RikRaeder
Contributor
Just back from Saipan where my gf and I spent three days diving. Ok, I spent three, she spent two. We started off right since our plane arrived at 12:30 am, 45 minutes early (usually a three hour and fifteen minute trip from Central Japan Airport). Of course our hotel taxi was waiting for us after we blitzed through immigration and customs with our carry on baggage. So far so good!
We were in the room, unpacked, and in bed in record time but of course couldn't sleep due to our anticipation for the next days diving. Somehow, sometime we got an adequate sleep and were ready in the lobby for our pick up at 7:25 am.
After getting our equipment at Seashore Divers (a ten minute ride from the hotel), we met our companion for the day. A rather shy (socially inept) gent from Tokyo who hadn't been diving for quite awhile. He wasn't exactly as fun as a barrel of monkeys, but oh well. After getting our kit, and going over the day's itinerary we headed out. The shop had told us that they wanted to do something easy to check on our skills for the first dive, so we headed to Lau Lau Beach where we took our briefing and made our entry.
You enter Lau Lau by walking across some very uneven terrain for about 80 meters until you get to waist-deep water where you can don fins and mask and head for the rope. We were lucky and having arrived around 9:30 found the waves to be quite gentle although it can be a bit surgy (I broke a fins strap there on my very first certification dive last year). Just after donning our gear, we scrabbled a few feet deeper where we submerged and followed one of several ropes that lead through gaps in the shoal and allow descent into more open waters.
We took it easy swimming around the coral and rock formations for awhile. Visibility was "really bad" that day: only 15m due to heavy silt. Still, we somehow made the best of it in the 27C waters of the horseshoe shaped bay (where Magellan once landed). I mainly worked on tuning my buoyancy and trying to anticipate my remaining air. Our erstwhile partner had some serious problems with his buoyancy and spent lots of time floating away or crawling around the bottom. Luckily, we had two guides with us, so while our leader spent time patiently coaching M-san into stability, our trailing guide lurked at a discrete distance and kept an eye on my gf and I who, happily, were able to cruise around with little problem and enjoy the environment.
I was very proud of my girlfriend. It seems that my incessant nagging has had some effect on her as throughout the course of the dive, she was able to one-by-one shed some of her bad habits and seemed to become more relaxed and comfortable. I could have sworn I caught her enjoying herself once or twice.
The dive was over all too quickly. We headed back towards the shoal, met our exit rope, and pulled ourselves up and out through the gently surging waters. We saw some really well formed coral domes (brain coral?), lots of Sea Cucumbers, numerous anenomes with accompanying Clown Fish, some friendly Sunset Wrasses, and of course, the ubiquitous Spurobranchus giganticus. Sorry about that last one. Some of Seashore's fish finder books only show the Latin names. They were little purple critters who run for cover en masse and hide in porous rocks, corals, etc. when you wave a paw towards them. Anyone know the common name?
After a 20 minute or so drive, we arrived at our second spot of the day: Obyan (Obajon) Beach. We took our time setting up our gear and doing our briefing to ensure a decent surface interval and were in the water by 11:25.
Obyan's entry is similar to Lau Lau's, but by then it was high tide, so our gear seemed much lighter as we waded out through the chest deep water. My gf was quite happy about that! The shoal there is less rocky and more coraley (did I make that word up?) but more on that later.
Visibility was a stunning 35 meters and again, fish and fauna were in abundance. M-san had a better grip on his buoyancy by then, so we took it easy and cruised around enjoying the various coral formations and fish with our two attentive guides. Some highlights of the dive, but indeed not nearly one-tenth of what we saw, were: some large Moorish Idols, oodles and oodles of Firedarts, Surge Damesoilles, and a small field of Garden Eels. I was testing my new Canon housing during this first day, so no pictures to post. The water was blue, warm, and teeming with life. Once again however, <French accent> ...before we knew it, it was once again time to leave the majesty of the sea and return to dry land where we could only dream of the magical, life-giving ocean we had left behind. <end French accent> Bad point: the rope lying along the coraley shoal cut the bejusus out of my pinky...:116: And I'd teased my gf about her reef gloves!
