Diving at Hedo: East of Oku

Our final dive of the day with North of Nago & Cap'n Chuck was just to the east of Oku Port (where we stopped to grab the 3rd tanks for each of our group of 7 divers) & included some wonderful underwater scenery & life. There were huge cuts, crevasses, caves & channels thru the rocky formations & all kinds of life from the 80-90 foot sandy bottoms to the 15-20 foot tops of the reef. Unfortunately, being technically our 4th dive of the day, we were quite worn out (Josh with a head ache & Betsy with motion sickness) & the fast approaching night (we got in only shortly before sunset) limited our dive to just half of an hour (one of our shortest ever). Hence, the small amount of photos we snapped. We did see a young turtle just before the end of the dive, but the lighting was too poor for the camera to capture his image before he decided to leave our presence very quickly (a skill & decision that will hopefully serve to afford him a very long life). Thanks for facilitating some great diving, Chuck!

Photos taken east of Oku:

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Diving at Hedo: The Dome

The highlight of our dive day was the Hedo Dome just SW of Hedo-misaki a bit north of the Ginama port (which is the last part of Hwy 58 that's up against the water before entering a tunnel & coming out up on cliffs near Hedo Point). We entered the cave system around 50 ft below the surface of the water above, and in about 10 minutes or less, all 7 of us (Josh bringing up the rear) were inside the air pocket at the surface of the water inside of the dome (technically ending our 2nd dive of the day). There we were able to turn off our air regulators & breathe in fresh air. We spent about 25 minutes inspecting the dome from that surface before descending underwater again (dive #3, technically) & slowly investigated more of its nooks & crannies before making our way out. The stalactites & stalagmites were quite impressive, both above & below the water's surface in the caves (indicating they had at one point all been above). Very little life was seen in the cave or in its brackish water (which indicated that a source of fresh water was meeting the sea) although we did see some crustaceans fairly well into the cave. We highly recommend this dive to any divers that spend any amount of time on Okinawa!

Photos from Hedo Dome:

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Diving at Hedo: The Point

For our first dive of the day with Cap'n Chuck of North of Nago, we left the port in Oku & made our way just off the Hedo Point visitor's center cliffs. We descended just as it started raining nice & hard (we're sure that Cap'n Chuck must have had a lovely time trying to stay dry on the boat). We had a lovely first dive ever in the far northern reaches of Okinawa & it was grand indeed!

Photos from our dive at Hedo Point:

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More info on checking out Hedo-misaki:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7113.html
http://www.virtualginza.com/okinawa.htm?diving.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedo-misaki
http://www.straycompass.com/video_page.php?recordID=1

Diving in Onna-son: Diamond Beach

Our final dive of the day took place in fairly shallow waters (max depth was only around 40-45 feet) just off of Diamond Beach (also commonly called Turtle Beach) in Onna-son. It was just a bit further north/east along the western coastline from the previous Seragaki spot, as we made our way towards the small "port" (really just a boat launch) from which we had departed. We enjoyed all of the variety of life among the reef patches & white sandy bottoms. We were escorted nearly the entire dive by at least one & at times as many as a dozen large batfish (specifically of the Ephippidae family & Platax genus, there are a few totally different fish that get commonly called "batfish"). We assume that were probably very used to dives being led by dive masters doling out chummy treats for them to nibble upon, so you'll see below that they're featured very prominently in several of our photos. One of the highlights was a white stingray that we spotted trying to disguise itself on the sandy bottom. Once he realized that we weren't being fooled by his attempt to conceal his presence, he decided to move on (which he showed us that he could do VERY quickly) but not before we managed to snap a pretty decent shot of him. We got out of the water just before 6 PM, so it was nearly dark by the time we pulled into port & called it a dive day. Thanks, Captain Dave of OkiDiving.com!

Photos from the Diamond/Turtle Beach dive:

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Diving in Onna-son: Seragaki

For our second dive of the day, Captain Dave took us a short distance further to the north there off Onna-son's shore to a dive spot just off the north side of Seragaki Island (at the time we went, & probably still, it was closed for renovations or some other valid-sounding excuse). There we enjoyed a very nice dive that featured a shallow cave, many crevasses & some steep vertical reef walls to explore. We eventually got down to about 95 ft below the surface & while we didn't see anything spectacular (we had every finger & toe crossed for a white-tip shark that normally hangs out near the cave), it was a very worthwhile dive nonetheless.

