Getting Back in the Water
- Richard Namikas
- 10 hours ago
- 6 min read
Coron, Philippines. Beautiful water. Lots of opportunities to snorkel and scuba dive. Since Ellie had an episode of cutaneous decompression sickness in Fakarava, neither of us had gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
Our friends on the ship knew how much we loved it and understood that Ellie could not dive until she had a leak in her heart fixed. I just had not because she is my dive buddy, and I hated the idea of enjoying it without her. After a little teasing and prodding from our friends on WhatsApp, I agreed to go diving with a dozen others from the ship.
Reiner had a friend with a boat in Coron. Well, not really a boat, a beautiful two level fifty foot catamaran yacht.
That being said, our first venture back into the water would be Ellie and me together. We had seen a poster with what looked like a manatee on it while we were walking along the road in town. There was a small office next to a grocery store where they booked excursions. This was the one that we were going to do. Snorkeling with dugongs, a cousin to the manatee, was a rare opportunity that we were not going to miss.
We were told that we would be picked up at 5:50 in the morning outside the dock entrance. Getting there on time was too early for our pickup as they arrived just at six o'clock. Unfortunately, while we were waiting, we saw a dog wandering the nearly empty streets when a small motorcycle came along. The driver swerved, not to miss the dog, but to try and hit it. Ellie stepped out into the street to yell at the driver and express her outrage at the intentional act. The dog went down and then got back up. It seemed to be limping a bit, but was on its way out of the street. Ellie likes dogs better than many people, and this did nothing to change that view.
The van arrived shortly thereafter, and we got onboard. Driving through the rest of the town, we gradually got a total of sixteen onto the tour. The van was a bit stuffy, and my afib had been more stubborn lately. I had taken medication to try to correct it after a nightlong episode, but my heartbeat was still jumpy. Once the van was full and we were about to start the hour-long drive to the boat, I got lightheaded and may have passed out for a moment. Ellie was concerned and asked if we should just go back to the ship. It was a reasonable suggestion, but I made the final call to just continue with our excursion.
By the time we got out of the van, I had one or two more attacks of getting lightheaded, but finally, my heartbeat was steady, and I was feeling fine.
We had a little snack of fresh sweet buns and small bananas under the tree on the beach with the outrigger boat waiting for us to board. Once aboard, we motored across smooth waters for about twenty minutes before pulling up to a small building on a rocky shore. This was not our destination. This was the ranger station for the nature preserve where the dugongs lived a protected existence.
Three guides boarded with us and explained the process to us. There were two dugongs living in this area, territorial males that they would allow us to get near. They strictly managed the number of people in the area. Only four of us were allowed into the water with a dugong at a time. We were limited to fifteen minutes near them, and we were absolutely not to touch them.
As we approached, we could see two other boats in the small bay. There was a small group of snorkelers swimming nearby. In the middle of that group, you briefly saw a large grey back rise to the surface and submerge again. They were tagging along with the one that liked to swim. His name is Pingas. The other one in the shallow water was more likely to just graze on the sea grass and move slowly along. His name is Aban. The boat in the shallows seemed to be focused on him.
Ellie and I were in group number three. We would be the group to go in after the first two. They were put in with their guides in the deeper water near Pingas, and we, eventually, were launched in the shallows nearer Aban. I was satisfied not to need to swim after my photo target. A nice close-up of a grazing sea cow was more than satisfying for me.
We floated at a distance, waiting for the group from the other boat to finish their fifteen minutes of fame, and then slowly swam up. The water was only about three meters deep with a mostly sandy bottom and patches of sea grass. It was the sea grass that this dugong was after. It may also be the reason that Aban was about twenty percent larger than Pingas.
We spent some time before and after our dugong encounter in the water, but the fifteen minutes so close to this giant softie were amazing. We were almost giddy.
Group number two had only spent about ten minutes with the Pingas, so the guide let them back in for another five minutes to get their full time with these rare animals.
We went from the nature preserve to another nearby island to have a little lunch and do a drift snorkel. The boat put us in the water and motored about five hundred meters down current. After about a half-hour of fish and coral and a friendly sea turtle, we drifted back to the boat for our return to civilization.
The next day was an early start on a rainy day that even flashed a bit of lightning. We were taken in a couple of vans to a floating dock where a zodiac was waiting to take us out to the catamaran that would be our limousine for the day. The dive boat would actually follow us from site to site with the tanks and gear that we would need for the day.
A dozen of us from the Odyssey were the beneficiaries of the connections of our fellow resident, Reiner. His friend had a wonderful boat that he used for a number of activities in the area, including scuba diving.
A spread of sandwiches, fruit, and coffee was waiting when we climbed to the second deck of the big boat. After a second round of zodiac transport from the dock, we were ready to start out just as the rain was lifting.
With Ellie out for the time being, Starr was my dive buddy for the day. I told her what had happened the day before, and we did what we were supposed to do: keep an eye on each other.
If time allowed, we would dive two WWII shipwrecks and one reef.
The Olympia Maru - Japanese freighter 122 meters long about twenty meters deep laying on it's side.
The Ekkai Maru - Japanese cargo vessel 100 meters long heavily encrusted in coral sitting upright.
Malpatong Reef - Colorful coral with lots of fish and some turtles.
I had never seen so many lionfish in one place.
The dive boat followed behind us and set up so that our group of Open Water divers could cross over to their boat to gear up, while the others received their tanks and such to gear up on the big catamaran. Each stop was followed by a surface interval to allow our bodies to expel the nitrogen from the dive, as well as feed our bodies some nice food and plenty of water.
It was great to be diving again. The freedom of flying through a world that has beautiful colors and strange life forms is as close as I think I will ever come to space. Thanks to my friends who knew a gentle nudge was in order to get me back out there.