Celebes Explorer 9, Sipadan Island, Malaysia

Dear Fellow Diver,

It was our last day of diving Sipadan, and I requested to see a school of big bumphead parrotfish known to forage in the shallows. Soon after we began our dive, five large bumpheads scurried past. I put my fist to my head, signaling to my guide, Ummi, but we could not catch up with them. It was still a fine dive, with the reef tops encrusted in colorful hard corals where small tropical fish dodged in and out, and a large African pompano made a couple of passes. But I was disappointed to be going home without achieving my bumphead photography goals. As I handed up my camera to the head divemaster, Tom, he shouted, "Wow, the bumpheads are right behind you!" He returned my camera, and I went after them to, at last, photograph six big bumpheads.

Jacques Cousteau "discovered" Sipadan Island, which is off the coast of Borneo, in 1988, and called it "an untouched piece of art." Quickly, it became the go-to dive destination, with scads of fish and turtles and even a cave where turtles went to die. Divers flocked to the island's primitive little resorts, but it lost some luster when, in 2000, Abu Sayyaf terrorists kidnapped eleven Malaysian resort workers and 10 foreign divers at dinner. They took them to Sulu in the Philippines and held them for ransom (see the sidebar). In 2004, Malaysia shut down the resorts and designated Sipadan a marine park.

Today, there are only two ways to dive Sipadan: by day boats from the mainland or resorts on Mabul or Kapalai islands or from the liveaboard Celebes Explorer 9. The Marine Park permits only 268 divers per day, but the demand from resorts is far greater, so some vacationing divers miss out. To be certain I would dive Sipadan, I booked seven days on the Celebes Explorer, which guarantees two morning Sipadan dives and two afternoon dives off Kapalai or Mabul, where the boat anchors at night.

After landing in Kota Kinabalu and clearing immigration and customs, carrying a bottle of duty-free Scotch that I had purchased in South Korea, we flew to the small Tawau Airport, where customs demanded that I pay duty, about half of what I had paid for the bottle. They had a crazy formula that somehow calculated the cost of the liquor, the alcohol volume, the bottle size, and, I believe, the thickness of my wallet. My Irish heritage wouldn't let good whiskey go down the drain, so I went to a nearby ATM, paid the ransom, wondering how many agents would get a piece of it, and then grabbed a cab to the Celebes' home port.

My friends, my husband, and I arrived early and overnighted in a hotel so that we could make three dives on boarding day. At 7:15 the next morning, we went to the Celebes office, filled out paperwork (Advanced Open Water certification is required), paid the $321/diver fee for diving and early transit to the Celebes, and soon boarded a small dive boat with our luggage for the 40-minute ride over trash-filled waters. Onboard, without being shown our room, we were told to suit up and assemble our dive gear (no time to unpack a swimsuit or assemble camera rigs). I grabbed my skin from my dive bag, which I wore for the two dives, lunch on Sipadan, and dive three. Sticky and salty, we caught up with the Celebes that evening anchored off Mabul Island.

Sipadan, a beautiful 30-acre volcanic island, rises 2000 feet from the sea floor. Our first dive was led by a new divemaster, Ummi, a cheerful Indonesian woman who slung tanks with the rest of the crew. It took a while to get her attention during our checkout dive when bubbles billowed from my alternate regulator. She wanted to descend deeper, but I wasn't following without stopping the freeflow. I smacked and purged it, then Ummi tried, even sticking her fingers in the exhaust holes, and my buddy gave it a few whacks. Finally, he unscrewed the cover and removed the diaphragm, temporarily resolving the problem.

As we descended a slope with healthy reefs and 55-foot visibility, I spotted a pair of solar boxfish and a colorful yellow-edged lyretail grouper. Ummi, who let us dive at our own pace, pointed out a prickly-looking ornate ghost pipefish and crinoid shrimp. On the next dive, we started shallow, where a school of large bumphead parrotfish poked about. One hovered over a coral head enjoying a once-over by a blue streak cleaner wrasse until a divemaster from a day boat blindly led his divers right over the cleaning station. Continuing the dive, I came upon six green turtles; two were head-to-head, biting at each other until they took off in a chase. Next to a coral head, a hawksbill turtle was repeatedly nibbling at its front flippers, and a huge green turtle wedged under a coral head scratching its shell back and forth. What's with all this biting and scratching? To cap off the unusual dive, three gray reef sharks, including one large, pregnant female, made a slow, close pass. This was one of the best dives of the trip, and here I was with no camera!

