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Dear Fellow Diver,
Tubbataha National Marine Park is a 374-square-mile
UNESCO World Heritage site in the Philippines' Sulu Sea.
In good weather, the journey aboard the Infiniti takes
10 or 11 hours. As we departed the wharf at 2:00 p.m.,
a crew member exclaimed, "It's going to be rough out
there," as he pointed at the distant whitecaps. It was,
unfortunately, 17 hours on rough seas. Nic, our cheery
guide, offered Bonine to prevent seasickness and to help
passengers sleep.
After dinner, we hit a vicious swell; cabinet doors
popped open, boxes of cookies and cans of beer and soda
flew out, as bottles of wine rolled around the floor. The
crew tied down the refrigerator doors and secured liquor
bottles set out for after-dinner drinks.
Bonine got me through the rolling, bumpy night, but
several divers were up all night praying to the porcelain
god. Some tried sleeping on the open decks to avoid
the confines of their cabins. Everyone still managed to
complete the 8:00 a.m. checkout dive the next morning.
The second night, the Infiniti, too large for the moorings,
constantly ran its engine, nosing into the swells.
Some passengers
still
had trouble
sleeping, and
some wished
they knew the
boat didn't
moor at night
before booking.
On the
third night,
the seas
calmed some,
and most passengers slept well. By the fourth
night, Infiniti's engines were finally
silenced, and the ship drifted,
leaving only the hum of a
generator and the soft lapping
of the sea against the
hull.
The remote marine
park comprises fringing
reefs; the south atoll has
a lighthouse; the north
atoll has a ranger station
on stilts and a helicopter
pad; and the Jessie Beazley Reef, a
small sandbar visible at low tide.
There is nowhere to hide from foul weather, so liveaboards make the 100-mile-plus
trip from March through May when sea conditions are likely the best. I traveled in
mid-March; I should have booked later.
Regardless, I felt quite safe aboard the 128-foot Infiniti, an unrestricted
navigation vessel with water-tight doors and extra-thick glass, built for scuba
diving by a scuba diver. The outside entry to my
berth had an additional water-tight door.
Our cruise director, Nic, who briefed us the
first night, said, with his dry humor, "If there
is an emergency, wake me. If your toilet is overflowing,
wake me. If the internet is out and you
miss your mommy, don't wake me." An approachable
guy, he encouraged us to raise any issues. The 22
guests were introduced to the 19 crew members, and
one diver asked if there were night dives. "We
don't night dive," Nic said. "There are a lot of
big predators. We want your dives to end with a big
smile and all your body parts."...
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