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Atlantis Azores Captain’s Log July 5-15, 2014
Malapascua Itinerary
Weather: Steady breeze out of the SW, cloudy
Water Temp: 80ish F
Air Temp: 80-90 F
Log Entry by: Capt’ Todd
‘A-1 Scuba’ is visiting us this week, led by Wendy and along with Jane, Gary, Rebecca, Gretchen, Brenda, Bob, Heidi, Judith, Julie and Jim (the geneticist). This group is all seasoned divers, and all are from Colorado, with the exception of John who also joined us from the UK. Some of the guests brought cameras, but all brought high hopes of seeing among other things, the Thresher Sharks on this - our Malapascua itinerary!
Sunday dawned and we arrived at Oslob for the first dive (snorkel) among the gentle whale sharks, and today there were many present. Afterwards we headed across to Sumilon Island, a mere mile or so away, for the remainder of our day.
After an all night run, 30 some odd miles, we were at Pescador Island for the start of Monday’s activities. A little windy, but we managed to get a dawn dive in at the island before picking up our local guide “Ben Jim”. He successfully put us right in the sardine school for dive two and this turned our to be the best “Sardine Run” experience I’ve had here. We spent the rest of the day up around the corner in a sheltered bay where we anchored and did a few more dives. One included the sighting of three dragon sea moths all sitting in a row. That’s something I’ve never seen before!
On Tuesday, after a night swinging on the anchor, we wound up doing three more dives here at Pescador Island before heading out at lunch for our 95 mile run up the Tanon Strait to Malapascua Island and the thresher sharks of Monad Shoal.
Wednesday began with a pre-dawn arrival, and after we tied up to our mooring it was down to ‘Deep Rock’ for dive one. A brisk current gave everyone their morning exercise and two big black frogfish made the headlines here. Dives two and three where at ‘Deep Slope’ and ‘Lapus II’ respectively, where some even saw a hairy frogfish…and the dusk Mandarin fish dive was a SUCCESS! We managed to interrupt at least six amorous couples…:blinking:
Thursday began with a Monad Shoal morning! We arrived right on time, at grey light, and were in the water and at depth with just enough light (and cranked up ISO’s) to capture those majestic creatures. Actually today it was just one, but he kept coming around, and he was a nice one too! (See Jane’s photo). A journey over to Gato Island followed our morning’s adventure for two dives, and then an exploratory visit to Chocolate Island, just south of Malapascua, to a site that DM Dan Dan hadn’t visited in 13 years! It was a nice dive, flat bottom mostly at about 30’ with lots of creatures about (kinda like a muck dive), including a sea snake and a colorful juvenile emperor angelfish. We then returned to our mooring in time for the adventurous ones to enjoy the night dive.
Friday we started again at Malapascua. Well, an encore performance by the majestic threshers was not in the cards this morning as we re-visited Monad Shoal and Dan Dan tried vainly to put us in the zone, back and forth along the slope we went (we got a nice early morning workout though!)…
But that’s OKAY, everyone understands that Mother Nature works on her own schedule and sometimes you get a “donut”. So off we went by popular demand back to Chocolate Island for another “muck dive” before we made the run to Kalangaman Island. A couple of afternoon dives in bright sunshine and clear water were a great way to top off the day. We then pointed the Azores south around 5pm for an 80-mile run down the Cebu Strait to tomorrow’s destination, Cabilao Island. Along the way we saw some dolphins and later encountered a couple of fierce rainstorms just after dark that gave the Azores a welcome rinse. :cool2:
Saturday, beautiful flat calm conditions met us at daybreak at our destination of Cabilao Island. Two good factors, good viz and minimal current, were the order of the morning on our dives. During lunch, Heidi, Brenda and Gretchen even made it ashore to visit the “bag ladies” (the locals who make straw bags and other things) and returned after buying a few. Later on the night dive, Wendy encountered some sea snakes, to round out a wonderful day.
Sunday, after another all night transit through a few rainsqualls, we arrived at Balicasag Island to a glorious sunrise and a beautiful double rainbow! The clouds parted for us and we had fair skies for the majority of the day. Dive one was loaded with turtles, including one of the biggest green turtles I’ve ever seen! Also a VERY large grouper was spied getting a “cleaning”. We spent the rest of the day sharing the awesome terrain here with the many “bankas” loaded with day-trippers from nearby Panglao Island, which is a popular dive resort area. The night dive was extra special today because Bob completed (at 67 years old) his THOUSAND’TH dive! Well done… who says you slow down after 20? Hahahaha
Monday we went nuts and did something completely off the grid; we went to Siquijor Island! Actually, it’s one of our “last day” options on the way home to port, but I had never done it before, so it was a radical move We found a nice long wall, crowned with healthy coral gardens, that actually extends along thru what were three separate dive sites - and the visibility was some of the best we’d seen all week. After dive three, it was time to take a cruise across the channel back to the resort at Dumaguete where all the guests were to spend another three days diving from the resort. Special thanks to Jim and Jane for the pics this week!
