SIPADAN / MABUL

Been asked to put a trip to Sipadan ( or region ) together for mid January. ( 2-3 weeks ) Wondering what the members have got to say about this time of the year.

We are pretty keen for few fish ( schools ) and some blue water. We know we can always fall back on the macro world.

Any members got anything to say on this region around Jan / Feb time

Really looking for expert experienced opnion from those who have been there and would know.

Ta in advance

Peter

Peter

On paper, Jan-March is the bad weather season (SW monsoon). I've been to Sipadan 6 times, once during Feb. Other times have been in the "prime" Jul/Aug when viz is suppose to be brilliant. Well 2 times, viz in Aug was terrible, worse than Feb. In fact, we didn't see any big schools of jacks, maybe 50-100 vs the 000s and the cudas were spread out wide.

What I'm saying is the winds are up in Jan-Mar, no doubt. Viz is less than the high season but not the worst I'd seen there (that went to Aug/Sep 2001). One storm can make the viz go crap and that's regardless of time of year.

More importantly, I went in the days where you could stay on Sipadan. If I had to take the 30minute boat ride daily to Sipadan in that rough sea (relatively) and get splashed silly before getting into the water. I'd rather just do local dives in Mabul.

If you are going though, please keep us informed about the new restaurant being built there. Seems Tuan Musa is determined to build his clubhouse there.

Dru thanks for the info.

I have been hearing mixed reports on large schools of fish ( perhaps it is just my perception of large ) - I wonder if thay are becoming depleted ......

I'll be there in 6 weeks for the underwater photo week, so I can post my opinion of any changes in the schools of fish when I get back. Hopefully, along with some descent pictures, too.! This will be my 2nd trip there, but it was April and the viz was great along with the schools of fish. Anybody else going to be there for photo week?

Really looking for expert experienced opnion

I'll say up front I don't claim to be an expert on January vis at Sipidan

Other times have been in the "prime" Jul/Aug when viz is suppose to be brilliant. Well 2 times, viz in Aug was terrible, worse than Feb.

We just did Sipidan August this year and the vis was really really bad. Another couple we met diving at Layang Layang had been two weeks before us and they described it as soup ... I think ours was chicken noodle and their's pea

I have been hearing mixed reports on large schools of fish ( perhaps it is just my perception of large ) - I wonder if thay are becoming depleted ......

We saw 3 schools of Jacks and 1 school of baracuda in 10 days (some days to Sipidan were canned because of the winds, but still thats the photo ops we got from the time there).

They were not huge schools in comparison to my experiences of the 'cuda and jack schools in the Solomons, esp. those at Mary Island

HTH

Leander

I'll say up front I don't claim to be an expert on January vis at Sipidan

We just did Sipidan August this year and the vis was really really bad. Another couple we met diving at Layang Layang had been two weeks before us and they described it as soup ... I think ours was chicken noodle and their's pea

We saw 3 schools of Jacks and 1 school of baracuda in 10 days (some days to Sipidan were canned because of the winds, but still thats the photo ops we got from the time there).

They were not huge schools in comparison to my experiences of the 'cuda and jack schools in the Solomons, esp. those at Mary Island

 

HTH

Leander

Back from the January Expedition. Had a great time dived sipadan 2 tanks mosts days and came back to mabul for the muck & crittures.

Had the encounter with the large shool of jacks , missed the parrot fish , plenty of turtles.

Excelent guides ( Harris ) and support from the team at Borneo diver.

Generally a great trip weather conditions that were less than ideal - but we knew that going in., so overall 10 /10 trtip.

We all got the shots we wanted ( nearly )