A Philippine Siren Adventure
Cabilao Island was to be the first stop of our Philippines adventure as we would wend our way from Cebu to Tubbataha. The 14 divers of the Philippine Siren arrived into the Cebu yacht club by lunch time and got settled onto the liveaboard that would be their home for this 13-night dive safari as we weighed anchor and began our cruise to this small island off the coast of Bohol. A bright start to the next day and we were ready to hit the water eager in anticipation of all the great creatures we would see. From macro life we spotted many different varieties of pipe fish including bent stick, ornate and robust, as well as pygmy seahorses, giant and tiny frogfish, crustaceans and nudibranchs. All the small critters were there but also a few big schools of fusiliers, rainbow runners, batfish and colourful anthias… That’s a good start in our long trip!
Our guests arrived for the trip to 
Our excellent trip started on March 15th in the Puerto Princesa (Palawan) for our 14 days liveaboard cruise to Tubbataha National Marine Park followed by 
Not the usual party for a charter dive vessel - nine adults and six children, ranging from sixty two down to seven months and the majority related to each other, with widely different attitudes to timetables and leisure opportunities! So the crew didn't have the luxury, which I guess they usually do on a six day charter, of the first couple of days while the passengers got to know each other. We were completely at home, and the crew on guard within ten minutes.
