Eco Explorer Runs Aground On Tubbataha

[dive_addict]

yes, i heard it was the first time in tubbataha..but i'm not sure if thats 100% true. Definitely Delsan and Malayan wrecks did crash at one point in time there and i'm not a dive operator, just an ordinary diver in the same situation.

 

[f3nikon]

Oh well, looks like another wreck to dive on! The Tristar II sank on Bastera Reef a while back.

 

[chip104]

yes, i heard it was the first time in tubbataha..but i'm not sure if thats 100% true. Definitely Delsan and Malayan wrecks did crash at one point in time there and i'm not a dive operator, just an ordinary diver in the same situation.

diving addict,

despite our oppposing views on the situation, I'm glad you have kept a positive outlook and enjoyed your stay here in the PI. I do hope you come back and experience the other dive sites we have to offer!

Dive safe and welcome to the PPD!

 

[dive_addict]

thanks for best wishes...i am a pinoy as well by the way, I just travel a lot because of my work (im 30% out of the country in a year) and literally a dive addict, almost diving every weekend even during the habagat season. i just came back from Subic yesterday, excellent wreck diving...havent been to Coron yet, next place to visit for me is Palau...there's some great packages out there,my instructor is offering a package as low as 1k usd inclusive of everything (flight,liveaboard,meals, land stay during the last stay, hotel) + 57 usd dive fee...still thinking if im going or not.. i heard palau package is usually 1500 -2000 usd. is this true?

 

[chip104]

thanks for best wishes...i am a pinoy as well by the way, I just travel a lot because of my work (im 30% out of the country in a year) and literally a dive addict, almost diving every weekend even during the habagat season. i just came back from Subic yesterday, excellent wreck diving...havent been to Coron yet, next place to visit for me is Palau...there's some great packages out there,my instructor is offering a package as low as 1k usd inclusive of everything (flight,liveaboard,meals, land stay during the last stay, hotel) + 57 usd dive fee...still thinking if im going or not.. i heard palau package is usually 1500 -2000 usd. is this true?

that is true - $2500, there's another thread about it, I can look it up for you and post it later. I would jump on the deal - the thread is about how liveaboard is a better way to dive palau since most of the land based ops are "cattle boat" driven.

Coron wreck diving is awesome!

edit: here I found them - the connection here is better than I thought...

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=133296
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=136476

 

[divefoxx]

what ship were you on? got any pix?

My name is Victor Ocskai. I own Victory Divers, Boracay Island, Philippines. There are 35 diving schools in Boracay and one of them is Scuba World. So I should actually be happy about the bad luck of Scuba World. But because I know dive business in the Philippines, and I run a small liveaboard since many years, knowing about navigation, sea conditions and its tricky nature, and because it happened to be that I was on the Eco Explorer as a diving guest, when the incident happened,
Yes the Eco Explorer hit the reef because the person in charge did a mistake. What exactly happened on the bridge, and why the responsible person did such a fatal mistake I don't know. If responsible people never make mistakes, we had no accident in this world. That was first of all an accident, human error, I believe not happened by purpose. I was still up by around 10 PM. The ship didn't drive cruising speed. It was slowly (3 to 5 knots) driving up and down the west side of Tubbataha southern reef when the ship stopped within around 5 to 8 second. It actually slided slow on the shallow (1 meter deep) reef. All corals in this area are table corals. When the Eco Explorer stopped, it was 2 third on the reef. It started immediately lean sideward about 10 degrees. Almost the whole entire crew was still awake. A minute later (that long it took all to realize the situation) the crew woke up all the passengers. The most people were still awake. Within 5 minutes everyone was upper deck with a life jacked on, with all their important personal belongings. Just in the afternoon we had an excellent briefing also how to use the life jacket. The crew was calm trying to create no panic. The ship did not continued to lean more sideward and soon it was clear it just stuck. My major concern was about the dives in the morning, and if we could get enough sleeps the rest of the night. Even the ship seemed to be save, the crew insisted that we abdomen the ship for tonight. 10 minutes after crash we were already all on the speed boats. We spend the night on another ship, and returned the next morning on the Eco Explorer. We continued to dive the whole day. The upper toilets didn’t work, so they offered us immediately other rooms. The second night we had to leave the ship again at 9 PM for 1 hour, in order to pull the ship down the reef with 2 other ships. It failed because even high tight it was to shallow and the other 2 ships are not build to tow cargo. 1 rope snapped, but just fell powerless in the water hurting no one. Broken equipment? I think we can send this story straight to fairy tale land. What a crap. Of course there where some people immediately complaining about this and that. There are always people enjoy to complane.The second night one lady even suggested to be evacuated by helicopter. THIS WAS NO EMERGENCY SITUATION.
The crew handled the situation excellent , highly professional and outstanding friendly. No reason to complain.
When we arrived back in Puerto Princesa Mr. Fernando de Achaval (Manager) came on board and apologized a hundred times in a very diplomatic way, and offered us to all our surprise not only some compensation. No, a voucher for another whole trip (1400 U$) for the next 2 years. I went to the 1 elderly women (with the helicopter) and thought she was happy after all. Her only comment was, “this ship is no save, I never go back on it” What a smart comment (perhaps she builds ships).
I wonder why she is still flying (perhaps be she doesn't build airplanes).
2 thump up for the crew and the management.
Victor Ocskai
Padi Master Instructor 100980
Manager/owner
www.VictoryDivers.com
Boracay Island, Philippines

