Another day diving. How boring. I think not.

20/1 - Up for a repeat of yesterdays serious breakfast. I need the energy and it is lovely.
Off to Ribbon Reef first today, just of Pulau Mabul. This is a long lazy dive, a good start to the day. I'm surprised how many turtles there are cruising by. One has 3 remoras cleaning it up, big remoras, so the turtle must have been big too. The remoras look like fish from outer space, weird. There was a beautiful, juvenile batfish, chocolate brown with a red trim. A good job the ladies never saw it, they'd have scoffed it. This is a good dive to practice buoyancy. Once you get this right, gliding through the water is such a great feeling. Just a gentle kick and you glide along floating through the water, no fighting going up or down, as you glide if you want to glide over an approaching fan coral, just breath in and you drift up as your lungs fill. If you want to drop to check what is under the huge table top coral below, just breath out and down you go. You will have to do it to understand how great it feels. This dive is over after a long hour of gliding.
NEXT... after a brew and a snack, Froggy lair. Guess what we saw??? Close !!! A frogfish, my first and bright yellow/green, only a small lad, but nevertheless my first and good to see. This is another enjoyable dive. There's lots of scaffolding, frames and a boat to float around, scrutinising for whatever may be there. I didn't have to do much scrutinising for the shoal of jacks patrolling inside one of the frames. They were circling around inside the framework, very impressive. As usual, there are plenty of soft corals and I never get fed up of watching the anenome/clown fish, Nemos, protecting their hideaway. They are as cute and as fun as Nemo and very brave too. The water got a bit murky towards the end of the dive and the group was split in two, but Fei saved the day, he had spotted which way the other went. We had become distracted by a Spanish dancer Amir, the dive guide, had found. They are flatworms, very colourful, this one was black with a red trim. When lifted up through the water, they ripple as they dance their way back to their resting place. Seeing it is better than the description. Anyway, time is up again, so back to the rig and some dinner before trip 2 to Sipadan. The journey is about 20 minutes to Sipadan and there are always flying fish, gurnards along the way and I am sure I spotted some dolphins, but there were more doubters than believers. At Sipadan this time it was another drift along the wall from West Point before we are landed at a deserted beach for tea, butty and cake. I thought it was only allowed to land at the army base. Shows how much I know. I was really impressed this morning how the diving had improved my knee. I should have known better. I went over getting off the boat, so now I have a bruised backside too. I must have been rushing for the cake. It was a bit of a jolt, but I went for a float in the water and then the next 2 dives put me back on track. The diving really does clear it up. It looks like I shall have to have a life of diving. The next Sipadan dive is Turtle Cavern. This is a bit of a cave complex in the wall where some turtles have gone in and not been able to find there way out in the dark, so there are some turtle skeletons in here. 2 Japanese divers were found in here, also dead, lost like the turtles. DON'T WORRY, we have a guide and with my sense of direction, how could we get lost???? There was 7 of us went in and 7 came out, so that can't be bad. Not the same 7, but hey, you can't have everything.
Cave diving is not my thing. There's not a lot to see, at least not in this one. We saw the turtle skeleton, but no Japanese. Once the bottom gets disturbed the vis becomes bad and disorientating and in pitch black, it must be very disorientating. I would like one more go, with less of us, so the bottom doesn't get disturbed. I had a peak over the wall behind the turtle skeleton and it opened out into what looked like a cavern. It would have been nice to have a quick look, but there were too many of us. Paul said coming out with divers silhouetted in the light of the mouth was a good sight. No arguments here, it was. Once out we drifted along the wall again. It may sound boring, all this drifting along the wall, but only if you didn't want to be down here. Perhaps a comparison is driving through the Scottish Highlands and not noticing the mountains, blue skies, eagles soaring. There is a wonderful experience to be had if you are open to it. There's the expectancy of looking out into the blue and spotting a whale shark, manta or eagle ray. They didn't appear, but you never know, so keep glancing to the blue. Besides, if I get bored I can always do my turtle imitations. They just waft their flippers and go miles and fast, if they wish. They look cumbersome and sometimes are, but who cares when you live in an armoured car. They always manage to get to the piece of coral they want to munch and just glide into the small cutouts on the wall for a kip.
Alas, another dive and another day at Sipadan is over, so clamber back onboard and back to the rig, looking for the flying gurnards, or anything else you may spot, who knows perhaps that illusive manta ray.
A night dive is in the offing. Sitting at breakfast this morning the thought was "There's no way I'm doing 5 dives today, especially the last one, being a night dive. It's infectious though. It is like our Mandy opening a bottle of wine and saying she is only going to have one glass. I get up in the morning with aches and stiff, but after one dive, I feel like a million dollars. This is no bull, no aches after one dive. I don't know if its the effects of the water pressure or the adrenaline buzz, who knows. I should start every day with a dive. If only!!! Anyway, in case you haven't guessed, with some gentle persuasion from Paul and the loan of Chuan's torch I went and it was brilliant. The first night dive I have really enjoyed and my second frogfish and this one was a monster. It got a bit crowded around it, so after everyone moved on, I went back for a 2nd peek. This is a wonderful world down here, we saw all sorts again, but it is safety stop time again.
Last night from the rig main deck, we were watching a big school of rainbow runners, a very big school, with a few barracudas on the outside. Tonight they came to check us out at the safety stop, thousands of them, so a few of us drifted out to them, like Mr Barracuda last night. This was a smashing experience and completely unexpected, a great way to end the dive. Getting out at the rig is made easy too. The hoist lad lowers it into the water, so we just swim on and stand up, a bonus for me and the others too, they are pleased. Up for dinner, fill the dive log in and bed for this well and truely knackered, happy lad. If only we could feel this good when we come in knackered from work.
The adventure just continues on.