After lunch on Sipadan, we made a third dive on Mabul, a populated island nine miles away, with several resorts and good cell service. Visibility ranged from 30 to 40 feet. At first. I was a little disappointed with the low-profile reefs, rubble, and silty sand, but I began to see interesting life I didn't see on Sipadan, like a spiny devilfish that looked like a lump of detritus and a large purple and red frogfish. I spent a long time photographing flasher wrasses with erect, splayed, and flashing fins, performing courtship dances. During one dive, I shot eight species of nudibranchs and flatworms, including a yellow and black drifting Pikachu. I got chilly in my three-mil wetsuit and skin -- the water was 80°F with some cooler upwellings -- so I donned my two-mil hooded vest for the remainder of the trip.

At last, we returned to the Celebes, where we were herded into the salon for briefings. I asked what cabin I was in and dragged my suitcase down to get out of my damp dive skin. When I returned, I got the stink-eye from Dia, who said not to go to the rooms until she gave out the keys. I wasn't supposed to go to my cabin, I wasn't supposed to be in the salon in my wet skin, and I sure wasn't going to wander around the boat in my birthday suit. I couldn't win. A few "front of the house" staff members were introduced -- dive guides, room stewards (later Dia, a Malaysian who made sure the buffet stayed stocked and the guests were taken care of, shared a laugh when I explained why I snuck down to my berth).

When we finally settled into our room before dinner, like many of the spaces onboard, it was larger than expected. In addition to a wardrobe, storage cabinets lined the wall, and the modern bathroom had an on-demand water heater. However, a strong mothball odor permeated the room.

One doesn't dive from the Celebes but from tenders; one about 32 feet we used when we had nine aboard, and the other, 22 feet, when we had five. The crew loaded them up and helped with cameras, and after a short ride to the site, we geared up and took turns back-rolling in. Upon return, we handed up cameras and fins; plus the crew would pull up your other gear if you wished before you climbed the sturdy ladder. Each day, we checked in with the park rangers at Sipadan, who controlled the number of divers and handed over a flag to display on the boat.

Tom handled the briefings and was always whistling and singing, often "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." When I let out an "Oops" as I fumbled getting into the dive boat, he broke out into Britney Spears's "Oops, I Did It Again." Tom guided a Russian couple and "two tank Gerry," an admitted air hog from Great Britain. Maadil was the second divemaster and adept at finding critters; he led four divers in my group.

One afternoon, we dived off Kapalai Island Resort, the entire facility built over a shallow bank and just a short ride from Sipadan. Beginning over silty sand with 40-foot visibility at best, I followed Ummi down a rocky slope to the 80-foot bottom, which was dotted with dozens of unique structures shaped like huts, tubes, and towers to attract critters. And they did. A large cuttlefish hovered over a circular rope tower. At the next structure, I photographed a pair of dinner plate-sized blue-ringed angelfish, but I spooked half a dozen shrimp gobies that I hadn't seen due to the poor visibility. A camouflaged grouper stirred up a 4-inch nudibranch crossing the sand, where I also saw two blue dragon nudibranchs. Running out of bottom time, I followed Ummi back up the slope, where I contented myself with coral blennies, a large yellow margin moray, evasive fairy wrasses, and cryptic gobies. Ummi, with a good eye for a new divemaster, pointed out nudibranchs, crocodile fish, and even a cute juvenile solor boxfish.

Mornings began with a light breakfast of foods that would be available all day -- bananas, cereal, bread/toast, peanut butter, jelly, cakes, tarts, and lemon cookies. After the first dive, the hot breakfast buffet included fried eggs, chicken sausage or nuggets, fruit, and rice or noodles, which some found monotonous. Lunch and dinner included one or two meats, such as fish, beef, chicken, or seafood, along with rice, noodles, and steamed vegetables. Fried shrimp and Alfredo noodles were among the better offerings. The fried chicken and mashed potatoes were short-lived, as no one lit the burners that kept the food warm. On some afternoons, fried plantains were offered in the salon. The food sufficed. It's a budget boat.

The 35-meter Celebes was launched in 2019 and can accommodate 16 guests. The crew did a wonderful job, but the boat needs attention. During frequent rainstorms, the salon windows leaked, spilling water onto the seats. Windows also leaked in one of the double cabins on the main deck, and the occupants complained of musty, wet bedding and pillows. I moved into the other double room for my last three days, and things were better despite a small leak in the ceiling that dripped onto the floor. I suppose it's a small price to pay to get guaranteed diving on Sipadan.

