25th. March 2000

Written: Saturday, 25 March 2000

Hi all:

And here is all the news fit to print . . . .

* The Weather

Yet again I have to say that the last month has been rather strange - not typical at all. Over the period we've had three days of grey skies and overcast with occasional rain followed by five days of glorious sunshine and then back to the overcast. However we're in the middle of a patch of super weather now - flat calm seas, gentle breaths of wind and plenty of sunshine. Perfect for safaris.

* Activities

- There are a couple of Neptune safaris coming up, one on 2nd. April that is full and the other from 16th. to 20st. April which still has vacancies. Contact Neptune at for more information. At last we are getting to the time when the weather conditions are reliable enough for making enjoyable safaris.

- The last Neptune safari got back on Wednesday (22nd.) with some well-tanned/burned and satisfied divers. On one afternoon ride from Balicasag back to Liloan they had to stow all the gear below decks and dish out the seasick pills! Not so much fun while it lasted, but for the rest of the trip they had excellent weather, spending much time in the company of dolphins on the surface and barracuda underwater.

- Does anyone want to buy Pescador Island?? It's been up for sale on the Internet at US$260,000 since April '99. Have a look at http://www.land.net for details and see whether you would like to own your own private dive site . . . !

- Easter is coming and bookings have been made since Christmas or earlier. If want to come to Moalboal over the Easter period (basically 16th. - 29th. April) please try to book before you arrive. The better places are filling up quickly or are already full.

- The Buoy Project took delivery of 40 buoys and rubber lines last Sunday (thanks to Kris who organised the transport and to Thomy and Lars who unloaded most of them). These buoys were paid for by T.S.R. (a national Swiss TV company); thanks a million to them and to Roland Guisy who worked hard to persuade them to support this project. A new buoy was put on Sunken Island on Thursday (23rd.). This buoy is a complicated one because of its exposed position, the number of fishermen who use the area and the length of line that is needed to anchor the buoy. A lift bag has been put in place partway up the line to support some of the weight, but this is a temporary solution and the lift bag will be replaced by a proper buoy very soon. If you check out the latest print issue of Philippine Diver (web site at http://www.diver.com.ph) you will see a short item about the Buoy Project. For up-to-date details you may have a look at the Moalboal home page and follow the link at the bottom for "Environmental Projects". On a similar note, it was good to read Kalle's account of a dive on Pescador Island in the Cebu Sun.Star recently. Anything that keeps Moalboal in the public eye is to be applauded.

- Escapade Marine launched their liveaboard "Typee" a couple of days ago. Congratulations to Alain and Andy who worked very hard to do something that many believed to be impossible. Let's hope that the outfitting and finishing touches go well and that before too long we'll see real liveaboard trips offered by a local group. You may contact Escapade Marine at .

- As many of you will know, Regula and I will be closing Cakes & Connections at the end of April and returning to Switzerland. This will be quite difficult (especially for me since my German comprehension has never risen above that required by a retarded two year-old) but we will see what we will see. Regula has just told me that in Switzerland all the ladies have to wear long woollen underwear all year round to keep out the cold . . . . Say it ain't so Joe - I don't want to go!!!!!! Any Swiss reading *please* tell me that this is not true :)

* Births, social etc . . . .

- Pierre's foot is *still* infected and he's getting frustrated about not being able to dive. He also hasn't fully worked out how to enjoy milk shakes which are all he is drinking at the moment to allow the antibiotics to maybe work this time. Never mind, he's getting plenty of practice with his new catapult - dogs and cocks not allowed near the house!

- Edi has returned from his three week trip to northern Luzon and the rice terraces. He managed to fight off the mosquitos which tried to carry him away and enjoyed himself immensely. He has got straight back to dive mastering after being "dry" for most of the time he was away.

- Joris and Sabine have also just got back from a trip, to Malapasqua in the north of Cebu where unlike Edi they did some diving - Gato Island was very good they said; they saw Thresher and grey nurse sharks and loads of nudibranchs and other small stuff. Joris started two Open Water courses and an Advanced course the day after he returned so he was happy to earn some money after his holiday!

- Welcome back to Moalboal to Remy who had to spend the Christmas period in Switzerland earning enough money to pay for his time here. He's back in the water as well and enjoying the warmth and San Miguel.

* Internet

- Internet connections here appear to be fairly reliable now, though our average connection speed is around the 9,600bps mark. I'm not sure whether it's my imagination or not, but it does seem that the weather conditions affect speed - during our stormy patches connections feel slower and more unreliable - maybe when the wind blows away from the antenna in Moalboal things slow down!

- I've not made any significant changes to the Moalboal web site but continue to refine the HTML code to be neater - I can see the difference even if user's usually can't! I also try to keep the site as accurate as possible; if anyone notices any errors, please let me know and I will change them.

- Quo Vadis' web site is up - http://www.moalboal.com - and has some nice graphics.

- Savedra Dive Centre are in the process of changing their web site (http://www.savedra.com) so keep an eye on it for when the "new improved site" surfaces!

* General

If anyone has any information that they think would be interesting for people on this list, please do let me know and I will add it in.

You may check the list web site - http://moalboal.listbot.com - to have a look at the message archives for this list or to subscribe and unsubscribe from this list.

You will find some of this information repeated on the "What's New" page of the Moalboal web site. I try to update this page every week or so rather than the every four weeks of this list, so keep an eye on the page. You can mark it with web-monitoring software which will mail you when the page changes. We don't have any adverts on our site so if it changes, it's because information on or the layout of the page(s) have been changed, not because an advert has changed!

Best regards,

Simon Wright.