My Best Day Diving
The world famous barracuda tornado at Sipadan
We all love scuba diving, that’s probably the reason why you’re reading this post right now and as divers we will tell ourselves we enjoy a day of diving even if truthfully it is a little bit miserable, cold or we don’t see very much. However, once in a while the stars seem to align and everything comes together for a magical experience. The dive sites aren’t crowded, the conditions are perfect, the fish and marine life we want to see all make an appearance and we feel at one with the surroundings and environment. During lockdown we have all had time to reflect on diving experiences both good and bad and I thought I would share what was my most magical day of diving at Pulau Sipadan in Malaysia back in 2019. It was one of those days where everything went as we had hoped and has really left an impression on me, in fact its the day I now compare and judge every other day of diving to!
The glorious sunrise over Kapalai Water Village
Pulau Sipadan, Malaysia
I have to say, Sipadan is my absolute favourite dive spot in Malaysia, possibly even Southeast Asia as well. I’d made my first trip here in 2017 and absolutely loved it, staying on Mabul, even though one morning we’d caught the tail end of a typhoon from the Philippines and it was a little bumpy on the way out to say the least. This experience hadn’t put me off so myself and my partner had decided on making another visit, this time staying at Kapalai, an over water resort around a small sand bank. We’d been here about 5 days already including one trip out to Sipadan itself but this was our last day before heading back and it turned out to be something really rather special. At Kapalai they put the names of the divers along with their destination up the night before and when we checked after our evening dive that day our were the only names up on the board on the boat heading out to Sipadan. This was already turning out to be pretty awesome, our own private boat to dive the world famous Pulau Sipadan, not bad! Over dinner that evening anticipation was rising and after a hearty dinner and a couple of cold beers we headed back to our water villa for an early night, we had to be at the dive centre at about 5.30am to head to Sipadan.
25th October, 0530 hrs - Kapalai Dive Centre
I’d already woken up before the alarm went off, such was the rising level of excitement and anticipation that I was already wide awake. The night before I’d prepared my camera and charged all my batteries - i was leaving nothing to chance, I didn’t want my camera or strobes failing me mid dive. I pulled on my board shorts and a t-shirt and along with my dive buddy made my way to the dive centre where all our gear had already been set up and was in the process of being transferred onto the boat. We were the only divers that morning so we weren’t crowded out and had bit of extra time to grab a hot coffee, mind the banded Sea Kriats that had made their way up onto the wooden floor of the dive centre and watch the sun rise turn spectacular shades of orange and purple as we slowly woke up. One we’d finished our coffees our dive guide for the day, Glen, motioned for us to make our way onto the boat where our gear was waiting for us along with the boat captain, his helper and the lady who had our breakfast as well. The water was like glass, barely a ripple on the surface and as the boat pulled away and sped up we could watch the sun rise turn ever more purple over the silhouetted outlines of Kapalai resort. Already this was a pretty spectacular start to the day and the boat journey only took about 25 minutes. Once we’d arrived at Sipadan we made our way off of the boat and onto the island where we were greeting by the site of a large female green turtle making her way back down the beach and into the water having just laid here eggs. We registered with the marine park warden in his office on the jetty and quickly made our way back to the boat to check our gear and get ready for the first dive of the day at Barracuda Point.
Dive #1, 0624 hrs - Barracuda Point
Whitetip & Grey Reef Sharks
On the way over to Sipadan in the boat Glen, our guide had asked us where we wanted to dive as we were the only divers on the boat that day, we’d both replied in unison that we would like to start off with Barracuda Point to look for bumphead parrotfish and schooling barracuda. We backrolled into the water and once we had all gathered at the surface and after giving the “ok” signal we descended beneath the surface. We were immediately greeted by a school of bumbled parrotfish hanging around in the shallows on the reef - success! We stayed here for about 10 minutes watching them go about there business, coral going in one end and sand coming out of the other! It was pretty special to watch but after a little while Glen signalled that we should move on so we gently swam towards where the reef gave way to a sharp drop off and where the current picked up at bit. Waiting for us out in the blue was the famous school of barracuda that gives the site its name, swirling around in a tornado formation that is just mesmerising to watch. Watching this can get a little disorientating and you do need to have aware of your surroundings and depth as its very easy to get totally wrapped up in the display that mother nature is putting on and find yourself way too deep and approaching no decompression limits! We bottomed out at 30m and after a few minutes the barracuda formation broke up and we went on our way, drifting along with the current watching out for what might be next. Our luck was definitely in, the current had picked up a fair bit and was pretty strong which was actually good news as this meant that the resident reef sharks had come out to play in it, we grabbed on to some rocks being careful not to disturb the corals and watched as about 10 to 15 reef sharks swam about in the current - it was actually quite hard work to stay in one spot and not get carried off by the current but it was worth it, whitetip and grey reef sharks were swimming about just beneath us without a care in the world. After a few minutes it was time to move on again, we needed to start shallowing up steadily as we drifted along with the current, as we did turtles were swimming about us everywhere and we ended up in the shallow reef alongside a school of batfish while we waited out our 3 minute safety stop. When our time was up we surfaced we massive grins on our faces and let out a missive whoop! The boat came to collect us and as we climbed up the ladder we excitedly jabbered on about what we had just seen.