Perhaps more concerning was the crew's failure to provide a safety briefing to review the muster area, no fire drills, or emergency exits. I saw no smoke or CO2 detectors; I wondered if the boat had a fire alarm. My only consolation was that we were generally in sight of land and other boats.

The dive deck had a rinse bin dedicated to cameras, but some divers dipped in their boots. After soaking my camera in it, I rinsed it under one of the two deck showers. The salon has plenty of tables, so divers used them to work on cameras. Most charged their batteries on side tables in the salons, where half the plugs where Type G with three flat pins, so it would be wise to bring an adapter.

Most dives on Sipadan begin around 75 feet, although a couple started at 95 feet, and we ended by off-gassing in the shallows. Sipadan's dives were the best, with good visibility, healthy coral gardens, sloping walls, and steep drop-offs. On one, we backrolled in over a drop-off draped with black coral and sea fans. At 80 feet, we drifted in a moderate current, which, curiously, changed direction at the corner. We zigzagged up the reef, spying a small gray reef shark in the blue and a dozen green sea turtles resting on the coral. Longnosed hawkfish perched in the black coral, and multibarred angelfish hid in overhangs. When I looked up, I'd see an occasional gray or whitetip reef shark and once a solo eagle ray. We worked our way up, drifting over a coral garden while spotting a barracuda funnel and a school of bigeye trevallies Sipadan is known for. While the reefs are pristine, the waters are a victim of rubbish. I admired an elegant lettuce coral as big as a truck, only to turn around and see an orange spine unicornfish pecking at a baby diaper. I usually collect trash but couldn't bring myself to grab the soggy diaper.

On one dive, a loud 'KABOOM' startled divers, and scared the fish into the crannies. My buddy looked stunned. We later learned from Ummi it was dynamite fishing, at an island "far away." Unfortunately, we heard it on a couple more dives.

While I was on the boat for seven days, due to scheduling peculiarities, it was booked as two separate trips: a four-day and a three-day trip, since the seven-day trip was unavailable during my time frame. I didn't know that the first day of the three-day trip, after a four-day journey, would have no diving as it was a "boarding" day. If I wished to dive, I needed to pony up another $325, as we did for the first day. My friends moved from the Celebes to the Smart Resort on Mabul for the next three days, and while their lottery number never came up to dive Sipadan, they enjoyed their diving.

I think the four-day trip was enough. It satisfied my curiosity. Still, it's a long way to travel for Indo-Pacific liveaboard diving that didn't measure up to my trips to the Philippines, Raja Ampat, and Komodo. That said, it's quite inexpensive compared to most liveaboards, though it's not a well-maintained craft, and I was uncertain about its safety, although it was never far from land. If the resorts on Mabul guaranteed dives on Sipadan, I would forgo the liveaboard for more comfortable and perhaps safer accommodations. Nevertheless, it was the only way to be assured of diving Sipadan, and I've now crossed it off my wish list.

-- K.M.J.

Our undercover diver's bio: "I began diving in 1991 while stationed at Andersen AFB, Guam, and my first dive trips were to Palau and Truk. Following Guam, I was fortunate to be stationed in Florida and Turkey where I was able to continue diving. I have made more than 3,000 dives in Florida and all around the world, including the Philippines, Indonesia, the Revillagigedo Islands, the Sea of Cortez, and the Red Sea. My passion is collecting photos of fish I've never seen before, and enjoy using my photos to contribute to science."

DIVER'S COMPASS: We booked through Dive the World (https://www.dive-the-world.com) . . . Bring Malaysian currency for incidentals on the boat, such as drinks. Tiger beer, $3; a bottle of wine, $23; sodas, $1. Everything, including park fees, is included in the price. $2706 for 7 days (except $321 for three dives the first day . . . On one itinerary, the boat goes to Semporna to refuel and exchange guests, and you must pay the $321-day trip fee if you wish to dive that day . . . Nitrox and larger tanks are not available. Rental gear is available for a fee . . . night dives at Mabul are an additional $34; they are not allowed on Sipadan . . . A taxi from the Tawau Airport to Sipadan was $32 for a large car that held two of us and all our gear comfortably . . . April through October is the best time to visit, when sea conditions are at their calmest and there is less rain and humidity.