Diving at Sipadan Day 5, 6 (Apr. 1, 2, 2015)

Apr. 1, 2015

Well, I didn’t get to post this morning because I had a great day diving, then I got a nice surprise at the end of the day. I found out that a woman here, who had secured a Sipadan diving permit, got sick. She wasn’t able to go, and asked that I be given her spot. I still have to pay for it, but the Dive Shop here, only gets 7 permits per day, and you can’t dive there, unless you have a permit. I was on the waiting list, and apparently was next, so I got the offer, and happily took it. I felt badly that Lisa, the sick woman, wasn’t able to go, but at the same time, happy that I was able to go instead. I had one permit already, but wanted to go two times during this diving trip, if I could. This area is one of the best diving sites in the world and there is certainly good reasons why. I will tell you all about it in the next day’s post.

Today, was a great diving day, as they all are, and I did four dives today. The fourth was a sunset/night dive and was wonderful. Before that, though, I went on three dives during the day, two of them to the Sipadan Barrier Reef, and the last one to another site in Mabul. The Sipadan Barrier Reef is not the actual Sipadan area, but is lovely as well.

The first dive was at Coral Garden, and there weren’t a lot of fish to see, but the coral reef was spectacular. The coral was plentiful and super healthy, in all kinds of colours, shapes and textures. It was a really pleasure to see. I saw this super cool giant clam that when it opened, had a zebra striped inside, but when it closed, you couldn’t see it. I stayed and watched it for a long time waiting for it to open so I could see the inside. It’s truly remarkable how the colours and textures of these sea creatures can be so intricate and lovely. The visibility was great and we could see between 25-30 meters, clearly. That was a nice distance for visibility, to view the coral reef, especially. 

Our second dive was at Manta Point, though there were no Manta’s there….lol. Visibility was a little less, but still good, between 15-20 meters. I saw a Napoleon Snake Eel, a Crocodile Fish, Frog Fish, Stone Fish, a Blue Spotted Ray, and many Nudy Branch’s. We dived for 61 minutes on both the first and second dives, so that was great.

We had lunch, and did our surface interval, then went to our third site, which was called Panglima. The visibility for this site was between 25-30 meters and I saw my favourite, Flamboyant Cuttlefish. They are the ones that change colour, but when they do, it is to a fluorescent purple, and pink colour, with splashes of other fluorescent colours. They are really neat and super cool to watch. I also saw a large Needle Cuttlefish, Orangutan Crab, a Wahoo Silver Fish (yes, wahoo…..ahahaha), Squarespot Anthias, a Gorgonian Sea Fan, and a Flat Worm. All were very cool and beautiful to see.

Then I came back, had another surface interval and went for a sunset dive with the couple from Mimibia. They are both really good divers, and super nice. Silje told me they were going, and that I should join them. I decided to do just that. Then another girl, named Lena from Sweden, also joined us. It was a site called Paradise which was not too far away from the resort. We entered off the dock, walked into the water, and swam a little way, to the dive site. Night dives are so cool because there are so many things to see that you don’t see in the day. I saw a baby Blue Spot Ray that was the size of a small saucer, an Octopus, Reeftop and Banded Pipefish, Spot Face Moray Eel, White Spotted Hermit Crab, Bubble Coral Shrimp, Broad Club Cuttlefish and a giant turtle, plus several smaller ones. It was great and we dived for 72 minutes.

Then I came back, ate dinner which was a Vegetarian meal, of Vegetable Curry with lots of eggplant and zucchini, carrots, and other veggies. There was rice, and roast pumpkin along with potato wedges and cole slaw. Super yummy and just the ticket after four dives. Then the owner asked to speak to me and offered me the Sipadan spot for tomorrow, which is also four dives. I thought ‘Of course, because I did an extra dive today, I got offered the four dives at Sipadan.’ I didn’t mind though because I’m really happy to be going two times during this stay, to the Sipadan Dive Site. 

I went to bed shortly after dinner in order to get up for the early departure for Sipadan. You have to be on the jetty at 6:15 am to leave for this site. Yeah!!!!!

Apr. 2, 2015

Well, I got up, was ready and on the jetty, very excited, by 6:10 am. I dived with the same group I dived with the other day. The Australian group of 7, though today it was 6, plus me, instead of Lisa. They weren’t so bad, and I didn’t feel like a third wheel today, because they were happy that I had come to fill the spot, and Lisa had suggested that it be me to go because they kind of knew me already. Anyway, we had a great day and the diving was way over the top. Sipadan Island is a volcano that goes straight up, and has no gentle slopes to it. It is about 600 meters down to the bottom so it seems just endless and really is.

