Background: My boyfriend (BF) and I are budget-backpacking-scuba diving SEA for the next ~8 months. Our goal is to see as much healthy hard coral in the Coral Triangle as possible. We brought all our own gear (excluding weights & tanks of course), including full 3mm wetsuits, which we carry in 75L backpacks. The prices listed are for two people, unless otherwise noted. Apologies if the report is too long!
Day 0: Boy was getting here an adventure. We left Capt’n Gregg’s in Sabang early and took a trike to Balatero (250P). A week earlier when we had arrived at Balatero, I asked the stationed guards if there was a ferry that goes to Abra de Ilog from Balatero. They said no, but a guy renting motorcycles overheard me and said that he has a boat. He gave me his WhatsApp and we arranged a boat crossing for the next week (today) for 2000P. Honestly I have no idea what sort of price range there was for this, I read online about some people doing it similarly for 2000 so I was satisfied, but he accepted 2000 very easily from his initial offer of 2500 so I assume I could’ve gone down further.
Once arriving at Balatero, we followed the guy down past where the locals live at the port until we found a small beach where it seemed all the locals kept their fishing bangkas. The guy introduced us to his brother and his son who would be our crew and loaded us into their small fishing bangka. It was an interesting 1-hour ride to Abra de Ilog. We followed the coastline very closely and luckily the sea was calm.
Once we got to Abra de Ilog (~11), we asked around for what time the next RORO bus would be from Batangas. We got very mixed answers, ranging from between 13:00 – 14:00. Figuring that we had time, we ate lunch in 7/11 to rest in the AC. Unfortunately, shortly before 12:00 we saw buses drive by while we were still eating and missed the bus. This cued some frantic running around and we ended up waiting longer until the next bus around 14:00, on which there was only standing room. So we took the bus to Sablayan (540P).
We arrived at Sablayan Grand Terminal shortly after 17:00 and took a trike (100P) to a river crossing (100P) directly to Gustav’s Place, where we checked into a fan room for the night (1000P). I chose the fan room since it was the least expensive (aircon was 1500P) but we deeply regretted this decision since overnight it was 90F with 99% humidity. It was a difficult night.
Day 1: The agreed meeting time to board the live aboard was 5:40 but when we showed up, the dive master (Russell) said that the boat would need to get a coast guard (CG) inspection first and it was low tide so that’s why he pushed the meeting time back to 6:30. Which would’ve been nice to know. Russell informed us that it would just be us two and one additional Japanese diver on the LOA. We would be picking him up from the port.
Shortly before 6:30 the rest of the crew (5 guys + the owner’s daughter) rolled up and we took a small boat directly from the beach outside Gustav’s to the big bangka moored a bit offshore. Then we promptly ran into engine trouble as the battery was dead. They worked on the boat battery for around 45 mins until giving up and going back to the resort to take their generator’s battery, which successfully started the bangka engine.
We then drove to the port to pick up the third guest and pass CG inspection, where we were all required to wear life jackets (Russell told us we could take them off immediately after the CG left). We ate breakfast during the CG’s inspection and the food was spectacular. Breakfast was tocino with garlic rice and fried eggs. The good quality of the food was consistent through the entire trip.
Finally we left for Apo Reef around 8:00. The journey took ~3 hours.
The accommodation: The big bangka was doable for a LOA but clearly not meant for it. The guests slept on the top deck on mats inside of tents (in case of rain) whereas the crew slept on the main deck on mats on the floor. The entire boat was dirty and there was usually ~0.5-1 in of water on every floor surface. The paint on the boat was peeling and it stuck to everything, especially your bare feet and wetsuit.
The insulation of the tent along with a tarp the crew put up against rain made it unbearably hot to sleep in overnight and we had extremely restless nights of sleep. We slept only a few hours at a time on the open deck other than when we expected it to rain, when we hurried back into the tent to experience hot, stuffy, restless sleep.
The food, as mentioned above, was good though. We usually ate meals during our SI. There was also a seemingly unlimited supply of (instant) coffee and tea. I think I watched the Japanese diver consume 4-5 cups of coffee and 1-2 cups of tea per day. He also ate a full serving every meal and then proceeded to bring out a pack of instant noodles to eat a second meal. As a note, he spoke no English (nor Tagalog) and was silent the entire time.
