Categories
2010 Borneo

Day 8 – Mabul

Thursday, 20 May 2010

Another sunny and hot day, can’t really complain though as the water is also like glass, not a ripple and I am not even going to take a sea sickness tablet today. 

Dive 1:  Lobster Wall, Mabul:  Scott’s second dive on this site, but Tracy’s first due to equipment failure earlier in the trip, so she was looking forward to finally getting there.  This time the current is much stronger than last time so this is much more of a drift dive.  There were strong thermoclines too, making visibility “wavy” or at least a little blurry 🙂  One the wall were the usual gammut of nudibranchs (I am getting better at spotting these and have started playing with some of the macro settings on the camera to see if I can get some better shots), octopus, crocodile fish etc. 

Nudibrachs
Nudibrachs

 

I found one lobster (rather small compared to the Western Rock Lobster, but larger than a big prawn) who wasn’t very keen on having its photo taken.  I assume once there more of these which is how the wall got its name?

Spotthe Pygmi Seahorse
Spot the Pygmi Seahorse

Dive 2:  Sea Venture, Mabul:  Scott’s second dive on this site (Tracy gave it a miss and went for a walk and a swim), although this time the current is much weaker than before, almost non-existent.  The visibility was about the same at around 10m.  Allegedly this spot gets some awesome vis, but we are yet to see it!  Tracy was having a break so I dived with Leslie, who isn’t part of the Perth SCUBA Crew but is just staying at the resort (her husband has succumbed to the gastro bug).  We descended away from where we had been previously, and found more “rubbish” collection disguised as artificial reef structures.  Again, I know I am repeating myself, but there has to be some demarcation between dumping rubbish and creating habitat. 

Rubbish or Artificial Reef?
Rubbish or Artificial Reef?

 

Becoming a Nudi fan
Becoming a Nudi fan

We saw a very large cuttlefish out in the open, much to its chagrin as it was photographed from all sides before eventually having enough and meandering away.  I spotted some more nudibranchs, some were also out in the open so were easier to spot, but some were tucked away and I still managed to find them (sheer luck of course). 

 

Underneath the rig were the usual host of crocodile fish and scorpion fish, so had to be very careful as you touched the bottom not to encounter any of these sorts of nasties. 
Each of the divers was happy doing their own thing under the watchful eyes of our DMs, when something odd happened — our boat driver had jumped over the side and swum on a single breath down to the bottom (at 15m), snuck up on DM Ben and tried to surreptitiously turn of his air, as a joke of course!  Ben felt something tugging at his cylinder, so the attempt was unsuccessful, but it was quite strange to see in amongst all the scuba divers someone with no mask, fins, or cylinder, nothing except a pair of shorts swimming around amongst us! 
Nearing the end of the dive we ascended for the required safety stop of 3 minutes at 5 metres.  I don’t know if someone was having troubles, went into decompression or what, but we hung there for ages?? (In fact it was only eight minutes, but it seems like forever when you’re just floating in mid water)  (There was a rope at the stop, but too many people were pulling and tugging on it to be comfortable so I just hovered away from the line.)  Oh well, better to be safe than sorry.  All in all, an enjoyable dive.

Can't get used to the colours
Can't get used to the colours

 

Dive 3:  Kapalai:  Scott had already done this dive, but I hadn’t so was looking forward to it as it got rave reviews from him last time.  The resort is an over-water resort located on a sand bank island.  We descended with another boat of divers (this can be annoying as it is hard to see who is who).  I didn’t think the visibility was very good, but there is a plethora of clown fish down here so they are great fun to watch.  We followed the reef for a little while before moving over to the wrecks when two almighty huge bangs were heard underwater, not sure what they were but certainly got the heart racing and the DMs regrouped everyone to make sure we were okay, as it turned out later it was the Indonesians doing some dynamite fishing nearby.  I did however manage to also see a tiny seahorse which is rare. 

I promise it isn't a twig
I promise it is no a twig

I spent most of the time at the top of the wrecks looking as the corals and other little creatures that were up there as below it was a bit silty.  There was a bit of current which made swimming against it hard and I used up a fair bit of air quickly, but wasn’t unhappy to finish the dive as the photography was hard with all the disturbance in the water and Scott is having problems equalising as he has a cold, so we surfaced and boarded the boat before heading in.

 

 

 

Clown Fish heaven
Clown Fish heaven

After the diving we went for a walk to the nearest resort and bought a t-shirt.  We are feeling very bereft of dive t-shirts compared to everyone else, although we have also to be aware anything we buy here we have to lug around the island, so won’t be buying a pile of them that’s for sure.