We headed out from Chatan port at about 9 am on yet another sunny day in Okinawa. (damn, life is good here). There was a bit of a tailing swell particularly between Sand Islands and Tokashiki jima but this just made the trip a more exciting ride (at least thats what you tell the customers right?) and caused little in the way of stomach churning. An hour later the boat whipped around Tokashiki jima and into the sheltered bay of Dragonlady off Zamami jima. There were already many of the other dive boats sheltering in the bay as we anchored off well to the west side.
This is a nice easy dive site of crystal clear waters over a sandy bottom with many lively coral heads towards the shallows. Generally the coral is not in so good a shape, I guess down to the lack of any current and overly warm waters that can occur here. Also the fish are overly friendly down to the amount of feeding that they have grown accustomed to. One particular clownfish attempted to take a bite out of my regulator much to the general amusement of the group. As you swim out deeper onto the sandy flats you can find a field of Garden Eels to break up the monotony. This is definitely not a favorite spot nor highlight of what the Kerama Islands have to offer but can still offer a very pleasant dive. Its a favorite of Japanese operators who run a lot of Taiken diving. Dive conditions were calm with no current; water temperature was 29ºC and visibility was 20+m improving as you moved offshore.
After the dive we spent an hour lounging on deck soaking up the sun enjoying lunch and sharing dive stories and the usual oneupmanship that I like to refer to as BS before upping the anchor and heading directly east across the channel to Tokashiki jima and the dive site named Ariga Cable. This is much more in the vein of what diving in the Keramas is all about. The coral starts really shallow and drops down to about 18m where some large coral heads abound and is an absolutely spectacular site. Lots of healthy hard and soft coral and plenty of gorgonian fans feeding off the currents that sweep down between the islands. Multitudes of fish everywhere you look. As you swim out deeper along the cable to about 25m you can find more Garden Eels. I just love this place. Plus because of the shallow depths of a lot of the corals even the heavy breathers can get a good amount of downtime. Plenty of time for photographers to fill up their digital memory whatever the size. Dive conditions were again calm with little to no current; temperature was 28ºC and visibility was an awesome 25-30m
After the dive we packed up and headed back. This time bow to the swell which was even more exciting than the trip out. Just over an hour later we pulled into port and quickly disembarked a couple of people who had obviously got themselves overexcited by the trip and had turned decidedly green.
Just another day of diving in Okinawa
This is a nice easy dive site of crystal clear waters over a sandy bottom with many lively coral heads towards the shallows. Generally the coral is not in so good a shape, I guess down to the lack of any current and overly warm waters that can occur here. Also the fish are overly friendly down to the amount of feeding that they have grown accustomed to. One particular clownfish attempted to take a bite out of my regulator much to the general amusement of the group. As you swim out deeper onto the sandy flats you can find a field of Garden Eels to break up the monotony. This is definitely not a favorite spot nor highlight of what the Kerama Islands have to offer but can still offer a very pleasant dive. Its a favorite of Japanese operators who run a lot of Taiken diving. Dive conditions were calm with no current; water temperature was 29ºC and visibility was 20+m improving as you moved offshore.
After the dive we spent an hour lounging on deck soaking up the sun enjoying lunch and sharing dive stories and the usual oneupmanship that I like to refer to as BS before upping the anchor and heading directly east across the channel to Tokashiki jima and the dive site named Ariga Cable. This is much more in the vein of what diving in the Keramas is all about. The coral starts really shallow and drops down to about 18m where some large coral heads abound and is an absolutely spectacular site. Lots of healthy hard and soft coral and plenty of gorgonian fans feeding off the currents that sweep down between the islands. Multitudes of fish everywhere you look. As you swim out deeper along the cable to about 25m you can find more Garden Eels. I just love this place. Plus because of the shallow depths of a lot of the corals even the heavy breathers can get a good amount of downtime. Plenty of time for photographers to fill up their digital memory whatever the size. Dive conditions were again calm with little to no current; temperature was 28ºC and visibility was an awesome 25-30m
After the dive we packed up and headed back. This time bow to the swell which was even more exciting than the trip out. Just over an hour later we pulled into port and quickly disembarked a couple of people who had obviously got themselves overexcited by the trip and had turned decidedly green.
Just another day of diving in Okinawa
