2008 - My Quest for 150' viz

[Alex777]

I did 7 dives in the East End of Grand Cayman this weekend. Viz was consistently about 200', IMHO. Hardly guaranteed, though.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

Since your in California, I'd say Okinawa, Japan. Good vis and nice shore and boat diving. The hotels are either dumps or a bit pricy but the diving is great!

I have to agree on Okinawa, having the best vis that I have ever seen. I estimate that I have seen 150' vis. Or in my estimation nothing scientific to be able to see a fish the size of a basketball a 150' away. I know that I can easily see fish at the surface when I am at 100'. If I can identify a fish the size of a soft ball when I am at 100' I am estimating that the vis is between 130' to 150'. It is pretty easy to estimate vis up to 100 feet but after 100' it becomes more of a guess especially when you are looking down at an unknown depth and you don't know if the fish is on the bottom or just off the bottom. Seeing a sting ray 3' across, swim across the bottom when you know the bottom is 130' bellow the surface is still pretty incredble.

 

[diverbob]

Best I have seen was in the coral sea.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

Sunday I dove a wreck in the Kerama's in Okinawa, Japan. The Wreck was a 50' Japanese fishing boat. The vis had to be at least 100'. The hard and soft coral were beutiful. I was amazed at how many hard blue corals there were. In saltwater aquariums the blue corals are extremely rare so I found it interesting to find so many blue corals on this dive. On the second dive I dove with some sea turtles. I swam with the turtles for almost 30 minutes. The best part was that I was divemastering for a local comapany so I got paid $40. for diving these world class sites.

 

[diverrobs]

Great Lakes.... Tobormory and/or Kingston Ontario... 150' vis. and lots of shipwrecks (100s of them in the great lakes). Visibility is almost always 100+ at the bottom. Temperature is almost always 40F too (thats why the vis is so good).

 

[Baracuda Smile]

I just got back from an Okinawan diving vaction. I left on 17 Jul 08 and flew to Ishigaki, (We stayed in a hotel near the ferry port) but we flew into a typhoon. That afternoon we went to Taketomi where we went searching for star sand. The typhoons in Japan are no problem as all of the buildings in Japan are made of reinforced concrete. That night the typoon passed over us. After Ishigaki we flew to Yonaguni, Japan (on the 19th of Japan) the most western island in Japan just of the coast of Taiwan. I went to dive the ruins of Yonaguni, but due to the recent conditions of the typhoon, SaWes dive shop stated that the sea conditions and the currents were to strong to dive the monument. Instead we dove just outside the port for 3 dives a day for 3 days. We stayed in the penthouse suite of the Irfume hotel on the north side of the Yonaguni. The penthouse had a Japanese bar and the bedrooms in the back. The port is on the north side of the runway. The dive boat the Shota II was a very nice dive boat with an upper deck and entry either giant stride or rolling back entry. On the back of Shota II there are two ladders to climb out on the stern. The visibility was about 20m or 60 feet. Features are the white sand bottom and numberous sea turtles. We also saw a 5' white tip shark.

On the 23rd we flew to back to Ishigaki, and then took the ferry to Iromote Island. The dive shop (Enysea) picked us up at the ferry port and took us to our bed and breakfest (Ihara Guest House). My wife and I thoughly enjoyed the guest house. The diving on Iromote was oustanding with 100' visibility. The first day I dove with 2 large manta rays, that came so close that I could of touched them. Other dives were awsome as well. The dive boat was LaRena and it can hold twenty divers. We had ten divers so it was comfortable. The water temps were 82F to 84F so I did not wear a wet suit. The hard corals were beutiful, and adbundant. The colors of the hard corals are dazzeling. There were many fish, and many caves to explore. The host of our guest house fixed us fresh lobster on the first night and constantly worked to make menu's according to our tastes. Neither my wife nor I speak but a couple of words of Japanese, and we found it easy to change flights, catch cabs, ferrys, and eat with out many language barriers. I feel I would have more problem speaking Spanish in Mexico than speaking Japanese in Japan. The Japanese (divers, hosts, and diveshops) were eager to engage us with there knowledge of English. Okinawa is truely a world class diving location.

 

[Twistedarts]

West coast grand cayman. was there a week ago 150'+ viz

 

[Eric Mailander]

No brainer....Palau, offshore near Peleliu corner for spectacular vis. No other place compares except ice diving around the north pole....

-Eric 22' Davis

 

[bane51031]

Wow and I was amazed yesterday with 15 foot viz In Lake Okoboji. LOL gotta love being landlocked in Iowa, gotta get to sea water again soon......

 

[Baracuda Smile]

I am searching for the Okinawan Dugoon/Manatee...possibly extinct...does any one have any information on this creature?