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