Wrecks, wrecks and wrecks

Getting started going of in the morning - just sailing for 1½ hour.

In Coron diving is king. There are people going there without diving but it all evolves around diving. When you talk to divers on the other side of the globe about there experience in diving - especially wrecks - you may just meet somebody telling you. Well I have dived the wrecks at Coron. The wrecks here are the main thing when it comes to wreck diving in the Philippines - one of the most famous dive spots in a country where diving is everywhere to be found.

And I am here for the diving. Actually if it had not been for the wrecks at Coron I just might not have gone to Palawan in the first place. I even abstained from diving the corals around El Nido to save my money to go diving at the real deal the best diving in the Philippines.

The wrecks are from recent history - the Second World War. In 1944 the war in the Pacific did not go the way the Japanese wanted and the Americans had bomb most of the Japanese navy in Manila Bay. Therefore the Japanese navy wanted to anchor a place where they would be out of reach from the US bombers. They decided the islands of Busunga and the small islands to the south of it would be a perfect spot. So just outside Coron they anchored a group of 24 ships. In the morning of the 24th September 1944 the US navy launches the longest air strike until then from aircraft carriers. The planes left from 550ks away to strike at the Japanese navy - and they did and sunk the ships.

The wrecks are at different depths some are so deep that going there will involve some techdiving which is not for me. But many of the wrecks is at around 30 feet which put them in reach of ordinary diving with just an advanced open water certificate - so here I go of diving the wrecks.

The dive shop is what the resort I am staying at is all about. And they are pretty professional all the dive masters and instructors at the place got a incredible number of dives on the wrecks - several of them got 2.

The supply boat coming out with our lunch

At the breakfast table there are some people who look a bit like they are going diving. They all talk about nitrox diving and seems to be doing a nitrox course - and sure they are the rest of the guest on the boat - naturally there is a Dane as well - you really cant get away from those people in this part of the world. Well we take of and got two dive masters onboard - one going with the nitrox divers and one goes with the ordinary compressed air divers - which are just me.

The wrecks are not straight in front of the resort we actually need to sail a bit along the small islands just of the coast of Coron - this does not really bother me because it is a very nice little sail.

On the boat there is a bit of entertainment. We got a German onboard and he got the most incredible underwater photo gear I have ever seen. This is some professional stuff it probably cost the same as a car - the only question is what kind of car. He got huge flashes and an unknown number of different lenses for his two cameras. He spends the entire time we are on the boat setting up his gear and debating which lens to put on the camera - it is a spectacle to look at.

Then finally we get to the first wreck an old Japanese cargo boat which still got some of the old cargo onboard. We go down to the wreck - and I hate it.

We go down to the wreck and the visibility is poor only around 5-7 meters maybe even less. And sure we go in the wreck swim through the narrow passages and look at the remains of the cargo. It is good fun and a bit technically challenging to go through the narrows at times but this is not really what I like when I go diving I realize. I like to see fish and colourful corals.

At many wrecks you will see them turned into a new reef with lots of life on it. At many dive areas around the globe you will even sink a ship to create a new artificial reef to make more business. And in just a few years these wrecks will usually be teeming with life. But this wreck has been in the water for more than sixty years - and there are hardly any corals on it at all and no fish to speak of.

The next two wrecks are a bit more interesting but I still think I will cut my stay at Coron short of my initial plans and try to make my way to Mindoro in the next couple of days. At Mindoro you can go to - Apo reef the best reef in the Philippines - ok actually the best reef is supposed to be Tubbataha reef but you can not get there this time of the year so it does not count. The main problem with Apo reef is it is expensive and difficult to get to - you need somebody to help share the expense of a boat. Got to work on this bit later.