I don't know if this should be here, or in the Australia/Pacific thread, but I'll put it here and see if it gets moved....
This weekend, I tagged along on a boat dive through the LDS. A customer called in sick, and the shop was gonna get stuck with the fare, so I hopped along for free. Didn't have time to grab all my gear: was stuck with whatever happened to be in the back of my truck.
The first dive site was (Saipan, CNMI) Eagle Ray City: 30 feet deep inside the lagoon. Not much to see except a bunch of Spotted Eagle Rays. On Saturday, there were about 60 of them in formation.
There was a fairly rippin current (the number or Rays seems to be directly proportional to the speed/strength of the current) so without a reef hook (It wasn't in the back of my truck) I had to grab on to a boulder and hold on, checking for scorpionfish every time I put my hand somewhere.
All was going well until I hear this huge rumbling sound. "Wow, that's a big boat" I thought. And then I felt some vibrations, and I thought "That boat must be HUGE. And CLOSE" and then the darndest thing happend....
The boulder I was holding on to started shaking, and then bouncing! I looked around, and all the boulders were shaking! And there were some very surprised looking japanese tourists holding on for dear life too. So, of course, you see shocked japanese and the ground is shaking, and the idea that springs in your head is "Godzilla!"
I darn near drowned from laughing so hard at my own joke. Anyway, it was an EARTHQUAKE! 6.6, which seemed plenty big to me at the time.
The Eagle Rays tighetned up, and headed down towards the ground. Silt and sand was spewing up from the cracks, and the boulder was bouncing around like all get out. My next thought was "They certainly didn't cover this in my PADI Dive Instructor Class."
My only other thought was to grab the boulder only by my fingertips. I figured that if the boulder landed on them, I would only lose my fingertips and not an entire arm. Morbid, I guess, but in retrospect I still think it was an OK decision. I rode out the quake, digging my fingertips into whatever purchase they would find, with the rest of my body flapping in the current like a big, flabby-hairy flag, hoping not to let go and hoping not to get between a boulder and the bottom.
It ended, and everyone kinda just looked at eachother, flashing "OK" signals. We then watched tons of small fish darting through the stirred up silt/sand, feasting on what was kicked up by the quake.
And that's what happened this weekend in Saipan.
This weekend, I tagged along on a boat dive through the LDS. A customer called in sick, and the shop was gonna get stuck with the fare, so I hopped along for free. Didn't have time to grab all my gear: was stuck with whatever happened to be in the back of my truck.
The first dive site was (Saipan, CNMI) Eagle Ray City: 30 feet deep inside the lagoon. Not much to see except a bunch of Spotted Eagle Rays. On Saturday, there were about 60 of them in formation.
There was a fairly rippin current (the number or Rays seems to be directly proportional to the speed/strength of the current) so without a reef hook (It wasn't in the back of my truck) I had to grab on to a boulder and hold on, checking for scorpionfish every time I put my hand somewhere.
All was going well until I hear this huge rumbling sound. "Wow, that's a big boat" I thought. And then I felt some vibrations, and I thought "That boat must be HUGE. And CLOSE" and then the darndest thing happend....
The boulder I was holding on to started shaking, and then bouncing! I looked around, and all the boulders were shaking! And there were some very surprised looking japanese tourists holding on for dear life too. So, of course, you see shocked japanese and the ground is shaking, and the idea that springs in your head is "Godzilla!"
I darn near drowned from laughing so hard at my own joke. Anyway, it was an EARTHQUAKE! 6.6, which seemed plenty big to me at the time.
The Eagle Rays tighetned up, and headed down towards the ground. Silt and sand was spewing up from the cracks, and the boulder was bouncing around like all get out. My next thought was "They certainly didn't cover this in my PADI Dive Instructor Class."
My only other thought was to grab the boulder only by my fingertips. I figured that if the boulder landed on them, I would only lose my fingertips and not an entire arm. Morbid, I guess, but in retrospect I still think it was an OK decision. I rode out the quake, digging my fingertips into whatever purchase they would find, with the rest of my body flapping in the current like a big, flabby-hairy flag, hoping not to let go and hoping not to get between a boulder and the bottom.
It ended, and everyone kinda just looked at eachother, flashing "OK" signals. We then watched tons of small fish darting through the stirred up silt/sand, feasting on what was kicked up by the quake.
And that's what happened this weekend in Saipan.
