Farewell Layang Layang

With time starting to run out, a trip to a small island home to the many sea birds in the area was planned. Some of the paired Noddies had eggs or chicks.

Not being a bird expert it looked like 2 other species were hanging out on the island. The one’s with the Mohawks were apparently Crested Terns.


The other end of the Lagoon had dive sites like shark cave, Snapper Ledge and Wrasse strip so the decision was made to up anchor and shift down to the other entrance. We passed some possibly disused automatic fish farms along the way, anchored and headed out for a snorkel.

Lucky for us the tide had just changed and the current was sweeping us along the edge of the wall back the way we came. A check of the GPS showed we had actually snorkeled 1.7km back… my how time flies.

Amanda did see a large shark at shark cave but scared it off before I got there. Who scares off sharks?

With the weather starting to pack it in we moved back to our previous anchorage in preparation for leaving


During or trip back, much to Sloop’s disgust we had small birds and even a cricket stay for the night. How these guys get 80 miles against the wind from land is a bit of a mystery. Safely anchored in Kudat, Ivonne headed off for new adventures and we psyched ourselves for a haul out.

Life at Layang Layang

After the excitement of the beach clean up Ivonne braved a trip to the top of the mast.

The mission for the days snorkel was to locate a sea horse. We had read they hang around in areas with a lot of sea grass and as it happens, we had seen such an area.

The Sea horses were a little thin over the ground (read none) but there was plenty of other marine life with Nudibranchs and various wrasse.

The water over the sea grass was hot compared with the outside of the reef where a swim into the abyss was needed to cool down.

With the sun on my back here is what my shadow looks like in 1,700m of water.

Trevor and I decided to have a go at fixing the dive compressor without success while Ivonne and Amanda entertained themselves tied to the back of the boat for the afternoon, with Ivonne sneaking Amanda some liquid refreshments from the boys stash.

Layang Layang

The trip out was fairly uneventful motoring most of the way in light conditions, catching only weed. The local pod of Bottle Nose Dolphins showed us the entrance to the lagoon.

Of course the morning following our arrival I headed out before first light for fishing, managing to get a dog tooth Tuna. Food for all. Snorkeling was next on the agenda.

The weather was treating us kindly with lovely hot days and 50 meter viiability along the reef.

On day 4 the dive compressor shat itself however by this stage we all had had plenty of dives and were happy to snorkel along the 1.7km drop off amongst all the marine life.

The evening brought more fishing with Ivonne throwing back the plate sized fish and catching her biggest ever fish. Amanda meanwhile was showing the GT's living in the channel to the lagoon whos's their daddy

Even Trevor (yes Gadfly Trevor who is not known for his fishing prowess) went out in Thymes dingy to my secret spot and managed to show something for all his investment in fishing equipment. His best catch being a GT on the middle hook of his lure and a Barracuda on the back hook that was attacked by a shark while he was winding it in. The end result was a GT in the bucket and a twitching Barracuda head over the side.

The following morning Amanda, bless her cotton socks organised a beach clean up, attendance compulsory.

In case your curious, Layang Layang is a small coral atoll formed by the caldera of a volcano situated about 150nm off Kota Kinabalu. It is one of about 600 islands forming the disputed Spratley Island group. As such there's a naval presence on the island and permits are required to visit issued by the National Security Department of Malaysia.