Just returned back to the real world after two solid weeks of diving Yonaguni. Althought the island has been built up a little over the years their is still pretty much a absence of web availability there- with the only internet cafe closing since my last visit (its now a bakery) Over my two weeks there we welcomed over 20 international clientele from around the globe - we had visitors from France, Russia, Canada, China, Taiwan, England, Australia and of course the US along with our regular Japanese clientele. The Reef Encounters team spent days exploring the underwater monuments and chasing hammerheads. We also had NHK along for the ride on a few dives chasing sharks and shooting another story on the monuments.
Weather for the most part cooperated with us - although one team there for three days was unable to dive the monument due to winds/waves. Most groups got to do at least two dives on the monuments and also we explored "The Stage" which is located below Tachigami Iwa and contains the monument to Jacques Mayol`s last dive and also a very ancient carving of a face. On a few of the monument dives we were lucky enough to have no current and were able to slowly explore the entire upper terrace at leisure. We also spent a few dives cruising the face to check the "stairs" and the road around the bottom of the structure. With one of these dives being interrupted by the apperrance of very curious and very large GT who was wondering what all these noisy bubble making things were in his front yard.
The hammerhead dives this year saw large schools and close encounters. We were successful on about 70% of all shark dives and even ran into a few schools while exploring the reefs. The largest school numbered over 100 with multiple schools of 50 plus. One morning the team was lucky enought to drop directly into the middle of a large school and the very suprised sharks were quite curious and came to check out some also very suprised divers. We also had a close encounter with small group on one of our safety stops- after ending a nice wall dive at Danno Drop we headed out to get picked up and while drifting at 5m a small group of sharks came by for a quick visit- what a way to end the dive.
Overall a very successful trip with many happy diver, s and lots of good memories- one crashed scooter (which was quite the excitement in Yonaguni- no serious injuries in the crash though), many pints of Orion draft put away after dives along with much fresh shashimi.
Lucky me I head back in 9 days for another 4 days of diving with another group of divers.
Weather for the most part cooperated with us - although one team there for three days was unable to dive the monument due to winds/waves. Most groups got to do at least two dives on the monuments and also we explored "The Stage" which is located below Tachigami Iwa and contains the monument to Jacques Mayol`s last dive and also a very ancient carving of a face. On a few of the monument dives we were lucky enough to have no current and were able to slowly explore the entire upper terrace at leisure. We also spent a few dives cruising the face to check the "stairs" and the road around the bottom of the structure. With one of these dives being interrupted by the apperrance of very curious and very large GT who was wondering what all these noisy bubble making things were in his front yard.
The hammerhead dives this year saw large schools and close encounters. We were successful on about 70% of all shark dives and even ran into a few schools while exploring the reefs. The largest school numbered over 100 with multiple schools of 50 plus. One morning the team was lucky enought to drop directly into the middle of a large school and the very suprised sharks were quite curious and came to check out some also very suprised divers. We also had a close encounter with small group on one of our safety stops- after ending a nice wall dive at Danno Drop we headed out to get picked up and while drifting at 5m a small group of sharks came by for a quick visit- what a way to end the dive.
Overall a very successful trip with many happy diver, s and lots of good memories- one crashed scooter (which was quite the excitement in Yonaguni- no serious injuries in the crash though), many pints of Orion draft put away after dives along with much fresh shashimi.
Lucky me I head back in 9 days for another 4 days of diving with another group of divers.
