RikRaeder
Contributor
Well, I made it back to Saipan this month. I had a very nice trip and really enjoyed the service from Eric at Speedy Tertle. 10 dives over four days and all over way too soon.
First Day:
Beach dive at Obayan as a check out dive for me. Conditions were pretty good with about 30m visibility. Lots of various fish and of course, warm water.
In the afternoon we used a Blue Ocean 6-pack charter to Dimple and nearby Ice Cream. Conditions there were about the same as was the flora and fauna. Of course the exception was the large coral dome at Ice Cream (from where the name is derived).
Day Two:
We started earlier and Blue Ocean (I think that's the name) took us out to Naftan Point, then Obayan. Visibility at Naftan was was "very bad" at a mere 20m that day, but I don't know the difference so I thought it was great. We cruised the drop off at Naftan. We were lucky enough to see some (out of season) rays at Ice Cream, but they didn't stay long. I was delighted to see a couple of spotted Morays. Wow, what attitudes they have! After lunch, we did a beach dive at Lau Lau Beach where we spotted a couple of turtles and I managed to find a Scorpion fish hiding in a hole in a rock. Of course plenty of other tropicals such as Damsels, Moorish Idols, Sunset Wrasses, etc. We got a one hour dive off at Lau Lau which is my current record, so I was feeling pretty good about my air consumption. Unfortunately, I had to open my camera housing while I was waiting to be picked up that morning, and inadvertantly caught the corner of my gel pack under the o-ring when I resealed it. Didn't notice until I'd decended under the boat at Naftan. Only got about a tablespoon of water in it before I signaled Eric and he took it up to the boat for me. No more pictures on this trip! Duh! Canon service center currently has my A620.
Day Three
We took the 40 minute trip to Tinian's west side where we did Fleming Wall, then Tinian Grotto. We saw some flying fish doing their thing on the way out and back. Quite cool. The wall was awesome. Very, very deep and blue. We stayed at around 20m and swam along just a couple of meters under the lip. We sighted five turtles and recieved a fly-by from a spotted eagle ray. Unfortunately, two of the turtles were scared off by another group of divers who literally surrounded the poor beasts at about 1m distance and commenced to snapping off photos until the critters swam away. By settling in behind a rock, I was able to appreciate another from about 6m-2m away as it grazed it's way towards me along the bottom (at the top of the drop off). We also discovered a nest of four beautiful lion fish, as well as seven babies (about one inch long) nearby, camoflauged in a coral head with two little crabs for company. Of course if my camera had been working, I'm sure none of these things would have been there! We anchored in a sheltered bay for our SI and enjoyed a leisurely swim in some incredibly clear and beautiful water of about 6m depth.
Tinian Grotto was pretty cool. It's more of an over-sized swimthrough, but was a great place to visit still. Plenty of fish and some fire coral as well.
Day Four:
Two dives in the Grotto. We entered the Right side swimthrough and explored for quite awhile where we enjoyed some swimthroughs and quite interesting rock formations and came back through the Center. I don't think I could ever tire of the Grotto, but the 170 stairs back up to the parking lot, well...what more to say about those. I braved them again for our second dive which was through the Left swimthrough. We enjoyed more interesting formations, and dropped down to the mouth of "The Bat Cave" for about five minutes which was quite fun as well. This was my deepest dive to date at nearly 30 meters. Didn't seem much different than 10m or 20m but then again, the water in Saipan is just so clear. We saw two puffer fish, a few white tip reef sharks and the usual band of undersea suspects.
For more complete listings of fish at each of these locations, please reference my James Clavel length dive report from last month. Otherwise, just trust me, there's plenty to see. Air temperature was a consistant 28-30C every day and the sea about 1C cooler. Visibility from about 15m (at Lau Lau) to 30m+ at Tinian. I dove a 2.5mm shorty and at average depths of 18m got sunburned. Figure that out! The NE side of Saipan was recieving some unseasonable winds and conditions at sites there were said to be unusually bad for this time of year. They seemed to improving the day I left, however.
I firmly stand by my previous endorsement of Sea Shore Diving for any Japanese speakers out there. I will add my endorsement of Speedy Tertle as well. Eric's service was a bit more personalized and the dive profiles a bit more adventurous (but imminately safe) which suited my taste. It's notable, however, that my rather hydraulically-challenged gf sat this trip out. I averaged about 50 minutes per dive and the four-day plan was composed well with each day topping the last in terms of beauty and interesting features. Airfills were around 3200psi in aluminum 80s compared to Sea Shores 200BAR (2940psi) Al 80s. I averaged about 5 minutes more bottom time with Tertle per dive. Next time I plan to dive Sea Shore with my gf, then Tertle after she gets tired. Blue Ocean (hope that's right) is staffed by very helpful and friendly folks, and have fast, fast boats.
