Heres my report of our dive marathon last Saturday, 17 dec. 2005.
The weather couldnt be any gloomier that day. Dark clouds with on and off drizzle. We registered right away the second we arrived in dive and trek and immediately geared up. A bit disappointed to find k****n looking divers who went ahead of us in the water - we feared theyll scare the turtles and other interesting marine life that can be found only that early.
Dive 1. Saw my first pawikan (owryt!) at last. Spoon said it was one of the bigger ones he has seen :turtle: I wouldnt know cause it was my first but yeah, it was big. So wanted to dive after it but it was some feet above us so we headed on to the bat cave instead. Didnt fully appreciate the site as I felt strangely dizzy. I remember vaguely seeing the cross and the virgin mary. What was creepy was that I started hearing voices. It said in a very urgent but husky whisper (voldemort-like voice) iris, bilisan mo
bilis
bilis over and over again
Goodness, it knew my name. We headed back without much other excitement except that I felt so nauseous after that dive I almost didnt want to do the second dive. I felt so bloated with air that would not come out, it made my head hurt so much. The 35 minute rest helped so off we went again.
Dive 2. We hanged suspended at 60ft. Spoon showed us the ledge a sudden drop in depth to which I could not see the bottom of. Scary but kewl! :boings: My mistake to have inflated my wing so much that during the safety stop, I could not stop from floating up
thank god for the rope and the guys who helped deflate my seemingly undeflatable wing.
Dive 3. Had plenty of air left so my first time to re-use my tank (naks!). Saw a school of barracudas and lots of clams.
Dive 4. Discovered this narrow passage that led to a dark cave. We got all excited seeing it and wanted to go back with light, rope and camera. We spent our 10min. SI there just wondering and imagining all sort of things that could possibly be inside.
Dive 5. Just a dive back to the resort so we can have our late lunch...
Dive 6. In our excitement to get back to the cave, we missed it. We went farther along than expected and when we surfaced, lo and behold we saw lolo paos home resort, portulano :eyemouth: To dive to portulano or not. Not since our lolo wasnt there, anyway.
Dive 7. To the cave :luxhello: Finally we saw it and it was guarded by a sponge. Got half scared because it was so dark. We wondered what lurked inside it
sharks
octopus
sea snakes
I was expecting one of those to come out but nothing of the sort happened. Didnt fully penetrate since we only had one light and no rope with us so we had to content ourselves with taking pictures and the promise to return one day, someday :yl2jump:
Dive 8. This time, its just me, chip and spoon. We went to the left of dive and trek and saw nothing interesting. The bottom was full of small rocks and pebbles. But we saw a seahorse-looking creature. Forgot what its called. We surfaced where there was surges of waves and I didnt realize I lost my sta wingnut :crush: When we needed to go down already, I couldnt reach for my reg and when I looked to see what was the matter, I found my tank was upside down. Chip did the mcgyver thing and fixed it. Saved me again
Dive 9. Had to head back to D&T. We wanted to move farther left but it was getting dark :moon: and it took a while to fix my problem. There was little light under and we had to use erics flashlight to guide us back to D&T.
Dive 10. My first night dive :yl2jump: Wanted to explore so I got stung by a sea urchin. Darn, buoyancy (hmmph!) Made the same mistake of overinflating my wing and had the same problem as the second dive. This time there was no rope and I strangled a poor coral just to keep from floating up. Really sorry about this
What was great was that I finally got to see my pets in all their bioluminescent glory - those microalgae that glow everytime I move my hand as if to greet me hello, take me home with you :thumbs-up Maybe next time Ill bring vials and take water samples back to the lab just to see if I can culture them.
Thanks guys for taking me with you. It was exhausting but I had so much fun, it was definitely worth it
Heres to more dive marathons to come