Diving the Rice Bowl Wreck

Wreck Diving, Wreck Dive Trips, Scuba Diving, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Borneo Dream ran it’s first wreck diving trip for this year at the weekend to the Usukan WW2 wrecks. We went scuba diving on the Rice Bowl wreck – a large Japanese tanker with a length of around 150m.

Rice Bowl Wreck

We set out early, at 7:30am, and enjoyed a leisurely cruise on Borneo Dream 3 North West from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The divers passed the time drinking coffee, eating muffins and chatting on the sun deck of our catamaran – a hard way to start the day . We cruised at around 17 knots and covered the 31 nm (nautical miles) to the Rice Bowl wreck in just under 2 hours.

Billy, our lead Dive Guide for this wreck diving trip, dropped the shot line with Captain Merali’s expert positioning (and the help of our GPS markers) in the centre of the Rice Bowl Wreck. After Billy checked the shot line was properly secured the divers started their first dive.

Nitrox - Perfect for Wreck Diving

As usual, the wreck was covered in fish life – Jacks, Barracuda, Yellow Snapper, Fusiliers. Whilst there was a strong surface current down to about 10m, it was nice and still on the wreck with visibility of 15m. With so much amazing fish life around you it’s very easy not to look in all the nooks and holes on the wreck and find other marine treasures such as Nudibranches, Lion Fish, Cuttle Fish and Scorpion Fish. But Brigitte and Gon, one of our Dive Guides, had a good poke around.

Amazing Wreck Diving!

After a 2 hour surface interval, and some tasty sandwiches (the egg sandwich was very popular!), the divers enjoyed a second dive on the Rice Bowl wreck. All returned with big smiles on their faces – another great day of scuba diving on the Usukan WW2 wrecks.

With the wreck lying in 25m – 40m, it is only suitable for diving on Nitrox. As usual for our wreck diving trips, we provided free Nitrox (EANx30) to the divers. This made a big difference in extending their bottom times for the dives.

Borneo Dream is running regular scuba diving trips to the Usukan wrecks during the year, with several wreck diving trips already booked for March – May. If you are minimum a PADI Advanced Diver (or equivalent) and fancy joining us for a wreck diving trip during your holiday to Sabah, Borneo then please contact the Borneo Dream team.

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