PSAI Advanced Wreck certification course; Subic Bay, Oct 30 – Nov 6, 2010

[Tortuga68]

Stayed: Sheaven’s Resort, dived out of Vasco’s. Both recommended
Dived: Under Vasco’s, plane wreck, El Capitan, LST, USS New York
Time: 6 days of diving, 10 course dives plus 2 extra dives
Gear: Double AL80s on EAN33, AL40 stage, Manta Sr reel w/ #36 line, Halcyon spools & arrows, 3mm steamer, 21w HID Explorer can light & HP LED backups

Day 1 – Saturday 30 October
Drove up from Manila, dropped gear at shop, met locals, got everything set up

Day 2 – Sunday 31 October
Dive 1, on construction site (dry): Instructor laid line, demonstrated tie-offs, wraps etc. Blind exit (banged my head!) with touch comms, recovered line. Swap over & repeat
Dive 2, under Vasco’s: Laid line, blind exit with touch comms. Recovered line. Reverse team positions and repeat

Day 3 – Monday 1 November
Dive 3, El Capitan: Clipped off stages, laid line, air share exit, recovered line. S-drill, valve drill. 67 minutes/20m
Dive 4, El Capitan: Clipped off stages, laid line, no mask exit, recovered line. S-drill, valve drill. 77min/21m

Day 4 – Tuesday 2 November
Dive 5, El Capitan: Clipped off stages, laid line, blind lost line drill, recovered line
Dive 6, LST: Laid line, recovered line. Really silty, very low viz

Day 5 - Wednesday 3 November
Dive 7, LST: Clipped off. Laid line, air share exit. Lost diver drill. Recovered line
Dive 8, New York: Clipped off. Assessed wreck, 360 site tour. Took some photos. Terrible viz

Day 6 - Thursday 4 November
Dive 9, NY: Clipped off. Viz so bad we swam off the end of wreck without noticing! Laid line, recovered line. Lots of silt, could only see 6” of line at times
Dive 10, NY: I bailed to go to doctor instead, been sick all week

Day 7 – Friday 5 November
Dive 11, NY: Clipped off. Toured engine room on & off permanent line, Jayson guiding – amazing! Yes, this was a ‘trust me’ dive
Dive 12, plane wreck: Toured plane wreck on the way back to the dock

Day 8 – Saturday 6 November
Finished academics & exams, packed up gear and headed back to Manila

Summary: Really enjoyed my first exposure to team diving. Great sites for wreck training – low visibility made everything a good challenge, shallow enough to have good bottom times with nitrox and little narcosis. Looking forward to doing some more practice, & planning trips to Coron and/or Truk next year

 

[DevonDiver]

Great report.

USS New York engine rooms is a really challenging penetration. Silt up in there and lose the line and you probably won't get out again. I prefered solo exploration in there, whenever I could whilst I lived at Subic. There's a lot of easy penetration on the New York... but the engine rooms are a maze in vertical and horizontal.

LST has some nice penetration. Most groups just go through the loading deck, but there are two entrances via ladder from the top deck. Silting isn't too bad, but they can be tight...and I had to deal with at least one case of severe narcosis in a student inside there before... having to escort the guy out (whilst he silted the place to zero viz) whilst simulataneously recovering the line. Did you see any bull sharks on LST?

El Cap is a perfect wreck training location. Shallow, open and easy to navigate. The only hassle is that it occasionally belches diesel which congregates in the air pockets inside the holds. There's been a few times I've surfaced from dives there where I stuck so bad of fuel that I could have vomited....

Did you get chance for a recreational dive on the galleon (San Quentin)? The viz can be really good there...and it's the best place for marine life.... all the macro stuff that you would expect to see in the region (but don't on the wrecks inside the bay).

When you say the 'plane'...do you mean the one inside the bay.... or the F4 Phantom outside?

 

[Tortuga68]

LST: First dive we went in the loading dock. Second one down a stairwell from the top deck. Apparently a big bull shark had been around recently but we didn't see it, just some blue spotted rays, a small school of juvenile barracuda and a medium-sized scorpion fish

Did not get to dive the San Quentin

Plane was the 55(?) seater just off Vasco's, not the F4. A friend of ours from PG was involved in the sinking so we didn't think we could get away with not diving it!