First Day:
Beach dive at Obayan as a check out dive for me. Conditions were pretty good with about 30m visibility. Lots of various fish and of course, warm water.
In the afternoon we used a Blue Ocean 6-pack charter to Dimple and nearby Ice Cream. Conditions there were about the same as was the flora and fauna. Of course the exception was the large coral dome at Ice Cream (from where the name is derived).
Day Two:
We started earlier and Blue Ocean (I think that's the name) took us out to Naftan Point, then Obayan. Visibility at Naftan was was "very bad" at a mere 20m that day, but I don't know the difference so I thought it was great. We cruised the drop off at Naftan. We were lucky enough to see some (out of season) rays at Ice Cream, but they didn't stay long. I was delighted to see a couple of spotted Morays. Wow, what attitudes they have! After lunch, we did a beach dive at Lau Lau Beach where we spotted a couple of turtles and I managed to find a Scorpion fish hiding in a hole in a rock. Of course plenty of other tropicals such as Damsels, Moorish Idols, Sunset Wrasses, etc. We got a one hour dive off at Lau Lau which is my current record, so I was feeling pretty good about my air consumption. Unfortunately, I had to open my camera housing while I was waiting to be picked up that morning, and inadvertantly caught the corner of my gel pack under the o-ring when I resealed it. Didn't notice until I'd decended under the boat at Naftan. Only got about a tablespoon of water in it before I signaled Eric and he took it up to the boat for me. No more pictures on this trip! Duh! Canon service center currently has my A620.
Day Three
We took the 40 minute trip to Tinian's west side where we did Fleming Wall, then Tinian Grotto. We saw some flying fish doing their thing on the way out and back. Quite cool. The wall was awesome. Very, very deep and blue. We stayed at around 20m and swam along just a couple of meters under the lip. We sighted five turtles and recieved a fly-by from a spotted eagle ray. Unfortunately, two of the turtles were scared off by another group of divers who literally surrounded the poor beasts at about 1m distance and commenced to snapping off photos until the critters swam away. By settling in behind a rock, I was able to appreciate another from about 6m-2m away as it grazed it's way towards me along the bottom (at the top of the drop off). We also discovered a nest of four beautiful lion fish, as well as seven babies (about one inch long) nearby, camoflauged in a coral head with two little crabs for company. Of course if my camera had been working, I'm sure none of these things would have been there! We anchored in a sheltered bay for our SI and enjoyed a leisurely swim in some incredibly clear and beautiful water of about 6m depth.
Tinian Grotto was pretty cool. It's more of an over-sized swimthrough, but was a great place to visit still. Plenty of fish and some fire coral as well.
Day Four:
Two dives in the Grotto. We entered the Right side swimthrough and explored for quite awhile where we enjoyed some swimthroughs and quite interesting rock formations and came back through the Center. I don't think I could ever tire of the Grotto, but the 170 stairs back up to the parking lot, well...what more to say about those. I braved them again for our second dive which was through the Left swimthrough. We enjoyed more interesting formations, and dropped down to the mouth of "The Bat Cave" for about five minutes which was quite fun as well. This was my deepest dive to date at nearly 30 meters. Didn't seem much different than 10m or 20m but then again, the water in Saipan is just so clear. We saw two puffer fish, a few white tip reef sharks and the usual band of undersea suspects.
For more complete listings of fish at each of these locations, please reference my James Clavel length dive report from last month. Otherwise, just trust me, there's plenty to see. Air temperature was a consistant 28-30C every day and the sea about 1C cooler. Visibility from about 15m (at Lau Lau) to 30m+ at Tinian. I dove a 2.5mm shorty and at average depths of 18m got sunburned. Figure that out! The NE side of Saipan was recieving some unseasonable winds and conditions at sites there were said to be unusually bad for this time of year. They seemed to improving the day I left, however.
I firmly stand by my previous endorsement of Sea Shore Diving for any Japanese speakers out there. I will add my endorsement of Speedy Tertle as well. Eric's service was a bit more personalized and the dive profiles a bit more adventurous (but imminately safe) which suited my taste. It's notable, however, that my rather hydraulically-challenged gf sat this trip out. I averaged about 50 minutes per dive and the four-day plan was composed well with each day topping the last in terms of beauty and interesting features. Airfills were around 3200psi in aluminum 80s compared to Sea Shores 200BAR (2940psi) Al 80s. I averaged about 5 minutes more bottom time with Tertle per dive. Next time I plan to dive Sea Shore with my gf, then Tertle after she gets tired. Blue Ocean (hope that's right) is staffed by very helpful and friendly folks, and have fast, fast boats.
