A MONKEY'S DREAMCATCHER: SIPADAN ISLAND - THE FAMOUS BARRACUDA POINT DIVE SITE

Monday, July 20, 2009

SIPADAN ISLAND - THE FAMOUS BARRACUDA POINT DIVE SITE

The ULTIMATE 50m High BARRACUDA VORTEX. I still can't believe it. We saw the Vortex twice. I have to say our group were extremely lucky coz we had great weather, excellent visibility on all our dives in Sipadan with an estimated 50 - 60 m clear blue water & we had just about everything else we wanted to see there on that day.

And the best part is its my first time to Sipadan Island and I got to see the famous Barracuda Vortex. Unbelivable! One of the instructors with us has been to Sipadan 8 times before this trip and didn't get to see the vortex. Finally on this day with the rest of us Divers he saw the vortex! You know who you are if you're reading this :D. I'm sure it must have felt great.

First dive early in the morning & our 3rd Dive. This vortex was way larger than the morning one. The morning vortex was about 20-25m high & that to me was like WOW! It was also a much more organized one. The barracudas were swimming more of a circular motion rather than the larger one we saw on our 3rd dive. This large vortex they were a lil off formation. But still it was like a wall of barracudas. They were like in the Thousonds! You have to see it to believe it! It is my best Dive to date!
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We all just kept swimming towards it taking videos & pictures. They were heading into the Blue. Special thanks to our awesome Dive Master Jimmy for keeping an eye on us by staying ahead of us.
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The thousands of Barracudas slowly fade into the blue.
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SCHOOLING JACKS also forming a VORTEX! This Jacks Vortex was directly below us when we got off the boat. We were like WOW! The vis is fantastic! Straight away everyone couldn't wait to decend.
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Jacks Vortex! AWESOME!
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Jacks fading into the Blue.
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And the JACKS are here again with us Divers.
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SCHOOLING JACKS!
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WHITE TIP SHARK looking at us very carefully. I think the shark was either very worried or very annoyed coz we were pretty close to it & taking pictures. I was bout 2 - 3 feet away. It was pretty funny though looking at his eyes coz of the way it was observing all of us.
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WHITE TIP SHARK!
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The very large Yellow Tail Barracudas. These fellas travel alone just like the Great Barracudas. Don't wanna mess around with them.
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Once again the DROP OFF!
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WHITE TIP SHARK chilling on the seabed.
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More WHITE TIP SHARKS chilling. They are everywhere in Sipadan.
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WHITE TIP SHARK Crusing the island's reef.
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Beautiful Juvenile Common Lionfish. I like them better when they are young coz they are Black.
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Juvenile Common LIONFISH.
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Some sort of GOLD SPOTTED FLAT WORM. This flat worm is beautiful I have to say. ATSY managed to spot this fella during a 5 knot Drift dive! Don't know how she managed to spot it.
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I told you I always lookout for these CLOWN TRIGGERFISHES. They are my favorite triggerfishes. Can't miss them when u see one even if its a baby. Trust me I've beeen lucky to see a baby Clown Triggerfish and they are really cute!
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CLOWN TRIGGERFISH.
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Sleepy Green Turtle.
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ATSY giving the Peace sign. She was definitely happy!
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As you can see in this picture, we're all smiling and we just couldn't stop smiling. The beauty of Sipadan just blew our minds!
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Me & Our cool Dive Master Jimmy! Thanks for keeping an eye on us throughout the Sipadan trip.
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ATSY with Dive Master Jimmy!
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We just could not believe it. It was an unbelievable mind blowing experience for all of us Diving at Sipadan.
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ATSY is clearly not dissappointed!
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Already missing SIPADAN ISLAND!
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Cool dude Charlie is probably the luckiest Open Water Diver ever. Did his course during this trip with us and then leisure dives at Sipadan. Not only that he has seen the BARRACUDA VORTEX! He's the luckiest really.
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All Divers please go into the website www.n7w.com and VOTE FOR SIPADAN for the newest 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD! We Malaysians should be proud that Divers from all over the world come to Malaysia to dive at Sipadan Island. Every year Diving magazines rate Sipadan Island the Top 10 Diving site in the world and I believe its true because I have Dived Sipadan before & its underwater beauty is far more beautiful than you can ever imagine!
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