 

[dive_addict]

thanks for the threads on palau. i've definitely made up my mind and i'm going. the trip is 1000k inclusive of roundtrip flights from/to manila, 3 liveaboard days on big blue explorer,fees and one day at Palau pacific resort i think...(im not sure on the last part...i might be making up that one in case anyone's interested to join, drop me a message with your email so i can send you my instructor's contact number. im not sure if i can post it here, haven't asked for his permission. the first trip is scheduled may 23-29...i know that there are other trip schedules, you can talk to him if you're interested.

big blue is scubaworld by the way..I'm friends with the manager of the boat...a really cool and funny guy, more reason for me to enjoy my palau trip.

oh...and i met Victor briefly aboard the oceanic Explorer, Rommel, the boat manager introduced him to me...great to have his views on this thread by the way...and i did hear something about ppl from the 2 other boats (that werent involved in the accident) asking also for some form of compensation...which gets me thinking that this isnt right. no one was booted out of their rooms, lacked food or lost a dive. do ppl from oceanic or stella really need to be compensated?

i HAD to give a huge tip to the crew of Oceanic for an excellent job...i don't understand why other ppl seem to be asking for compensation when there's really nothing to be compensated on..Sure, the first morning breakfast was a bit cramped but the boat manager quickly fixed that by dividing the eating area and reserving the bow for the additional guests and the stern for the original guests...i didnt mind a sort of cramped eating space really...this is liveaboard, not a 5 class restaurant anyway, or maybe its just me since im so used to not being particular about the details. We all saw a huge Manta ray...for me, that itself was worth every penny...given all the amenities that were delivered with quality.

enough said i think...im excited for my upcoming palau trip

 

[jonix]

