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2010 Borneo

Day 7 – Sipadan Island (for Scott), R&R for Tracy

 

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Due to the stomach bug going around Scott managed to get one of the prized spare spots on another dive to Sipadan which is great news, so he was up bright and early and every excited to be heading over there.  My option was to go to Seamel which is a 40 minute boat ride for 3 dives and a bbq on an island, which I decided to give a miss and walked around the island with some of the other people who didn’t go.  The island is basically several resorts and then villages that provide the local labor etc for the resorts. 

Some of these villages are just spotless, even the sand under the houses has been swept.  I then had a leisurely swim. 

The resort pool
The resort pool

 

Dive 1:  Mid Reef, Sipadan:  Dived with Toby as Tracy was having a day off diving with a cracking headache.  The trip over to Sipadan was uneventful, but all the divers talked up their previous experiences here.  I only did one dive the other day here because I was ill, so I have my hopes set high for today.  The dive crew today were not as good as the ones I have been privileged to whilst at Borneo Divers (Leanah and Ben). 

Before going for lunch which was followed by a 90 minute all over pummelling (body massage).  For me it was a great relaxing day and my headache also cleared which is probably because I am not used to the amount of diving we are doing.   

The DMs just sort of hung around and let us discover all of our own interesting tid-bits instead of pointing them out for us; needless to say that I didn’t see many small things on the wall, but did manage to see some larger marine-life, turtles, white-tip sharks, massive fan corals etc. 

Beatiful lace coral fans
Beatiful lace coral fans

 

Dive 2:  Drop Off, Sipadan:  After a surface interval on the island, we headed a few hundred metres offshore to the “Drop Off”, another wall dive where the reef plateau drops straight down to over 600m. 

We started the dive going deep, but there wasn’t a lot down there, so Toby and I came shallow and spent the majority of the dive in the light of the shallows.  At times we felt like we were swimming in someone’s tropical aquarium, and like always, my photography skills do not do the site any justice.  But was the site all that it was hyped to be?  Probably not.  The lack of leadership from the DMs, the reduced visibility and being limited to 50 minutes bottom time all detracted from what should have been a more enjoyable dive.

We entered the water and descended directly into the entrance to Turtle Cave.  We poked our noses in to read the sign posted there — that you will probably die if you proceed further into the cave. 

Enter at your own risk
Enter at your own risk

We turned around and ascended again, there is not a lot to look at, at depth on these walls, or at least not that I could see, and without the DMs pointing out items of interest, we were basically left to our own devices again.

 

I love these corals
I love these corals

At the shallower depths we saw the usual suspects of Sipadan; turtles, sharks and massive arrays of small and large colourful fishes.  At the very end of the dive, a swarm of Skipjack Trevally tornadoed right overhead.  Even in the shallows, I was able to get underneath the swirling mass and get some piccies, the fish were hardly concerned with me being there just a few centimeters away. 

 

As we were surfacing, my dive buddy very nearly had a collision with a snorkeller overhead; not that he would have minded! 🙂

 

Dive 3:  Barracuda Point:  Over the surface interval lunch break on the island, everyone continued to talk this dive site up.  Tracy dived here a few days ago and said it was “OK” but wasn’t as thrilled with it as a site as some of the people today.  Anyway, we’ll see how it turns out.  After lunch, we headed out to the dive site and went through the usual routines to actually get into the water.  We descended into the current and drifted deep along the wall until we approached the “point” at which time we started flying across the shallower parts of the reef.  The current was very strong, however later, some of the divers who were here previously said the current was stronger then, and my dog is blacker!  It was very hard to do much in the current other than fly along with it.  You couldn’t take too many photos because as soon as you saw something of interest, you were already down stream of it and had to swim hard to get back to the spot.  If you managed to get back, then you had to hang on hard with just one or two fingers on the coral to stay in position, then you had to somehow hold the camera steady with the other hand.  I just gave up trying to photograph and enjoyed watching the coral reef just a few feet below as we flew over the top.  After a while we reached the spot where the barracuda were supposed to be, and they were there, for just a few moments and then they took off into the current, probably to get away from us!  Again, with all the pre-dive hype, I was a bit disappointed, but still thoroughly enjoyed the drifting!

Dive 4:  West Reef, Sipadan:  Last dive of the day!  And thank goodness for that too as I think I can feel the start of a cold coming on; I have a touch of blocked nose and I was to find out later this would lead me to troubles with clearing my ears.  Another dive where staying shallower paid dividends.  On the changing (outgoing) tide the turtles were coming into the wall to rest in the ledges, caves and shelves. 

Turtles - magnificent
Turtles - magnificent

 

A few sharks decided they would also move so basically there was movement everywhere you looked. 

 

Too many fish
Too many fish

 

Big fish, small fish, corals, fans, turtles, sharks… it just goes on.  My dive buddy (Toby) and I just pottered along at our pace again and were “supervised” by the DM who just hung in the water in the vicinity of us and seemed to be asleep for the majority of the dive.  The only real interaction we had was when our dive time limit of 50 minutes was up and he signalled for us to surface. 

 

The fish are so colourful
The fish are so colourful
So what did I think of Sipadan?  Well, it certainly wasn’t up to the standards that so many had spruiked, but it is an awesome region and I would love to come here again with a good crew who can point out so many more points of interest that just get lost in the colour and movement.  Luckily, that will be in just a couple of days time; I hope I don’t get sick and miss another opportunity.