A bit late in posting this due to a heavy work commitment after my trip.
Return to Sipadan
Just over 19 years ago, a week after my daughter Yanni was born I traveled to Sipadan off the east coast of Sabah, Borneo for a dive trip of a lifetime, with one of my dive buddies Kees.
Now I was on my way back to dive the same sites, but this time with my daughter as my dive buddy.
Everything started on a high, especially with the Emirates flight. The car picked me up on time (in the middle of the night) and whilst boarding I was upgraded to First Class, so a nice sleep on the 7 hour flight to KL for starters.
I had three nights booked at the Pan Pacific next to KLIA in Kuala Lumpur, and checked in not long after my arrival. The following day I flew down to Singapore for some retail therapy, buying some more bits and pieces for my housing which included a port for my 105mm lens, and an extension for my dome port so that I could use my new 10-17mm Tokina lens, this was key as I was looking forward to some good wide angle opportunities at Sipadan.
Additionally I was meeting my niece, who works there, and had lunch with her as I had not seen her in almost a year, after which I flew back to KL.
The following day I met up with Yanni and we attended a Dive Exhibition in KL, picked up a few last minute goodies, like new mesh bags, new rash guard for Yanni, and something I had been planning on, a snoot for my YS110 strobe in order to attempt some more creative shots.
Yanni then joined me back at the Pan Pacific that night and early the following morning we flew to Tawau, where we were met by somebody from Borneo Divers and driven by mini bus to Semporna with a young Chinese couple also traveling to dive with Borneo Divers.
After lunch we were then had a 45-minute boat ride to Mabul, and checked in with Borneo Divers. The Accommodation was comfortable, and certainly a lot better than the huts on Sipadan that Kees and I had used 19 years ago. Shower and toilet are ensuite too, along with a kettle, bottled water, tea and coffee. Free wi-fi is also available in the main dining area.
Around 3pm we then met for our check out dive. I had requested to bring my camera along, and this was granted given my experience, as Steven (Instructor) clearly saw I was not a newbie.
The check out dive just off the jetty at Mabul was very good, although the viz was not fantastic, there was a wealth of life there, and I managed to find one nudibranch (Ardeadoris egretta)
and we had several turtle encounters too that made Yanni very happy.
The BIG SURPRISE was that we were scheduled to dive at Sipadan the following day, something that I was actually not totally prepared for.
Diving at Sipadan is closely regulated in order to avoid environmental damage, and there is a daily quota for all diver operators. Borneo Divers, who were the first to set up a commercial dive operation there on the island back in the late 1980s are currently allowed 14 slots for divers.
Two issues were on my mind:
The first was that I had never used my new wide-angle lens underwater before and I would have preferred to play around with it for at least one dive in order to be more comfortable with the set up.
The second was that there were only four of us on the boat (the other ten divers that day was a group of Americans). The four of us were basically Yanni and myself along with the Chinese couple.
Now during the check out dive, it was damn obvious that the lady partner of the Chinese couple had absolutely no control over her buoyancy whatsoever and was a total disaster. I was surprised that they would allow such a person dive at Sipadan, and the following day my thoughts were well and truly validated.
So the next morning after breakfast we set out with Leanah the dive master on a rather choppy boat ride to Sipadan. Fortunately the waters around Sipadan were calmer, and we had to transfer onshore to sign the log that is used to maintain a register of the number of divers.
The diving was primarily to the east of the island and later on the north due to weather conditions (Mid Reef, Barracuda Point and in between). Visibility not great, and all dives were drift dives with some really fast stretches that were enjoyable provided one was not taking photographs (more suited to video).
Lots of turtles, and plenty of sharks (whitetips and grey reef), both Yanni and myself were really enjoying the dives, however I was really concerned that the Chinese couple were descending to 30M + and was half expecting an Out of Air situation, on all four dives the lady in question surfaced with little or no air, and on all four dives that buddy pair had to be told to surface, neither appeared to be monitoring their gauges and as far as I could make out only the male of the couple carried any form of timing device (computer).
On the last dive at “Turtle Cave” I noticed three other divers observing something near the entrance. As I hung back waiting for them to leave so that I could then move forward to see what they were looking at, the Chinese lady descended near by finning vigorously to stay off the bottom and started an underwater sandstorm that moved over the three divers, who were then lost in the cloud.
Needless to say they moved away as they could no longer see what they were observing.
