Monday, May 17, 2010

From Puerto Princessa, Palawan 90 nautical miles to Tubbataha Marine Reserve, 5 full days of diving there; onwards 200 nautical miles to Apo Island, Dauin off Dumaguete, Balicasag and Caibalao and then "home" to Mactan Island, it was a fantastic 14 days aboard the beautiful Philippine Siren. The ship is gorgeous and well laid out, the crew was a combination of Thai, Indonesian, Filipino, a Dutchman and an American! The ship has only been here in the Philippines for about five months now. It sailed from Bira, Indonesia where it was built with a Thai captain and combination Indonesian and Thai crew. They have been training the Filipino crew and are in the process of turning over all responsibilities for the operations to the local crew. Everyone works well together and gets along great, even given a little bit of language difficulties amongst themselves!

We dove sheer walls, sand slopes, black sand "muck", over fields of gorgeous hard and soft corals and even identified some new fish and critters on this trip. Almost all diving is done from the inflatable "dinkies" with the exception of two dives where we were moored directly over gorgeous hard corals. Diving is generally drift diving with some swift currents and most moderate to mild.

The food on the ship was exquisite....Thai, Indonesian, Filipino; a Japanese dinner as well as the last night barbeque! The head chef, Ivan, is an Indonesian who sailed over with the ship and is leaving with us to head back home after seven months away. He's leaving the kitchen to two very talented Filipino chefs, Jimmie & TaTa, both of whom also contributed daily to create the amazing entrees. I'm sure going to miss my nase gorem at breakfast and my fresh mangoes daily!

Well, the internet connection here is slow, slow, slow & won't let me upload any images again....bye, bye, Philippines!

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