Category Dive Logs

Dropped off boat onto reef and finned out into blue keeping reef left shoulder. Light current. Descended to 36m. Saw a Manta above us at about 20m – a big one! Made our way back to reef and current changed in our face – medium. Turned around and slowly ascended up wall. I got a deco warning at 25m. Slowly ascended and finished safety stop in the shallows with batfish, white tip sharks, zillions of turtles, lionfish and a really nice sea cucumber. Great dive!

Dropped off boat onto reef. Viz not so good at first – lots of plankton! Made it down the reef wall to about 30m and finned out into the blue. A big Manta passed between us and the wall at about 20m. Stayed in the blue for about 15 mins looking for big stuff! Nothing this time except a couple of grey reef sharks cruising the reef wall below us. Kept reef right shoulder and drifted with current up wall and finished dive in the shallows. Saw areally nice giant clam. Cloudy day and wicked thermoclines – felt really cold! Happy to come up with 90 bar. Getting spoilt but really nice dive.

Dropped off boat onto reef and descended down wall to about 20m. Saw a beautiful Eagle ray – came real close. Then, above us 2 manta rays cruising the reef! Dropped a bit lower to 30m and then… a school of hammerhead sharks. Too many to count – must have been more than 30 in the foreground and shadows beyond. We finned towards them but they went away. Finned back to the wall and finished dive in the shallows with huge turtles, white tips, a lovely clown trigger fish, trevalies and loads of reef fish. Amazing Dive!!

Early morning dive out of Sipadan Dive Centre to Southpoint.

Dropped off the boat onto top of reef wall and then slowly descended down wall to about 33m and finned into the blue. Kept the reef wall just visible on left shoulder. Drifted with current and down to a maximum depth of 36.9 metres. And then… after about 10 mins spotted 7 hammerhead shark in the distance and at about 40m. As we approached them they swam away but 3 more came by – really close. Amazing!

Stayed a bit longer but only a lonely grey reef shark and a few big dogtooth tuna below us.

Finned back to reef wall ascending slowly up to 10m. Loads of reef fishes, fusileers, scorpion fish, green turtles and a huge shoal of jacks which I finished my dive amongst!

Really special dive!

Barracuda Point with a light current – rare occasion! Very relaxed descent to 30 m and drifted along wall (right shoulder). Big Barracuda and Dogtooth Tuna. Current picked up and whipped us over a coral plateau at about 26m. Lots of white tips and a school of chevron barracuda (about a metre long). School of Batfish and also a school of squid – amazing! Current slowed down a bit and we finished the dive between 5 – 10m with huge turtles (10). A very big titan triggerfish kept an eye on me … and so I kept an eye on him .. and kept my distance. Big shoals of fusileers and so many reef fish! This place is turtley awesome!!

Dropped off boat onto reef and down wall to about 25m. Stayed with wall (right shoulder). Nice soft corals and big seafans. Big school of dogtooth tuna passed directly underneath us. Saw 5 white tip sharks buzzing the reef wall. Bit of down current as we ascended and need to fin a bit to get up! Finished the dive in a about 5-6m and met a school of huge bumphead parrot fish. They were just breezing along the top of the coral wall eating huge chunks of coral and leaving a big ‘dust trail’ in their wake. Amazing creatures. Also saw a big stonefish. Really nice dive!

Early morning dive with Julius. Dropped off boat between South Point and Staghorn Reef. Slowly descended to 38m and into the blue looking for hammerheads. After 10 mins we spotted Manta Ray – 10 of them – just above us! They circled and came back. Julius counted 15 and the videographer 30!! Incredible! Finned back to reef wall and finished deco stop in shallows with a school of Jacks – thousands of them. A truly amazing dive – right up there among the best!!!

Dived with Julius and some Dutch, Italian and German Divers. Dropped off the boat and drifted into the blue for about 10 mins looking for big stuff! Current was very strong and we tried very hard to get back to the reef but the current turned into ourr faces – quite impossible! After a work out and gulping air – Julius aborted the dive and we made a slow ascent and a slightly longer safety stop. Surfaced about a mile from Sipadan!! Quite a ride and did see a big barracuda and a nice shoal of batfish before we said goodbye to the island!!

3rd Dive of the Day! Dropped onto reef and finned into the blue. Not so far away from the reef wall this time. 2 big grey reef sharks on the bottom shelf at about 60m. A few white tips buzzed the wall… that was it. Finned back to wall and ascended up to finish dive in the shallows with a shoal of Jacks! Nice dive!

Cuttlefish playing “now you see me, now you don’t” in the weed and my first John Dory – a very odd looking animal.