Of Diving & Barracudas

Absolutely loved the Sipadan-Mabul islands - a diver's paradise, where I spent 5 days and 4 nights this past week. Being away from the polluted city life and taking in bouts of salty sea air by idyllic Mabul island did wonders for me. Life now seems fuller and brighter ... it must have been the continuous inhalation of nitrogen during my 10 dives!

Of the group of 17 divers, I knew only three of them - my dive buddy Anna, church friend Tammy, and a motoring treasure hunt acquaintance Joan.

There's so much I could write about, all of which would take weeks, perhaps months, to compile. Bits and pieces of memories are still with each of the divers.

But there were a couple of "breathtaking" moments that "made" the dive trip so much more memorable.

23 March 2007, 6 am dive @ Sipadan

The sun had yet to rise that morning. The view underwater was rather daunting. It was the dark, deep blue sea on my left and a huge coral wall (that stretched 600 meters down) on my right.

As we descended, we "bumped" into a school of giant bumphead parrot fish (pun intended!). Drifting with the mild current on our way to the famous Barracuda Point, we saw white-tip and gray reef sharks go by with occasional silhouette sightings of turtles and giant triggerfishes.

Towards the end of our 45-minute dive and hovering at 15-20 meters, divemaster Mika started banging her tank. The tank banging got louder and louder. Each diver hung onto rocks, in anticipation of the rush of "barracuda" traffic.

Photo by charleslwy88, webshot

In a matter of seconds, hundreds of silver, tornado-like barracudas whizzed by the busy ocean highway, all moving in one direction, while the strong currents swept corals, small fishes and possibly divers in the other. I grabbed whatever I could get my hands on in order not to be swept away. Others hung on for dear life. Many were breathing really hard and almost emptied their air tanks.

... which brings me to the second most memorable moment of this trip. A "breathtaking" experience for my friend Tammy, and certainly one that my dive buddy will remember for the rest of her life!

I realize that this may not be appropriate for me to blog about from a bystander's point of view, but you can certainly get the scoop from Tammy's blog :-)