The dive operation: Honestly, the dive operation was quite lacking. Russell was reluctant to give us almost any information about each site and we had to ask before every dive the name of the site, max depth and time, topography of the site, what we would see, etc. He was good at asking for our air underwater, but he seemed to not care that the Japanese diver’s depth was fluctuating wildly. His buoyancy was very bad and whereas we kept level with Russell, the Japanese diver was always bouncing either 10m above or 10m below us.
My tanks were always underfilled at ~2800 PSI. I suspect that they underfilled me on purpose since I am a woman, as Russell made a comment about women using less air and BF always got 3000 PSI. There was an area to hold tanks as divers were getting ready at the bow of the bangka, and we left our gear on the tanks there both between dives and overnight. The crew changed our tanks for us between dives. I found it interesting that the bangka had a compressor on board, but that probably meant the air quality was dubious. I personally didn’t find that my air smelled weird.
I personally was unimpressed with the way that both Russell and the Japanese diver kicked several corals, causing them to break off. There was also an instance where they both saw something exciting (Day 1, Dive 3) and swam off, leaving BF and I behind.
There were no set times to complete the 9 dives so I’ll include the dive times for each individual dive.
Dive 1: South Corner (@11:47)
Max depth 91 ft, 51 mins, min water temp 82F.
The most beautiful corals you could ever picture in your life!! Amazing fields of diverse hard coral on the descent. Uninterrupted fields of competing Isopora, Acropora, and Pocillopora on a gently sloping field down to the wall. In addition, there was a huge fish biomass with lots of pyramid bannerfish, red tooth triggerfish, etc. We also saw a big ball of barracuda and 3+ sharks roaming the edge of the wall. On the wall there were schools of massive surgeonfish and the occasional jack or trevally. The hard coral slowly declined until the end of the dive where it was basically nonexistent, but it was made up for by a school of fully grown humphead parrotfish.
Dive 2: South East Corner (@13:58)
Max depth 82ft, 50 mins, min water temp 82F.
Again great fields of diverse hard corals on the descent, with huge biomass. Less sharks than on the first dive but still min two. Same big schools of fish. The dive ended in sandy shallows with coral bommies covered in table corals. Every sandy patch had a host of garden eels.
Dive 3: Ego Wall (@15:55)
Max depth 55ft, 53 mins, min water temp 81F.
Upon descent we immediately saw a fully grown napoleon wrasse!! The coral coverage was significantly less dense than the south end (Ego is at north end), small Isopora dominate. We saw two sharks and a turtle within a minute of each other. The highlight, however, was when I spotted a manta ray! After I signaled to Russell and the Japanese diver, they promptly left us behind to go chase after the ray for 30m. The coral was disappointing on this dive but great sealife.
Day 2: We woke up around 5:30 to the sound of more engine trouble. The backup generator battery from Gustav’s resort had also died so we were stuck. Some of the crew took a smaller boat (with a small motor attached) to another dive bangka moored a bit away from us to ask for help. They brought back two batteries, and we successfully started the engine.
After the dives we joined the crew as they went onto Apo Island to pay the eco fee. There is a trail that goes through mangroves to a small lagoon on the island, which we did and found beautiful. There are many free divers who camp on the island.
Dive 1: Aladin (@7:55)
Max depth 98 ft, 50 mins, min water temp 84F.
The first dive was before breakfast and as a result I was quite cranky. There was intense current briefly that changed into irritating down/up currents which fluctuated between the two randomly. Felt like nothing worthwhile coral-wise in comparison to the south end. Various turtle and white tip reef shark sightings, but the dive felt very boring.
Dive 2: South Corner (@9:57)
Max depth 81 ft, 45 mins, min water temp 84F.
The same amazing, diverse branching corals present on the entire dive until the end of the drift above 20ft, where it transitioned into 10% coverage with young colonies.
Dive 3: Ego Wall (@11:59)
Max depth 77 ft, 57 mins, min water temp 84F.
Same observations coral-wise as the first day. Turtles and sharks as usual.
Dive 4: South East Corner (@14:45)
Max depth 59 ft, 49 mins, min water temp 84F.
