Diving Kapalai Day 4 (Mar. 31, 2015)

Mar. 31, 2015

I dived today, in Kapalai, and Mabul again. Though I’d been to the areas before, they took us to different sites within those areas. First I had breakfast which was fried eggs, chicken weiners, French Toast, two types of bread, and fruit. Oh, also baked beans, coffee, tea and juice. It was delicious as usual. 

Then I made my way down to the jetty to catch my boat. I was in yet another group today, composed of people I hadn’t met. There were a lot of people on the boat with a lot of photographers. It was ok, though, I dived with only two other people. Megan, an American girl teaching in Indonesia, in her early thirties, and Tim, in his late twenties. He lives in Australia, but is originally American. Both were nice. Our Dive Master was kind of lame though. He didn’t really keep track of our group, and on the first dive, Megan got a bit far behind, had a bad headache, was trying to attract his attention, but he was too far ahead, and didn’t hear her. I saw her trying to get him to notice her, and swam over to her to ask if she was ok. She indicated she wasn’t, so I had to swim like a banshee to get the Dive Master. Megan ended up going to the surface to go back to the boat.

Then, Tim, the Rescue Diver, ran out of air, and had to go to the boat, so it was just me left with the Dive Master, for a good half of the dive. It was really weird. I still came up with a lot of air left over at the end, in any case.

The Dive Site was called Little Okinawa, Kapalai, and was really interesting geographically. It was a long, slow and gentle sloping reef that was quite deep. We went down to 26 meters and had to swim quite a long way, in the blue, to the other side of the sandy divide, to get to the other side of the reef. There we puttered along the reef, having a look to see what there was. I saw a turtle, Lionfish, Crocodile Fish, but not too much else. There wasn’t a lot to see, but the landscape was so interesting and diverse, that I totally got lost in this, and didn’t mind whether I saw a lot of fish, or not.

We came back to the resort for our surface interval, had tea and cakes, then met again on the jetty to take off for our second dive. This dive was at Azam’s Reef in Mabul. We saw a lot of things at this site, and it was really nice. There was not current to speak of, and we stayed fairly shallow at 18.8 meters. I saw Coronet Fish, which were bright yellow, Trumpet Fish, White Spotted Hermit Crab, Banded Coral Shrimp, Harlequin Sweetlips, Squat Shrimp and a Trigger Fish. There was a lot of really nice coral at this site, which was thriving, and healthy. A lovely site to see.

Then we returned for lunch, which was Spaghetti Bolengese, with meat sauce, that was delicious. There was also stir fried Chinese Cabbage, salad, and fruit. It was a great lunch. I sat with one of the women I dived with before, named Silje. She and her husband live in Mimibia, but she is Norweigan. She met her husband there when she went there to write her thesis. I like her and her husband a lot, and will go for a sunset dive with them tomorrow.

Our third dive was Artificial Reef, in Mabul, which I have been to before, but really liked. Others on the boat had not been there, but I had, and didn’t mind returning. We saw a lot of life on this dive. The highlight was a storm of Jack Fish, by the thousands, swirling around above us, creating a dark cloud because they were so thick. It was incredible. I also saw a Stick Pipefish, a huge Angelfish, and a really large Gray Drummer Fish. We were looking for the Flamboyant Cuttlefish, as it is known to be around that site, but we didn’t find it. I hope to see another one before I leave. It is really beautiful and very cool.

I showered and filled in my Log Book with Megan, before dinner. Then we ate a great meal of tender beef chunks, with a spicy seasoning, rice, potatoes in a nice spice, sautéed spinach that was to die for, homemade bread with raisins, and cucumber salad with a light dressing. There was also a Winter Melon Soup, but I was full and didn’t try it. Everyone said that it was really good though. The meals here have been fantastic.

Writing up my blog, and going to bed early, were the rest of my night. I look forward to diving again tomorrow. I feel really good, and have seemed to adjust pretty well to the daily diving. 

More tomorrow. I go to the Sipidan Barrier Reef to dive, so that should be nice. I like going somewhere new.