25th September 2006

weather: heavy rain in the morning, cloudy the rest of the day
sea condition: rough sea vis: 10 m

Guides: Lee, Bobby, Ron, Diana, Allan

It was raining very heavily this morning, fortunately we were still able to make it to go Sipadan for diving. The heavy rain made the water murky and the absence of sun made it dark in the water but luckily it was not too bad. We were still be able to normally with school of barracudas, jacks, white tips, giant trevallies and turtles.

Macro were very good today, the most interesting will be the baby painted frogfish (picture shown below) which the actual size is less than 5 cm from head to tail. Other than that we also saw a pair of flying gurnards, lots of nudibranch, gobies, ribbon eels, giant mantis shrimp etc.

Pictures for today are shown below, all taken by Sherwood Smith. Thanks !

Enjoy!!

"She's my girl!! Don't come any closer!!" Baby painted frogfish 'Monday morning blues' "What?? Is it Christmas already??"

22th September 2006 (Happy Birthday Bobby!!!!)

Happy Birthday to you,
You were born in the zoo,
With monkeys and elephants,
And smell like one too!!!!
Happy Birthday Bobby!!!!

From: The Dive Team...." Behave ok? Another year older already.........hehehehhehe....!!!"

Weather: Sunny whole day (because it's Bob's bird-day!!)
Sea condition: A bit choppy (it's Bob's birthday) Vis:5-10 m (what do you expect, it's Bob's
bird-day!!)

Guides: Sophia, Bobby (still have to work!!), Lee, Nina, Leonard, Jimmy, Ron

Even though the visibility today in Sipadan was not so good, the diving was fantastic! Both Lee's and Sophia's group saw big school of barracuda on the same dive. Sophia's group saw grey reef and dogtooth tuna as well while Lee's group missed the grey reef and the tuna because the whole group stayed with the barracuda for the whole dive (40 minutes with barracudas hehehe...). Then both group had a relaxing wall dive for the second dive. Then big school of jack fish in the afternoon, nice combination!

Macros has been wonderful for the last few days with frogfish, leaf wrasse, lots of nudibranch, gobies, hairy squat lobster, ring eye jawfish, pygmy seahorse, baby file fish, 'robo-con' shrimp, leaf fish, robust ghost pipefish, giant mantis shrimp, sting rays, stone fish, and others. They are always lots and lots of macros to see around Mabul and Kapalai, you just have to go slowly and observe closely...that's the interesting side with macro diving in Mabul and Kapalai area. Finding the fish from their hiding is one challenge, observing them is another challenge (because sometimes they are very small and everybody wants to see it) and taking a good picture of them is yet another challenge. So, for those who can get great pictures of macro stuff,"Well Done!!" and for those who are not satisfied with their pictures, "Ganbade kudasai!!! Try your best again!!!".
Green turtle, with Laura at the back. Photo taken by Gianluca BottaGiant frogfish. Photo taken by Gianluca Botta "Robo-con" ebi (squat lobster). Photo taken by Y. Keiko Flabellina type nudibranch

Paradise Log Special Edition 2!!

Heyah!! How are you all out there? Another Paradise Log Special Edition today!!

This is for all of you that have been to Sipadan and miss some of the things in Sipadan, here's something that some of you may miss in Sipadan apart from the barracudas, sharks, jacks, turtles and corals. Today, we are going to show you something which some of you may have seen in Sipadan which is not in the water....Cats!!

Yes, we got some very cute pictures of the cats on Sipadan and we are going to share with you all out there some pictures of the cats on Sipadan today. All pictures taken by Y. Keiko on Sipadan Island during surface interval. Enjoy!

19th September 2006

tWeather: Raining in the morning, cloudy the rest of the day
Sea condition: Choppy in the morning Vis: 10 m

Guides: Ron, Jimmy, Sophia, Nina, Lee, Bobby

Big rain early morning today!! Luckily it stopped before the dives. But in the water it was as great as usual especially in Sipadan. We have school of bumpheads, school of jacks and school of barracudas all in one dive! Other than that, we also have napoleon wrasse, school of midnight, school of batfish, grey reef sharks, white tips and turtles.

Macros today has been interesting as well. We got long tail robust ghost pipefish (picture below), yellow shrimp goby, peacock mantis shrimp, giant frogfish, clown frogfish, lots of nudibranch, baby filefish, boxfish. We have a group of divers who went to mangrove for diving today, for some people the diving condition in mangrove are just too not ideal for diving but still if we look close enough, mangroves still is an interesting place to dive. There's some marine life that you don't normally see on normal reef area!