After taking care of our gear, logging our dives at the shop and enjoying a delicious Japanese bento (you guessed it...seafood, but only $7) we got dropped off, had our showers, napped, and were enjoying the tropical elegance of the pool-side bar by 4:00pm. After two beers I was knackered so after another short nap we had a lovely but pricey Teppanyaki dinner (think Benni Hanna's) and hit the hay early for a good night's sleep.
The next day, my girl and I were waiting again at 7:25 for our pick up. We were heading out on the Alius, a very fast and stable deep V, single-prop dive boat with Cpt. Brett. Brett's a Florida native who has long since gone native in Saipan. He was quite the character: think of a cross between Cpt. Quint (from Jaws) and Robin Williams on excedrin and a Starbucks triple expresso with extra caffeine.
Brett handled the Alius expertly, and while I quite enjoyed the hour-long ride to Naftan Point, I can't say that my girlfriend did. She's just not a boat person. She almost made it with only a green face and really pained expression until we hit the South side of the island. Once we broke from the sheltered seas between Saipan and Tinian...well...it got a bit rough and I'll spare you the details.
Fortunately, we made the Southern crossing in about eight minutes and were able to stop and begin dropping divers. We carried two other groups totalling eight other divers and guides. The owner of Seashore, who decided that he would personally guide the two hot, young, single, experienced Japanese diver girls from Northern Japan and Mr. Ace Diver from my current hometown of Nagoya (kind of a boor), and another group of five from another shop. They strode off of the dive platform as my gf recovered herself and we all hydrated on cold barley tea and prepared for our entries. I must admit that for some reason I was quite nervous about my first boat dive. Really, I didn't know what to do or how to do it. Cpt. Quint, I mean Brett was super easy-going and guided me into my preparation and entry while making me feel like I wasn't a total idiot after all. He looks like the kind of guy you don't want to run into in a dark alley at night, but he's all-pro all the way.
We dropped into the ultimately azul yet clear waters (is that possible?) off of Saipan's southernmost point and my gf was instantly cured. We descended on a buoyed rope cast from the stern and met up on the bottom at about 17 meters depth.
Our guide from the day didn't win any points for friendliness, but she was definitely a pro as well. My gf complained that she wasn't as attentive as Yosuke, who had sheparded us through our certification last November and our first day's diving on this trip. I think otherwise. She was always just where she needed to be. When my gf needed some coaching, Nozomi was on the spot giving the right instructions. She just tended to do her own thing a bit more as she guided us, but I felt that she was always well-aware of the situation and her group, so I was pleased. Not the friendliest person in the world, but Japanese dive staff and non-English speakers in general tend to get put off a bit when dealing with non-Japanese so I imagine she was quite nervous about me.
Naftan's coral formations are wild. The best way I can describe them is that they are lunar. One has no recourse but to float along there since the outcroppings from the bottom are irregular and wild to say the least. Amazing, and of course, teaming with life. I had my camera going on the second day, so I got a few photos. I tried to use my flash a few times, but it wouldn't go off. There was too much light! I had dragged my bulky diffuser down for nothing. I've often read "get close...shoot up," so as I was trying some experimental shots here and there, I would float very low towards the bottom and get right up on my subject. More than once our socially inept...I mean shy third partner from Tokyo would be right up on me. I'd try to rise up off of the bottom and <BAM> smack right into M-san. I mean, the guy was literally right on top of me. I decided that his nickname should be Ramorrah (for obvious reasons). Anyway, even though my photos sucked, I'll put a few in my gallery if anyone is interested.
Naftan highlights: beautifully clear water, lunar coral formations, Fire Dartfish, Bluestreak Fusiliers, Pyramid Butterflyfish, Bohadschin argal (a kind of large, yellow, spotted sea cucumber) and some large Orange-Fin Anenome Fish (complete with anenomes), gf was super-comfortable and had a really good time. There was also a cool drop off to about 45 meters which we floated over and swam above, but maxed our dive at 17.2 meters. Bad points: Ramorrah-like dive buddy who was ALWAYS out of LOS and about 2mm under my wetsuit, slightly bothersome current but it was manageable (and good experience I think).
