marpacifica
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Been back two weeks and have finally been able to get around to posting some photos and a brief trip report on Ishigaki Island.
Stayed at the Seamen's Club Resort & Hotel, dove four days, 2-3 dives/day. It rained almost every day and the conditions were quite rough, especially around Manta Scramble, which is about one km offshore. Seamen's has 3 large boats that can handle up to 20 divers, and about 2 skiffs that they use to ferry divers to the big boats or to take a small group of divers to nearby divesites. The large boats have a metal platform at the back of the boat that you're supposed to kneel on while getting out of the water, so almost everyone got their shins bruised whenever the waves rocked the boat. Some divers got seasick, but suffered silently, poor them.
I'm afraid I don't remember the names of the divesites other than Indian Pinnacle and Manta Scramble, because I don't speak Japanese. I was able to get by because my dive partner speaks fluent Japanese, having lived there for two years.
Saw mantas 3 out of 4 dives at Manta Scramble. Dives there usually are in the afternoon. You hang out (most people just grab onto some coral heads, yuck), but I tried to hover just above them using bouyancy control -- actually got some of the Japanese divers to start doing that too, I think by example because I certainly didn't talk to them about it.
One dive I really liked was in the southern part of the Bay where Seamen's is located. Saw my first cuttlefish (actually, I DIDN'T see it, but someone had to point it out right in front of my face because it was so well camouflaged), and enjoyed the nice hard corals. Corals are in excellent shape, but no soft corals. Saw lots of clownfish (false clown anemonefish, pink anemonefish, tomato anemonefish, Clark's anemonefish). No shark sightings. A few parrotfish, some swimthroughs. Water temp was chilly (to me), around 21-23 C, so I wore a new 5 mm with a diveskin underneath. Managed to stay warm but that initial coldwater seepage into the suit is always a wake-me-up.
Look for some of these photos and an article in an upcoming issue of Asian Diver. I also have some clownfish photos that are going to be published in the magazine in the next few months (check out my post in the Photography forum if you'd like to see some of the photos).
Cheers, and happy diving!
Stayed at the Seamen's Club Resort & Hotel, dove four days, 2-3 dives/day. It rained almost every day and the conditions were quite rough, especially around Manta Scramble, which is about one km offshore. Seamen's has 3 large boats that can handle up to 20 divers, and about 2 skiffs that they use to ferry divers to the big boats or to take a small group of divers to nearby divesites. The large boats have a metal platform at the back of the boat that you're supposed to kneel on while getting out of the water, so almost everyone got their shins bruised whenever the waves rocked the boat. Some divers got seasick, but suffered silently, poor them.
I'm afraid I don't remember the names of the divesites other than Indian Pinnacle and Manta Scramble, because I don't speak Japanese. I was able to get by because my dive partner speaks fluent Japanese, having lived there for two years.
Saw mantas 3 out of 4 dives at Manta Scramble. Dives there usually are in the afternoon. You hang out (most people just grab onto some coral heads, yuck), but I tried to hover just above them using bouyancy control -- actually got some of the Japanese divers to start doing that too, I think by example because I certainly didn't talk to them about it.
One dive I really liked was in the southern part of the Bay where Seamen's is located. Saw my first cuttlefish (actually, I DIDN'T see it, but someone had to point it out right in front of my face because it was so well camouflaged), and enjoyed the nice hard corals. Corals are in excellent shape, but no soft corals. Saw lots of clownfish (false clown anemonefish, pink anemonefish, tomato anemonefish, Clark's anemonefish). No shark sightings. A few parrotfish, some swimthroughs. Water temp was chilly (to me), around 21-23 C, so I wore a new 5 mm with a diveskin underneath. Managed to stay warm but that initial coldwater seepage into the suit is always a wake-me-up.
Look for some of these photos and an article in an upcoming issue of Asian Diver. I also have some clownfish photos that are going to be published in the magazine in the next few months (check out my post in the Photography forum if you'd like to see some of the photos).
Cheers, and happy diving!
Did you use the 12-24mm, sigma 15mm or Nikon 16mm? Did not look like the 10.5mm from what I can tell?
