Day 3 at Sipidan Island

Dawn dive at Sipidan was at 5.30am. Dive site was barracuda point. The moment we decent, schools of bumphead and jacks was performing an orchestrated morning dance in circles and figure of eight. Along came white tip sharks, bat fish, turtles and the barracudas. The school of barracudas stole the show for the rest of the dive. We saw almost everything we intended to see except the hammerhead sharks. The barracudas tornado performance was breathtaking. You can hear the accelerated breathing of divers watching the performance in awe. Some opened their mouth so wide that the 2nd stage almost slip off.


Others with camera busy taking shots and video at different angles and directions. This is once again the best dive I ever had over the last four years. The visibility was about 30m.


2nd dive at White tip point. Steep drop off down the slopping reef. Depth was about 35m. Saw four to five sharks circling around, curious of the intrusion of noisy divers. Also spotted some bumpheads and other common reef fishes.


3rd dive at staghorns point. Staghorns are not as dense as Renggis in Tioman, but its richly populated with marine life. Strangle enough, we spotted lobster off the wall. We hope in vain to see
hammer head sharks.




4th dive at Lobster Lair off Sipidan Island. Another satisfying dive that allows us to enjoy the wonders of underwater world. No words can accurately describe the exotic blissful view. Needless to say the visibility is between 25-30m.

Day 2 at Mabul Island

Started the day at 7am, took a scenic stroll down the garden towards the restaurant for breakfast. Had two sunny side up eggs and noodles and a cup of coffee to create the urge for morning dump.

During the stroll, I cleared my mind off a bad dream last night. Started to set my goals to map out my destination in my mind, so it will in turn, create a quicker, more efficient route for me to experience those things in reality. Took small steps by reframing my mind for positive experience, so that I can enjoy the dives today.

Morning dive at Kapalai Resort house reef. Its basically a muck dive with some 

wrecks, something similar to the wrecks at Tioman marine park. Visibility was about 15m with depth up to 21m. Saw a giant moray eel, stone fish, juvenile puffer fishes, one meter garupa and a banded ghost pipe fish.

Took some picture of the wrecks and the rest of the divers around the wrecks sine I am trying out new setting on the camera on manual mode. Manage to shot a clear video of schools of yellow tail near the jetty of Kapalai resort. The resort from the outside does not look appealing. I will pass this place if I come back to Sipidan. The concept is great on stilt over the shallow shoal. However think it’s not maintained well, looks very run down. On the other hand the water village is fantastic. Understand the owners is Japanese and the food is good. Service is fantastic according to the divers we met staying over there.

Afternoon dive at Eel Garden off Mabul Island. There are many small garden eels over the sandy bottom, the visibility was around 25m. This dive site is average as compared to the dive sites around Sipidan island. The normal sight is turtles, lobsters, bumphead, trigger and moray eels off the gradual slopping reef.

Night dive at Lobster Lair off Mabul Island. This is one of the best night dive I had. huge Crabs, crayfish, prawns and trigger fishes resting in their small cave off the wall. Drifted with the weak current off the wall, enjoying the sightings and busy trying to snap good shots for evidence of a good night dive. We dive down to about 20m for about 60 minutes. Finished the dive with a great sense of satisfaction.The rest of the evening was spent photo viewing and sharing the night dive experience with the other divers that did not go for the night dive.

Day 1 at Sipidan Island

We started the day at 7.am, had breakfast and headed for dive shop to gear up. Took group photos for Malaysia diving Committee. Got our gears on the boat and headed for Sipidan Island. Ride was about 25minutes. After registering our arrival at military post, we headed off for the first dive for the day.

1st dive at Barracuda point. Water was unbelievably clear. Visibility must be around 60m. Schools of Jack fish, batfish, barracudas, turtle and white tip reef sharks. Drop off wall dive. Very rich in coral life and huge reef fishes. It’s just beautiful, no wonder other divers keep raving about how fantastic the dives at Sipidan was. Now the long and tedious logistic to get her is worth it. This is the best dives I have ever had. Wish I had more air to be with the marine life. God really look into details.

2nd dive at South point. Again schools of Jacks and bump head and loads of fishes that I do not know their names.

3rd dive at Turtle cave. There are so many turtles around its amazing. Some sleeping some posing for photo and some swimming up for the next breathe. Some cute while others ugly.

4th dive back to barracuda point. This time without my camera. Battery flat. Anyway, dive was just as nice, this time more time to look around and admire God’s creation and his attention to details. No species is alike.

Average depth is about 25m and 50minute for all the four dives.

Very satisfying dive. One of the best. Definitely will recommend it to all divers.


