We started the day at 4:00am to get ready for a 5:30 boat departure to the nearby island of Sipadan. Although only a quick 20 minutes away by boat there is only 120 people allowed in the sanctuary daily. That includes the staff, snorklers and divers combined. The permits will be charged back to our room since this is monitored by the Malay government.
The boat ride at sunrise was uneventful but there are a lot of flying fish exiting the water as we wisked by. Once at the island we all needed to sign in at the main dock and then we'll be off to Barracuda Point for Dive 1. Upon entering the water we were surrounded by numerous jacks and bump head parrot fish schooling and moving around really fast. (Just like Leonard C. told us!) The reef on Sipadan is so rich in eco life and the shallows were simply amazing for photography. About 10 minutes into the dive we came upon our first schooling set of jacks. So we headed deeper below them to photograph but they never really formed a good recognizable circle but cool never the less. We were escorted by a team of batfish that pretty much stayed with us the entire dive. We saw 3-4 white tip reef sharks and some schooling barracudas as well.
The 2nd dive after a one hour breakfast interval was at Hanging Gardens were we saw more white tips and batfish by the hundreds and they would let you get so very close and were not shy like hose we saw over at Mabul. Bump head parrots, schooling jacks and large groupers filled the gamut here.
Dive 3 we went to Mid drift after another one hour surface interval. We saw more of the same and more sharks than the first two combined.
After lunch and a 1.5 hour surface interval we headed back to Barracuda Point for the final dive of the day. Again more of the same beauty observed as seen all day long. Alicia got short tanked and started with only 2560psi so we stayed fairly shallow to maximize her bottom time. There were 3 separate jack schools going on at one time for a feast of activity so no need to go deep anyways!
Once we got back to Mabul and looked the board for tomorrow we were scheduled to go back to Sipadan again on Thursday. Since Wednesday was due to a cancelation tomorrow will be our scheduled day but hey... Who's complaining, we're going back to Sipadan two days in a row!
More tomorrow morning....by the way Alicia fell asleep at 5:00p.m. and slept until 4:00 a.m. the travel had finally caught up to her and she also caught a cold as Greg loves to run the ac very high... We have since compromised so she can feel better and Greg can have a dive buddy....
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
August 17, 2010 ---- Siamil Island & Mabul
Yesterday was a little out of the ordinary in that we traveled by high speed boat north of Mabul for approximately 45 minutes to the island of Samil. http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/4039774
After the 45 minute boat trip we embarked on dive site Dana 1 to find that Alicia's 60mm macro lens was set in the MF mode so no shots within 3' for her... Crap! We were greeted with more crocodile fish, blennies, another ghost pipe fish and the misc. reef critters we all know and love.
After the first dive we went to the beach for about an hour for surface time and had some coffee, water and sandwiches and of course to get Alicia's lens back into AF mode! The native moms bring down their children in hopes to have some sandwiches when all the divers are done. They did model for some photos which we will share later.
After leaving the beach Dive 2 was just around the bend from the first drop and it is simply called Siamil Island where we saw more crocodile fish, nudibranchs,and a black frog fish. Alicia's camera was back to working as expected.
We were off heading back to Mabul for lunch at the resort... We cleaned up the gear and changed out the batteries and had a bite to eat before getting ready for the last dive of the day at 2:30.
Dive 3 was just around the corner from the resort called Paradise 1. The current would drift us towards Paradise 2. Once we dropped it was like a snow storm and the viz was less than 6 feet and not much to see. We did manage to see one of the largest hawksbill sea turtles that we've ever seen anywhere. Every bit as large (or larger) than Atlas at the Moody Gardens aquarium. Also we managed to see a black seahorse in the sand but with a lot of sand backscatter. As we moved down the reef there were some huge batfish swimming around in pairs as well.
After the 5 minute boat ride back to the resort we cleaned up the gear and changed out to a 10mm lens and off to the other side of the island for some over - under shots of star fish with the chalets in the negative space. After hat we cleaned up the camera gear and put the macro lens back on for tomorrow, took a shower and off to dinner.
While at dinner we were approached by one of the dive masters to see if we want to go to Sipadan tomorrow as there was a cancellation! Ah, YES! So we scurried back to the dive shop and moved our gear over to Boat 1 Big... We're going to Sipadan tomorrow! We then headed back to the room to re-gear up the cameras back to wide angle. Alicia will be using the 17-70mm lens and Greg is gearing back up with the 10mm super wide. Off to sleep around 8:30 - 9:00pm. More on Sipadan in the next chapter!
