Balay Reef

The dive opens over coral garden rather than on the lip: hard and soft coral in good condition, with the ground running out from the shallows before the edge appears. From there the wall takes over, topping out around 5 m and falling to something like 60, and the drop runs roughly a hundred metres parallel to the shore, which is a long enough stretch to make one pass in one direction the whole dive.

The face is covered — large gorgonian sea fans standing well out from it, barrel sponges wedged between them, and hard and soft coral over everything else — and it is cut with small caves and overhangs to look into as you pass. Working it slowly turns up frogfish in the sponges and nudibranchs through the coral, while reef fish hold along the face and the occasional Napoleon wrasse comes past off the wall.

As with Cabilao's other drops, the number that matters is the one you agree on the boat. Sixty metres is where the wall ends, not where the dive should, and there is nothing on the face to stop a slow slide deeper while you are looking at fans. Plan a maximum, keep the coral garden in reserve for the shallow end of the dive, and finish over it.