Summer in Hong Kong almost always guarantees two things: humidity and squally rain. We had both on early Sunday morning so it wasn't a promising start to a day out on the boat but as we all know very well by now, the weather can change in an instant. By the time we met at Tso Wo Hang pier, the clouds were already dispersing so it was a good sign of things to come.
We anchored at Tsim Chau (our most popular dive spot this year) and promptly went into the sea in pairs. My buddy, Cathryn, was the first one in and I followed pronto, since it was getting rather toasty in my full 3mm wetsuit. The visibility wasn't as good as the dive trip in May when we had 10m+ vis, but it wasn't my worst dive either. We planned to find the cave but we encountered a large grey stingray instead! It was swimming towards us and the limited visibility prevented it from noticing us. When I saw it I was very startled, having never seen one in Hong Kong before. The stingray was just as surprised - I could almost picture the large exclamation mark above it - and instantly zoomed off into the distance. We were thrilled! The rest of the dive gave us a couple of large goatfish, cornetfish, scorpionfish, the usual (fiercely territorial) clownfish, schools of damselfish and even some lizardfish skittering about on the sandy bottom.
The dive marshal, Nick, decided to move to a different spot for the second dive as it was a little crowded with the ProDive boat nearby and we agreed on the cement barge. Now, why we don't have the GPS location of this particular dive site I will never know, as we always have some difficulty locating it. Richard was the gallant gentleman of the day who volunteered to swim to the shallow sea near the rocks to locate it but as luck would have it, we were at the wrong bay. Instead of wasting time searching for it, the alternative was to try a dive site most of us haven't been to - the Dollos Reservoir Dam at High Island.
The boat anchored about a good 50 metres away from the dam so we dropped in and decided to hit the bottom (about 15m) and slowly swim towards the dollos. A strong thermocline hit us at 10m where the temperature dropped to 21°c - brrr! But that wasn't the worst. The visibility reduced sharply to 1m or less so it was dark and very murky. At one point I was wondering if it was my mask that was fogging up. I had to stay close to my dive buddy as my torch was very weak in such waters and I certainly didn't want to lose her! It was a horrible swim and I almost wanted to tell Cathryn to abort the dive but I thought I should at least get to the dam. Richard mentioned that the gaps in the dollos are wide enough to swim through them and I wanted to give it a try.
About 10 minutes later trying to find our way in the murky water, we came upon a large school of damselfish - no biggie, but behind it I saw some long-ish fish... wait a minute - barracudas?! A school of them? in HK? No way! But yes oh yes, it was a school of juvenile yellowtail barracudas! I tapped my buddy's arm excitedly but after seeing that the barracudas numbered in the thousands, I felt a bit sheepish for the enthusiastic outburst. But surely, one can and should feel excited because what a sight it was. The visibility cleared considerably and I could see beyond 10 metres; the impressive dollos made such interesting backdrops to the huge school of barracudas with the sunlight streaming in and I wished I had my camera with me. It was beyond amazing - I was supremely content to float there, marvelling at the sight. Just imagine, thousands and thousands of yellowtail barracudas, stretching from one side of the dam to the other, interspersed with tight schools of orangespotted spinefoot fish (also known as rabbitfish) descending on the corals to feed; healthy table corals growing on the dollos, peacock wrasse, pufferfish, butterfly fish, even the bluestreak cleaner wrasse can be seen giving the barracudas a good clean. We did some swim throughs in between the dollos and stayed at about 4-7metres where it was warm and bright for the rest of the dive.
Why go to Sipidan? We have our very own school of barracudas right here in Hong Kong! All the divers emerged from the sea with big smiles on their faces, elated with such a dive. Keith was the only one with a camera for the day so everyone huddled around to watch his videos to re-live the experience. It was surely one of the best dives all of us ever had in HK waters and certainly my very best one. This is indeed Hong Kong's best kept secret.
Denvy Lo
27th July 2009