After the 45 minute boat trip we embarked on dive site Dana 1 to find that Alicia's 60mm macro lens was set in the MF mode so no shots within 3' for her... Crap! We were greeted with more crocodile fish, blennies, another ghost pipe fish and the misc. reef critters we all know and love.
After the first dive we went to the beach for about an hour for surface time and had some coffee, water and sandwiches and of course to get Alicia's lens back into AF mode! The native moms bring down their children in hopes to have some sandwiches when all the divers are done. They did model for some photos which we will share later.
After leaving the beach Dive 2 was just around the bend from the first drop and it is simply called Siamil Island where we saw more crocodile fish, nudibranchs,and a black frog fish. Alicia's camera was back to working as expected.
We were off heading back to Mabul for lunch at the resort... We cleaned up the gear and changed out the batteries and had a bite to eat before getting ready for the last dive of the day at 2:30.
Dive 3 was just around the corner from the resort called Paradise 1. The current would drift us towards Paradise 2. Once we dropped it was like a snow storm and the viz was less than 6 feet and not much to see. We did manage to see one of the largest hawksbill sea turtles that we've ever seen anywhere. Every bit as large (or larger) than Atlas at the Moody Gardens aquarium. Also we managed to see a black seahorse in the sand but with a lot of sand backscatter. As we moved down the reef there were some huge batfish swimming around in pairs as well.
After the 5 minute boat ride back to the resort we cleaned up the gear and changed out to a 10mm lens and off to the other side of the island for some over - under shots of star fish with the chalets in the negative space. After hat we cleaned up the camera gear and put the macro lens back on for tomorrow, took a shower and off to dinner.
While at dinner we were approached by one of the dive masters to see if we want to go to Sipadan tomorrow as there was a cancellation! Ah, YES! So we scurried back to the dive shop and moved our gear over to Boat 1 Big... We're going to Sipadan tomorrow! We then headed back to the room to re-gear up the cameras back to wide angle. Alicia will be using the 17-70mm lens and Greg is gearing back up with the 10mm super wide. Off to sleep around 8:30 - 9:00pm. More on Sipadan in the next chapter!
Monday, August 16, 2010
First full Day of Diving on Mabul Island
Hello everyone from Mabul Island. Right know it is 4:51 a.m. and since the internet connection is best this time of the day and our body clocks have yet to adjust we are updating this blog. Yesterday we stated our first dive at 8:30 a.m. with a dive on Mabul Island called Lobster Wall and then at 11:00am at site Cleaning Station on Kapalai and finally at 2:30 for a final dive at Eel Garden 1 back at Mabul.
All of the sites where fabulous we saw crocodile fish, eels, numerous turtles, Nudibranch and the creme de la creme was the Harliquin Ghost Pipe Fish at the Cleaning Station site.......and last but not least tons of Clown Fish..... Even though there is a lot of backscatter in the water, we are having such a good time diving and shooting pictures as there is so much to see. We can see why divers from around the world come here.
At this time we appear to be the only Americans here at the resort so far with only a few Brits so we are only able to communicate with each other and the locals, that is until you get below the sea and all of sudden we can all communicate with hand signals which is really interesting. It is almost like the Tower of Babel for those of you familiar with the Bible.
We are still waiting our turn to dive the famous Sipidan as only a few individuals get to have that option per day due to the permits administered by the Malaysian government. We hope to at least dive it once during the trip. If you do get the permit you start at 5:30 a.m. and are gone all day with 4 dives and breakfast and lunch while you are in between surface intervals.
More tomorrow about our adventure....
Greg and Alicia
At this time we appear to be the only Americans here at the resort so far with only a few Brits so we are only able to communicate with each other and the locals, that is until you get below the sea and all of sudden we can all communicate with hand signals which is really interesting. It is almost like the Tower of Babel for those of you familiar with the Bible.
We are still waiting our turn to dive the famous Sipidan as only a few individuals get to have that option per day due to the permits administered by the Malaysian government. We hope to at least dive it once during the trip. If you do get the permit you start at 5:30 a.m. and are gone all day with 4 dives and breakfast and lunch while you are in between surface intervals.
More tomorrow about our adventure....
