Larry Memmott's Blog

July 17, 2008

Christina, Alexandra and I spent the day diving on Japanese World War II wrecks.  It was tremendous.  Unfortunately, someone failed to get us underwater cameras, so we have no photos.

As the U.S. Navy prepared for the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese, one mapping officer noticed that some of the small islands of the Calamian group seemed to be moving.  Realizing that they had discovered a camoflaged Japanese fleet, on September 24, 1944 carrier-based bombers attacked and sank some 24 Japanese ships.  We dove on three of these ships, a gunboat, an oil tanker, and an anti-submarine ship.

First, we dove on the Lusong Gunboat.  We went down to 18 meters (60 feet) for about 45 minutes.  We swam down the side of the gunboat and saw lots of sponges and soft corals, angelfish and pufferfish.

The second dive of the day was on the Okikawa Maru, an oil tanker.  I found this one especially exciting.  Our dive master was in the lead and I was in the rear.  My heart certainly started beating faster as I watched first Alexandra and then Christina disappear into the dark of the ship’s hull.  I could not see a thing as I followed them through the gap.  Of course, our eyes soon adjusted as we swam slowly through the propeller shaft and on up to the engine room.  This dive was a little deeper, about 22 meters (70 feet), and we were down for about 40 minutes.  We saw lots of coral and many fish here, including, most spectacularly (and dangerously) lots of lionfish.

The final dive of the day was on the submarine hunter, the East Tangat.  It is sitting quite close to the surface, and we dove down the side of it, to about 18 meters, again.  We stayed a little longer this time, though much of the time we were not very far down.  Here we saw two large sea turtles – very cool, and lots of other fish, including many more lionfish.

All in all, it was a tiring and entirely satisfying last day on the Calamian Islands.

Last Dinner at Dive Link Resort

Christina and Aliciya

This is one of my favorite photos from that day.

Alex and Christina Ready for Lunch

One thing Dive Link really did up big time was the lunches. They were full hot meals, even on the beach. A bit too much for me, really.

Relaxing

Aliciya Meets Another Vacationer

And the pig visiting Christina and Alexandra, too.

July 15, 2008

 Our second day of explorations in the Calamians took us to a protected zone for snorkeling and then to the hot springs on Busuanga Island.  First, we went to the Siete Pecados, or Siete Picados (perhaps the Filipino version of the Spanish Siete Pecados, which means Seven Sins).

Even Aliciya wanted to try out snorkeling

Everybody had a good time swimming around exploring the reef. 

Christina and Alexandra

All of us

William may be our champion snorkeler

In the afternoon we went to the Makinit Hot Springs for a short soak in the hot saltwater. It really is quite hot, and we did not last long in the water, but it was a very nice stop.

When we went back to Dive Link that afternoon, everybody spent some time picking over the sea shells that had been left on the shore as the tide receded. I caught Christina looking up at me from the beach below as I watched them from the Pier.

August 19, 2008

Two Beauties and a Few Flowers

My beautiful Tatyana celebrated her birthday (she’s 18, I think) on August 19. While I’m catching up with the new blog, I’ll put in a few photos from that day. We went out for Indian food to celebrate.

and me, too

We stayed at Dive Link Resort on Uson Island, a 20 minute banca boat ride from Coron Town on Busuanga.  Dive Link was pretty nice.  We had two cabins for the six of us, and the food was excellent and abundant (though it got somewhat repetitive eventually).  The resort has a swimming pool, but no beach.  The real advantage, though, is the location, as it is easy to get to all the fun places in the area from there.

Lake Kayangan

The day after we arrived, we went out on a day trip to swim in Lake Kayangan and picnic on a beach on Coron Island.  Lake Kayangan is a beautiful blue freshwater lake on the island of Coron.  You land your banca and hike up a steep, if short, trail, and right back down the other side of the ridge.  The hike is probably about 40 minutes, and I did it carrying Aliciya, so it can’t be too difficult.

Tanya and Aliciya trying out the water

As you can see, Kayangan really is a little piece of paradise, so it was a good start to our travels in the Calamians.  We spent probably about an hour swimming in the crystal clear waters and had a great time. 

Kids swimming

Kids Swimming

Aliciya Helping to Bury Alex

And Burying William

William Buried

Aliciya’s Turn: Christina and Aliciya as mermaids

OK, it was long ago time I began to blog.  And here I am at last.  I’ve decided to experiment with the blog as a way of organizing all of my online activities.  But the truth is, I don’t know how will it will work.  We’ll soon see.

One interesting question is how easy it will be to put up photos, since that is a priority.  Anyway, I’ll fool around with it for a while and see.

Memmott Family at Pagsanjan Falls