Click to view attachment trip report seaventures diveplatform and komodo

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i had read a few years ago about the marine life and coral life around sipadan and put it on my list of places to get my hairy ass to.
3 weeks ago i was on a malaysian airways flight heading for seaventures dive platform. this is not the usuall type of accommodation that i would choose to stay in/on, but for the money it was a steal. i wasn't expecting any mod cons, actually i dont know what i was expecting. i knew that the diving would be exactly the same as if i stayed a couple of hundred metres away on the neighbouring island of mabul, or a 10 minute boat ride to water village of kapalai.
well the dive platform for those that do not know is a dis used oil rig which is permanently anchored off the island of mabul, 20 minutes from sipadan. we had booked a suite as they were larger than the standard rooms and i was very impressed with the size of it. it was very basic, but remember it was an oil rig a few years ago. the food was very good, which was mainly eastern fayre which i love. diving from the platform was easy, you would kit up, go to the lift and then be lowered down into the water. at the end of the dive it was a case of getting back to the lift swimming onto it and then being lifted up. the dive crew on the rig were very friendly and very entertaining.
diving under the platform was excellent, frogfish, nudi's, morays, pygmy's, crocodile fish, ghost pipefish, leaf fish etc..........the current did pick up in the afternoon most days and 530-630 was the last time you would want to be diving below. if you wanted to night dive on mabul, that wasn't a problem as it is literally a 5 minute boat ride away. the diving at mabul and kapalai was muck diving. mabul is an island with some coral around it and kapalai is a resort which is totally made up from water bungalows. we did land on both resorts for a sneeky look around and they both looked very nice. they were a lot busier than seaventures though and some of their dive boats had 20 divers on, as opposed to seaventures 10. one day that i was there it was louise and I and 2 other guests.
diving at sipadan was awesome. the corals were in fantastic shape and there were turtles and white tips every where. on a couple of dives we must have seen 50+ turtles. the currents were not too bad. the viz was on average 12-15 mtrs and on some days 30 mtrs. the highlight of the trip to sipadan for me was seeing the schooling barracuda at barracuda point. at least 1000 of them swimming in the form of a tornado with 2 meaty grey reef sharks inside of them. an amazing site i will never forget. the lowlight of the trip was having my macro set up on when the cuda showed up. all of the sites were very good, plenty of photo opportunities.
the course director on seaventures was called joseph and he was an old school diver from sipadan 25 years ago and i enjoyed listening to stories about when he took jacque cousteau diving in the caves that are under sipadan. he was very knowledgable and very intrested in promoting the seriousness of eco tourism, not only to tourists but to local schools and villages. he was keen to get every employee of seaventures diving, showing them what the tourists visit the area for and hoping that they would take this information back to their families and through word of mouth, keep the area as pristine as possible.

well one week and 27 dives later we were off on another malaysian airways flight to kuala lumpa for a stop over for one night before flying bali to board the mermaid 2 liveaboard. the mermaid operates out of phuket for half of the year running up to the similans and burma. the boat was absolutely stunning. very clean, spacious, and very well laid out. the crew were mostly thai, with the exceptions being the guides. there were four guides, one spanish " selso " and swedish " pj " one australian " kay " and one indonesian " zuggi ". all were very experienced and good at there job. travelling from bali to komodo was a long journey which was broken up by diving other reefs along the way. komodo reefs and the reefs on the other neighbouring islands are amazing. i have never seen such a big area of unspoilt corals. some sites were so dense with corals that it would be near on impossible to attatch a reef hook without it touching corals. the currents were very strong though and the dive briefings were very honest regaring them. actually the dive briefings were very good indeed. very precise and not to be missed. we see the mantas at manta alley and the current there was bad. the dive consisted of negative ascent, get down find a rock and hold on for your life. literally. i had my camera in one had, grasping a rock in the other, i was mid way up on the reef inside of the alley and my reg was trying to be ripped out of my mouth. my buddy was a few metres below me in the same situatuation. mantas were everywhere though. i couldnt even contemplate trying to set an f stop or adjust the appeture. i hit the shutter lever a few times and hoped for the best. after 10 minutes i was exhausted. my hands needed a rest and i decided to let go and try and re position myself better. this lasted for about a minute before i let go all together and i had to surface after 13 minutes to get rid of my camera. once i had drifted for 3 minutes at 5 mtrs i got into the rib and told the boat boy to drop me back in. there were mantas everywhere. in the rib and heading back to the drop point a dsmb hit the surface, the boat boy diverted to it and waited for the divers to surface. the first diver up was a dutch guy called neils and i could see that he was holding his hand and that blood was p1ssing from it. ive been bitten by a creture he shouted. sh1t i thought but at the same time i thought , hurry up and get in the rib so i can go diving again. well i did get back in got myself back to the rock where i was when i first dropped in. my wife fair play to her was trying to video the mantas still. she didnt notice that i had returned, i didnt even know if she knew i had gone. the guide was 8 mtres below us and i could see that he had let go of his rock and was fighting the current moving further up into the channel. he was soon out of site and i could hear his rattle. i looked down at my buddy and another diver seeing if they were going to follow. i was happy where i was, but if they went i was going also. the rattle kept going and the other diver took her chance and fought the current. my wife did the same and so did i. i could now see the guides torch flashing further along the channel. he signalled to be bumpheads and signalled the number 40. i had missed the schooling bumpheads at sipadan and i wasnt going to miss them here. finning like crazy and grabbing any rock i could i made my way out of the current to where the guide was. there were around 30 bumpheads schooling around the reef. these boys were big, with the largest being around 4ft. of course the mantas were still gliding past us but my attentions were now on the bumpheads. we spent another 15 minutes with them and the mantas and then it was time to ascend. when we got back to the mermaid neils finger had been dressed and we were told that it was a morays bite. he had put his hand over the top of a rock to hold himself in the current and must have put his finger straight into a morays mouth. luckily for him it was only a small moray. his glove was completely lacerated as was his finger. another site i have to talk about is castle rock. this is probably my favourite site i have dived. it is hard work, but very rewarding if you work hard. again the current is very strong there and i didnt even attempt to take a camera down with me. back roll, get down as fast as you can to 14 mtrs then work your way across the top of the reef going deeper and deeper heading east. it is very challenging and if you dont like currents you certainly shouldnt be diving here. once you are down to 26-30 mtrs it is just sharks, sharks, sharks. we only see white tips and grey reef sharks but in good numbers. travellies the size of dining room tables, yellow fin, dog tooth all the palaegics gather here. it is just a shame that i wouldnt chance taking the camera. the viz was 30-40mtrs. the best i have seen. crytal clear waters with so much activity.
we did do a shore trip to komodo to see the dragins and they are big. 3 mtrs long. we only see one on komodo, which i think is a pet one that the rangers keep there so visitors do get to see at least one. we did a 2 hour walk on komodo and didnt see any others there. we did see cokatoo's flying though which was nice as we have one ourselves. the neighbouring island to komodo is called rinca and the dive site there is called canibal rock. this was also a good dive site and was made even better when we surfaced to see 3 wild komodo dragons on the beach just metres away from us. this was better than seeing the tame one on komodo.
the water temperature does vary around the islands and does drop to 23c so it is important to take the correct suite with you. i dived in a full 3 mm wet suit on all but 2 dives, then i had a 3mm shorty over the top. one of the guides on the mermaid wore 2 7mm suits. 14 mm of neoprene. it isnt cold enough for that but if i had more weight allowance i would have taken my semi dry.
all flights were with malaysian and were excellent. all on time, no charges for being over weight baggage. good food, comfortable seats and good leg room.