Rickg
Contributor
My wife and I just returned to San Diego from a fanastic dive trip to Sipadan. I made a total of 35 dives in 9 dive days.We had a fantastic trip.
Three of us (myself and my wife and one guest from Germany) had the entire M/V Celebes Explorer to ourselves for their 2-9 DEC trip. I guess they had some last minute cancellations. Felt like we had our own private yacht. While on the CE we had 4 days dedicated to diving on Sipadan with 4 dives a day on WED, THU, FRI and 3 on SAT (the day the boat heads back to Semporna to prepare for its next trip that departs the following morning). To the best of my knowledge, the CE is the only way that you can do 4 dives a day at Sipadan Island. The norm for the day boats from the other resorts being 2 boats dives at Sipadan Island a day along with a 3rd boat dive at either Mabul or Kapalai. On WED, THU and FRI we also did a 5th night dive each night off of Mabul.
We then moved to Mabul Borneo Divers Resort from 9-12 DEC.
We really lucked out with the weather. Even though it is monsoon season we had perfect weather for every day of the trip except for the last dive day when it rained most of the time we were at Sipadan Island.
Diving was great. Much better than we were there in '00 and '01 and maybe as good as when we were there for the first time in '94. Looks like closing the dive resorts on Sipadan is going to turn out to be a good thing for the island.
We got to see everything we had hoped for with the exception hammerhead sharks. We got to see the school of barracudas on every dive at Barracuda Point and two of the dives we saw them twice, once at the beginning of the dive off of Barracuda Point and again at the end after heading up the sandy valley where the white tips can be found. The second time we saw the school of barracuda on the dive was in 40' of water near the end of our dives. These were large schools of barracuda numbering a 1000+ fish. We also saw large, solo great barracuda on several dives and a small school of yellowtail barracuda each time we dove Drop 2 (aka Turtle Cavern). Based on our observations on this trip I have to say the rumors that the barracuda were no longer at Sipadan are unfounded.
Also saw the school of bumpheads, school of jacks, some VERY large giant trevally along with smaller blue trevally, lots of white tips sharks, several large grey reef sharks, one leopard shark, dogtooth tuna, yellowfin tuna, Napolean wrasse, leaf fish, lots of nudis, all of the other various tropical reef fish that you would expect to see there and of course, turtles everywhere. A dive group from Thailand that was staying at Borneo Divers Resort while we were there saw a hammerhead and several devil rays on the same dive at Turtle Patch but we weren't that lucky.
We also got to see all of the usual suspects at Mabul and under the Seaventure such as nudis, leaf fish, juvenile batfish, juvenile sweetlips, ghost pipefish, ornate pipefish, seagrass pipefish, giant frogfish, decorator crabs, very small frogfish, mandarin fish, scorpion fish, crocodile fish, some very large groupers and various types of shrimp, to name a few.
I think this trip is probably the best dive trip that we've ever been on. We just wish is was closer to San Diego
Dive safe,
Rickg
Three of us (myself and my wife and one guest from Germany) had the entire M/V Celebes Explorer to ourselves for their 2-9 DEC trip. I guess they had some last minute cancellations. Felt like we had our own private yacht. While on the CE we had 4 days dedicated to diving on Sipadan with 4 dives a day on WED, THU, FRI and 3 on SAT (the day the boat heads back to Semporna to prepare for its next trip that departs the following morning). To the best of my knowledge, the CE is the only way that you can do 4 dives a day at Sipadan Island. The norm for the day boats from the other resorts being 2 boats dives at Sipadan Island a day along with a 3rd boat dive at either Mabul or Kapalai. On WED, THU and FRI we also did a 5th night dive each night off of Mabul.
We then moved to Mabul Borneo Divers Resort from 9-12 DEC.
We really lucked out with the weather. Even though it is monsoon season we had perfect weather for every day of the trip except for the last dive day when it rained most of the time we were at Sipadan Island.
Diving was great. Much better than we were there in '00 and '01 and maybe as good as when we were there for the first time in '94. Looks like closing the dive resorts on Sipadan is going to turn out to be a good thing for the island.
We got to see everything we had hoped for with the exception hammerhead sharks. We got to see the school of barracudas on every dive at Barracuda Point and two of the dives we saw them twice, once at the beginning of the dive off of Barracuda Point and again at the end after heading up the sandy valley where the white tips can be found. The second time we saw the school of barracuda on the dive was in 40' of water near the end of our dives. These were large schools of barracuda numbering a 1000+ fish. We also saw large, solo great barracuda on several dives and a small school of yellowtail barracuda each time we dove Drop 2 (aka Turtle Cavern). Based on our observations on this trip I have to say the rumors that the barracuda were no longer at Sipadan are unfounded.
Also saw the school of bumpheads, school of jacks, some VERY large giant trevally along with smaller blue trevally, lots of white tips sharks, several large grey reef sharks, one leopard shark, dogtooth tuna, yellowfin tuna, Napolean wrasse, leaf fish, lots of nudis, all of the other various tropical reef fish that you would expect to see there and of course, turtles everywhere. A dive group from Thailand that was staying at Borneo Divers Resort while we were there saw a hammerhead and several devil rays on the same dive at Turtle Patch but we weren't that lucky.
We also got to see all of the usual suspects at Mabul and under the Seaventure such as nudis, leaf fish, juvenile batfish, juvenile sweetlips, ghost pipefish, ornate pipefish, seagrass pipefish, giant frogfish, decorator crabs, very small frogfish, mandarin fish, scorpion fish, crocodile fish, some very large groupers and various types of shrimp, to name a few.
I think this trip is probably the best dive trip that we've ever been on. We just wish is was closer to San Diego
Dive safe,
Rickg