The first site we went to was called South Point. Simon, an English Dive Master who is a retired cop that works here now, is fantastic at seeing things and knows the area really well. Four of the Australians dived with him, and two others plus me, dived with Ismail, a local guy who is young, but amazing for spotting things as well. Simon had told us that this site was famous for seeing sharks so I was hopeful. As soon as we entered the water and went down, I saw about 11 sharks milling around. They were mostly White Tipped and Gray Reef Sharks and were in many sizes. They were so beautiful and perfectly contoured. I love seeing them and am not scared at all. They don’t like to eat people and are pretty small in comparison to a person. Perhaps they are about 2-4 meters long at most. They don’t really stick around long when they encounter divers, unless you stay calm, don’t move too much and just watch from a bit of a distance, which is what we did. They were so amazing as the welcoming committee to Sipadan. I was thrilled. We went down to a depth of 27 meters and swam out into the blue. This was incredible because you couldn’t see the bottom, as it was so far down, and all you saw was blue all around you. If you were upside down, it looked the same as right side up, on your side, or face down. Very interesting, but if you were easily disoriented, you could become freaked out. It was truly a new experience and just wonderful.

I saw a cloud of Chevron Barracuda’s, lots of large Groupers, Giant Trevally, a Green Turtle, Clown and Red Toothed Triggerfish, Titan Triggerfish, and many many millions of colourful reef fish swimming in schools, all around me. I thought of the song, “It’s Raining Men”, but it was fish instead. They were all around me like a soup. I was surrounded by colour and bright eyes, and not one of them touched me once. There are a lot of Triggerfish, which I am way more scared of than sharks or anything else. These Bad Boys have shiny bright white teeth and can get quite aggressive if they feel that anything is in their territory. They are known to come charging, with their trigger up on top of their head, angry, and bite off a chunk of face or ear. In Thailand there were lots of them, and once a Trigger fish bit someone's fin and took a huge piece out of it. I always swim far away from them when I see them. They freak me out, though I have never been chased by one. If you get out of their area, they stop chasing you.

Our second dive was at Hanging Garden in Sipadan which had a little bit of a current along the reef. Again, it was a super steep and deep reef that spawned life of all sorts along it’s edge. We went to a depth of 24 meters and all of our dives were 50 minutes. That’s because we do 4 dives and can’t go for longer than 50 minutes safely, and do 4 dives. I saw a Napolean Wrasse, Gray Reef Shark, White Tipped Shark, Turtles, Titan Triggerfish, Blue Fin Travally, Moris Idol Fish, Unicorn Fish, Bat Fish, and a 50 kg Grouper. The reef is so healthy and alive, and the fish are by the thousands and just everywhere around you. There is no ‘free space’ as there are always fish there. It’s just magical. I loved it.

The third site was called Barracuda Point, and we saw a huge school of quite long, Chevron Barracuda right when we went down. There were also several White Tipped and Gray Reef Sharks and a cloud of Jack Fish, running like a river. There must have been thousands of them and they’re quite big. Maybe about 30 cm’s long and fairly thick. I saw a giant Tuna, and some absolutely huge Bumphead Parrot Fish. These guys are super huge and you can hardly believe that you could see fish that big. They were in a little school, in the shallow area and were the size of a small dog. Amazing, and very colourful, like a parrot. You have to be careful though, because all they do is eat and poop, so we were warned not to go beneath them, or we’d get pooped upon. I didn’t go under them…..lol.

We ate lunch on Sipadan Island at a long picnic table, under a covered area where all the dive shops stop to eat. When we came to this place, we had to sign in for the Sipadan permit, as everyone who is diving that day, is listed and must sign in. It seemed very official, but that was about the extent of it. Lunch was yummy, and consisted of spicy breaded pieces of white chicken meat with potatoes. There was rice and green beans as well, with fresh watermelon, tea and coffee. It was great and everyone was lazy and tired after eating, but we still had one dive left.

• pics of island and area

The fourth dive was at a place called Mid Reef, and we only went down to 18 meters. There was a lot to see, and one of the first things we saw when we descended, was two turtles making love. They were huge and when we dropped down near them, they were kind of startled, and swam away from each other. I felt like a bit of an intruder, but it was cool to see. I saw more sharks, a Giant Clam, even bigger than the one before, a Napoleon Wrasse, Map Pufferfish, Millions of colourful reef fish, Blusteak Fusilier, Banana Nudy Branch, Painted Spiny Lobster, River of Jack Fish, Porcupine Fish and so much more. 

I was overwhelmed by the end of the day and felt tired, but my senses were in total overdrive. I have never seen so many wonderful fish and life, and the landscape was so dramatic and epic as well. It was so massive and deep and blue that it was hard to process. You just couldn’t believe what you were seeing and experiencing. I am so happy I went to Sipadan today. What a great experience and so much to see.

Dinner was Beef Mandura, French Fries, rice, Okra, which was delicious, Corn Soup, and fruit. I was so tired by this point, that after dinner, I went to bed, which was around 7:30....lol. A fantastic day though. The internet is still so slow, so I will add photos of some of all these species that I have named. They are wonderful to see and I do have photos of many of them, as well as videos, so you’ll have to look back. I’ll add a header when I can load the photos.