After the sand settled I moved closer and found a ghost pipe fish, in fact there were three altogether, and they were lucky not to be swept away in the sandstorm. Unfortunately with the 10-17mm lens my photos were not so great in such poor visibility.
On our next trip to Sipadan two days later, I dived the same spot with the 60mm macro lens in order to photograph the ghost pipe fish and the Chinese lady repeated the same act, I was tempted to cut her air hose with my knife. People like that should be kept away from Sipadan!
Other dives were done at Kapalai and around Mabul. Weather conditions were not fantastic, we had thunderstorms and a lot of rain most evenings and on one day the Sipadan dive trip was cancelled due to weather, so July may be a bit of a risky time to go there, luck plays a major part, and we were lucky to have two days at Sipadan.
Unfortunately during the second day at Sipadan I had ear problems and had to cancel the rest of my diving, which included a return trip to Sipadan two weeks later, I was gutted.
On the final evening, Yanni developed a stomach problem, fortunately I carry some drugs to counter such issues as I travel a lot in third world countries, and early in the morning I had to take some also.
On our departure with some of the American group, we learned that a few of their group had also had stomach problems and one guy was actually taken off the island of Mabul and hospitalized for a couple of days.
When we reached Penang I visited an ENT doctor who diagnosed a possible perforation in my right ear and a fungal infection in both ears, not the news I was looking forward to, and it was over two weeks before my left ear felt better (10 flights later!).
I would also add that NITROX is not readily available with Borneo Divers, you have to request this well in advance as they blend their mixes. Yanni and I were fortunate to have mentioned this on Day 1 before our first Sipadan dives, and our mixes were 29/30% but we used air on our second set of Sipadan dives as I was unaware that we had to order this well in advance (we were lucky on the first day).
Despite having health problems that disrupted my diving, we had some great experiences, few new nudibranchs for me as well as the ghost pipefish. As a photographer I would have preferred NITROX on all of my dives as well as newbies being on another boat.
ps: Boat dives were limited to 45min, both Yanni and I were surfacing with 100bar left on all of our boat dives. I realise the operators have to work around the number of dives per day, but I would rather have three 1 hour dives than four 45 min dives.
Our longest dive from the jetty was 94 mins
Return to Sipadan
Just over 19 years ago, a week after my daughter Yanni was born I traveled to Sipadan off the east coast of Sabah, Borneo for a dive trip of a lifetime, with one of my dive buddies Kees.
Now I was on my way back to dive the same sites, but this time with my daughter as my dive buddy.
Everything started on a high, especially with the Emirates flight. The car picked me up on time (in the middle of the night) and whilst boarding I was upgraded to First Class, so a nice sleep on the 7 hour flight to KL for starters.
I had three nights booked at the Pan Pacific next to KLIA in Kuala Lumpur, and checked in not long after my arrival. The following day I flew down to Singapore for some retail therapy, buying some more bits and pieces for my housing which included a port for my 105mm lens, and an extension for my dome port so that I could use my new 10-17mm Tokina lens, this was key as I was looking forward to some good wide angle opportunities at Sipadan.
Additionally I was meeting my niece, who works there, and had lunch with her as I had not seen her in almost a year, after which I flew back to KL.
The following day I met up with Yanni and we attended a Dive Exhibition in KL, picked up a few last minute goodies, like new mesh bags, new rash guard for Yanni, and something I had been planning on, a snoot for my YS110 strobe in order to attempt some more creative shots.
Yanni then joined me back at the Pan Pacific that night and early the following morning we flew to Tawau, where we were met by somebody from Borneo Divers and driven by mini bus to Semporna with a young Chinese couple also traveling to dive with Borneo Divers.
After lunch we were then had a 45-minute boat ride to Mabul, and checked in with Borneo Divers. The Accommodation was comfortable, and certainly a lot better than the huts on Sipadan that Kees and I had used 19 years ago. Shower and toilet are ensuite too, along with a kettle, bottled water, tea and coffee. Free wi-fi is also available in the main dining area.
Around 3pm we then met for our check out dive. I had requested to bring my camera along, and this was granted given my experience, as Steven (Instructor) clearly saw I was not a newbie.
The check out dive just off the jetty at Mabul was very good, although the viz was not fantastic, there was a wealth of life there, and I managed to find one nudibranch (Ardeadoris egretta)
and we had several turtle encounters too that made Yanni very happy.
