Where's Scott?

We gear up at 7:30am and the boat leaves at 8 sharp — the scuba boat has twin 150hp motors and the water surface is very calm — in fact, the sea has almost no waves at all, and the boat tears through the water at full throttle; it only takes about 40 mins to get to the Sibuan, and our first impressions of the island is total disbelief — it’s straight out of a Hanna Barbera cartoon! Perhaps 1km long, a few palm trees, perfect golden sand beaches, and a few huts on stilts (present on all waterfront real estate in Malaysia) to add a human touch. It is… paradise, if a little unreal in it’s perfect replication of “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

We suit up and jump in — water, of course, is just ideal! 31C on the surface, and 28C most of the way down. The water’s not Hawaii clear, but the visibility is about 25m, and it is possible to lose the group (which of course we do *blush*). There’s tons of small stuff to see. Seb immediatly spots a tiny, bright red and yellow nudibranch; I immediately regret not having an underwater camera housing, but one of the other diver’s taking some excellent shots, so we get a few choice pictures later. The list of things we catch sight of is really extensive (and quite dull without the accompaniment of a few pics, sorry!) but I’ll leave it at “wow!”. My favorite sighting is of a 2ft cuttlefish (which I learn later was laying eggs with a 2nd); the colors that danced and rippled across its skin are something that I think even Lucasfilm would be hard pressed, no unable, to to dream up, let alone reproduce! I immediately abandon plans for my underwater camera case, and wish for a hi-def underwater video camera. I could have captured hours of footage that would have have been a joy on a 100in screen.

We enjoy a nice noodle lunch on the beach, and doze under a shade tree while the waves lap at the warm sand below us. Seb and I both agree that it can’t get much better than this… of course we have no idea of what awaits us the following day.