Malapascua Itinerary
Weather: Steady breeze out of the SW, cloudy
Water Temp: 80ish F
Air Temp: 80-90 F
Log Entry by: Capt’ Todd
‘A-1 Scuba’ is visiting us this week, led by Wendy and along with Jane, Gary, Rebecca, Gretchen, Brenda, Bob, Heidi, Judith, Julie and Jim (the geneticist). This group is all seasoned divers, and all are from Colorado, with the exception of John who also joined us from the UK. Some of the guests brought cameras, but all brought high hopes of seeing among other things, the Thresher Sharks on this - our Malapascua itinerary!
Sunday dawned and we arrived at Oslob for the first dive (snorkel) among the gentle whale sharks, and today there were many present. Afterwards we headed across to Sumilon Island, a mere mile or so away, for the remainder of our day.
After an all night run, 30 some odd miles, we were at Pescador Island for the start of Monday’s activities. A little windy, but we managed to get a dawn dive in at the island before picking up our local guide “Ben Jim”. He successfully put us right in the sardine school for dive two and this turned our to be the best “Sardine Run” experience I’ve had here. We spent the rest of the day up around the corner in a sheltered bay where we anchored and did a few more dives. One included the sighting of three dragon sea moths all sitting in a row. That’s something I’ve never seen before!
On Tuesday, after a night swinging on the anchor, we wound up doing three more dives here at Pescador Island before heading out at lunch for our 95 mile run up the Tanon Strait to Malapascua Island and the thresher sharks of Monad Shoal.
Wednesday began with a pre-dawn arrival, and after we tied up to our mooring it was down to ‘Deep Rock’ for dive one. A brisk current gave everyone their morning exercise and two big black frogfish made the headlines here. Dives two and three where at ‘Deep Slope’ and ‘Lapus II’ respectively, where some even saw a hairy frogfish…and the dusk Mandarin fish dive was a SUCCESS! We managed to interrupt at least six amorous couples…:blinking:
Thursday began with a Monad Shoal morning! We arrived right on time, at grey light, and were in the water and at depth with just enough light (and cranked up ISO’s) to capture those majestic creatures. Actually today it was just one, but he kept coming around, and he was a nice one too! (See Jane’s photo). A journey over to Gato Island followed our morning’s adventure for two dives, and then an exploratory visit to Chocolate Island, just south of Malapascua, to a site that DM Dan Dan hadn’t visited in 13 years! It was a nice dive, flat bottom mostly at about 30’ with lots of creatures about (kinda like a muck dive), including a sea snake and a colorful juvenile emperor angelfish. We then returned to our mooring in time for the adventurous ones to enjoy the night dive.
Friday we started again at Malapascua. Well, an encore performance by the majestic threshers was not in the cards this morning as we re-visited Monad Shoal and Dan Dan tried vainly to put us in the zone, back and forth along the slope we went (we got a nice early morning workout though!)…
But that’s OKAY, everyone understands that Mother Nature works on her own schedule and sometimes you get a “donut”. So off we went by popular demand back to Chocolate Island for another “muck dive” before we made the run to Kalangaman Island. A couple of afternoon dives in bright sunshine and clear water were a great way to top off the day. We then pointed the Azores south around 5pm for an 80-mile run down the Cebu Strait to tomorrow’s destination, Cabilao Island. Along the way we saw some dolphins and later encountered a couple of fierce rainstorms just after dark that gave the Azores a welcome rinse. :cool2:Saturday, beautiful flat calm conditions met us at daybreak at our destination of Cabilao Island. Two good factors, good viz and minimal current, were the order of the morning on our dives. During lunch, Heidi, Brenda and Gretchen even made it ashore to visit the “bag ladies” (the locals who make straw bags and other things) and returned after buying a few. Later on the night dive, Wendy encountered some sea snakes, to round out a wonderful day.
Sunday, after another all night transit through a few rainsqualls, we arrived at Balicasag Island to a glorious sunrise and a beautiful double rainbow! The clouds parted for us and we had fair skies for the majority of the day. Dive one was loaded with turtles, including one of the biggest green turtles I’ve ever seen! Also a VERY large grouper was spied getting a “cleaning”. We spent the rest of the day sharing the awesome terrain here with the many “bankas” loaded with day-trippers from nearby Panglao Island, which is a popular dive resort area. The night dive was extra special today because Bob completed (at 67 years old) his THOUSAND’TH dive! Well done… who says you slow down after 20? Hahahaha
Monday we went nuts and did something completely off the grid; we went to Siquijor Island! Actually, it’s one of our “last day” options on the way home to port, but I had never done it before, so it was a radical move
We found a nice long wall, crowned with healthy coral gardens, that actually extends along thru what were three separate dive sites - and the visibility was some of the best we’d seen all week. After dive three, it was time to take a cruise across the channel back to the resort at Dumaguete where all the guests were to spend another three days diving from the resort. Special thanks to Jim and Jane for the pics this week!