We were in the room, unpacked, and in bed in record time but of course couldn't sleep due to our anticipation for the next days diving. Somehow, sometime we got an adequate sleep and were ready in the lobby for our pick up at 7:25 am.
After getting our equipment at Seashore Divers (a ten minute ride from the hotel), we met our companion for the day. A rather shy (socially inept) gent from Tokyo who hadn't been diving for quite awhile. He wasn't exactly as fun as a barrel of monkeys, but oh well. After getting our kit, and going over the day's itinerary we headed out. The shop had told us that they wanted to do something easy to check on our skills for the first dive, so we headed to Lau Lau Beach where we took our briefing and made our entry.
You enter Lau Lau by walking across some very uneven terrain for about 80 meters until you get to waist-deep water where you can don fins and mask and head for the rope. We were lucky and having arrived around 9:30 found the waves to be quite gentle although it can be a bit surgy (I broke a fins strap there on my very first certification dive last year). Just after donning our gear, we scrabbled a few feet deeper where we submerged and followed one of several ropes that lead through gaps in the shoal and allow descent into more open waters.
We took it easy swimming around the coral and rock formations for awhile. Visibility was "really bad" that day: only 15m due to heavy silt. Still, we somehow made the best of it in the 27C waters of the horseshoe shaped bay (where Magellan once landed). I mainly worked on tuning my buoyancy and trying to anticipate my remaining air. Our erstwhile partner had some serious problems with his buoyancy and spent lots of time floating away or crawling around the bottom. Luckily, we had two guides with us, so while our leader spent time patiently coaching M-san into stability, our trailing guide lurked at a discrete distance and kept an eye on my gf and I who, happily, were able to cruise around with little problem and enjoy the environment.
I was very proud of my girlfriend. It seems that my incessant nagging has had some effect on her as throughout the course of the dive, she was able to one-by-one shed some of her bad habits and seemed to become more relaxed and comfortable. I could have sworn I caught her enjoying herself once or twice.
The dive was over all too quickly. We headed back towards the shoal, met our exit rope, and pulled ourselves up and out through the gently surging waters. We saw some really well formed coral domes (brain coral?), lots of Sea Cucumbers, numerous anenomes with accompanying Clown Fish, some friendly Sunset Wrasses, and of course, the ubiquitous Spurobranchus giganticus. Sorry about that last one. Some of Seashore's fish finder books only show the Latin names. They were little purple critters who run for cover en masse and hide in porous rocks, corals, etc. when you wave a paw towards them. Anyone know the common name?
After a 20 minute or so drive, we arrived at our second spot of the day: Obyan (Obajon) Beach. We took our time setting up our gear and doing our briefing to ensure a decent surface interval and were in the water by 11:25.
Obyan's entry is similar to Lau Lau's, but by then it was high tide, so our gear seemed much lighter as we waded out through the chest deep water. My gf was quite happy about that! The shoal there is less rocky and more coraley (did I make that word up?) but more on that later.
Visibility was a stunning 35 meters and again, fish and fauna were in abundance. M-san had a better grip on his buoyancy by then, so we took it easy and cruised around enjoying the various coral formations and fish with our two attentive guides. Some highlights of the dive, but indeed not nearly one-tenth of what we saw, were: some large Moorish Idols, oodles and oodles of Firedarts, Surge Damesoilles, and a small field of Garden Eels. I was testing my new Canon housing during this first day, so no pictures to post. The water was blue, warm, and teeming with life. Once again however, <French accent> ...before we knew it, it was once again time to leave the majesty of the sea and return to dry land where we could only dream of the magical, life-giving ocean we had left behind. <end French accent> Bad point: the rope lying along the coraley shoal cut the bejusus out of my pinky...:116: And I'd teased my gf about her reef gloves!
