Kapalai
2006 Kapalai 2007
Since 2003, the club has started the year
with a BSAC Ocean Diver course culminating in a resort trip to finish off the
open water lessons. This year, the instructors and students (10 divers) were
joined by another 12 divers and four snorkellers, all desperate to return to the
water after the Winter layoff. In total, we made 294 dives, not just a January
record, but the highest total for January and February combined! That's the
second highest dive total for any month in the
club's history! It's amazing that three years on, five out of six of those
first trainees
and two of the original instructors are back at Kapalai. Two of those trainees
three years ago are now qualified BSAC instructors and were instructing on the trip!
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Kapalai has certainly
moved up a notch since my last visit in 2004. Many rooms have been added (40
chalets now) and several modernised. The restaurant has been extended without loss of character, and
after just a little persuasion, an unlimited supply of Tiger beer became
available (at MYR 7.50 / can, somewhat cheaper than the Promenade Hotel in KK at
MYR 20 / can ++.) The food is more varied than before but tepid in the 'al fresco'
style of the Far East. If you can, chose a chalet that faces west towards the
sunset. Avoid families with four screaming, insomniac brats and any chalet under
construction! Kapalai has a unique atmosphere, and the shutters on all sides of
the chalets allow one to commune with nature; sometimes (during storms) more
closely than is actually desirable! |
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PADI Master Instructor Efren's
organisation of the diving was excellent. The standard diving package includes a
choice of three boat dives from 5.30 am (one dive), 8.30 am (two dives) to Sipadan and an afternoon boat dive to Mabul or the Kapalai reefs. Thereafter,
unlimited shore dives from the Kapalai jetty are permitted up 9.00 pm.
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The Kapalai 'house reef'
boasts at least two more fishing boat wrecks than before and
already they have become a magnet for life. Wreck #1 is home to a swarm of glass
fish around the stern and at least four big (and obvious) scorpion fish. Wreck
#2 is completely different with half a dozen medium groupers (Epinephelus sp.,)
under the stern and a dense school of (distinctly edible sized) red snapper!
Scorpion fish
Grouper and Red Snappers
The wrecks are only 10
metres apart and little more than that off the bottom of the reef slope at 18 m.
It's a very simple site, yet many divers never seem to tire of it and it makes
for a magical dive at dusk or at night.
The jetty now has three
loading platforms and a much larger storage area and compressor room. Efren has
an excellent system for allocating dive masters, divers and snorkellers to the
boats.
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updated for 2007 (below) |
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Bumphead parrot fish |
The 5.30 am dive is
recommended and on the third day, we saw the usual bumphead parrotfish leaving
the reef, but as a bonus, manta rays and hammerhead sharks. Admittedly, the
glimpses were fleeting but definitive! The later dives are always good, however,
the atmosphere of the early morning was magical. Venus and a thin crescent moon
lay in the east. Alpha Centauri, a novel site for Northern folk, lay in the
south and Jupiter rode overhead. |
Divers and snorkellers on the 8.30 boat to Sipadan |
| Sipadan is described in more detail
elsewhere. The departure of tourists living
on the island might have been a good idea if the army simply hadn't moved in
to take their place. Without competition, and the need for maintenance
or keeping the old resorts looking attractive, it looks a bit neglected.
Nevertheless, the number of boats is far less than two years ago and the
turtles and sharks are there in abundance. We all took a good look at a
leopard shark. Dave and I started the dive with a bit of a 'deepie' to get
in early season practice. It was utterly magical. Dave's idyllic attitude as
he cruises on his back at 40 metres says it all! |
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Cautious approach towards a leopard shark
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The site names
for once are realistic,
however, you could call anywhere on Sipadan Turtle
Point and get away with it! |
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Of course, it's the people that make the trip, and this one was no exception.
Possibly the presence of a larger than usual number of characters helped. After
the second day, the six trainees were awarded their BSAC Ocean Diver
certificates by Dave Outhwaite, our Training Officer. He made the excellent
point that three years ago, we trained Paul and Shona, who this year were the
instructors for Cameron, Park, Alvin and Ivan. Roy and his hunting buddy Darryl,
had to make do with me as an instructor.
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It was very good to see three of our Bruneian colleagues on the trip, Norshikah
Abdullah, Masta Mumin, Alvin Wong and Ivan Yong. We hope that they represent the future of
our home-based Environmental Project.
Sundowners on the purpose built jetty were de rigeur at 6pm and probably
explain the lack of night dives carried out! It really was an excellent trip
that not even the vagaries of the local airlines could spoil.
A Few Curiosities (and I don't mean our
divers)
We saw at least two things we had never seen before:-
| Crustacean Swarm: On the night on Sunday 29th,
millions of these tiny creatures swarmed in the shallow waters attracted by
the resorts lights. Darryl (inevitably) caught one in a glass and we
photographed what appears to be a tiny crustacean of some sort. It has
claws, legs and a carapace large in proportion to a little tail. A few
nights later most were gone, one suspects eaten. Most marine aggregations
occur on or just after the full and new moons and indeed, Sunday was the day
of the new moon. |
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A trawl though Google suggests that this is possibly the 'megalops' stage in the
life cycle of a crab,
since the body is so much bigger than the tail.
| The Sickly Stonefish: Again it was Darryl (has this
guy X-ray vision or what) who spotted a stonefish swimming badly (they
always do) but on the surface. As he moved to look closer it went belly up (litterally).
After a minute it recovered and moved slowly onwards. Was it dying? Had the
swim bladder become inflated? Who knows? It was another mystery of the sea.
It caused me to think what would happen if a diver surfaced into a belly up
stonefish? |
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Batfish all look alike!
Just in case you though all batfish look alike, the one on the left is Platax
orbiculara and on the right Platax teira, the latter being the
commonly observed variety on our own platforms.
Thanks
Many thanks to our Training Officer,
Dave Outhwaite, who set up the whole training
schedule; Megamass for allowing us to use their excellent pool in Kuala Belait,
and Shona MacDonald, one of the instructors who
undertook the heroic task of organising the trip.
Mabul
2006
Kapalai
2007