Dennis

Sipidan dive trip at Mabul Resort

It has been a long day of travel, KL to Tawau, followed by car transfer to Semporna.
Spend overnight at the only Seafest Hotel. It’s basic but pleasant.

Early morning boat transfer at 6.45am. Ride was excellent on a 200 horse outboard engine was about 25 minutes. So looking forward to my chaparral that is coming in October.

On the journey here, I allowed my mind to go through various thoughts and flashbacks. Flashbacks on the decisions that I have made that have changed my life. One think that I have thought through is that I need to consciously reframe my mind to manage my intentions in life. I need to make a decision to move my desire from the landscape of my mind into the realm of reality. Think most of us have learnt that unless you make the decision that things will be different, they most decidedly won’t be.

One of the intentions is to learn to appreciate my family that God has given me. I will consciously make an effort to list a few blessings each day in my life. This time away from them has allowed me to appreciate Shirley and Shannon even more. I missed them dearly.


The approach to Mabul Resort was nice and scenic. We pass the kapalai resort and the water village on the way. The wait has finally arrived. The long talked about Sipadan is finally in sight.

The boat arrived and beached for us to disembark. Went straight in for breakfast and brief.

1st dive was a check out dive at Ray point. Visibility was incredible. Something in the range of 50-60m. Did not bring my camera as its was a checkout dive. However we spotted turtle, blue spotted ray, croc fish, box fish and loads of reef habitats. This dive is very nice. Slight current drift as we glaze through the slopping reef. Some divers saw eagle ray.

2nd dive was at the house reef of the water village. As we descent down to 18m, schools of trevally started swimming pass us. The sight was beautiful. In the midst of it, emerge the bumphead fish. Not exactly as big as the ones in Manado, but big enough to awe any diver on the second dive. Visibility was about 15-20m. white sandy bottom reflects light to improve the visibility. Weather today was drizzling since morning.

Skipping the 3rd dive. Since its going to be house reef site.


Dennis Low

Day 4

Hi, am back.

1st Dive at Barracuda point, which was a combination of slopping reef and wall. Depth is about 30 meters. Saw many giant bump head parrot fish, barracudas and even a 2m sea snake. The coral life is rich and well populated with puffer fish, damsels, angels fishes, jacks, and lobsters.

2nd dive at Odessea point 1.this is another muck dive site, which is populated with lionfish, pipe fishes, clown lobsters. Bottom is very fine sand, which if divers not careful, could stir up sand and reduce the visibility.


This trip on the whole is awesome and fun. Great dive sites that never fail to surprise even the most seasoned divers. It just enchanting, a definite must dive place.

Back at the resort at about 14.30hrs, had a quick lunch and shower before we head out to the spa for some good old two hours traditional shiatsu massage in the town. Guess what, it felt great, every joints and contractile organ in body conditioned and toned.

We had seafood dinner at the local restaurant, somewhere in Manado city. Transfers between the resort and Manado city is about 25 minutes by car.

Back to the resort for the grand finale! The usual divers last night brags of what they saw and how awe they are by the variety of creatures of different sizes and shapes.

We are leaving tomorrow afternoon for flight back to Singapore.

Next dive trip in Sipidan, 2 days later…..

Day 4 morning

'Slept like a pig', it must had been the 4 dives and remaining nitrogen in the body that caused it. In the morning, I woke up very fresh and energized. The mornings in Cocotinos resort has a certain tranquility that is enchanting and blissful. It’s certainly a place to be if you need to chill off from the rush, honking city in Singapore.

The last few days had been very refreshing, freeing mind from the daily work. It also allows me to think about the journey of life and aligning myself towards my goals.

Divers on this trip are seasoned. Most of them have at least 100 dives under the belt.
All from different walks of life from accounting to bankers and shippers all through to tire salesman. All are very pleasant and guess all are doing what I did, getting away to unwind from work.

One thing that stand out are the way their names are spelt, Joeie, Antoinette, Tok Li… etc. There is a bond among them. I think this is one of their many dive trips together. I, though a newbie, did not have any difficulty blending in as they are warm and approachable.

We spent most of the evenings after dinner looking at the photos taken during the dives. I must say, some of the shots are spectacular.

Ok 6.59am, need to freshen up for breakfast and get ready for the next two dives.

See yah soon after the dives.

Day 3

Manage to do 4 dives today. Lekuan I, Aba point, Tiwoho and the resort house reef.

Once again it’s full of surprises. Manage to get a shot at the creature which is only 2cm and as thin as a piece of string, this diminutive syngnathidae swims like a sea dragon but holds into small hydroid or algae with a prehensile tail. Loads of unusual nudibranches dancing to the flow of the current.

Saw "hairy" crab, squid, lionfish, turtle and some species which I have no idea that they are called. Will leave it to you to decide what they are.