Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Got a text message from my Dad yesterday asking for an email describing
the diving, the food, my accommodation etc.... I thought "Hang on a
sec... SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG!!" Nice one Dad :)
The Recalcitrant's Corner
A stay at Vasco's Resort and Museum is not complete without an evening
spent in the 'Recalcitrant's Corner' of Vasco's Restaurant, the closest
experience I've come to feeling like a retired and vintage pirate.
Between Brian 'the legend' Homan, his partner in crime Michael, and the
usual suspects who frequent the long table in the back corner, I take it
upon myself to unravel the scrambled soiree that is Brian's amazing
lifetime of deep-sea discoveries, wreck diving, salvaging, and backyard
engineering. As Lonely Planet (2009) warns, "don't try to match Brian
(or the crew) drink for drink".....ever!
One evening with many more to come has left me with a mishmash of epic tales that I will not doubt piece together in due time:
-Brian attributes bashing a priest at the age of 13 with his
eventually settlement in the Philippines, at the age of 17 he was
stranded on an island for 3 weeks with nothing but a rifle and a spear
gun, then bailed out of Long Bay gaol on his 18th birthday. Sailed into
Puerto Galera on a Spanish Galleon in 1978, 3 months after the US Navy allegedly left,
lost his nearest and dearest ship in a horrendous storm, turned another
into my future living quarters and with only $500 to his name, salvaged
a wrecked FedEx aeroplane, sunk it in front of what is now the Vasco's
restaurant and used the money to build this remarkably unique Pirates of
the Carribean-esque experience.
Many an Australian is brandished
in history class with the disappearance of our then Prime Minister
Harold Holt, out for a swim in 1967 and never came home. It is worth the
trip to Subic just to ask Brian of his most probable theory on the
mystery.... My telling you here could quite possibly lead to my own
disappearance. And I do a lot of swimming!
Brian has had his experiences of salvaging his first wreck published
in the March 2011 issue of Active Boating and Watersports magazine. The
blue and white chinese pottery he describes below is some of what was discovered in
passage to a harbour on the northern coast of Mindoro. Below,
Brian explains the freaky coincidence behind salvaging nothing but blue
painted, dragon-inspired Chinese pottery on his first wreck discovery in
Mindoro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiZ-l_w9LF4
Wreck diving may be at it's epitomy here in Subic, but the real story is
Brian, and, beer by beer.... I am slowly uncovering the stories.
- comments