Batu Kapal

The central pinnacle breaks the surface and looks enough like a ship to have given the site its name, so it is easy to find and easy to descend on. From the bottom of it you are free to work outwards to the submerged pinnacles: one off to the southeast, one to the east, one to the northwest, and a large boulder to the northeast. The southeast pinnacle rises to 26 metres and drops to 34 on its outside face. The northwest one is more cylindrical, rising from 40 metres to 10, though it carries less coral growth than the rest.

Fish life is the reason to linger. Large schools of midnight snappers and bigeye bream hang off the structure, giant and honeycomb morays sit in the cracks, and masses of redtooth triggerfish and blacklip butterflyfish work the water above the coral. Large banded sea kraits come down from the surface to hunt across the reef. When the current is running the site acts as a magnet for bigger fish, and potato cod, rainbow runners, longnose emperors, grey reef sharks and yellowtail barracuda are all seen here, though none of them is a certainty.