Did a couple of nice dives this weekend.

[Kim]

I know not too many people are close but I found a nice new place to dive. A two tank boat dive leaving from Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture. There are hundreds of small islands in an archipelago just off the coast. We went out for just over an hour (travel time) to a place called Obi Island. It was great. Lots of hard and some soft corals. Not too many fish, but the clown fish were the most curious I've ever seen - swimming right up to my mask to check me out. I took my old Motormarine 2 camera with me and with a bit of luck got a few good close-ups of them. I'll have to see tomorrow how they came out.
In places there were also large numbers of lionfish and scorpions. Occasionally we saw some bigger stuff further out in blue water. Apart from the corals the bottom was covered in large boulders, giving lots of places to poke around and explore. We also got to do one wreck..........a 'K' truck!!! All in all well worth the money if you happen to be in the area and want to dive. It was much better than our other 'local' diving.
The tanks were a bit small - Alu 10liters - but we still got 50 minutes out of them.

12,000 yen......not bad.

 

[Mar Scuba]

Hey, Kim, nice to see a post from you.

I got an e-mail from a diver inquiring about your part of the country, will send an e-mail to you later.

Cheers,

 

[justleesa]

Sounds like a better deal than you usually get Glad you had a couple of good dives. Looking forward to you pictures

 

[jagfish]

Hey Kim
one of these days, I'm going to get down to see you.
How far are you from Okayama? you do dive dry, right?
maybe I can visit around the holidays if I go to the in-laws...
Jim

 

[Kim]

How far are you from Okayama? you do dive dry, right?
maybe I can visit around the holidays if I go to the in-laws...
Jim

Unfortunately I don't dive dry - 5mm wetsuit. I'm not sure exactly how far away Okayama is...I believe it's just the other side of Hiroshima though. I think that puts it in the 2-3 hour range.

 

[jagfish]

Unfortunately I don't dive dry - 5mm wetsuit. I'm not sure exactly how far away Okayama is...I believe it's just the other side of Hiroshima though. I think that puts it in the 2-3 hour range.

Do you dive in winter ?

 

[Kim]

Do you dive in winter ?

I have done. It was cold - but doable. The problem right now is that the access to my main local dive site was destroyed by the earthquake - the mountain collapsed onto the road. I have no idea when they will get around to fixing it. This summer I have therefore been looking a bit further around for more sites - hence the trip to Sasebo. I know they dive all year there (dry in winter) - and in the summer you could use their rental equipment included in the same price. Maybe that's the same in winter - in which case I might have access to a drysuit there. I'd have to check that. Of course I have never used a drysuit before so I'd have to work that one out as well. Last winter I didn't dive but did the liveaboard thing in Thailand end of March - I'm considering doing that again next year.

 

[NCBabs]

Kim

i'm interested in learning more about diving in Sasebo. who did you use for dive charter? are the boats big enough for 10 divers with tech gear?
thanks
Babs

 

[Katamuki]

Most Japanese boats get freaked out at tech gear.

 

[NCBabs]

thanks for replying.....I plan to be in Sasebo over the summer and looking for a dive operator. searching the web has been difficult. Do you of anyone in that area? when the best time for calm seas, a few of the other suffer from sea sickness sometimes, i was trying to plan around Jun/Jul