The Wayfarer: Diving Sipidan

Inside the Jackfish "Tornado"

Leave it to Alex to find the best scuba diving sites on earth… Ranked the #1 dive site on the planet, Sipidan truly is the best the world has to offer. Thousands of different marine life and coral specimens call the waters round this small island home. The only improvement would be to sink a big ship nearby for an awesome wreck dive. Six days of diving ahead of us, there was no time to waste. After arriving late in the evening from Tawau (a 2hr drive west) it was straight to bed. Like children dreaming of sugar plums on Christmas Eve, excitement was hard to overcome. Before I knew it, the morning light crept through our window.

Sipidan Island, from the boat.

Day 1: Enriched Air Nitrox. Three dives to get us certified and prepped for the real challenge - Cavern Diver Certification. One of the ultimate courses in recreational diving, Cavern Diving has no textbook, no proper course. Only a professional cave diver can instruct it, and it is simply pass with flying colors, or fail. There are no mistakes allowed. Our instructor, Gerhardt, had lived at Sipidan for 20 years and was beyond a doubt the most senior diver for hundreds of miles. As impressive as his credentials were, the news that week of 5 divers dying in a cave in Italy had us a bit shaken. But hey, we only live once, right?

Tying off the rope.

Day 2: Instruction. Gerhardt sat us down and went over everything we would need to know. He showed us how to tie off and utilize guide ropes to find our way out; he trained us to kick differently so as not to stir up silt; he made us memorize a whole new set of underwater hand signals specific to cave diving; and most importantly, he gave real-life examples of people who paid the ultimate price for not following protocol. Clearly, this was to be the most important class of my life and there was no room to fuck it up - I have never focused so hard in my life! At the end of the day, we rode out in a boat to practice the underwater guide rope procedures.

Day 3: Shit Got REAL. It takes a lot of composure, patience, courage, and skill to complete this course. Three excruciating dives push you past the physical and mental brink of sanity, anyone of them could be your last. The suspense was terrifying. As we dropped off the other divers at their site, an eerie feeling crept over me; the "safety net" of a dozen people had vanished. Now it was just the three of us. We suited up and entered the water. One last look around at the beautiful blue sky, one final breath of fresh air. There was no going back - just down into the deep abyss, where The Turtle Tomb was waiting.

Dive #1 - We were greeted by the skull and crossbones. The wide open mouth appears inviting at first glance before all disappears in the abundant darkness. I was first to tie off and lead the way into the cave. My flashlight punched a whole in the thick black darkness…nothing to see but the walls. Further and further we penetrated until we reached a tunnel. I received the all clear to proceed, and down, down, down we went to the bottom. Too far in fact. My fins touched the silt covered floor and churned up a mess. I turned to Gerhardt. He smiled as he reached over and flooded my mask - as promised for every time the fins touch the floor.

Turtle skeleton, courtesy Alex.

Familiarizing ourselves with what easily could become our final resting place, Gerhardt pointed out the different "corpses" laying around. A turtle here, a dolphin there. A human skull - which later turned out to have been placed there by none other than Gerhardt himself. Certainly there was peace to be found in here.

Dive #2 - lights out. Venturing deeper into the cave than before, beyond what's deemed the "light zone" - that being any part of the cave one can still see the faint blue light from the entrance. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing at attention as the cave narrowed ever more. Nevermind Willy Wonka's "Wonkatania" in the tunnel of death; seeing an oompa loompa would have been a welcome relief at this point.

Courtesy, Pbda.fr

Finally, we stopped and were given the signal to switch off our flashlights. One by one, each torch was reluctantly switched off and slowly our eyes began to adjust to the darkness. Holding on the guide rope, we zigzagged our way back towards the light zone. The faint blue light grew ever so stronger until we reached the "great room" only to be stopped in our tracks. I was awestruck. Like Galileo looking through his telescope, what we saw was nothing less than divinity. The once elusive fish were now visible by the thousands against the blue curtain of the light zone. From tiny boxerfish to large sharks, we starred in amazement at what could only be described as "Grand Central."

Dive #3 - All or Nothing. On the last dive, it all comes down to courage. Mentally pushed to the limit of our own sanity, we were guided to the deepest, furthest point yet. Through a tunnel not more than five feet high we stopped and braced for what would be the scariest moment in my life. With a smile, Gerhardt reached down and picked up a handful of silt, and tossed it at us again and again and again. In the blink of an eye the whole chamber was filled with silt. I put my hand to my face mask but was unable to see even its shadow. One hundred and fifty feet below the surface, one hundred yard inside the cave, we were B-L-I-N-D. My heart was racing, my muscles stiffened. I waited. I waited for the signal from the person behind me to let me know it was time to go. What felt like minutes went by - no signal. Could they find me? Did someone have a problem? Was Alex panicking? I wanted to shit my wetsuit when….NUDGE! NUDGE!

I grabbed Alex's arm and guided his hand to my leg. With one hand firmly gripped on the rope and the other protecting my head from hitting the ceiling, I pulled inch by inch out of the tunnel. Thirty seconds and we were safe; the claustrophobia that had overtaken me like a poison subsided. Though still a bit shaken I gave the "okay" signal. Gerhardt smiled again: the final test; the hardest of them all. When all else fails, your last hope of survival - a mask-free blind exit of the cave, sharing air. No torches. No face mask. You, the rope(s) and only one person's air. I turned off my torch, and removed my mask. Alex hesitated. I looked at him with a comforting smile and gave him an okay signal. He slowly removed his mask, fixing it to the buoyancy control device, and switched off his torch for the very last time.

Making our way out sans hitting my head on the cave ceiling proved much more challenging than expected. After several minutes, I decided to try to open my eyes a bit to get my bearings before the salt water forced them shut again. With just enough information to move forward, I pressed on until reaching something I hadn't quite expected: a "fork" in the rope. It should never, ever happen when cave diving - true divers know better - but every blue moon some asshole will follow your line into the cave, but decide to go a different way, and thus ties their line to yours. Why anyone would do this is beyond me for the simple reason that should I leave first, his or her line will end inside the cave rather than out.

Remembering what we were taught if confronted with this situation, I managed to eliminate the dummy rope and we were home free. My eyes opened once more to the welcome sight of sunlit blue waters. We replaced our masks and this time were happy to be greeted by Gerhardt's smile, only now accompanied by a firm handshake. Ascending back to the surface I couldn't help but feel elation and accomplishment.

Anemonefish, Courtesy Alex

Days 4, 5, and 6 were filled with fun dives. We had two days back at Sipidan Island to explore the plentiful dive sites while gazing at what appeared to be a million fish. There was plenty to see: white tip sharks, black tip sharks, jack fish, six foot long barracuda, lion fish with their beautiful yet deadly spines. Together with sea turtles large and small, and thousands of other species, they all happily co-exist among the pristine corals. At the nearby island of Mataking, we found fewer fish but interestingly a sunken village complete with standing houses, boats, and more alligator fish than I have ever seen. It actually proved to be one of the most fun dives I've ever experienced, an underwater playground with many peculiar objects to play with.

(Underwater pictures courtesy of Alex.)