pakman
Contributor
Well just a slight update... Just got back from Subic yesterday. First off, seems Yohan had been busy over the year making some improvements on his dive center. The front deck has been expanded so now there's a lot more room to kit up, work on gear, or just relax post dive. He's also finally bought some new rental gear (BCD's, regs...) Also, seems that a few new hotels have popped up along Baloy Beach (Bario Barretto). Baloy Beach was absolutely packed for the Easter holidays.
Had a blast doing USS New York on 36% nitrox doubles. Spent over 70min w/ minor deco olbigation and plenty of reserve gas planned. It was just me and the DM (Irish Mike) so we were able a to do a lot of swim thrus. Didn't do the passage way. Viz was crap as usual since the USS NY is so close to the shipping channel. Heard that the locals have been sneaking in and cutting out panels for scrap metal... We followed that up with a dive on the Seiam Maru. On the 2nd day, we did the Sakura Maru (54M) (23% back gas, 80% deco)which is somewhere just off that island resort (Grande Island?). Viz was much better there. No penetration. We did the USS NY again after that, but brought along the 80% stages since we had build up some deco obl. from the Sakura.
Oh and make sure you get the speed boat (200hp) vs the other boat with the 100-90hp motor that took us forever to get to the Sakura Maru...
Would have loved to have done some trimix dives on the deeper wrecks there but the helium charge would have been outrageous since I would have to pay my gas as well as the Yohan's.
Yohan had a good kick seeing me in doubles considering I had just done my basic nitrox with him a year ago when I when I just had 30 dives under my belt... Well I can blame him for all the @#$% money I've spend on gear over the year
Had a blast doing USS New York on 36% nitrox doubles. Spent over 70min w/ minor deco olbigation and plenty of reserve gas planned. It was just me and the DM (Irish Mike) so we were able a to do a lot of swim thrus. Didn't do the passage way. Viz was crap as usual since the USS NY is so close to the shipping channel. Heard that the locals have been sneaking in and cutting out panels for scrap metal... We followed that up with a dive on the Seiam Maru. On the 2nd day, we did the Sakura Maru (54M) (23% back gas, 80% deco)which is somewhere just off that island resort (Grande Island?). Viz was much better there. No penetration. We did the USS NY again after that, but brought along the 80% stages since we had build up some deco obl. from the Sakura.
Oh and make sure you get the speed boat (200hp) vs the other boat with the 100-90hp motor that took us forever to get to the Sakura Maru...
Would have loved to have done some trimix dives on the deeper wrecks there but the helium charge would have been outrageous since I would have to pay my gas as well as the Yohan's.
Yohan had a good kick seeing me in doubles considering I had just done my basic nitrox with him a year ago when I when I just had 30 dives under my belt... Well I can blame him for all the @#$% money I've spend on gear over the year
