Wednesday 6 August Tun Sakaran Marine Park

Tun Sakaran with new dive dinghy

Two days in Lahud Datu flew past. Yesterday we had lunch with the two boat crews of Maritim Malaysia who have been with us since Sandakan and will be with us until Semporna. Maritim Malaysia are the equivalent of the Coastguard and the Navy in that their boats are heavily armed. In this part of Sabah which is closest to the Philippines they monitor nefarious activity like fuel smuggling from Malaysia to Indonesia. The MM boys are great; smart and bright and speak good English. Their mandate is to look after the foreigners.

On the morning we left Lahad Datu we began with some wind to sail but this quickly faded and we motored. Tun Sakaran covers three islands and we as a fleet had been given special permission to enter and to anchor in the lagoon in front of the park ranger office. The island is reminiscent of the Marquesas; the remaining top of a long extinct volcano with flooded caldera forming the lagoon. Crystal clear water and a visible reef made this an exciting prospect for possible diving.

cruiser's car park

We went ashore and met the park rangers, the new research assistant and the manager of the park who's based in Lahud Datu. In the course of chatting and asking about the possibility of diving we learned we were very welcome to dive and given suggestions for the best places. One of these was the small island to the north of the big island. The park's dive guide generously offered to dive with us to show where to go next morning but their compressor was broken and he didn't have an air tank. No problem. He could use one of our spares. The new research assistant who'd facilitated this offer also wanted to dive but didn't have an air tank. No problem. He could have our other spare tank. To reach the site 3 miles away we'd have to go out through the east pass in Jackster but the pass would be too shallow and anyway the Maritim boat would have to accompany us. Capt. Faizuh said not a problem to come with us, they'd be happy to do so. He said if he had a platform or ladders on his fast boat he could have taken us and acted as our surface cover. A little head scratching and David came up with the last piece of the jigsaw; we could use our swim ladder attached to their stern rail and suddenly we had a plan to dive at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. Maritim would take us out, Yuri would indicate where to go and we bring our kit, two extra tanks and our swimming ladder.