Photos of the Seragaki dive:

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Diving in Onna-son: Manza Dream Hole

For our first of 3 dives on the day with a group organized by our Aussie English teaching friend Bradley Worland, this time booked thru OkiDiving.com & Captain Dave, we were privileged to check out the highlight of our day, the Manza Dream Hole, just NE of the Manza Resort in Onna-son. The weather was pretty good (cool but not overly & only a little bit overcast) & the seas were calm. We moored right near the entry to the "hole," really a natural underwater cave formation in the reef with a fairly narrow shaft extending down to a level cavern & large opening to open water. Shortly after our initial descent underwater, we took turns entering. The 2 of us waited until all but 1 of the other 10 divers had entered before following ourselves, Betsy just ahead of Josh. It was quite cool & very bubbly descending into the darkness of the cave. At the bottom, we found the diver-sized opening leading out to a nice large cave mouth where thousands of fish congregated among the bubble-filled water. We proceeded out of the cave mouth to the left (SW) at around 95 ft below the surface. We slowly worked our way along the vertical reef walls to shallower water. We ended the 45-minute dive hanging out around 15-20 ft for about 20 minutes (like the good no deco divers we are!).

Photos that we captured on the dive:

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Keramas B'day Dives

As our birthday gift to Aaron, we treated him to a day of boat diving almost anywhere around Okinawa & several neighboring islands. To our delight, he chose the Keramas! So we spent yet another gorgeous day around the islands of Zamami (for the first 2 dives) & Tokashiki (for the final dive, a drift). We also gave the dive camera to Aaron to capture the sights & memories of his day & we're impressed with what he had to show us! Enjoy!

The full photo set:

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LD Adventure, Day 2: Pacific Snorkeling

After our refreshing picnic lunch, we stopped along the NE coast (once Hwy 70 came down from the hills) at a nice beach with a great bay for snorkeling (we had been there before). We were impressed to discover that toilet facilities (including a shower room) had been erected near a mobile unit (some sort of organization headquarters perhaps?) beside which we parked. A 2nd area of parking & beach access, right beside 2 large Shisa Lion-dog statues, lay just down the road a few more meters. The waters were lovely, despite the shallow tide, & we saw some very cool marine life. Robin got her first full snorkeling experience (the early morning few minutes shouldn't count) on Okinawa while Ana, Betsy & Josh had yet another!

VERY long & snakelike sea cucumber (or holothurian), Synapta maculata, feeding on the sandy bottom (Betsy stepped on it & almost soiled her suit, thinking it was a snake; can you blame her?):

Large & very ornately colored lionfish swaying back & forth in the incoming tide's surge:

Large school of small fish that blended impressively well with the sea grasses growing heavily in certain shallow areas:

Pair of bright, bobbing Clownfish & their large anemone home:

Small juvenile black boxfish with white spots escapes my scrutiny into a large coral:

Pair of Wedge-Tail Reef Triggerfish (Rhinecanthus rectangulus) roaming the area:

Dog-faced or Black-spotted Pufferfish (Arothron nigropunctatus):

Squid, a pretty rare sighting for us:

LD Adventure, Day 2: Morning Snorkeling

As usual with camping out, we woke up fairly shortly after the sun had risen to a point that its light convinced us it was time to have some more fun. After a breakfast of leftovers, we geared up & enjoyed a little snorkeling for several minutes until the gals spotted a very cool jellyfish (that Josh chased to get some good video) & a very long sea snake. That was the end of the snorkeling at that beach.

The striped fish swimming along with the jellyfish seemed to be a protector of some kind, as he lunged at my camera a few times before returning to his spot beside the tentacles:

Keramas Dive: Tokashiki SE (Drift)

The final dive of the day was a drift dive. Papa-san dropped us off a bit further north (but not much) than the previous dive (not far from the location of our first dive) & we let the gentle current carry us south. We had fun at the end of the dive playing with our "safety sausages" (really some cheap pool floats that read "GO TEAM").

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