Pre-Holy Week Crowd Day Trip - Portulano 3/19

[shugar]

Before the chaotic exodus from Manila of the hordes of holiday travelers began, Jon, Van, Chip, Pao and I got a headstart on the crowd by doing a day trip to Pao's home resort of Portulano

The plan was to do 2-3 dives... we met up at 430-ish and worked our way to Bauan via Tagaytay since the Cuenca bridge is still out. We would have arrived at the boat dock at 7ish had it not been for the horrendously long wait for breakfast at an Indian resto along the Tagaytay ridge. Chip wasn't feeling great so he got to sleep some more... I got to catch a few zzzzs as well...

We were finally at the resort around 8ish, and began to set up our gear, then set up our cameras.

It was my first time to try out my new Nano so I was psyching up about getting frustrated underwater trying to mix and match aperture settings against the strobe's presets... but Jon and I forgot that March is Fire Prevention Month.

Jon couldn't get his strobe to fire... he diddled the cords, checked his FO cable, checked bats... nothing... no fire... nada...

Then I snickered... tested my strobe... and nothing... no fire... nada... wadapaq?

We probably spent another 20 or so minutes diddling our rigs... Jon's never worked... mine fired! (don't know why but it did!)

So we finally hied off to the boat and our first dive:

DIVE #1: Ligpo Caverns
Dive time: 57 mins
Avg Depth: 32 ft.
Water Temp: 80F

We backrolled into the calm waters under a beautiful sky - a perfect day for diving! After surface checks and getting our cameras handed to us, we descended after Pao.

Button check, triple check for leaks, bubbles and drips... good...

camera powerup... good

strobe power up... power up... crap... power up... check for leaks... nothing... no power... damn!

To make a long story short, my it-was-working-at-the-surface brand spanking new toy wasn't working so i had to just satisfy myself with taking ambient-light shots, mostly wide angled ones... (the viz was great and i had BIG subjects... people... not fish... toink would be proud)

I didn't get to enjoy the cavern as I was too preoccupied thinking about my strobe... I went in, I looked around, I went out... bugger...

Other than that though, it was a pretty good dive... nothing big to take a shot off other than the other guys but I enjoyed myself as well...

Chip aborted after about 30 minutes coz he was feeling cold... poor guy needed some TLC and nobody was around to give him any

DIVE #2: Portulano House Reef
Dive Time: 61 mins
Avg Depth: 35 ft.
Water Temp: 81F

After a relatively long SI we were going back into the water...

Chip was out... he was sleeping and sleeping and sleeping... he missed lunch and all and really wasn't feeling too good...

Jon discovered his strobe problems came from a bend in his FO cable from the screw being done too tight... he cut it and made it work once again...

I discovered my problems came from a design flaw in the housing switch, the clip slipped off the strobe's ON switch after you switched it off... so the solution was to switch the unit on manually before a dive, reseal the housing, and leave it on until the end of the dive... (note: must ask MV if a charged strobe consumes a lot of bat power even if it's not triggered)... either way the remedy is a simple "kalso".

We swam out to the buoy and descended to about 70 feet...

The long and short of it is that even if Jon and I were finally over Fire Prevention Month, there was nothing to shoot! Sure a bunch of reef fish, corals, the usual suspects... there were a couple of nudis... but nothing spectacular...

The resident turtle was out for the Holy Week... the biggest fish I saw was a harlequin trigger...

Not the greatest of dives but a dive is a dive for me and I'm still happy I got to go...

We left the resort very late in the afternoon, had dinner in Tagaytay, got into lousy traffic in San Pedro-Alabang (traffic going IN to manila??? w-t-f???)

Still wouldn't have traded the trip though... company was great... weather was amazing... water was warm...

and that's what Philippine diving is all about...


*pix in a while...

 

[Diver Dennis]

Don't ya hate when the camera doesn't work?

Sounds like you guys had a good time though. We were in Manila on Wednesday and we left Asia Mall at around 10 PM thinking the traffic would have calmed down a bit... Wrong, huge bus jams and people still waiting to get a ride to the province. Two and a half hours on Edsa. Ridiculous.

 

[shugar]

i hear you D... holy week strategy always involves being on the road when everyone else isn't...

Jag

 

[chip104]

Jon was awesome to drive back home in that traffic. A dive is a dive - sorry I wasn't able to join the last one. It was funny seeing you guys setting up your cameras - it's always the strobes that are the trickiest (and in Zee's case, also not accidentally flipping the focus mode on the camera before sealing the housing ).

I had plenty enough TLC from you guys. Thanks for helping me pack my stuff and storing it. We have to dive again, next time when I won't be sick!

And Portulano is a nice resort to have a nap in - man the breeze was chilly!

edit: the weather and water was warm - the first dive was 27C and the air temp was 32C in the morning, 34C in the afternoon. Too bad everything was too cold for me!

 

[jonix]

glad to know you're ok chip. happy to be back in the water again after a 4 month hiatus.

my pics from the trip. Portulano - March 2008 - a photoset on Flickr

 

[jigo]

traffic thursday along slex was a beyatch. took as 4 hours to get to batangas pier from c5! good thing the dives in PG was worth all that. driving back today was a pleasant contrast. smooth driving all the way to manila.

 

[shugar]

yeah... jon was a :god: for driving through that crap... i was trying so hard to stay awake to keep him company but i was constantly passing out...

must've been that jazz music stuff he kept on playing

anyway, here are some of my photos... the rest you can see in my multiply album

sunrise and breakfast in tagaytay


he was being watched over by another woman!


me... duh... strobe wasn't firing...


the fish outside the cavern


ISKAYDAYBER!!!


chip and van


this one startled jon and i... didn't know he was there


the strobe works... pretty good too...


the strobe's performance underwater


chip doing a lot of what he did that day... poor guy was too sick to enjoy


the perfect diving day


i can't access SB from home so these are up relatively late...

Jag

 

[chip104]

he was being watched over by another woman!


chip doing a lot of what he did that day... poor guy was too sick to enjoy

:looks around for any onlookers...: [/steals wallet!]

 

[pyrodiver]

The plan was to do 2-3 dives... we met up at 430-ish and worked our way to Bauan via Tagaytay since the Cuenca bridge is still out.

There's another road bypassing Cuenca... Instead of turning right on the BigMak drive further down towards Batangas City... I don't know what the place is called but you turn right on the big green house... This is a smaller road, no buses or trucks like Cuenca road. Just head straight down no need to turn on any intersection... you will end up near Bauan where it meets the Cuenca route!

 

[jigo]

Its in san jose, batangas. we call the road gubat. my landmark for that is you turn right at the first intersection after the only pedestrian overpass (orange/pink color) there. the road can be a bit tricky at night though since some parts arent lighted and the bridges have only one lane so cars from opposite directions have to take turns. there is also a portion with a creek where the road could use some railings. but this route is fast. cuts the trip by about 30 minutes compared to going via cuenca/alitagtag.