos from the wreck dive the other day. Suppose I just need to forget about it and enjoy today.
At the boat the 2 of us plus the friendly Aussie boarded and waited and waited. Eventually they decided they couldn't start the boat so we would need to move to another boat (banca) they had bought yesterday. The only trouble was it wasn't a dive boat and thus didn't have space for the tanks, a ladder or any kind of covering from the sun. They had to take bits down from this boat and move to the other. In the meantime me and Charlotte went to the laundry which was now open. I told her we had left it, she took it out of a drawer and smiled. That makes a wallet, phone and camera I have lost and now had returned.
We eventually left about 2 hours later than planned. It took near 2 hours to reach the first dive stop. We geared up sorted our torches and down we went. This wreck was fucking brilliant, especially for a group of newer divers. The deck was at 9m so we had loads of air to explore from the off. As the current was strong we went round the back of the boat and around coral and shit first and then penetrated. The penetration was class, we had to drop into a narrow cargo hold where the pressure altered dramatically and the light went 'off'. The journey through the ship was amazing, into a huge engine room (no engine) which dropped for what looked miles, a huge school of fish swam below us. The ship was pretty well preserved with ladders, rope and portholes all clearly visible (with a torch) still. Along with the 2nd and 3rd dives the other day this is the top of my dive list, possibly the best one as there was none of the usual complications, Charlotte had to share air on the way up but it was hardly panic stations this time. Even my ear was ok. The best thing about the dive (not really) was that the guide video'd and photographed the whole thing free of charge, the dive shop camera is the same as Charlotte's which explains why he was so bemused the other day when we said we didn't care about if it broke.
This wont mean anything to anyone who doesn't know the basics about diving but I want to note it anyway. The Aussie guy was telling us on the previous days dive he had been joined by two Filipinos who had never dived. They were taken to coral at 5m and shown the basics. They then were taken to a 20m+ wreck! Obviously they were unable to descend and didn't even see the wreck but the fact that they even let them try is unreal! I wrote a joke the other day about this exact thing, turns out it was entirely accurate. Also I have since looked up wreck diving and not only do we need a qualification but also we should never have come close to doing a wreck dive that required entering areas that are pitch black. This maybe the first/last wrecks we ever do so I'm glad we have done so many.
We had the same nice lunch as the other day and then we went onto our next stop. Only our next stop was because the boat had broken down. For about an hour myself and the Aussie helped the stupidly energetic guides to start the engine by all pulling on a length of rope. If the people involved with this company weren't so nice I would be writing some seriously bad reviews on various websites. Faulty gear, shitty boats, you get what you pay for I suppose, although we didn't literally pay for those things.
As expected the second wreck was a sack of balls in comparison to the others. The coral was nice but the boat was pretty ruined and almost entirely hollowed out, my ear was fucking killing me and I just wanted to go up, we seemed to stay down ages doing not a great deal other than annoying fish. This dive did however mark my first genuine shit myself moment. When we dropped to the sand I went down to pick up a bit of it only for a big pile of it to shoot forward, I absolutely shat myself before realising it was a flat sand camoflaged fish.
Back on the surface I spat up a bit of blood again which I was not particularly pleased about. The guide said "It normal" again. The journey back was lengthy and everyone relaxed in the setting sun. Back on land we went to the market to get the ace springrolls again and then went to the dive shop where we downloaded our pictures from the camera. The Korean lad who works there is really nice despite his lack of English, he insisted on showing us pictures and a video he had made, it was hard to say no to him, would have been like saying no to a puppy showing you a shoddily made promotional video.
The day ended with me eating pizza and sitting around in the empty restaurant half watching United fuck up everything for the millionth time. Fucking gobshites.
