BIG BLUE - Share the Life

Layang Layang a small atoll that belongs to the Spratly islands, at 7km wide by 2km long sits in the south china sea just off the coast of Malaysia, furnished by one dive resort, a Malaysian Navy post and a small airstrip. The Atoll rises 2000meters from the sea floor and is frequently visited by Dolphins, huge shoals of Hammer heads, Eagle Rays, Devil Rays and several other large palegics.

Layang Layang has fantastic healthy reefs, but don't expect to see much macro life on it. This is a divers dream spot, expect to swim in the blue and go deep! Defiantly not a place for entry level divers, have at least a hundred quality dives under your belt as you'll be diving deep in the blue, you'll be swimming in strong currents, experiencing up and down currents just off the reef with nothing to visually gauge your depth.

To get to Layang Layang you depart from Kota Kinabalu by a 19 seat Mas Air twin prop aircraft which takes just over 1hour 15minutes. You wont get a pre-flight safety demonstration as the pilots are the only staff on board, the good thing is the weight limit is 25KG per person 5KG of which goes to hand luggage, you do get weighed before boarding.

The Resort is great, they have a swimming pool, friendly staff, reasonable priced beer (during happy hour) great food. The accommodation are like quality wooden barracks but in each room you get 2 double beds, a TV, a bathroom, a small balcony and user controlled air conditioning, with amenities you expect to find in a hotel.

The diving is great group sizes tend to be 12 to one dive master however since people need to be experienced, as long as you attend the briefing and are with your buddy you can go off on your own but you will be expected to follow the dive plan. The dive center has full equipment available to rent, and very friendly staff, remember to touch the hammer for good luck before diving. The boats are twin Haul light aluminum/fiberglass with 2 powerful Honda engines on the back, the furthest dive site is 20minutes away, don't expect to get offered sea sick pills.. go prepared! And take a bottle of water with you.

• April 30th, 2009
• Dive 1 – the point
• planned depth: 30m
• Max depth: 2000meters
• dive time: 45minutes
• visibility: 40m

Mixture of soft and hard coral wall with Gorgonian fans, sponge corals, plenty of large reef fish (Parrot fish, Groupers, Butterfly Fish, Sturgeon fish,Morrish idols), we also had 3 passing mobulars of Devil rays, and a small white tip shark hanging at 30meters with the occasional nudibranch if you look hard.

Day 2

• May 1st, 2009
• Dive 2 - Wrasse strip
• Planned depth 35-40meters
• dive time: 45min
• visibility: 40m+

Wall dive, very deep, clear water, devil rays above, turtle, lots of reef fish, again, fantastic coral reefs full of soft and hard corals, could hear dolphins pinging in the distance, had high hopes of meeting them underwater as they are playful.

• May 1st, 2009
• Dive 3 - The point
• Planned depth: 30-35meters
• dive Time: 45minutes
• visibility: 40m+

This was a complete Blue Dive as the entire dive was conducted in the blue about 500meters off the wall.

• May 1st, 2009
• Dive 4 - sharks cave 2
• Planned depth: 25-30meters
• Visibility: 40m+

Sharks cave is an interesting dive site, it has a large ledge at 22meters with a small swim through, underneath you can normally find marble rays, and several sharks, we only saw a small white tip on this dive.

• May 1st, 2009
• Dive 5 - jetty dive
• Planned depth: 10meters
• Planned time: 60minutes
• visibility: 6m~

Part of the unlimited shore dive program inside the atoll, you can find several weird and wonderful things here, its 'muck' as in muck, some moray eels, tomato anemone family on a large anemone with attitude, plenty of small reef fish, we found a juvenile sweet lip - running in and out of holes filled with catfish, this could be classed as the Jinshan bay of Layang Layang.

Day 3

• May 2nd, 2009
• dive 6 - Wrasse strip
• Planned depth: 35-40meters
• planned time: 45minutes

Just swam into the blue for 45minutes, shallower and shallower, in hopes of Hammer Heads.. dolphins spotted from the boat before entry.. ran out of bottom time before air.

• May 2nd, 2009
• dive 7 - Gorgonian fan
• visibility: 50m+
• planned depth: 35-35meters
• planned time: 45mintues

Swam into the blue, ended with a visit of cruising Devil Rays, large school of Bat fish, and Giant Travelly,

• May 2nd, 2009
• dive 8 - Mid reef
• planned depth: 25-30meters
• visibility: 50m+
• planned time: 60minutes

Again swam into the blue, but ended on the reef to look for manta's we did however find turtles and plenty of soft and hard coral's on the wall, visibility was good, but weather changed due to the tropical typhoon in Philippines and a second one building up just north of our location.

Day 4

• May 3rd, 2009
• dive 9 - the valley
• planned depth: 35-40meters
• visibility: 40m
• planned dive: 45minutes

Possible sighting of a hammer head at the end as we were swimming back to the wall, 40meters away caught a glimpse.. weather has been pretty bad from a tropical typhoon in the Philippines. Saw a manta on the reef, plenty of unicorn fish away from the wall.

• May 3rd, 2009
• Dive 10 - dogtooth lair
• planned depth: 30-35meters
• visibility: 20meters
• planned time: 45minutes

Spaced out 25meters apart, Paul and Etsuko at the far end.. hopes of hammer heads, plenty of plankton in the water with small tuna and sturgeon fish away from the reef.. no sightings yet.

• May 3rd, 2009
• Dive 11 – The point
• Planned depth: 25-30meters
• visibility: 10meters
• Planned time: 45minutes

Visibility hit it's lowest.. the tropical storm caused a lot of sand from the top of the reef to blow over.

Day 5

• May 4th – The point
• Planned depth: 35-40meters
• visibility: 25meters
• planned time: 45minutes

Jumped into the water, was a cool current coming through, lots of plankton, spotted a hammer head scout from just behind the group, prepared the camera to find 11 divers chasing it like it was going out of business! Continued the dive in the Blue.

• May 4th – The Point
• Planned depth: 30-35meters
• visibility: 30 meters
• planned time: 45minutes

Water was a warm 28c again, with a cold current deeper than our planned depth, with limited bottom time it was a searching mission! Hit the reef after 20 minutes for a slow long ascent up the reef wall, schooling barracudas and batfish with a turtle to end it.

[ 2009-04-29 ]