Below are some pictures for today, a very beautiful long tail robust ghost pipefish taken in mabul, an above water view of mangrove and a yellow shrimp goby (colour variation) taken in mangrove by Y. Keiko. Enjoy!!
Long tail robust ghost pipefish

Above water view of mangroveA pair of yellow shrimp goby (colour variation)

18th September 2006

Weather: Raining in the morning, sunny rest of the day
Sea condition: Choppy sea Vis: 10 m

Guides: Lee, Jimmy, Sophia, Ron, Bobby, Nina

The Japan summer holiday season is finally here! SWV is merrier now with many Nihon-jin (Japanese) arriving to the resort today. All divemasters here will have a busy week ahead, ganbate neh (do your best)!!

Sipadan is busy as well today, after a few days of "rest". Barracudas were there the whole morning during both dives as well as the jackfish. Leopard shark was seen by Jimmy's group this morning as well.

For macro today we frogfish, sail fin goby, purple fire goby, long nose hawkfish, pygmy seahorse, lots of nudibranch, robust ghostpipefish, shrimps and crabs and others as well.

The dive center team is very proud to have a very great photographer here to do some photography shooting with us here, Mr. Minakuchi Hiroya. And we are very gladful to him to be so generous to let us use 2 of his pictures to be posted on Paradise Log for all of us to share his works. Thank you very much Hiroya-san!! The picture of the cute giant grouper was taken by Koike Tomoko and the picture of the 4 white-tip sharks was taken by Igari Tadanori. Enjoy!

15th September 2006

weather: sunny
sea condition: calm and flat vis: 15m

guides: Jimmy, Allan, Ron, Jay

Great day of diving at Sipadan for Allan's group today. They saw two schools of barracudas coming from two sides before joining in to become a big school, and best yet, the barracudas put up a great "tornado" performance for them! That's not all, this same group saw 2 leopard sharks during the dive as a bonus to the barracudas! Bumphead parrotfish were also seen today but they were at too shallow water, it was impossible for them to dive there.

Macros for the last two days include black sail fin goby, ray shrimp goby, black ray shrimp goby, nudibranch, leaf fish, leaf wrasse, little filefish, ribbon eels, giant mantis shrimp and robust ghostpipefish. Sorry guys, no fish photos to be posted today. Instead, we will post a picture sent to us by Alessandro Bartoli and Moulik Renatta from Italy. For your information, they were here during the Italian summer season for their honeymoon vacation. The dive team here misses them as much as they misses us. Keep in touch with the dive team ok?

From left to right first row: Nina, Ron, Renatta, Bobby, Allan

From left to right second row: Lee, Alessandro, Sophia, Jimmy, Sam Scubazoo

Ron, Sophia, Carlo, Virna and Renatta (sitting on table)

11th Sept 2006

weather: sunny all day
sea condition: calm and flat vis: 10 m

Guides: Ron, Diana, Sophia

Today's Sipadan has quiet down a bit compared to the last 5/6 days. There were no barracudas seen today. But other fish such as jacks, giant trevallies, wahoos, white tip sharks, turtles, napoleon wrasse and not forgetting the schools of fusiliers, snappers and others.

For macro today, Diana's group saw a yawning frogfish this afternoon. Below is the picture captured by Richard McMillan just right at the moment when the frogfish was yawning. They are so cute when they yawn...but the truth is, they are not yawning actually, they are actually displaying. Fishes will make displays when they are threaten or when they want to attract the opposite sex fish to mate with them. Example of displaying fish for mating include napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrotfish, mandarin fish and surgeon fish.

11th Sept 2006

Special edition Paradise Log

Special edition today guys!! Remember my previous post on 8th Sept that the divemasters have been doing some photography dives recently. So today we post one best shot from each divemasters for you all to enjoy. Comments are all welcomed at divecenter@swvresort.com.

Allan's soft coral crab Nina's black sail fin goby Sophia's juvenile shaded batfish Lee's pikachu nudibranch Jay's pygmy seahorse
Leonard's nembrotha nudibranch
Jimmy's Michel's ghostgoby Diana's gold-spec jawfish

8th September 2006

weather: sunny (very hot!)
sea condition: calm and flat vis: 15 m

Guides: Sophia, Jay, Ron

Well, some of you may wonder where has all the other divemasters gone.......well, they are still here, just that they were not guiding today. We are slowing down now before the next Japanese season starts. Allan, Jimmy, Nina were on research / photography dives today while Lee is on standby and Diana is the lucky one who get to hae a rest day (Bobby is still sleeping at home while I'm writing this).

The dives in Sipadan today was absolutely fantastic!The barracudas were there, giving the divers their famous "tornado" performance then another "wall" performance. Other than that, bumpheads/buffalos were there as well for the party. Sharks and turtles were, well, still and always will be there! Today's wall was brilliant because of the bright sun. Jay's group saw a leopard shark during one of their wall dive.

Below are 2 pictures from Miyazaki Cizuko. The longnose hawkfish (kuda gongbeh) was very beautiful, we like that shot so much. And the pretty lady with the tornado of barracuda is Miss Miyazaki Chizuko herself.