My name is Victor Ocskai. I own Victory Divers, Boracay Island, Philippines. There are 35 diving schools in Boracay and one of them is Scuba World. So I should actually be happy about the bad luck of Scuba World. But because I know dive business in the Philippines, and I run a small liveaboard since many years, knowing about navigation, sea conditions and its tricky nature, and because it happened to be that I was on the Eco Explorer as a diving guest, when the incident happened,
Yes the Eco Explorer hit the reef because the person in charge did a mistake. What exactly happened on the bridge, and why the responsible person did such a fatal mistake I don't know. If responsible people never make mistakes, we had no accident in this world. That was first of all an accident, human error, I believe not happened by purpose. I was still up by around 10 PM. The ship didn't drive cruising speed. It was slowly (3 to 5 knots) driving up and down the west side of Tubbataha southern reef when the ship stopped within around 5 to 8 second. It actually slided slow on the shallow (1 meter deep) reef. All corals in this area are table corals. When the Eco Explorer stopped, it was 2 third on the reef. It started immediately lean sideward about 10 degrees. Almost the whole entire crew was still awake. A minute later (that long it took all to realize the situation) the crew woke up all the passengers. The most people were still awake. Within 5 minutes everyone was upper deck with a life jacked on, with all their important personal belongings. Just in the afternoon we had an excellent briefing also how to use the life jacket. The crew was calm trying to create no panic. The ship did not continued to lean more sideward and soon it was clear it just stuck. My major concern was about the dives in the morning, and if we could get enough sleeps the rest of the night. Even the ship seemed to be save, the crew insisted that we abdomen the ship for tonight. 10 minutes after crash we were already all on the speed boats. We spend the night on another ship, and returned the next morning on the Eco Explorer. We continued to dive the whole day. The upper toilets didn’t work, so they offered us immediately other rooms. The second night we had to leave the ship again at 9 PM for 1 hour, in order to pull the ship down the reef with 2 other ships. It failed because even high tight it was to shallow and the other 2 ships are not build to tow cargo. 1 rope snapped, but just fell powerless in the water hurting no one. Broken equipment? I think we can send this story straight to fairy tale land. What a crap. Of course there where some people immediately complaining about this and that. There are always people enjoy to complane.The second night one lady even suggested to be evacuated by helicopter. THIS WAS NO EMERGENCY SITUATION.
The crew handled the situation excellent , highly professional and outstanding friendly. No reason to complain.
When we arrived back in Puerto Princesa Mr. Fernando de Achaval (Manager) came on board and apologized a hundred times in a very diplomatic way, and offered us to all our surprise not only some compensation. No, a voucher for another whole trip (1400 U$) for the next 2 years. I went to the 1 elderly women (with the helicopter) and thought she was happy after all. Her only comment was, “this ship is no save, I never go back on it” What a smart comment (perhaps she builds ships).
I wonder why she is still flying (perhaps be she doesn't build airplanes).
2 thump up for the crew and the management.
Victor Ocskai
Padi Master Instructor 100980
Manager/owner
www.VictoryDivers.com
Boracay Island, Philippines

hi victor,

thanks for the first hand input, i guess this opens up a new perspective on the accident.

 

[clgsamson]

thanks for the threads on palau. i've definitely made up my mind and i'm going. the trip is 1000k inclusive of roundtrip flights from/to manila, 3 liveaboard days on big blue explorer,fees and one day at Palau pacific resort i think...(im not sure on the last part...i might be making up that one in case anyone's interested to join, drop me a message with your email so i can send you my instructor's contact number. im not sure if i can post it here, haven't asked for his permission. the first trip is scheduled may 23-29...i know that there are other trip schedules, you can talk to him if you're interested.

big blue is scubaworld by the way..I'm friends with the manager of the boat...a really cool and funny guy, more reason for me to enjoy my palau trip.

oh...and i met Victor briefly aboard the oceanic Explorer, Rommel, the boat manager introduced him to me...great to have his views on this thread by the way...and i did hear something about ppl from the 2 other boats (that werent involved in the accident) asking also for some form of compensation...which gets me thinking that this isnt right. no one was booted out of their rooms, lacked food or lost a dive. do ppl from oceanic or stella really need to be compensated?

i HAD to give a huge tip to the crew of Oceanic for an excellent job...i don't understand why other ppl seem to be asking for compensation when there's really nothing to be compensated on..Sure, the first morning breakfast was a bit cramped but the boat manager quickly fixed that by dividing the eating area and reserving the bow for the additional guests and the stern for the original guests...i didnt mind a sort of cramped eating space really...this is liveaboard, not a 5 class restaurant anyway, or maybe its just me since im so used to not being particular about the details. We all saw a huge Manta ray...for me, that itself was worth every penny...given all the amenities that were delivered with quality.

enough said i think...im excited for my upcoming palau trip

have you ever thought that some were "compensated" just to shut up? There are no news except for the very brief report in the Inquirer. Unlike in the Rainbow Warrior's grounding last year where it was fined and even ridiculed for having old charts, bad seamanship etc.., this incident has been suppressed. Rumors are circulating that the boat was on auto pilot when it plowed through the reef. I just hope SW institutes serious action against the captain or responsible person for that incident in a transparent way.

BTW, google your liveaboard ship in Palau....it is a nice ship.

 

[Matthew]

big blue is scubaworld by the way..I'm friends with the manager of the boat...a really cool and funny guy, more reason for me to enjoy my palau trip.

Is that Gat Velasco? He's a very good friend, please say hi for me when you meet him.