We followed the same route as the first day but stayed much shallower (most of the dive ~35ft) due to light washing-machine currents. Less hard coral present than at the South Corner mooring but still 70%+ coverage. There were plenty of sharks as well.
-- Broken up due to character space limit
Day 0: Boy was getting here an adventure. We left Capt’n Gregg’s in Sabang early and took a trike to Balatero (250P). A week earlier when we had arrived at Balatero, I asked the stationed guards if there was a ferry that goes to Abra de Ilog from Balatero. They said no, but a guy renting motorcycles overheard me and said that he has a boat. He gave me his WhatsApp and we arranged a boat crossing for the next week (today) for 2000P. Honestly I have no idea what sort of price range there was for this, I read online about some people doing it similarly for 2000 so I was satisfied, but he accepted 2000 very easily from his initial offer of 2500 so I assume I could’ve gone down further.
Once arriving at Balatero, we followed the guy down past where the locals live at the port until we found a small beach where it seemed all the locals kept their fishing bangkas. The guy introduced us to his brother and his son who would be our crew and loaded us into their small fishing bangka. It was an interesting 1-hour ride to Abra de Ilog. We followed the coastline very closely and luckily the sea was calm.
Once we got to Abra de Ilog (~11), we asked around for what time the next RORO bus would be from Batangas. We got very mixed answers, ranging from between 13:00 – 14:00. Figuring that we had time, we ate lunch in 7/11 to rest in the AC. Unfortunately, shortly before 12:00 we saw buses drive by while we were still eating and missed the bus. This cued some frantic running around and we ended up waiting longer until the next bus around 14:00, on which there was only standing room. So we took the bus to Sablayan (540P).
We arrived at Sablayan Grand Terminal shortly after 17:00 and took a trike (100P) to a river crossing (100P) directly to Gustav’s Place, where we checked into a fan room for the night (1000P). I chose the fan room since it was the least expensive (aircon was 1500P) but we deeply regretted this decision since overnight it was 90F with 99% humidity. It was a difficult night.
Day 1: The agreed meeting time to board the live aboard was 5:40 but when we showed up, the dive master (Russell) said that the boat would need to get a coast guard (CG) inspection first and it was low tide so that’s why he pushed the meeting time back to 6:30. Which would’ve been nice to know. Russell informed us that it would just be us two and one additional Japanese diver on the LOA. We would be picking him up from the port.
Shortly before 6:30 the rest of the crew (5 guys + the owner’s daughter) rolled up and we took a small boat directly from the beach outside Gustav’s to the big bangka moored a bit offshore. Then we promptly ran into engine trouble as the battery was dead. They worked on the boat battery for around 45 mins until giving up and going back to the resort to take their generator’s battery, which successfully started the bangka engine.
We then drove to the port to pick up the third guest and pass CG inspection, where we were all required to wear life jackets (Russell told us we could take them off immediately after the CG left). We ate breakfast during the CG’s inspection and the food was spectacular. Breakfast was tocino with garlic rice and fried eggs. The good quality of the food was consistent through the entire trip.
Finally we left for Apo Reef around 8:00. The journey took ~3 hours.
The accommodation: The big bangka was doable for a LOA but clearly not meant for it. The guests slept on the top deck on mats inside of tents (in case of rain) whereas the crew slept on the main deck on mats on the floor. The entire boat was dirty and there was usually ~0.5-1 in of water on every floor surface. The paint on the boat was peeling and it stuck to everything, especially your bare feet and wetsuit.
The insulation of the tent along with a tarp the crew put up against rain made it unbearably hot to sleep in overnight and we had extremely restless nights of sleep. We slept only a few hours at a time on the open deck other than when we expected it to rain, when we hurried back into the tent to experience hot, stuffy, restless sleep.
The food, as mentioned above, was good though. We usually ate meals during our SI. There was also a seemingly unlimited supply of (instant) coffee and tea. I think I watched the Japanese diver consume 4-5 cups of coffee and 1-2 cups of tea per day. He also ate a full serving every meal and then proceeded to bring out a pack of instant noodles to eat a second meal. As a note, he spoke no English (nor Tagalog) and was silent the entire time.
