Visayas by fins and snorkels

CEBU STRAIT - It’s the crack of dawn and Barangay Tan-Awan in Oslob is at its busiest. Paddle boats sail in from every direction. Languages from all over the world mingle. The scent of bagoong is mixed in the sea breeze.

I join the action just in time. Traveling with the Discovery Fleet dive cruise, I get my own space in the sea away from the madding crowd. Gear on, briefed with safety precautions, I tumble backwards into the water.

And there she is. At least 25 feet of gray and white buoyant mass. Characterized by a flattened head and a blunt snout over its mouth, this baby whale shark is too consumed lapping up the bagoong cast into the water to even notice that we are face to face. Blue and yellow and yellowback fusiliers trail behind for leftovers. I float by in awe, made aware of my smallness, until a strong current harnessed by a whip of its tail down below snaps me out of it. I swim away to admire from a safe distance.

All aboard Discovery Fleet

Discovery Fleet is the Discovery Group’s dive cruise arm, an extension of its brand of hospitality known for Club Paradise Palawan and Discovery Shores Boracay to our country’s seas and all its thriving marine life.

Consistent with Discovery’s brand, all-around-guy Joel Cos, who goes by the official designation of supervisor, is never too far away, directing my attention to where the action’s at, teaching me about fishes and corals, and always there with fresh towels and drinks before I even ask. Joel loves what he does.

We are on one of the fleet’s two liveaboard pocket cruise ships, MV Palawan. They cruise to Apo Reef and Coron from January to March and Visayas from October to December. For this five-day Cebu route, MV Palawan disembarked from Mactan Yacht Club through the Cebu Strait, cruising overnight between destinations, first to Oslob and Sumilon, then Apo Island, and Cabilao.

At 50 meters long, MV Palawan has 20 cabins, comprised of 16 lower deck standard rooms and four upper deck rooms, all with air-conditioning and en-suite bathrooms, and outdoor and air conditioned areas for dining and socializing. Not to be confused with the decked-out, Las Vegas-esque interiors we’ve come to know of cruises, Discovery Fleet is spick and span, modern, newly renovated, and has all the essentials, including quality gear and equipment that you can borrow.

Now about those whale sharks...

I make like the whale sharks and head straight to the heavy breakfast buffet. While eating, I chat up Yvette Lee, Discovery Fleet’s VP for operations and director of marketing and media affairs, about the question that’s now on everyone’s heads. Being up close to the whale sharks, I can’t help but wonder if making a spectacle of them like this is causing them any harm. Oslob has been the whale shark’s feeding stop along their migratory path and has been open to tourists since 1998.

“They stay for a couple of days and move on. It doesn’t disrupt their feeding and migratory patterns. They haven’t seen whale sharks from Donsol,” she says to dispels our worries. Donsol in Sorsogon region also holds whale shark viewing, about 500 kilometers away from Oslob.

“Our earth is unbalanced because of manmade pressure either because of direct harvesting or habitat degradation. We’ve created marine sanctuaries so people won’t fish them and they can live a natural life without being predated by man. Feeding is one step further so they would stay.”

According to Yvette, feeding has been a success in the Grand Caymans and the Maldives where she has witnessed it with stingrays. “Around 6 p.m., hundreds of them come into the shallow area because there’s a guide who gives them fish scraps. Scientists have started taking their DNA and some of them are the offspring of the other stingrays that have come into the resort before to feed. Because they met each other there, they bred.”

She concludes, “Feeding is important because it hastens their growth. For the resorts that do it, the size of their marine inhabitants grow much faster to the size of sexual maturity. For them, it’s not their age but size. You want them to be mature and carry more eggs.”

Whale shark watching is seasonal, from November to June, but it sustainably improves the income of the town all year round in a way that hunting for consumption and export can’t, from generating jobs like guides and banca paddlers and opening up avenues to auxiliary services like firefly watching and island hopping as well as rejuvenating the local crafts industry for souvenirs.