After taking care of our gear, logging our dives at the shop and enjoying a delicious Japanese bento (you guessed it...seafood, but only $7) we got dropped off, had our showers, napped, and were enjoying the tropical elegance of the pool-side bar by 4:00pm. After two beers I was knackered so after another short nap we had a lovely but pricey Teppanyaki dinner (think Benni Hanna's) and hit the hay early for a good night's sleep.
The next day, my girl and I were waiting again at 7:25 for our pick up. We were heading out on the Alius, a very fast and stable deep V, single-prop dive boat with Cpt. Brett. Brett's a Florida native who has long since gone native in Saipan. He was quite the character: think of a cross between Cpt. Quint (from Jaws) and Robin Williams on excedrin and a Starbucks triple expresso with extra caffeine.
Brett handled the Alius expertly, and while I quite enjoyed the hour-long ride to Naftan Point, I can't say that my girlfriend did. She's just not a boat person. She almost made it with only a green face and really pained expression until we hit the South side of the island. Once we broke from the sheltered seas between Saipan and Tinian...well...it got a bit rough and I'll spare you the details.
Fortunately, we made the Southern crossing in about eight minutes and were able to stop and begin dropping divers. We carried two other groups totalling eight other divers and guides. The owner of Seashore, who decided that he would personally guide the two hot, young, single, experienced Japanese diver girls from Northern Japan and Mr. Ace Diver from my current hometown of Nagoya (kind of a boor), and another group of five from another shop. They strode off of the dive platform as my gf recovered herself and we all hydrated on cold barley tea and prepared for our entries. I must admit that for some reason I was quite nervous about my first boat dive. Really, I didn't know what to do or how to do it. Cpt. Quint, I mean Brett was super easy-going and guided me into my preparation and entry while making me feel like I wasn't a total idiot after all. He looks like the kind of guy you don't want to run into in a dark alley at night, but he's all-pro all the way.
We dropped into the ultimately azul yet clear waters (is that possible?) off of Saipan's southernmost point and my gf was instantly cured. We descended on a buoyed rope cast from the stern and met up on the bottom at about 17 meters depth.
Our guide from the day didn't win any points for friendliness, but she was definitely a pro as well. My gf complained that she wasn't as attentive as Yosuke, who had sheparded us through our certification last November and our first day's diving on this trip. I think otherwise. She was always just where she needed to be. When my gf needed some coaching, Nozomi was on the spot giving the right instructions. She just tended to do her own thing a bit more as she guided us, but I felt that she was always well-aware of the situation and her group, so I was pleased. Not the friendliest person in the world, but Japanese dive staff and non-English speakers in general tend to get put off a bit when dealing with non-Japanese so I imagine she was quite nervous about me.
Naftan's coral formations are wild. The best way I can describe them is that they are lunar. One has no recourse but to float along there since the outcroppings from the bottom are irregular and wild to say the least. Amazing, and of course, teaming with life. I had my camera going on the second day, so I got a few photos. I tried to use my flash a few times, but it wouldn't go off. There was too much light! I had dragged my bulky diffuser down for nothing. I've often read "get close...shoot up," so as I was trying some experimental shots here and there, I would float very low towards the bottom and get right up on my subject. More than once our socially inept...I mean shy third partner from Tokyo would be right up on me. I'd try to rise up off of the bottom and <BAM> smack right into M-san. I mean, the guy was literally right on top of me. I decided that his nickname should be Ramorrah (for obvious reasons). Anyway, even though my photos sucked, I'll put a few in my gallery if anyone is interested.
Naftan highlights: beautifully clear water, lunar coral formations, Fire Dartfish, Bluestreak Fusiliers, Pyramid Butterflyfish, Bohadschin argal (a kind of large, yellow, spotted sea cucumber) and some large Orange-Fin Anenome Fish (complete with anenomes), gf was super-comfortable and had a really good time. There was also a cool drop off to about 45 meters which we floated over and swam above, but maxed our dive at 17.2 meters. Bad points: Ramorrah-like dive buddy who was ALWAYS out of LOS and about 2mm under my wetsuit, slightly bothersome current but it was manageable (and good experience I think).
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