shugar
Contributor
no misleading whatsoever drew... i just always thought he was in macau fulltime...happybuddha:
cheers!
Jag
Sogod Bay/ Whalesharks Trip Report...
- Thread starter pakman
- Start date
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cheers!
Jag
Drew, aren't you in Shanghai?
Hi Pak, yeah, I'm here permanently since mid-Sept. Sure, we can wait until Larry is available.pakman:
Drew
Mike Veitch:
Mike, I was in Guangzhou until mid-September when I was released for good behavior and I moved to Hong Kong.
Drew
benchan
Guest
Hi guys,
Hope I'm not budging into a private group conversation here. We just came back from Sogod Bay too and in fact, we checked into SBSR when you guys checked out! Instead of starting a new trip report, I thought I'd just add mine here if that's fine with you. Our trip was from 30th Dec to 6 Jan.
We flew into Cebu from Singapore on 30th Dec and were originally scheduled to take the 9am ferry over to Leyte. The same low pressure system that scuttled all the ferry rides also hit us and we were forced to stay a night at Kiwi Lodge in Cebu. Kiwi Lodge is pretty basic though it's clean and it's got good food. Weather forecasts were not good for the whole week and we were actually considering abandoning the trip and returning back to Sg. Fortunately, the weather cleared up enough the next day for us to take the ferry across.
UNFORTUNATELY, however, when we got to SBSR, we saw Kermit squatting on the beach. Apparently, the storm on the previous day was so strong that Kermit broke it's moorings and was washed up to shore. Waves were high enough to totally wash over the roof of the boat! There was a hole in the hull of the boat and we could not take it out so we were faced with the possibility of only shore dives and no whaleshark watching.
We did our first dive that afternoon at Buluarte, a shore dive which is about 200m from the resort. The waters were still extremely choppy and it was an adventure in itself putting on fins and getting into the sea. We saw a frogfish and a moray and a bunch of other fish (can't recall!). There were currents so we drifted all the way back to the resort. That seemed to be the theme of our trip actually - drift diving. We constantly drifted huge distances because of currents.
The next day, we woke up to good news. Phil and Ron managed to secure a fishing boat for our boat dives! However, since we could only get it late morning, we postponed the whaleshark dives another day and went to Napantao instead. We did 2 dives there. Amazing healthy coral life there though not a lot of pelagics to be found, apart from 2 huge whitetips under a rock. The currents there were weird. At a certain point, it pushes you left, right, up and down all in one spot so that took a bit of tight buoyancy control. Viz wasn't too good with the bad weather and plankton. Forgot to add that our boat was uncovered so we were exposed to the cold winds and rain so that wasn't much fun. However, we were all pumped up so it didn't affect our mood that much. We hit Ampo reef for the 3rd dive. This part of the island is sheltered from the strong winds so it was a relaxing dive. I'm normally not a fish person, not a coral person but Ampo reef just blew me away.
Next day - whale shark diving! Or at least that was the plan. We decided to take it slow and start with a snorkelling before any diving. We hit the area and within 30 minutes one was spotted so we jumped right into the water. The first whaleshark is always the most memorable and this was amazing though it was just a baby. Got back on the boat expecting more. However, that was our first and last one for the day. 3 more were spotted by the spotters but we could not get there in time. One went deep, another changed directions and we nearly ran over the 3rd. Luckily it got out of the way in time. It was no fun baking for 3 hours in the sun without shelter. We did a couple of dives at Sunok where again, the corals were amazing (compared to the ones in Malaysia). Not much else to see though. Viz was bad again.
4th day - set off again for the whalesharks and this time we spotted 3. Weather was all rain and gloom though. Had a good long snorkel with the sharks and a dive with one of the babies. I won't go into details on this since it's already been discussed before. Just one word - amazing! By 11 am, we had our fill of whalesharks so we left for Tangkaan for a dive. That's supposed to be one of the top sites in the area though we were hit by a current midway through the site and missed all the good stuff. We actually drifted all the way to another site called Santa Sofia. Lots of nudis and beautiful corals.
