Sipadan: Celebes Explorer Livaboard?

[donncha]

Has anyone any experience of the Celebes Explorer liveaboard, Sipadan? Is is worth doing a liveaboard there?
Any current security information?

Thanks!

Donncha

 

[ssra30]

Hmm, I am not sure if live aboard is worthwhile in Sipadan, considering that it usually cost much more than landbase operation. Sipadan itself is very tiny so you can get to all the dive sites very quickly. Beside, most likely you will not be able to jump off the live aboard to the dive site anyway since the big boat would not be able to get that close to the wall. So you would need to get into a smaller boat anyhow. Other nearby site such as Kapalai and Mabul are quite shallow relatively so again a big boat is not an advantage. If the liveaboard plans to dive only Sipadan, Kapalai and Mabul, I think you are going to be a lot more comfortable staying on one of the islands. If they take you elsewhere, it might be worthwhile but I don't really know any other nearby divesite in the area. Sipadan to Mabul takes about 15 minutes by speed boat, Mabul Kapalai about 7-8 minutes, not sure about Kapalia Sipadan so land based accomodation is very convinient.

I was in Sipadan a couple of weeks ago and it looks pretty safe. Actually I stayed on Mabul. Everynight, there is a guy who stopped by our resort, carrying an M16, presumably one of the security/police guy. Since no one else at the resort panicked, I guess it was just a routine patrol

 

[Albion]

ssra30 once bubbled...
Hmm, I am not sure if live aboard is worthwhile in Sipadan, considering that it usually cost much more than landbase operation. Sipadan itself is very tiny so you can get to all the dive sites very quickly. Beside, most likely you will not be able to jump off the live aboard to the dive site anyway since the big boat would not be able to get that close to the wall. So you would need to get into a smaller boat anyhow. Other nearby site such as Kapalai and Mabul are quite shallow relatively so again a big boat is not an advantage. If the liveaboard plans to dive only Sipadan, Kapalai and Mabul, I think you are going to be a lot more comfortable staying on one of the islands.

Seconded
If you dont want the boat rides split your stay between two sites. I did 3 nights on sipadan and 4 on Kapalai. would just stay kapalai (or mabul) next time the accomodation is so much nicer

 

[donncha]

Thanks for the feedback, seems sensible.... but if I do the liveaboard I'll post a report here later.

 

[donncha]

Short follow up to this ... in the end I did both the liveaboard on Celebes Explorer, and stay on Sipidan. The boat owners also have a resort on the island, and the cost of the liveaboard was only slightly higher.

I can highly recommend it. Did 18 dives from the boat and 12 from the island . The boat dived at Sipidan, Mabul, Kapaili, Mataking, Sibuan, Bohayan and Siamil. Dives were mixed, with poor vis everywhere, but some sites (such as Bohayan) were definitely better than Sipdan for corals and small dish. Sipidan was the only place we saw large numbers of sharks, turtles and barracudas.

The boat is big, cabins and bathrooms big, food was excellent and the crew of 12 were great fun.

 

[ssra30]

Glad to hear the boat is very good. I guess it is worth it too as the boat takes you elsewhere beside Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai.
Beside Bohayan, where else did you go that you would recommend (excluding Sipadan, Kapalai and Mabul). If there are many other worthwhile dive sites beside the 4 mentioned above, I think I would like to find out more for possible future trip as well. Also which resort on Sipadan is affiliated with Celebes Explorer? I think your trip with both landbase and live aboard would be a nice mix.

 

[Snoopy]

Hi

I just shared some info on Sipadan on

Sipadan

based on my trip there last year's Mar/Apr experience.

Senai Airport refers to a Malaysian domestic airport which is about 1hr away from Singapore, where I am based.

Hoped this helps.

 

[donncha]

The best of the rest was Coral Garden at Bohayan; and a site at Sibuan (don't know if it had a name) where we saw mandarin fish in among the anenomoes . Also North Point of Siamil was good, with good coral, frogfishes, and lots of nice nudi brances.

The resort on Sipidan is the Abdillah Sipidan Paradise. The location is a bit farther from the drop off than the others (so no sunsets) but it was fine, and the food very good which is the main thing.

Only weak area is hire gear, definitely a good idea to byo.

 

[lanun]

so what's the diving like there ?

i went to the website (www.mataking.com) but aside from the whale shark video, the u/w pics doesn't say if it's mataking (since the filename was MBLxxxx.jpg - mabul maybe ?)

 

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