Malapascua 2012, Day 4

April 9, 2012

Unfortunately, I came down with a bit of a cold yesterday so I decided to sleep in and Eric went and did the shark dive with the rest of the group. They saw three or four thresher sharks and one of them circled around them for quite a while.

After he got back from the shark dive we had some breakfast and got ready for the next two dives of the day which were at Gato Island which was about an hour away.

The first dive at Gato was a cave/tunnel. We got in the water and dropped down and entered the mouth of the tunnel and headed toward the other end which opened into a cave where the sharks usually sleep and hang out. It was neat seeing the light shining into the tunnel silhouetting the sharks swimming around.

The current was trying its best to suck us out of the tunnel and into the open water. We all had to fight to stay in place to take pictures/video. After we swam out of the tunnel there was an area where the sharks sometimes rest/sleep. There were three or four sharks laying there. Eric crept up really slowly on his belly and got some good pictures. I took a vantage point above him and when they started swimming around one of them swam right at me as I was recording. I got some really good footage.

After we left the tunnel/cave area we swam around to the left and up along the wall.
We saw tons of clownfish. I bet every five feet there was an anemone with some type of clownfish/anemone fish in it. We also saw a very nice cuttlefish and several different nudibranchs.

After the first dive we got back on the boat to have our lunch and of course a nice Filipino rain shower moved in and lasted almost our entire hour plus surface interval. By the time we got back in the water for the second dive it had cleared off, of course.

The second dive was also at Gato but was just along the wall. There was a pretty good current most of the dive and we drifted along pretty good for a while. Right as we got in we saw a sea snake below us swimming off into the blue. The visibility was not the best for this dive but there was lots of colorful soft coral to see.

The dive guides here are really good. One of them is from Vermont and I can’t help but like her, her name is Shelagh (the traditional Irish spelling of Sheila). The captain of the boat confirmed that is the first time they have ever had two Sheilas on board the boat. She is an excellent dive guide and all around a lot of fun. She has been here at Evolution since October of last year. I told her I would leave her our solar shower when we leave since she has not had a hot shower since she got here--she was very excited.

The first day we got here I put out my solar shower and it got so hot I had to add a bunch more water to it to bring it to the point where I could attempt to use it. It felt really good though. The last two days it has clouded up and rained in the afternoon so it has not had a chance to get as hot, but still feels pretty good after a day of diving.

Eric and I were just commenting today we have not had a pair of shoes on since we got here. We walk everywhere barefoot. It is really nice.