Night dive - at the pier. One of the most amazing night dives I've done. Then again I haven't done that many.
To put it in context, I've done Derawan (Sangalaki), Koh Haa, GBR and a couple others in Malaysia. Burgos Pier is similar to Derawan in terms of weirdos. And I'm not referring to my dive buddies. Lots of seahorses to be found, a flounder, 2 octopi (1 grey, 1 huge red one), a couple of morays, lots of lionfish, etc. An excellent dive overall.
On our last day, we went to Bunga Bend - a 40m dive with currents and pelagics. On a good day, there's a group of eagle rays and cobias there. We set out to look for them only to be hit by our good friends, the current and bad viz. Currents here were so strong we missed our site. So we spent the next 10 minutes surfing on the currents over a barren landscape. Quite fun actually. We did spot some cool stuff at the end of the ride so it wasn't a washout. We hit Ampo reef again, to calm down after the adrenalin rush and it was just as good as the first time we dived there. For our 3rd dive, we hit Voltaire's Rock, off the resort. When I waded in at 2m, we spotted a waspfish masquerading as a leaf. A couple of feet away were 2 weird nudibranches. Other stuff we spotted were 2 pygmy seahorses, a juvenile harlequin sweetlips, resident scribbled filefish at the wreck, lobster at the wreck, a few other cool nudibranches. It was another great dive site.
And that was it for the trip. We were a little disappointed not to see any other pelagics but that sounds like we're too demanding, especially since we saw 3 big ones already.
SBSR was great. Atmosphere was friendly and Pedro was a superb DM. We loved the 3 pooches - Dopey, Shirley and Barbara. And we'll definitely go back there again. Apart from the whalesharks, we'll remember it for the pristine corals, the wonderful night dive, the great shore dives, the cold freezing winds, the cold waters, the lovely currents and the great resort atmosphere. We'll be back for more when the weather patterns are less exciting!
Hope I'm not budging into a private group conversation here. We just came back from Sogod Bay too and in fact, we checked into SBSR when you guys checked out! Instead of starting a new trip report, I thought I'd just add mine here if that's fine with you. Our trip was from 30th Dec to 6 Jan.
We flew into Cebu from Singapore on 30th Dec and were originally scheduled to take the 9am ferry over to Leyte. The same low pressure system that scuttled all the ferry rides also hit us and we were forced to stay a night at Kiwi Lodge in Cebu. Kiwi Lodge is pretty basic though it's clean and it's got good food. Weather forecasts were not good for the whole week and we were actually considering abandoning the trip and returning back to Sg. Fortunately, the weather cleared up enough the next day for us to take the ferry across.
UNFORTUNATELY, however, when we got to SBSR, we saw Kermit squatting on the beach. Apparently, the storm on the previous day was so strong that Kermit broke it's moorings and was washed up to shore. Waves were high enough to totally wash over the roof of the boat! There was a hole in the hull of the boat and we could not take it out so we were faced with the possibility of only shore dives and no whaleshark watching.
We did our first dive that afternoon at Buluarte, a shore dive which is about 200m from the resort. The waters were still extremely choppy and it was an adventure in itself putting on fins and getting into the sea. We saw a frogfish and a moray and a bunch of other fish (can't recall!). There were currents so we drifted all the way back to the resort. That seemed to be the theme of our trip actually - drift diving. We constantly drifted huge distances because of currents.
The next day, we woke up to good news. Phil and Ron managed to secure a fishing boat for our boat dives! However, since we could only get it late morning, we postponed the whaleshark dives another day and went to Napantao instead. We did 2 dives there. Amazing healthy coral life there though not a lot of pelagics to be found, apart from 2 huge whitetips under a rock. The currents there were weird. At a certain point, it pushes you left, right, up and down all in one spot so that took a bit of tight buoyancy control. Viz wasn't too good with the bad weather and plankton. Forgot to add that our boat was uncovered so we were exposed to the cold winds and rain so that wasn't much fun. However, we were all pumped up so it didn't affect our mood that much. We hit Ampo reef for the 3rd dive. This part of the island is sheltered from the strong winds so it was a relaxing dive. I'm normally not a fish person, not a coral person but Ampo reef just blew me away.