The dive operation: Honestly, the dive operation was quite lacking. Russell was reluctant to give us almost any information about each site and we had to ask before every dive the name of the site, max depth and time, topography of the site, what we would see, etc. He was good at asking for our air underwater, but he seemed to not care that the Japanese diver’s depth was fluctuating wildly. His buoyancy was very bad and whereas we kept level with Russell, the Japanese diver was always bouncing either 10m above or 10m below us.
My tanks were always underfilled at ~2800 PSI. I suspect that they underfilled me on purpose since I am a woman, as Russell made a comment about women using less air and BF always got 3000 PSI. There was an area to hold tanks as divers were getting ready at the bow of the bangka, and we left our gear on the tanks there both between dives and overnight. The crew changed our tanks for us between dives. I found it interesting that the bangka had a compressor on board, but that probably meant the air quality was dubious. I personally didn’t find that my air smelled weird.
I personally was unimpressed with the way that both Russell and the Japanese diver kicked several corals, causing them to break off. There was also an instance where they both saw something exciting (Day 1, Dive 3) and swam off, leaving BF and I behind.
There were no set times to complete the 9 dives so I’ll include the dive times for each individual dive.
Dive 1: South Corner (@11:47)
Max depth 91 ft, 51 mins, min water temp 82F.
The most beautiful corals you could ever picture in your life!! Amazing fields of diverse hard coral on the descent. Uninterrupted fields of competing Isopora, Acropora, and Pocillopora on a gently sloping field down to the wall. In addition, there was a huge fish biomass with lots of pyramid bannerfish, red tooth triggerfish, etc. We also saw a big ball of barracuda and 3+ sharks roaming the edge of the wall. On the wall there were schools of massive surgeonfish and the occasional jack or trevally. The hard coral slowly declined until the end of the dive where it was basically nonexistent, but it was made up for by a school of fully grown humphead parrotfish.
Dive 2: South East Corner (@13:58)
Max depth 82ft, 50 mins, min water temp 82F.
Again great fields of diverse hard corals on the descent, with huge biomass. Less sharks than on the first dive but still min two. Same big schools of fish. The dive ended in sandy shallows with coral bommies covered in table corals. Every sandy patch had a host of garden eels.
Dive 3: Ego Wall (@15:55)
Max depth 55ft, 53 mins, min water temp 81F.
Upon descent we immediately saw a fully grown napoleon wrasse!! The coral coverage was significantly less dense than the south end (Ego is at north end), small Isopora dominate. We saw two sharks and a turtle within a minute of each other. The highlight, however, was when I spotted a manta ray! After I signaled to Russell and the Japanese diver, they promptly left us behind to go chase after the ray for 30m. The coral was disappointing on this dive but great sealife.
Day 2: We woke up around 5:30 to the sound of more engine trouble. The backup generator battery from Gustav’s resort had also died so we were stuck. Some of the crew took a smaller boat (with a small motor attached) to another dive bangka moored a bit away from us to ask for help. They brought back two batteries, and we successfully started the engine.
After the dives we joined the crew as they went onto Apo Island to pay the eco fee. There is a trail that goes through mangroves to a small lagoon on the island, which we did and found beautiful. There are many free divers who camp on the island.
Dive 1: Aladin (@7:55)
Max depth 98 ft, 50 mins, min water temp 84F.
The first dive was before breakfast and as a result I was quite cranky. There was intense current briefly that changed into irritating down/up currents which fluctuated between the two randomly. Felt like nothing worthwhile coral-wise in comparison to the south end. Various turtle and white tip reef shark sightings, but the dive felt very boring.
Dive 2: South Corner (@9:57)
Max depth 81 ft, 45 mins, min water temp 84F.
The same amazing, diverse branching corals present on the entire dive until the end of the drift above 20ft, where it transitioned into 10% coverage with young colonies.
Dive 3: Ego Wall (@11:59)
Max depth 77 ft, 57 mins, min water temp 84F.
Same observations coral-wise as the first day. Turtles and sharks as usual.
Dive 4: South East Corner (@14:45)
Max depth 59 ft, 49 mins, min water temp 84F.
We followed the same route as the first day but stayed much shallower (most of the dive ~35ft) due to light washing-machine currents. Less hard coral present than at the South Corner mooring but still 70%+ coverage. There were plenty of sharks as well.
-- Broken up due to character space limit
