25th September - anniversary of Japanese shipwrecks - Coron (Busuanga, Philippines)

Thursday 25^th September

Yesterday we sat on the deck in the morning and listened to much drumming.  We could see red uniforms, and banners twirling.  It went on for hours!

When we went in to shore I asked my Fount Of Knowledge, Dolores, and she said it was the birthday of the wrecks.  And indeed it was a big celebration of 24^th September 1944, 70 years ago, when at least ten Japanese ships were bombed to smithereens by the allies.  Thereby making a whole lot of very interesting dive wrecks… And all very sad…all those lives lost, all that terror.

On the whiteboard at Seadive

We had lunch at Seadive again today, in a heavy downpour.  The white cat was very happy…

We went past our dive boat - Josie Boat - on our way back out to 2XS yesterday afternoon.  (Please note the little boxy structure at the back…It is the CR – Closet Room.  A small toilet, carefully built out over the open water.)

One of the VERY nice things about paying to go on a diving adventure is…OTHER people clean up after you!  When we came back in at 5.30 on Tuesday evening, we were very tired.  As, I am sure, were Josh, Toby, and our fearless skipper.  They dropped us off at the dinghy and we waved goodbye, and sped off to 2XS.  They had to lug all of the oxygen tanks (HEAVY!) onto their big dinghy, then onto the deck, then into the dive club, to be re-filled   Plus our crates of gear - BCBs, flippers, wetsuits.  All needing rinsing and drying and rearranging.  SO glad we didn’t have to do all of this… When I did my dive course (winter 2010, Tasmania,) part of the instruction involved looking after your own gear.  So we would come back from our diving lesson frozen and exhausted and slightly frazzled (well I was, not so sure about the young lads who were doing the course alongside me…) and there was no blithely skipping off home.  Oh no.  Cold salty wetsuits had to be rinsed in big tanks of cold water flippers, masks, BCBs all had to be checked, cleaned, rearranged.  Totally … exhausting…

Today we are going for a daytrip, out to one of the reefs close by.  Leftover lasagna for lunch, a bit of a frolic with the fishies and the coral, a bit of R & R.  For once, in our travels, we do not need to rush about.  We are not racing back down to Kudat (Malaysia,) against the wind and the waves.  (And the pirates…)  Instead we have found a lovely safe place for 2XS to wait for us, from October till January.  And we can spend some time between now and 14^th October…NOT rushing!

wet boat people