Philippines – we had 9 divers in Dumaguete for the first week – muck diving, finding interesting critters, with two trips to Apo Island - an old club favorite with Blue Water diving. We stayed at a new place – Salaya Beach Houses - with excellent service and excellent and plentiful food.

We went back to Cebu City – by Ferry and Vans – and boarded the Philippian Aggressor – and went out to sea for 10 days…

We did see some exceptional animals – new to some of us – Thresher Sharks, Whale Sharks, Schooling Sardines, Mandarin Fish, Giant (and tiny) Frogfish, Seahorses galore…

We had some weather issues – a little more, a little worse, than expected: There was the expected typhoon 5-600 miles North of us; its track brushed the Northern tip of the Philippines and then went to Hong Kong (luckily two days before our flight home). The new thing was that the low pressure behind the typhoon sucked in a monsoon and the weather got more windy and more cloudy than expected…

(As I got home – and I went outside in the brutal Florida sun – I got a new appreciation for “cloudy”). Anyway, our boat/captain found calmer waters within our target area where we could still dive. We did a few exploratory dives – and found –unexpectedly – a pygmy sea horse – at 60 feet – on a dive site - new to the boat

In a later Newsletter we will add more details – and pictures

Nils