Arturo
Contributor
I was aboard the Celebes Explorer from March 01 to March 05, 2009. The trip report follows. My excuses to fellow dives for not including pictures, but I have never been an underwater photographer.
I arrived on Tawau airport on an early Sunday morning AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to find the pickup man from the Celebes organization waiting to drive me, and another diver, to Semporna to board the boat. A comment about AirAsia and divers: on this trip, I took several flights with this low cost airline. Their planes are clean and modern and all their flights were always on time, much like Swiss trains. However, and this is the fine print, they strictly stick to 15 Kg (about 32 pounds) maximum dispatched luggage per passenger (and they charge about US$ 5 per additional Kilogram). Since I was carrying my diving gear, on the first flight I ended up paying more for excess luggage than what the ticket had costed me. However, later I found out that they have a special treatment for divers that would allow you to dispatch the diving gear luggage (the second one) for only about US$ 12. And it worked wonderfully for me, even on an international flight with AirAsia.
We were only seven divers aboard the Celebes Explorer on that week. The boat can take as much as 16 divers, so most of us got a cabin for ourselves. Four Japanese divers, two French divers and myself composed the group.
The two divemasters, Tom and Jerry, decided to split the work: Jerry stayed with the Japanese group, while Tom took charge of the couple french divers and myself. Tom proved to be a funny character, with a very good English, and an extraordinary keen eye to spot macro stuff that, otherwise, would have gone unnoticed to our eyes. All the divers were quite experienced, and the dive masters recognized that, so during the dives we were able to move freely at our own pace.
We did two dives on Sunday on Mabul, 10 dives on Sipadan on Monday and Tuesday and 5 dives on Si Amil on Wednesday. I left the boat on Thursday to fly to Sandakan, but they were going for 5 dives to Kapalai on Thursday.
This was my first trip to the Celebes Sea, so there is no way to compare with what the site might have been ten years ago. However, I am a seasoned diver and had read a lot about Sipadan conditions and diving permit situation before the trip. These are my conclusions:
a)In spite of overexploitation, I consider Sipadan still is a world-class dive site. Barracuda point never disappointed us (in a way, reminded me of Blue Corner in Palau). Hundreds of swirling barracudas, dozens of juvenile white tip sharks, a large napoleon wrasse and dozens of turtles. Sometimes the current was quite strong, but nothing that couldnÃÕ be handled, even without a reef hook. South point rewarded us with a couple leopard sharks; drop off was awesome and white tip avenue surprise us with several cuttlefish. A sad note: on a couple dives we were taken by surprise and shaken by big explosions. Illegal dynamite fishing performed some miles away caused Tom, our dive master, said.
b)Si Amil proved to be a macro paradise. All colors and sizes of leave fishes, one pigmy seahorse, yellow frog fish, pipe ghost fish, blue ribbon eel, tiny cuttle fishes, a giant mantis shrimp, and many more that, not being a photographer, my memory can not retain.
c)A final comment on the diving permit situation. A strict 120 maximum divers per day limit is imposed by local authorities. Every diving boat is required to ask each individual diver to sign the log book at the Sipadan rangers office. There, they keep a board listing how many divers each operator is authorized for the day and the total count must not exceed 120. The Celebes Explorer did not have any troubles in obtaining permits for the seven divers aboard. They told me this is always the situation with the liveaboard, because they can bring, at most, 16 divers. This is not the situation with the remaining resorts and operators, which with full occupancy on high season usually on most days can not take every register diver to Sipadan.
I arrived on Tawau airport on an early Sunday morning AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to find the pickup man from the Celebes organization waiting to drive me, and another diver, to Semporna to board the boat. A comment about AirAsia and divers: on this trip, I took several flights with this low cost airline. Their planes are clean and modern and all their flights were always on time, much like Swiss trains. However, and this is the fine print, they strictly stick to 15 Kg (about 32 pounds) maximum dispatched luggage per passenger (and they charge about US$ 5 per additional Kilogram). Since I was carrying my diving gear, on the first flight I ended up paying more for excess luggage than what the ticket had costed me. However, later I found out that they have a special treatment for divers that would allow you to dispatch the diving gear luggage (the second one) for only about US$ 12. And it worked wonderfully for me, even on an international flight with AirAsia.
We were only seven divers aboard the Celebes Explorer on that week. The boat can take as much as 16 divers, so most of us got a cabin for ourselves. Four Japanese divers, two French divers and myself composed the group.
The two divemasters, Tom and Jerry, decided to split the work: Jerry stayed with the Japanese group, while Tom took charge of the couple french divers and myself. Tom proved to be a funny character, with a very good English, and an extraordinary keen eye to spot macro stuff that, otherwise, would have gone unnoticed to our eyes. All the divers were quite experienced, and the dive masters recognized that, so during the dives we were able to move freely at our own pace.
We did two dives on Sunday on Mabul, 10 dives on Sipadan on Monday and Tuesday and 5 dives on Si Amil on Wednesday. I left the boat on Thursday to fly to Sandakan, but they were going for 5 dives to Kapalai on Thursday.
This was my first trip to the Celebes Sea, so there is no way to compare with what the site might have been ten years ago. However, I am a seasoned diver and had read a lot about Sipadan conditions and diving permit situation before the trip. These are my conclusions:
a)In spite of overexploitation, I consider Sipadan still is a world-class dive site. Barracuda point never disappointed us (in a way, reminded me of Blue Corner in Palau). Hundreds of swirling barracudas, dozens of juvenile white tip sharks, a large napoleon wrasse and dozens of turtles. Sometimes the current was quite strong, but nothing that couldnÃÕ be handled, even without a reef hook. South point rewarded us with a couple leopard sharks; drop off was awesome and white tip avenue surprise us with several cuttlefish. A sad note: on a couple dives we were taken by surprise and shaken by big explosions. Illegal dynamite fishing performed some miles away caused Tom, our dive master, said.
b)Si Amil proved to be a macro paradise. All colors and sizes of leave fishes, one pigmy seahorse, yellow frog fish, pipe ghost fish, blue ribbon eel, tiny cuttle fishes, a giant mantis shrimp, and many more that, not being a photographer, my memory can not retain.
c)A final comment on the diving permit situation. A strict 120 maximum divers per day limit is imposed by local authorities. Every diving boat is required to ask each individual diver to sign the log book at the Sipadan rangers office. There, they keep a board listing how many divers each operator is authorized for the day and the total count must not exceed 120. The Celebes Explorer did not have any troubles in obtaining permits for the seven divers aboard. They told me this is always the situation with the liveaboard, because they can bring, at most, 16 divers. This is not the situation with the remaining resorts and operators, which with full occupancy on high season usually on most days can not take every register diver to Sipadan.
