Transition trip from Cebu to Tubbataha
With our returning Dive and Cruise guests, also worldwide adventure travellers, we organized an unforgetable liveaboard diving trip in the Philippines, on board MV Seadoors.
Our trip was a transition trip ( 6 - 13 March 2015 ).
We crossed the Sulu Sea and visited some of the most beautiful dive sites in the Philippines. From the south East of Visayas, we've been sailing all the way to Bohol, Apo Island, then we reached the wild and breathtaking Cagayans Islands and the fabulous marine park of Tubbataha.
After the departure from Cebu, our very first dive was at Oslob, nearby the Tan Awan beach in the Southern Visayas. As soon as we were in the water, we saw 6 or maybe 7 big Whale shares turning around us, trying to get the krill from the local fishermen. It was not deep, the whole dive was between 5m to 12m, and the water were warm (27C), the whale sharks came really close to the divers it was a nice experience.
Then we dived all the way from Sumilon, Balicasag, Apo Island, Masaplod P.T, Sipalay, Cagayans Islands, and finally reached our final destination - Tubbataha!
At Balicasag's dive sites "Black Forest" and "Rico's Wall", we spotted the school of jack fish, lots of turtles, nautilidae, black&white sea snake, flying gurnard, and the captivating frog fishes, was beautiful, everyone were happy!
The Apo Island would be the paradise for macro lovers, where full macro life hiding in the corals waiting for photographer to get some beautiful shots.
In Sipalay area, we did a wreck dive called "SS PANAY" it was sank in 1942, and i met a group of jellyfishes, they were nearly all around us, was super cool! Another dive site was the "Manta drop" where we made lots of turtle friends ;-) The last dive in Sipalay was at "Mad Max", the dive site itself was a fuel station, and there are lots of macro life : big warthy frogfish, scorpion fishes, pseudibiceros bedfordi, pseudibiceros goslineri, different kinds of chromodoris, glossodoris... with only small currents.
The Cagayans Islands (also called Calusa Islands) is a small wild archipelago, those islands are mostly primitives, the dive sites are remarkable, with deep walls and lots of pelagic (Manta rays, white tip reef shark, grey reef sharks, egale rays ...) passing by spectacular gorgonians walls, as well as the macro lifes which hiding between the corals.
When we reached Tubbataha, the really big stuff action were just began. And we were so amazed by the underwater world of Tubbataha, wild! Same feeling that we got in the Galapagos or Socorros, the big blue, the wildness, the pelagics ....
We spent together 3 days in Tubbataha and every single dive has brought us some surprises! At the dive site "Shark Airport", we saw schools of silky sharks (more than 20!) and alone with lots of grey reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, nurse sharks, school of yellow tail barracudas, napoleon wrasse, dogtooth tuna fish,`blue fin trevally and two hammerhead sharks!! And it was just the morning dive.
The second dive we were at "Wall Street" and white tip reef sharks are everywhere, the dive site "Black Rock" is full of soft and hard corals, different kinds of sharks are swam aside... was beautiful! The famous "Light house" is a beautiful staghorn coral garden itself with lots of things to see - both big stuff and macro life. "Delsan Wreck" was one of our favorite dive site during this trip, we saw a big whale shark down 35 meters deep, a huge group of tuna!! At the "Ko-Ok" site, we meet our two friendly guitar sharks and lots of black tip reef sharks, nurse sharks are around.
MV Seadoors is a beautiful liveaboard with nice deco, the cabin's size is big enough and equipped with very comfortable beds, the food were indeed delicious, especially the Philippines style chicken. And the common area were cozy, spacious, and always clean.
The crew were so so so nice, i would rate them all top 5! Especially the boat owner/dive guide/cruise director - Pierlo, he was one of the most experienced and knowledgeble divers we've ever met, with him on board, you will sure your trip will be safe and sound, full of surprises!! And Pierlo's girlfriend is mainly helping with the cursie organizing and making sure everyone is happy on board; the dive guide - Jonathan is a super good UW photographer, with him you will learn lots of UW photo ideas, he was alaways with a smile and happy to help. There is also another dive guide called Alex, he was very fun as well!
If you wanna know more about diving in Tubbataha, maybe you can also have a look at our partner's video from Seadoors on Seadoors:
Tubbataha Seadoors 2015 from Seadoors on Vimeo.
Dive and Cruise Team
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