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Published: August 6th 2011
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So once again, an early start. This time 5am arrived and we were up and ready before the sun came up. We were going diving at Sipadan, so we needed to be ready to go at 6 - they only have a set number of permits to dive the area a day and you have one registered to you personally so your name is assigned one the day before so if you don't go, you still pay for the permit.
As we descended on the rig's lift, the sun was beginning to peek over the edge of the horizon and as we approached the registration point on the island itself, the sun was shining quite brightly in the sky.
The first dive off the boat was calm and we saw numerous tropical fishies. We were also lucky enough to see a few sharks (white tip and reef shark) and a turtle! I was very excited at this and almost swallowed half the sea and my regs at this.
We had a short surface break on the island itself and got to know the other divers on the trip. There was a family of Dutch divers, parents and 2
teenage girls; a chinese bloke who wasn't the most locquatious of types; and a father and son pair from Denmark.
Soon it was back in the water for dive 2 at the so called Barracuda Point of Sipadan. And did we see a single Barracuda? Did we balls! (Incidently, we could see them the following night from the rig... something which upset Daniel immensely) However, we did drop straight from the boat into a school of jackfish. It was a flowing wall of shining silver, staring eyes and shimmering scales. After nagvigating this, we almost swam stright into a school of Bumphead Parrotfish on the search for some more destruction.
The rest of the dive was relaxing, with excellent visibility and the sightings of about 6 or 7 more sharks and 5 turtles! Dan got so close to one shark, I thought it might have thought he was a dive-thru dinner! Easily one of the best dives of both of our lives, and there was nothing like the excited smile of Kas (the Dutch father) every time he surfaced at the end of each dive. You should be able to bottle his enthusiasm for diving and sell
it to all those who are not enamoured with the idea of being (and breathing) underwater.
Again a surface interval of an hour (naughty, naughty), a brew, and a painfully sharp dose of sunburn (didn't feel a thing at the time) before dive number 3. This time the visability wasn't as great, but we still managed to see a few more sharks and 2 more turtles. We also saw a moray eel and all of those tropical fish that takes more energy to type than I have. And a nudibranch (seaslug) that was red, blue, purple and white. First time I'd ever seen one and meh, it's just a colourful slug that can breathe underwater. Daniel, on the other hand, found the little tyke very cool.
Back to the rig for lunch. It was at this point that the bug had caught hold of Daniel and he decided to pay extra to do 2 more dives at Sipadan (with the Dutch parents). I on the other hand, knew I'd get nitro-narcosis (being drunk on too much nitrogen in the body) if I carried on, so I stayed on the rig reading and avoiding the sun for the afternoon.
Daniel had 2 great dives, or so he tells me. He saw tons more turtles and sharks, but the two best things he saw were the ghost pipefish and the red frogfish. Said that they were the two best dives he'd ever done and wished he could go back for more but, sorry Daniel, you aren't qualified to dive at night - hell you're not qualified to go down to the 25 metres you seem to have showing on your regs so one broken rule is enough for today - that's before we even get started on how little surface time you've had today.
We had a chilled night, chatting to the Dutch family, who tried to convice us to move to the Netherlands, their key selling point being the fact that, every May, you receive 8% of your salary off the government as what we can only describe as "holiday spends". To be fair, that is one hell of a selling point.
In slowly increasing agony from our burns however, we headed to bed to regain our strength for another day's diving...
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Dad
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Awesome
It all looks superb. Your obviously having a great time