In August and September 2023 I did a three week long dive trip to the Philippines with my friend John. We spent the first week at Anilao staying at Buceo Anilao Dive Resort and the next two weeks at Sabang (Puerto Galera). A t Sabang, we stayed at Capt'n Greggs and dived with them as well.

There are a dozen or more dive sites located within 10 minutes run from Capt'n Greggs.

Unfortunately we had a Super Typhoon hit the northern Philippines when we were at Anilao and lost some days diving there. We were also delayed a day in getting to Sabang.

Sabang Point is under 500 metres north-east from the resort on the eastern side of Sabang Bay. A GPS mark for the starting spot for the dive site is 13° 31' 23.804"N 120° 58' 41.657"E (using WGS84 as the datum).

A satellite photo from Google Earth, Sabang Point is above "Tina's Reef Divers and" and the dive starts just north of this, depending on the current. Sabang Bay is at left.

We did this dive twice, once starting as above and the second time starting further to the east. One dive we drifted east, the other west, but covering the same ground.

If drifting to the east, you start this dive right by dropping to the bottom at 22 metres and then heading east and a little deeper to 24 metres. There was a slight current. The bottom was sand with coral pieces and some small coral outcrops. You can go to about 27 metres and still see lots of interesting things.

One of the deeper turtles	A close-up of the other deeper turtle
A pufferfish	A porcupinefish

On both dives here, in the deeper section we saw a turtle. I only got a photograph of it on one dive, so not sure if it was the same one. The one I did get had a remora on its back and the shell was very clean. There were also a huge pufferfish and a porcupinefish in this area. There were also a lot of garden eels in the deeper section.

On both dives, after a while we go shallower and the current actually changes direction, so we drift that way for the rest of the dive. There is a lot more coral once you get to about 18 metres. There are lots of nudibranchs, a few egg cowries, some flatworms and lots of tropical fish.

A longnose butterflyfish	A mantis shrimp on the prowl
Another species of butterflyfish	An egg cowrie

We also see an anemone with one of the tiny white pipefish like we saw a few days ago at a different spot. It is impossible to get a photograph of it. We also see some octopus, lionfish and more nudibranchs. In one small overhang there is a plaque to a dead Korean diver. I think I saw three or four such plaques on my trip, I cannot believe that so many die here!

A very colourful flatworm	An ocellate phylllidia - Phyllidia ocellat

We spend a fair bit of time at 15 metres before going up to five metres for our safety stop. Here we see a school of large silver fish (no idea what species) and on both dives, another turtle. It is quite nice in this area.

This was another good dive. Water temperature was 29°C in September. The visibility was about 15 metres.

MORE PHOTOS

A photo of a tiny white pipefish, but taken at Olympic Point, Anilao	A poor photo of some garden eels
Nudibranch	Nudibranch
Nudibranch	Yet another plaque to a dead Korean diver