At the top end of the big kidney-shaped peninsula on the west side of Cebu called Moalboal, to the north of White Beach is a site with a few different names, Umbrella, after the odd-shaped rocks, Copton, I have got no idea, or the plane wreck, yes it's a plane but not really a wreck.
The site is a little different to most in Moalboal, which are just wall dives, consisting of a coal fringe then a sandy slope from around 6m down to 20m ending in the usual wall which drops to about 50m. Most dive bangkas moor up to the buoys in about 8m so you roll in above the sandy slope. It is worth keeping an eye open as you follow the guide down to the plane as this is home to many small creatures, many different nudibranchs, mantis shrimp, and juvenile fish call this home.
The plane wreck is the body and wings of a LancAir a 2 seater kit aircraft that was being manufactured in Mactan that was donated and sunk by the Savedra dive centre a number of years ago. The plane is filled with old scuba tanks and sunk close to the edge of the wall and provides a great refuge for many small critters.
In the past, I have seen banded pipefish, cleaner shrimp, scorpionfish, and mantis shrimp among the tanks and cubby holes on the plane so its well worth getting a torch out and having a good look in the dark corners.
Check out the wings too porcelain crabs are often found in the anemones along with the usual anemone fish.
After spending some time on the plane you drop onto the wall and go left or right depending on the current. You won't go all the way down as it's too deep for recreational scuba but the wall has abundant fan and whip corals, some of the fan coral even have pigmy seahorse if you can find them they are tiny.
There are usually jacks and trevally chasing the small fish and with any dive in Moalboal, there will always be turtles.
After around 30m along the wall, you will usually start moving up into shallower water make your way back onto the plateaux and back towards the Bangka over the coral garden so that you don't start slipping into decompression diving. There is still lots to see in though, Umbrella is the only site in Moalboal that I have seen a small but deadly blue ring octopus.
There are always more nudibranch
and shrimps too see.
I hope you Hivers enjoyed diving the Umbrella dive site as much as I do.