Early start and we boated out of Semporna village to the dive centre pictured here at Mabul island. My first time iving in a house on stilits in the sea.
Only a couple of years ago nearby Sipidan island was invaded by pirates so I made sure I padlocked the door to my room and practiced hiding under the covers....just in case!
Sipidan island no longer has accommodation on in it as part of Malaysion eco measures which is a good thing. Its a beautiful place and they also limit the number of dive permits each day to preserve the reef. Today I was priveledged to do my first ever deep dive on the vertical 600 metre abyss rockface of Sipidan.
Chok carefully took me down past thirty metres into the new world of nitrogen narcosis. Harmless enough in itself and not dangerous to the human body but its side effect is you begin to lose your cognitive skills and then that puts you in danger. Think being drunk under the water at great depth and not realising it! Chok proceeded to write the maths calculation 316 x 10 on his underwater paper and I then wrote the answer. Chok gave the big ok and shook my hand under water. By this time the narcosis was making me feel very happy and I was delighted with the congratulations! Time to surface slowly to the safety stop at five metres. Too fast and your in trouble!
A stop for luch on Spidan island to be met by Monny the two metre monitor lizard looking for cakes! Monny was scared of nobody. Mony knows as a monitor lizard his bite contains nasty bacteria which the medical world still has no quick way to treat.
Back to the dive centre in Mabul to study my textbook and then go on a navigation dive where I doubt my compass at every turn but somehow it gets me home in time for sunset and more reading and questions on the dive textbook. Homework on my travels....whats going on!
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