As we dried off the boat took us to the island for our surface interval and we were treated to a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, noodles and coffee. There weren’t many other dive groups out either so while no the only people diving there that day there were not many others. We warmed up in the sunshine before Glen cam over to speak to us tasing which site we would like to dive next……..
Batfish in the shallows at Barracuda Point,
A green turtle watches a school of jackfish above
Dive #2, 0824 hrs - South Point
When Glen asked us which dive site we’d would like to go to next there was only one possible answer, South Point. Its home to the resident school of jack fish and also is the site where you have the best chance of spotting some of the even larger marine life such as manta’s and whale sharks. We were feeling lucky after our day so far so we decided it would be worth going on the lookout for something spectacular. As we climbed back onto the boat our tanks had been changed for us and we pulled our rash guards and geared up. The boat took a few minutes to speed round to the other side of the island and as luck would have it we were the only boat there. Another good omen!
We back rolled into the water again and as we descended immediately found the school of jacks, there were thousands of them at just about 10m depth. We played around here for a while, swimming towards them and watching the school part as we did. I stopped to get some photos of the show and even the green turtles seemed to get in on the act, seemingly posing whilst the jacks swam overhead which made for a fantastic photo opportunity. It felt magical and just as we were about to swim off we saw the school of jack seemingly chase off a reef shark that was getting too close for comfort. The stars were definitely aligning today for us. We swam off, leaving the jacks alone to recover from our intrusion and went off is search of something bigger and more exciting. Heading off towards the drop off and out into the blue our eyes were focussed straight ahead of us, around us turtles and whitetip reef sharks swam but this time they didnt really seem to register, we were on the lookout for other, bigger prizes now. We swam in formation, Glen at the front, my buddy second and myself bringing up the rear, my eyes felt like they were saucers, so wide, staring out into the great blue, looking and hoping that they would catch a glint or movement that would turn into something much larger. I was in luck. All of a sudden I saw a dark outline and then an eye looking at me, it seemed familiar but for a second or two I couldn’t work out what it was, then all of a sudden my brain clicked into gear - a hammerhead shark - yes, an actual hammerhead. Mind blown! I squealed into my regulator to get the attention of the others and as they turned around they saw it just in time for it to swim off. The shark had obviously been curious and come to check us out, but then between the bubbles and my squealing it had decided that these intruders into his underwater world were of no real interest and buggered off! My heart was still pounding with the excitement, I had wanted to see a hammerhead shark for as long as I could remember and now I had actually seen one. All of a sudden it dawned on me that in all of the excitement I had forgotten to take a photograph, damn it! Still, the picture was well and truly etched into my brain and is one I will never forget. The rest of the dive seemed to pass by almost inconsequently and I couldn’t contain my joy as I broke the surface after our safety stop - we’d seen what we’d always wanted to see and had hoped to, a hammerhead shark. The day couldn’t get any better! We climbed back aboard the boat and headed back to firm ground for lunch and to talk about the shark we’d just seen. I was grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat. The surface interval seemed to pass by in a flurry and before I knew it, it was time to climb back aboard the boat and head out for our final dive of the day. Glen recommended that we go back to barracuda point as from the boat he could see there was a school of bumped parrotfish in the shallows again
Dive #3 1021 hrs - Barracuda Point
Bumped parrotfish surround my dive buddy
We dropped in a bit closer to the dive site known as “The Drop Off” and were immediately greeted by a huge school of bumped parrotfish, I’d seen aggregations of them before but never this many. There must have been more than 50 swimming around as a group just where the reef gives way to a sharp, precipitous drop off. The seemed to swarm around as we swam along, it really was quite an amazing site to behold. I always knew these fish were big having seem them several times before but had never seen this many at one time before and they are big, really big. They stayed with us for a few minutes before getting bored and moving on as we gently drifted along with the current. I felt completely relaxed and in tune with my surroundings at this point and spent the time marvelling at the beauty all around. There were so many turtles on this dive that I lost count, maybe more than 30 at a guess, a Napoleon wrasse made an appearance too with its big bulbous forehead making it instantly recognisable. While not as insane as the two preceding dives this was a dive that on any other day would be the best of the day or the highlight of a whole trip, but such is the way of Sipadan that even the sight of 50 bumped parrotfish can become blasé! We shallowed up and clambered back aboard the boat, exhausted but happy. The sea was still flat as a pancake and as we sped back to the resort I felt absolutrely blessed and extremely lucky to witness what I had seen today. Few days of diving will ever come close to this but that wont’t stop me trying.
We arrived back at the resort and hauled our tired bodies under the shower, the water was nice and warm after heating up in the brilliant sunlight all day and got changed into clean, dry clothes. Lunch was served in the main dining room and slowly our bodies came back to life. After this there was even time to squeeze in a fourth dive of the day later on the house reef where we were treated to macro delights such as ornate ghost pipefish, yellow boxfish and colourful nudibranchs
We completed the day watching the sun go down relaxing with a few cold beers feel like we were the luckiest people on the face of the earth, we probably were that day.