December 12, 2012: Had to celebrate this momentous day (12-12-12) with another plunge into the Subic Soup with Sachi.

Today’s dive sites included the LST (Landing Ship, Tank) and the USS New York. The wind was up, making it quite a different ride out to the sites compared to last month. It was a lot choppier.

This time, I brought along a working camera. Since the underwater housing hadn’t been proven leak proof yet, for the first dive, I left the camera on the boat and filled the housing with tissue paper. And what a shame. The LST is a deep dive, but the visibility was good and there was good light even at 100 feet. There were eagle rays and juvenile barracudas and lots of other interesting stuff.

Between dives, two of the crew jumped in and harvested a basketful of green lipped mussels. Lunch!

With the Sony camera now tucked safely into the Ikelite housing, we made the descent on the USS New York. This site is close in to the harbour and the visibility was a lot murkier. The real Subic Soup.

I learned pretty quickly that this camera needs a strobe. The lens on the housing blocks the little flash, meaning only the top left corner of each photo is lit. So I turned off the flash and took a few pictures anyway. Award winning they are not. But despite the lack of colour at depth, the murk and the novice behind the lens, I was pretty happy with how these initial shots turned out.