Philippines Aggressor II

Philippines Aggressor II is a steel yacht built in 2024, 43 metres (140 feet) long. The hull carries her name in large letters and, below it, the second name she sails under the Philippine flag: M/Y ALMAROON EXPLORER. Twenty-six guests, thirteen staterooms, a crew of fifteen, a cruising speed of 8 knots and 220 V on board.

She is not the same vessel as Philippines Aggressor. The brand runs two hulls in the Philippines and mixing them up is expensive: the first is 41 metres with 24 guests in twelve staterooms, and it is that one — not this one — that dives the Coron wrecks and runs the long Coron–Batangas passage. The second yacht never goes there. Her work is the Visayas out of Cebu and Tubbataha Reefs National Park out of Puerto Princesa, plus two seasonal repositioning trips between those two bases.

Staterooms sit on two decks. Eight Deluxe cabins on the lower deck have port holes and two single beds side by side (in cabins 3–8 they combine into a king). Five Balcony Suites on the upper deck have a panoramic window and a private balcony, and are noticeably larger. Every cabin has individual climate control, an en-suite bathroom with shower, a safe, a hair dryer and a monitor with a media player. The main deck holds the restaurant, the lounge and the dive deck with its platform; the upper deck an open-air lounge; the top deck a sun deck with a hot tub, bar, grill and shaded loungers.

All diving is from the two tenders — nothing is done off the yacht itself. A week in Tubbataha gives 20 dives; the Visayas give 20–22 over seven nights and 25–27 over ten; the repositioning trips give 27–30. Night dives run in the Visayas; in Tubbataha the park itself forbids them. Tanks are 12 L with convertible K/DIN valves, so no adapter is needed — rare even inside this fleet. An SMB with a reel is mandatory: most of the diving is drift diving and you surface away from the yacht.

Tubbataha has a short season, from early March to early July, because the Sulu Sea is unworkable the rest of the year. It is a UNESCO site with its own rules: no night diving, a 12–15 hour crossing from Puerto Princesa, and a park fee paid on board. The operator fills the remaining months with the Visayas. From mid-August to the end of September the yacht stands down every year — those weeks are marked as non-operating in the operator’s own plan.

Logistics differ by route. For the Visayas you fly into Cebu (CEB), an international airport ten minutes from Cebu Yacht Club with direct flights from Asia and the Middle East. For Tubbataha you need a domestic flight to Puerto Princesa (PPS) via Manila or Cebu; the port is fifteen minutes from the airport. The operator strongly recommends arriving a day early: land after 5 pm on boarding day and the group transfer has gone.

Berths are sold individually — a solo guest shares a cabin with a same-sex traveller, and the booking system shows exactly which berth is open to whom. The whole yacht goes under a group contract with a $1,500 deposit; on this vessel the operator gives three free places for 23 paid and two for 11.