Greg and Alicia
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Wow... The Good... The Bad! Sunday 15-Aug 2010
We made it to Tawau without incident and had to pay the 7 kilo sur-charge for baggage allowance. What do you expect with the low budget airlines these days... Anyways with the extra $35 worth of luggage we were off to Borneo!
As we arrived at the airport and collected the bags everything was intact and we were off and then all we had to do was find the guy from Journey Adventure World that will get us down the road 1.5 hours to Semporna. Sounds easy, right? Not... No one there to pick us up :( after traveling for 2.5 days! Bummer... Anyways we had to hire a cab for the trip which at 10 pm locate was uneventful yet too bumpy to sleep we made it to Semporna around 23:30 local time. We were concerned that the hotel would not have us scheduled for that stay since the transfer was not scheduled properly. However, alas we were into the Seafest for some much needed sleep!
We got up Sunday morning for breakfast wondering... "What's Next?" since we did not have a briefing as to where and what time we would get picked up for the boat transfer to Mabul. So after breakfast we decided to take a walk down by the pier to see if we could find the dock for "SMART" (Sipadan Mabul Dive Resort) departures and guess what? We were in luck... It was literally right across the street from the front door of the Seafest! Sweet! We talked to the captain of the boat and he said be back here at 9:00am... He did not have any names but knew he was picking up four passengers that morning. This looked promising...
We ended up departing around 9:30 from the port in Semporna around 9:30 as we waited for the other to passengers that did not show. Finally we were on our way to Mabul and yes the captain at this point had our names which made us feel a little better about the entire trip.
The fast boat ride to Mabul took about an hour and as we arrived at the dock we were greated by a dive master and some welcome drinks of mango juice. He gave us the orientation of the resort, we signed our waiver papers and told us to be back at the port at 11:30 for the first orientation dive! Wow, we thought we'd take today to recover from 2.5 days of travel and get the underwater housing ready! Nope, not on Mabul! They require everyone to make an orientation dive to verify everyones skills so we were off to the "Fish Sanctuary" which is the "House Reef" made of old man made piers from older construction and was pretty cool in itself. The dive was approx. 45 minutes and we saw (to name a few) a crocodile fish, frog fish, batfish, morey and chain eels and many other species all in less that 45 feet of water. The visibility was pour (less than 40') with alot of particulates in the making photography a challenge. The DM told us that this is coral spawning season and that is what we are observing.
We got back to the dock and had one hour or so (14:30) to have lunch and back to Eel Gardens with another group. (we must have done well enough for the DM to put us in another group for the second orientation dive.) Eel Gardens was on a slight sloping sanding base with lots of muck critters with a steady 2-3 knot current and we were really Jonesing for our camera on this dive! So many macro shots and no time to set up the rigs... This dive lasted about 63 minutes with tons of air left in the tanks but hey, your in Borneo! We got back to the shore and cleaned up the gear around 16:00 and Alicia decided she needed a nap! But only for one hour... NOT! Three hours later we stumbled out for dinner around 20:00! After dinner we tried to connect up to the internet and it seemed that we were not able to connect due to the high volume of activity so were not able to post here. We went back to the room to set up the housings for tomorrow instead and give everything the critical attention needed to help avoid any accidents. We turned in around 23:30 Sunday evening after a full day of activity. It looks like while on Mabul we will be posting early in the mornings while everyone else is sleeping since connection opportunities are far better then.
More tomorrow as we will actually have cameras in hand and we will be diving 3 tanks around Mabul and Kapalai Islands.
As we arrived at the airport and collected the bags everything was intact and we were off and then all we had to do was find the guy from Journey Adventure World that will get us down the road 1.5 hours to Semporna. Sounds easy, right? Not... No one there to pick us up :( after traveling for 2.5 days! Bummer... Anyways we had to hire a cab for the trip which at 10 pm locate was uneventful yet too bumpy to sleep we made it to Semporna around 23:30 local time. We were concerned that the hotel would not have us scheduled for that stay since the transfer was not scheduled properly. However, alas we were into the Seafest for some much needed sleep!
We got up Sunday morning for breakfast wondering... "What's Next?" since we did not have a briefing as to where and what time we would get picked up for the boat transfer to Mabul. So after breakfast we decided to take a walk down by the pier to see if we could find the dock for "SMART" (Sipadan Mabul Dive Resort) departures and guess what? We were in luck... It was literally right across the street from the front door of the Seafest! Sweet! We talked to the captain of the boat and he said be back here at 9:00am... He did not have any names but knew he was picking up four passengers that morning. This looked promising...
