Surprise, Surprise!

19 August 2010
Coron Town to Uson Island
Busuanga, Palawan Philippines.

Uhhmm are there crocodiles here?

A month before our trip, we decided to load scuba gear “in case of emergency”, specifically in case our anchor gets entangled which rarely happens but when it does, can make or break a trip. I had my 20+ year old Conshelf IV regulator overhauled and a tank backpack set up (my BC was too dilapidated to repair and besides, I was a “macho” diver in college, diving recklessly without a BC), borrowed a tank, and stored all these at the very back of the storage area, sure that there would be no need for it. Well, as luck would have it, around 5pm of the first day of our trip, we realized we were anchored too near a reef and after several attempts at lifting the anchor, realized it was stuck at 60 feet. I am a certified divemaster, logged hundreds of dives in college, and have never been afraid of the water, but I must say I was scared at the idea of diving then- it was almost sunset, the water was very murky due to the mangroves, my antique albeit newly overhauled gear was untested, I had no BC, haven’t dived in 15+ years, yikes! But dive I did and a most unusual sight met me underwater. Our anchor was floating midwater entangled in a web of lines. I had to surface to fetch kitchen scissors which I used to cut our anchor free.

After the excitement though, we settled down amidst glassy water, mangroves and nothing but the sound of birds… and Mariel’s ukulele.

5 nautical miles from Coron town to the southern bay of Uson Island where we anchored off in a small beautiful uninhabited protected U-shaped lagoon, at 60 ft, mud bottom, gradual slope, watch out for shallows at entrance to lagoon.