The joy of banca diving

The outrigger style banca boat is common throughout the Philippines; I love diving from these boats with their outriggers lashed together with fishing line keeping the narrow hull stable. Landing on Apo Island after the first dive, we took our lunch on the banca before heading over to wander the beach and look around the village.

Diving in Anilao, the surface interval saw us come ashore after landing on the back beach to walk around to the main beach on the island, the scenic locations surrounding the dive sites make for a great day out.

Cruising around Pandan Island, the beautiful clear waters of this remote island provide great sloping dive environments. The banca would drop us off at the site and we would swim back to the shore following the bottom topography.

A larger style banca at Sogod Bay, Leyte carries us across the bay to the walls, this larger style banca is pretty stable and very powerful. The locals take an old diesel engine from a truck that has been scraped and bolt it in the hull transmission and all, they connect the drive to the propeller shaft and they have propulsion.

This small banca doesn't offer a whole lot of shade protecting us from the beautiful Filipino summer days, we were crammed under the shade before getting back in the water.

Bancas are built for their environment; the small propeller and shaft is mounted almost perpendicular to the keel, the small rudder makes steering difficult, these boats can navigate extremely shallow water, an essential trait in these high tidal areas.