Next day - whale shark diving! Or at least that was the plan. We decided to take it slow and start with a snorkelling before any diving. We hit the area and within 30 minutes one was spotted so we jumped right into the water. The first whaleshark is always the most memorable and this was amazing though it was just a baby. Got back on the boat expecting more. However, that was our first and last one for the day. 3 more were spotted by the spotters but we could not get there in time. One went deep, another changed directions and we nearly ran over the 3rd. Luckily it got out of the way in time. It was no fun baking for 3 hours in the sun without shelter. We did a couple of dives at Sunok where again, the corals were amazing (compared to the ones in Malaysia). Not much else to see though. Viz was bad again.
4th day - set off again for the whalesharks and this time we spotted 3. Weather was all rain and gloom though. Had a good long snorkel with the sharks and a dive with one of the babies. I won't go into details on this since it's already been discussed before. Just one word - amazing! By 11 am, we had our fill of whalesharks so we left for Tangkaan for a dive. That's supposed to be one of the top sites in the area though we were hit by a current midway through the site and missed all the good stuff. We actually drifted all the way to another site called Santa Sofia. Lots of nudis and beautiful corals.
Night dive - at the pier. One of the most amazing night dives I've done. Then again I haven't done that many.
To put it in context, I've done Derawan (Sangalaki), Koh Haa, GBR and a couple others in Malaysia. Burgos Pier is similar to Derawan in terms of weirdos. And I'm not referring to my dive buddies. Lots of seahorses to be found, a flounder, 2 octopi (1 grey, 1 huge red one), a couple of morays, lots of lionfish, etc. An excellent dive overall.On our last day, we went to Bunga Bend - a 40m dive with currents and pelagics. On a good day, there's a group of eagle rays and cobias there. We set out to look for them only to be hit by our good friends, the current and bad viz. Currents here were so strong we missed our site. So we spent the next 10 minutes surfing on the currents over a barren landscape. Quite fun actually. We did spot some cool stuff at the end of the ride so it wasn't a washout. We hit Ampo reef again, to calm down after the adrenalin rush and it was just as good as the first time we dived there. For our 3rd dive, we hit Voltaire's Rock, off the resort. When I waded in at 2m, we spotted a waspfish masquerading as a leaf. A couple of feet away were 2 weird nudibranches. Other stuff we spotted were 2 pygmy seahorses, a juvenile harlequin sweetlips, resident scribbled filefish at the wreck, lobster at the wreck, a few other cool nudibranches. It was another great dive site.
And that was it for the trip. We were a little disappointed not to see any other pelagics but that sounds like we're too demanding, especially since we saw 3 big ones already.
SBSR was great. Atmosphere was friendly and Pedro was a superb DM. We loved the 3 pooches - Dopey, Shirley and Barbara. And we'll definitely go back there again. Apart from the whalesharks, we'll remember it for the pristine corals, the wonderful night dive, the great shore dives, the cold freezing winds, the cold waters, the lovely currents and the great resort atmosphere. We'll be back for more when the weather patterns are less exciting!
clgsamson
Koya Kap
hey nice trip report, thanks for sharing and welcome to the PPD!
OP
pakman
Contributor
Ben, ahh you were the group that got stuck on the Cebu side that day. I remember Phil mentioning that you guys were effected. That reminds me I forgot to post a pic of the Kermit washed ashore...
Nice report and thanks for filling in on the other dive sites in the area.
Nice report and thanks for filling in on the other dive sites in the area.
shugar
Contributor
great report ben! pix pix pix!!!
well you haven't dived with the PPD yet! you should! hahahahahahahahahaha
Jag
ben:
well you haven't dived with the PPD yet! you should! hahahahahahahahahaha
Jag
Hammerhead
Contributor
pakman:
I've got a couple
Maybe tonight if I actually get out of the effing office before 11:00 :sad:
OP
pakman
Contributor
no need, got one here...
Kermit and the tender on the rocks...
Kermit and the tender on the rocks...
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