MV Palawan transfers us straight to Sumilon while we eat lunch. Snorkeling over the reefs, I can’t believe it was once a cautionary tale. Sumilon was one of the world’s top dive sites in the ’70s to ’80s until local government lifted its marine sanctuary status and opened it for fishing and greed. Dynamite fishing turned it into a wasteland, until private ownership secured its recovery. It is now open only for tourism.

Making discoveries

Yoga is one of the Discovery Fleet activities. We’re doing it at the Sumilon sandbar as the sun sets. What’s the connection? “It helps with diving because, one, you practice breathing consistently,” says Dumaguete-based yogini Paola Betita, certified diver for three years. “When diving, you shouldn’t pause breathing. Two, if you’re in a situation you’re not used to, breathing immediately physically calms the body. Three, yoga is a practice of mindfulness that helps you become more present. You will gain a deeper appreciation of everything you see.” I do exactly that as I watch the changing colors of the sky while doing Savasana in the sand.

Back on MV Palawan, I am awakened by the sound of dolphins swimming by. It’s an experience unique to a liveaboard. I end my days in a daze, sipping any of the white wines aboard or one of Joel’s cocktail concoctions as bartender, either on the sundeck or the shaded bar on the topmost deck, talking and thinking about life or just looking at the stars. Sometimes, civilization twinkles up ahead in the islands we pass by. Some nights, the sea is smooth like glass, reflecting the full moon perfectly.

My mornings are slow. I never have to rush to allot travel time in my itinerary. Divers can get four dives a day while most resorts can only accommodate up to three, factoring in all the transfers and prep. Boat manager Colin Swerdfeger offers Discovery Intro Diving, a masterclass for beginners out in the sea, not a pool.

“There is definitely an advantage in learning under the very conditions you will be exposed to in the open ocean,” he says. Things like currents, walking backwards on irregular surfaces, walking while wearing your fins, and other stuff.

Throughout the day, he gets everyone moving with a wakeup call in singsong. We usually start our day with one big “Gooooood moooorning,” his baritone booming from the speakers.

In contrast to Sumilon, Apo Island is the first successful Filipino marine sanctuary in Dauin, so prolific in its fish life and coral coverage that it served as the centerpiece model at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The small island is home to a fishing village. A thick mangrove plantation flourishes on the other side of the island, breeding fish fit both for the fishing village residents’ consumption.

Joel leads me to swim next to marine turtles that are larger than my 5’3” frame. A lot of the fishes on Apo Island have reached their physical maturity. With fins on, I dare to keep up, swimming with them. The turtles are calm and unbothered by my presence — a sign of not being used to predators — as they feed leisurely, biting on vibrant corals that sway with the current, like grass in a meadow, until schools of jacks pass between us. Giant clams open and close sporadically. Starfishes of different colors scuttle across the sand. I swim deeper to admire the corals and Clark’s anemones, big and small, pop up from their home for an adorable welcome. At sundown, the complex volcano Mount Talinis watches over us as we sail to Discovery Fleet’s next surprise: a barbecue on the beach.

The first thing I do on our last stop Cabilao was to get a massage under the shade of a tree. The sea breeze puts me to sleep. It’s as if we are the only people on this beach; the madding crowd is over at popular neighbor Balicasag.

By the beach is a hut for local woven handicrafts made of bamboo and rattan. Next to it is a showcase of the shells and corals found in its surrounding waters. Energized, I go into the water to see them alive. Walls upon walls of living corals and reefs that other dive destinations can’t compare with. Its brilliance perfectly visible in the crystal clear sea, so vast and encompassing like a jungle underwater and I am but a speck, hovering over and around.

Sipping buko juice straight out of the shell, I chat up Yvette and Joel about their longtime passion for the seas. Yvette was so drawn to the ocean that she started diving in 1976 without lessons and got certified in 1979. She is also an underwater photographer who is kind enough to share her diving photos for this story. Joel is a hospitality veteran in Europe who found the perfect reason to come home: a job that feels like a vacation. They’ve been at this for years, yet they are still raring to go on that next dive, that next island, on this dive cruise where there are no ordinary days. And I can see why.

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Visit discoveryfleet.com for details.