A provisional photo gallery of UW photos from Sipadan is now up at:
http://www.huwporter.com/scuba/sipadan.html

These were all shot with Sony DSC-P100, with (where appropriate) internal
flash only.  The manufacturers 40m housing proved - under extensive idiot
testing - idiot proof.

Be gentle - they are my first.  :-)

Conditions were - to say the least - atypical of Sipadan.  Typhoon Chanthu
had passed through the southern Philippines, causing storms throuought
northern Borneo, a couple of days before our visit.  Following a storm,
Sipadan apparently often experiences a plankton bloom, and for this week
visibility ranged from a max of around 20 metres down to a ridiculous two
metres, the water green and gritty.

Most of these shots have required a certain amount of Photoshoppery, to
increase contrast and reduce the pervading green cast, though usually
nothing more sophisticated than auto levels/contract/colour balance.  The
alert browser may notice that none have required resorting to 'huwism'.  ;-)

Borneo Divers speedboat sports twin mighty 200-horsepower engines (pirates
and kidnappers, eat our wake!) and can make the trip to the island from
Semporna on the mainland, in 40 minutes over calm seas.  Our crossing took
over two hours.

We booked on a six day package with unlimited shore diving and four days of
three boat dives per day.  Sipdadan is tiny (a half hour stroll right
around the island), and Borneo divers have prime location right in front of
the drop off - a few fin kicks out from the beach, the bottom falls
vertically away.  There can't be many places in the world you can shore
dive a 600-metre wall...

Surprisingly (to me) most guests stayed for just a couple of days, and
there were a large number of backpacker/occasional divers who were just 'in
the area'.  Despite this, the guides were very laid back (too laid back for
some of the occasional divers, who grumbled about being left alone too
much...) and didn't expect anyone to do the line-of-little ducklings.

With weeks of backpacking en route, I packed minimal gear only.  The rental
gear is OK, but it was nearly 200 dives since the last time I dived without
a long hose, and not in a backplate/wing, and not a dive went by when
something didn't make me wish I had my own rig.  I managed to tuck all the
hoses away more-or-less tidily, placing my weights on a spare cam band
around the shoulder of the tank achieved correct trim, and I found a pair
of acceptably stiff fins in the back of the gear store.

Had a couple of mildly concerning moments - dive #2 when a wayward skipper
came within about six inches of decapitating my buddy (Not Suzanne on this
one) at the end of an ascent - we surfaced and swore at him vigorously, but
don't think to note the boat or resort.

(This buddy had previously looked rather snootily at my rental gear, and
announced that if I ran low on air I should leave him down there as it was
his last day of diving and he wanted to enjoy it.  I refrained from giving
him the finger when I had 20BAR more than him after 20 mins...)

And a second concerning moment on a fast drift dive when another allocated-
on-the-boat buddy took something like twelve minutes to get her ears to
clear.  When she finally got down we had missed the corner of the island
and were heading rapidly for Vietnam.  I dragged her and boyfriend straight
up to the surface, we were well behind the boats already, and heading for
open sea, fortunately someone spotted us.  Hey ho...

And a brief test of principles - I was invited to join a group (DM+4) to do
Turtle Cave.  approx 100m of penetration according to the DM.  Well, yes, I
would, but the clincher was asking myself if even if I -was- cave trained
and -could- get hold of cave gear, would I want to be part of this team?
Single tanks, no redundancy, barely hatched AOW divers with basic open
water skills only, the briefest mention of thirds and keeping off the
bottom, no guideline, one little light each, etc etc.  No thanks.

This was more or less the definition of a 'trust-me' dive.  Of course it
went fine, and they came back having had a thrill.  But the 'what-if's made
me shudder.

But even with the atypical conditions, the diving was mighty fine.  Dives
often - usually - went to more-than-fingers-and-toes number of turtles,
sharks, etc etc.

Cheers,
Huw

Dive #1 Drop Off.
  Max depth 20.1m, time 45 min.  Viz 15m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #2 White Tip Avenue.
  Max depth 31.7m, time 48 min.  Viz 10m, buddy Luis.
Dive #3 Drop Off.
  Max depth 24.5m, time 46 min.  Viz 10m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #4 Barracuda Point.
  Max depth 19.0m, time 53 min.  Viz 15m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #5 Drop Off.
  Max depth 10.3m, time 40 min.  Viz 2m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #6 Mid Reef.
  Max depth 35.9m, time 43 min.  Viz 10m, buddy Khalifa.
Dive #7 Barracuda Point.
  Max depth 18.4m, time 43 min.  Viz 20m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #8 Coral Garden.
  Max depth 20.7m, time 43 min.  Viz 15m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #9 Turtle Patch.
  Max depth 36.2m, time 51 min.  Viz 10m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #10 Staghorn Crest.
  Max depth 26.3m, time 28 min.  Viz 15m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #11 Drop Off.
  Max depth 11.2m, time 65 min.  Viz 20m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #12 South Point.
  Max depth 23.0m, time 52 min.  Viz 20m, buddy Suzanne.
Dive #13 Barracuda Point.
  Max depth 17.0m, time 16 min.  Viz 20m, buddy Raymond/Hanneke.
Dive #14 Drop Off.
  Max depth 9.1m, time 83 min.  Viz 15m, buddy Suzanne.