Just got back from Sipadan after spending 5 days diving there.
It was fantastic despite the weather and water condition.
I stayed at Smart Dive Resort with 7 other friends in the group.
Visibility around Sipadan was may be only 15-20 meters the first 10 meters or so but got worse as we descent. However I am happy to reported that the schools of Barracuda are back at Barracuda Points. There were also plenty of white tip reef sharks there as well. At Turtle Patch, we ran into a school of Jacks that must have numbered in the thousands. A group that shared a boat with us went into Turtle cavern and on the way out claimed that they saw a thresher shark briefly at the mount of the cavern.
Currents were very mild except on our second dive at Barracuda Point. At the end, when we got to the shallow around 3-4 meters, there were about 10 white tip sharks there and we all had to hold on to a rock to stay and watch those sharks until we ran out of air.
Mabul and Kapalai were a nice contrast to Sipadan with the abundance of macro life. Visibility was anywhere from 5-10 meters, may be a little more here and there. There were plenty of stone fish, frog fish, nudibranch, shrimps, crocadile fish, blue ribbon eels, seahorse etc. On our first dive, check dive at Kapalai, we even saw a Flamboyant Cuttlefish. Our dive master, Ben was excellent. I don't know how he managed to find everything. A couple of friends brought a magnifying glasses with them so they can see all the things that Ben showed to us.
The weather was so so. We had rain a couple of days otherwise it was mostly overcast.
Even with relatively poor visibility and weather, the dive were still so great. A friend and I started to talk about a plan to come back next year around April/May when the visibility supposed to be much better.
According to our DM, August will be a bit better as visibility will generally improve but with stronger currents so the first 7-8 meter might be a bit more murky but at deeper level, the visibility will improve.
I will post some pictures from the trip in the photography section later on today.
It was fantastic despite the weather and water condition.
I stayed at Smart Dive Resort with 7 other friends in the group.
Visibility around Sipadan was may be only 15-20 meters the first 10 meters or so but got worse as we descent. However I am happy to reported that the schools of Barracuda are back at Barracuda Points. There were also plenty of white tip reef sharks there as well. At Turtle Patch, we ran into a school of Jacks that must have numbered in the thousands. A group that shared a boat with us went into Turtle cavern and on the way out claimed that they saw a thresher shark briefly at the mount of the cavern.
Currents were very mild except on our second dive at Barracuda Point. At the end, when we got to the shallow around 3-4 meters, there were about 10 white tip sharks there and we all had to hold on to a rock to stay and watch those sharks until we ran out of air.
Mabul and Kapalai were a nice contrast to Sipadan with the abundance of macro life. Visibility was anywhere from 5-10 meters, may be a little more here and there. There were plenty of stone fish, frog fish, nudibranch, shrimps, crocadile fish, blue ribbon eels, seahorse etc. On our first dive, check dive at Kapalai, we even saw a Flamboyant Cuttlefish. Our dive master, Ben was excellent. I don't know how he managed to find everything. A couple of friends brought a magnifying glasses with them so they can see all the things that Ben showed to us.
The weather was so so. We had rain a couple of days otherwise it was mostly overcast.
Even with relatively poor visibility and weather, the dive were still so great. A friend and I started to talk about a plan to come back next year around April/May when the visibility supposed to be much better.
According to our DM, August will be a bit better as visibility will generally improve but with stronger currents so the first 7-8 meter might be a bit more murky but at deeper level, the visibility will improve.
I will post some pictures from the trip in the photography section later on today.