We ended up departing around 9:30 from the port in Semporna around 9:30 as we waited for the other to passengers that did not show. Finally we were on our way to Mabul and yes the captain at this point had our names which made us feel a little better about the entire trip.
The fast boat ride to Mabul took about an hour and as we arrived at the dock we were greated by a dive master and some welcome drinks of mango juice. He gave us the orientation of the resort, we signed our waiver papers and told us to be back at the port at 11:30 for the first orientation dive! Wow, we thought we'd take today to recover from 2.5 days of travel and get the underwater housing ready! Nope, not on Mabul! They require everyone to make an orientation dive to verify everyones skills so we were off to the "Fish Sanctuary" which is the "House Reef" made of old man made piers from older construction and was pretty cool in itself. The dive was approx. 45 minutes and we saw (to name a few) a crocodile fish, frog fish, batfish, morey and chain eels and many other species all in less that 45 feet of water. The visibility was pour (less than 40') with alot of particulates in the making photography a challenge. The DM told us that this is coral spawning season and that is what we are observing.
We got back to the dock and had one hour or so (14:30) to have lunch and back to Eel Gardens with another group. (we must have done well enough for the DM to put us in another group for the second orientation dive.) Eel Gardens was on a slight sloping sanding base with lots of muck critters with a steady 2-3 knot current and we were really Jonesing for our camera on this dive! So many macro shots and no time to set up the rigs... This dive lasted about 63 minutes with tons of air left in the tanks but hey, your in Borneo! We got back to the shore and cleaned up the gear around 16:00 and Alicia decided she needed a nap! But only for one hour... NOT! Three hours later we stumbled out for dinner around 20:00! After dinner we tried to connect up to the internet and it seemed that we were not able to connect due to the high volume of activity so were not able to post here. We went back to the room to set up the housings for tomorrow instead and give everything the critical attention needed to help avoid any accidents. We turned in around 23:30 Sunday evening after a full day of activity. It looks like while on Mabul we will be posting early in the mornings while everyone else is sleeping since connection opportunities are far better then.
More tomorrow as we will actually have cameras in hand and we will be diving 3 tanks around Mabul and Kapalai Islands.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Hello from Kuala Lumpur
Well we have arrived into Kuala Lumpur and there is no room at the inn, so here we sit smelling bad in a airport with no air conditioning on the equator but hey only 1 more flight to go before we have a 2 hour bus ride to our hotel.... We are in really good spirits considering we have not slept.... at this point we are just slap happy so everything is funny. We are debating on whether we should give in and have a Starbucks or just be sleepy so when we actually hit the bed we will be really ready....
More tomorrow from Mabul Island our dive destination for the next week....
More tomorrow from Mabul Island our dive destination for the next week....
Arrived in SIngapore!!
Hi everyone! We made it to Singapore and are awaiting our next flight in 4 hours to Kuala Lumpur. The 2 flights coming to Asia where nice Singapore Airlines Rocks..... We did not feel we needed to take a room in Singapore as we did not feel to bad so we decided we will wait until Kuala Lumpur to see get a room and rest for awhile before our final flight to Tawau at 6:00 p.m. local time.
I will send my next entry from Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.....
Alicia and Greg
I will send my next entry from Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.....
Alicia and Greg
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Less the 24 hours to go!
Well the bags are packed and at the door. We are finishing up those last minute items. Our flight departs at 5:40 p.m. and our dear friend Adolpho is taking us to the airport at 3:00p.m. Our pets are going to be very well taken care of by Greg's mom and stepdad and we want to thank them for that. Our flight will be stopping in Moscow and as all us know there seems to be a hugh problem with smog in that part of the world. I have just checked and right know it still looks to be on time. For those of you who are interested our flight will takes us from Houston to Moscow and then on to Singapore. From Singapore we have a 5 hour layover and then on to Kuala Lumpur in Malyasia where we have a 6 hour layover. Finally we fly to Tawau Malyasia where we are transported for a night in Semporna Malyasia and then in the morning of the 15th we will be transported by boat to the island of Mabul. Here is a link to where we will be diving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nobryCDa4w
More from Singapore once we arrive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nobryCDa4w
More from Singapore once we arrive
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