Dive Review of
Atlantis Beach Resort in
Philippines/Mindoro

Caribbean, Fiji, Palau, Truk, Yap, Great Barrier,
Papau New Guinea, Majuro, Hawaii, Moorea, Bora Bora, Aitutaki.

Dive Conditions

One hour, signal 1500psi, signal 750psi, stay with the group/divemaster  

Although we did not take photos, many of group did.  We would help find
things for them, like eels, nudis, scorpionfish, lionfish, etc.  They
appreciated it.  

Overall Rating

Long flight from San Francisco, refuel at Guam, 16 hours in the air, 20
hours enroute.  Left at night, arrived 9:30am, lost a day over the
dateline.  Long, slow 3 hour bus ride to beach, loaded aboard a double
outrigger and 80 minutes later arrived at Sabang, Mindoro.  Low tide forced
a reloading into smaller boat to get to beach.

Nice facilities, rooms w/AC, good dive operation although we seldom got the
4 dives per day due to slowness of the operation and lateness by some of
our group members.  Our divemasters required a check dive that same
afternoon we arrived--we were dog tired with little sleep but we did just
fine.  Our divemaster, the next day, tended to swim ahead of us near the
end of the dive--no way to get her attention if one was low on air.  Spoke
to her after the dives that day (only 3) and suggested she stay closer to
the group.  She responded well and no problems after that--Ulrika is asmart
35 year old Swedish girl who only stood 5'1" but handled tanks with
the best of the men.

On a scale of 1-10 (ten being highest) we would rank the overall diving
site quality as a 3 when compared to the other places we have been diving
these past 18 years--we are in our young 60's although I had my first tanks
on in 1959 as a 15 year-old on Okinawa taking my scuba certification
courses.

We had a special one-day trip to Verde Island.  Due to boat engine
troubles, we had to change boats and arrived late.  The divesite is a lava
sea mount offshore from the island by about 2 miles.  We were briefed to
stay together and be aware of up/down wellings.  In many ways it reminded
us of Blue Corner in Palau two years ago.  One the second dive after lunch
they took us back to the same site.  Due to the choppiness of the water I
refused to dive that one as it looked too treacherous for safe diving. 
Ruth, my wife, went anyway.  The groups came back to the surface but were
separated.  There was a bad down welling and one of the divers had just
finished his 15ft safety stop with 500psi when he was caught and drug
downward.  One of the divemasters went after him and they finally got out
of the down welling but were now over 100ft down from the surface.  The
diver held onto the divemaster and use the octopus for air as he had
emptied his tank into his BC.  They divemaster's BC was fully inflated. 
They made a fast ascent to the surface but did stop at 30ft and 15ft.  They
were okay but it really shook up the group.  The third dive was cancelled
as it would only be worse conditions.  This was definitely a dive for only
experienced divers.  And even the experienced ones has second thoughts
about what had happened and whether they should have scrubbed themselves
from the dive.  Lesson learned.

Overall, the diving is okay but do not expect to see large fish or great
coral formations.  The boat ride to most of the divesites takes just 5-10
minutes so we did get to come back ashore after each dive.  Will we go back
there?  Probably never.  Many better places to go and so little time, even
though we are both retired 

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