Snorkelling a Wreck

A mindblowing experience

At our first snorkelling spot, I swam over a grassy, sandy bottom with a few orange starfish heading towards the beach thinking this was a bit of a fizzer as far as snorkelling goes.

Suddenly, I saw why we had stopped here. The wreck of a Spanish galleon? My imagination kicked into overdrive as it does when I’m snorkelling. The Philippines was colonised by Spain back in the 1500s.

The wreck was covered with the most beautiful and the widest variety of coral I’d seen so far — brain coral, staghorn, fern coral in all different colours, and a weird hollow purple and yellow cylinder clinging onto the coral. Such a weird-looking creature.

When we climbed back on the boat, we were told it was a dragonfish. Not knowing anything about fish, I had to believe them. We also found out it wasn’t a Spanish galleon but a cargo ship that was wrecked in 1946 — after the war. It was difficult to understand that so much coral and marine life had grown in less than 80 years!

Forty minutes later, we reached our next snorkelling spot. I stayed aboard had had morning tea. I didn’t think there could be another spot as beautiful as the wreck. Stacey went in though and agreed with me. The climb back into the boat is definitely the most challenging part of this adventure for me.

We were invited to go for a swim to cool off while lunch was prepared. I dived into the deep water and stayed in the shade of the boat — the sun was fierce. I tried to haul myself aboard unsuccessfully. Olie had to come rescue me. I hate being so useless and am determined I’m going to climb up that bloody ladder unassisted by the end of this trip.

Lunch was amazing - again! Chef explained what the Filipino name was for each of the dishes but I cannot remember any of them. There were fish steaks in a sauce, karrage chicken, bean and carrot fritters (my favourite), pumpkin in a yummy sauce, coleslaw with cucumber and apple but no cabbage, and of course, a fancy fruit platter — pineapple, mangoes and oranges all carved into marvellous shapes.

No sooner had we finished lunch than it was time for another snorkel — this time a huge reef with many bommies. I love snorkelling along the reef dropoff. This is when I wish I’d mastered scuba. I spotted 6 blue starfish — the most Id seen on the trip so far. This starfish is the most common one around Vanuatu and Fijian islands - they are everywhere!

Back to the boat —arggh — massive fail. Two of the crew tried to help but they weren’t as strong as Olie. I fell back in. Afternoon tea was served which gave me the extra oomph I needed along with Stacey’s help and encouragement. “You can do it. Your legs are getting stronger!”

Afternoon tea was purple cookies with a cooked banana filling. Someone joked it was the leftover birthday cake from last night, but no one cared — they were delicious. More snorkelling. I’m not going to miss this one.

After a walk around the village checking out the handmade crafts, we headed to our camp for the night. Our camp tonight immediately looks more appealing than last night’s. It’s a flat sandy area not a rocky hillside!

Stacey and I were given separate huts again as she’s still not well but feeling better. We sat playing cards at the huge dinner table when I started to feel nauseous. I thought I’d go lay down in my gorgeous hut. I didn’t make it. Maybe I overdid the snorkelling or more likely, the climbing into the boat. Stacey had found me an old bucket which was just as well. I couldn’t stop. Finally I sucked on an ondansetron which I had prescribed by my doctor for this specific scenario.

Just the smell of dinner cooking made me feel nauseous so I skipped dinner and fanned myself to sleep. I didn’t sleep well. I was running to the toilet all night. At dawn, on my nth run to the loo, I tripped on the only rock on the sandy beach and fell face forward in the sand. Of course, I grazed my knee and it immediately started bleeding. I lay not knowing if I should laugh or cry and hoping like hell my bowel didn’t explode. How embarrassing would that have been. Someone helped me up and I hobbled to the loo.

As long as I lay in my bed and didn’t move, I was ok. I begged to be left here in my misery, but I had to get on the boat as they would not be coming back this way. I won’t go into details but every time we stopped, I got into the water and swam away from the other snorkellers. I was popular with the fish, but not the sharks. I didn’t go snorkelling or cliff diving for the rest of the day. I sipped water and took both medications.

I fanned myself to sleep. I cannot tell you how hot and humid it was in those open air huts but I slept all night regardless. I did not stir even though there was a torrential downpour during the night which saturated all my gear on the verandah. Last day tomorrow!

Here’s the first day of my island hopping boat trip.

Here’s Katie Sea’s very exciting underwater adventure.

It’s official. Anne Bonfert has done it all- even the one thing that terrified her!