The BIG SURPRISE was that we were scheduled to dive at Sipadan the following day, something that I was actually not totally prepared for.
Diving at Sipadan is closely regulated in order to avoid environmental damage, and there is a daily quota for all diver operators. Borneo Divers, who were the first to set up a commercial dive operation there on the island back in the late 1980s are currently allowed 14 slots for divers.
Two issues were on my mind:
The first was that I had never used my new wide-angle lens underwater before and I would have preferred to play around with it for at least one dive in order to be more comfortable with the set up.
The second was that there were only four of us on the boat (the other ten divers that day was a group of Americans). The four of us were basically Yanni and myself along with the Chinese couple.
Now during the check out dive, it was damn obvious that the lady partner of the Chinese couple had absolutely no control over her buoyancy whatsoever and was a total disaster. I was surprised that they would allow such a person dive at Sipadan, and the following day my thoughts were well and truly validated.
So the next morning after breakfast we set out with Leanah the dive master on a rather choppy boat ride to Sipadan. Fortunately the waters around Sipadan were calmer, and we had to transfer onshore to sign the log that is used to maintain a register of the number of divers.
The diving was primarily to the east of the island and later on the north due to weather conditions (Mid Reef, Barracuda Point and in between). Visibility not great, and all dives were drift dives with some really fast stretches that were enjoyable provided one was not taking photographs (more suited to video).
Lots of turtles, and plenty of sharks (whitetips and grey reef), both Yanni and myself were really enjoying the dives, however I was really concerned that the Chinese couple were descending to 30M + and was half expecting an Out of Air situation, on all four dives the lady in question surfaced with little or no air, and on all four dives that buddy pair had to be told to surface, neither appeared to be monitoring their gauges and as far as I could make out only the male of the couple carried any form of timing device (computer).
On the last dive at “Turtle Cave” I noticed three other divers observing something near the entrance. As I hung back waiting for them to leave so that I could then move forward to see what they were looking at, the Chinese lady descended near by finning vigorously to stay off the bottom and started an underwater sandstorm that moved over the three divers, who were then lost in the cloud.
Needless to say they moved away as they could no longer see what they were observing.
After the sand settled I moved closer and found a ghost pipe fish, in fact there were three altogether, and they were lucky not to be swept away in the sandstorm. Unfortunately with the 10-17mm lens my photos were not so great in such poor visibility.
On our next trip to Sipadan two days later, I dived the same spot with the 60mm macro lens in order to photograph the ghost pipe fish and the Chinese lady repeated the same act, I was tempted to cut her air hose with my knife. People like that should be kept away from Sipadan!
Other dives were done at Kapalai and around Mabul. Weather conditions were not fantastic, we had thunderstorms and a lot of rain most evenings and on one day the Sipadan dive trip was cancelled due to weather, so July may be a bit of a risky time to go there, luck plays a major part, and we were lucky to have two days at Sipadan.
Unfortunately during the second day at Sipadan I had ear problems and had to cancel the rest of my diving, which included a return trip to Sipadan two weeks later, I was gutted.
On the final evening, Yanni developed a stomach problem, fortunately I carry some drugs to counter such issues as I travel a lot in third world countries, and early in the morning I had to take some also.
On our departure with some of the American group, we learned that a few of their group had also had stomach problems and one guy was actually taken off the island of Mabul and hospitalized for a couple of days.
When we reached Penang I visited an ENT doctor who diagnosed a possible perforation in my right ear and a fungal infection in both ears, not the news I was looking forward to, and it was over two weeks before my left ear felt better (10 flights later!).
I would also add that NITROX is not readily available with Borneo Divers, you have to request this well in advance as they blend their mixes. Yanni and I were fortunate to have mentioned this on Day 1 before our first Sipadan dives, and our mixes were 29/30% but we used air on our second set of Sipadan dives as I was unaware that we had to order this well in advance (we were lucky on the first day).
Despite having health problems that disrupted my diving, we had some great experiences, few new nudibranchs for me as well as the ghost pipefish. As a photographer I would have preferred NITROX on all of my dives as well as newbies being on another boat.
ps: Boat dives were limited to 45min, both Yanni and I were surfacing with 100bar left on all of our boat dives. I realise the operators have to work around the number of dives per day, but I would rather have three 1 hour dives than four 45 min dives.
Our longest dive from the jetty was 94 mins
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