7th Sept 2006

weather: sunny whole day
sea condition: calm and flat vis: 10 - 15 m

guides: Diana, Nina, Jimmy, Allan

Sipadan today was as busy as yesterday with lots of barracudas, jacks, grey reefs, leopard sharks, white tips and also bumphead parrotfish (a.k.a. buffalo fish). The visibility was not as good as few days ago but the dives are still as good with all the actions around. Other than the usual big fish around Sipadan, some macro stuff were still seen in Sipadan today like leaf fish, anemone fish, porcelain crabs and nudibranch.

Well guys, we realised today that we seldom post pictures of our divers here. So today we gonna post some pictures of divers with divemasters here. These pictures were taken on Sipadan Island during our surface interval on the island. Enjoy!!

"We LOVE Sipadan!!!!

The Castaways ("West Siders"):Don, Janette, Nina,

Mark, Madeleine, John, Elaine, Pierre, Eva

The Castaways (The" East Siders"): Takahiro, Misako, Isao, Kumi, Nina, Fukushima, Keizo, Rachel, Algean, Lee

6th September 2006

weather: sunny
sea condition: calm and flat vis: 15m

guides: Sophia, Nina, Lee, Jimmy

Its full moon time again!! And that always means lots of actions!! Sipadan this morning was definitely full of action, with about 5 grey reefs and 8 shite tips at one point (10 m only) hunting some jack fish. 2 groups of divers was just hovering there with awe and turning heads and of course, non-stop clicking of cameras. And again a few sharks were swimming with a school of barracudas. No leopard sharks today, but we still got an eagle ray and turtles mating. Seems like everyone from sharks to rays to turtles have been kept busy this morning.

Macro today has been interesting as well. Jay found a black juvenile painted frogfish (photo will be uploaded soon, be patience guys). Below are some pictures taken by Pierre Niehaus and 2 more pictures from Jaime Wallace, just cant resist putting more of her pictures in our blog. Well done Jamie with your new camera!!!

Cheers!

Elaine Strachan with school of jack fish A pair of bubble coral shrimps Very cleverly camouflaged scorpion fish in soft corals

4th September 2006

weather: short rain in the morning, sunny the rest of the day
sea condition: calm,choppy at some part on the island viz: 15m

guides: Diana, Lee, Jimmy, Ron, Nina, Sophia

It was raining this morning for a while, luckily it stopped after a while. Sipadan was okay today, the usual stuff are seen. The one thing unusual today was Jimmy's group saw a big scholl of barracuda in West Ridge, not in Barracuda Point, lucky lucky!

Macro was interesting today, with frogfish, leaf fish, flamboyant cuttlefish, peacock mantis shrimp and lobster, lots of nudis and gobies.

Sorry guys, no pictures for today, will try to get some pictures for the next post, till then, take care and good day to everyone!

3rd September 2006

weather: sunny all day
sea condition: calm, vis: 15m

guides: Ron, Allan, Nina, Sophia, Jay, Lee

The weather has been beautiful today as well as the sea condition here. Like we said in our previous post, leopard sharks have been sighted these past few days. Yesterday, Lee and Nina's group saw another leopard shark at Barracuda Point, and Lee's group saw another one at South Point, lying on the slope, so we could get close to it to have a closer look! Other than that, school of barracuda and jack fish were seen as well, not forgetting all the turtles and white tip sharks.

Macro divers has some great time finding macro stuff as well. Some of the macro subjects that we saw around here for the last few days are flamboyant cuttlefish, frogfish, nudibranch, ribbon eels, peacock mantis shrimp, gobies, ghost shrimps.

By the way, Bobby is on holiday now back to Kota Kinabalu. We at the dive center wish him Happy Holiday !! (translation: "Come back faster!! and remember to buy us whisky when you come back!!")

Below are some of the pictures by Jaime Wallace (she and Shane had real hard time deciding which pictures to give us because all of them are nice!! We understand that too well Jaime, cause we are all photographers here as well! For those of you who want to see more of her pictures, feel free to go to her website, address on the pictures below but they may take time to upload those pictures on the site after their holiday here, so be patience guys.)

weather: rain in the morning, sunny in the afternoon
sea condition: calm , vis: 15 - 30 m

guides: Jay, Bobby, Jimmy, Allan, Nina, Diana

The diving for the past week has been good with good visibility and calm sea condition. Leopard sharks was seen quite regularly for the past week, the interesting sighting is when Diana and Lee's group saw a leopard shark swimming in front of a school of barracuda that gave us an impression that the leopard shark was actually "leading" the school of barracuda in from Coral Garden to the channel in Barracuda Point! Cool ain't it?!

The Italian season on the resort is coming to an end now on our resort. It must be said here that the past weeks here was much merrier with the friendly Italians here, for those of you who were here for the past 2-3 weeks, you guys know who you are! Ciao, grazie!

Well, that's it for today, below are the pictures for this post. Enjoy!