Okinawa or Saipan in April

[The Mushroom King]

Hey Gang,

I have my wife convinced to do a dive trip, most likely first week in April (just a 3 day weekend most likely)

At first we thought Okinawa would be great as we've never been there. I even spoke with Doug at Reef Encounters and it sounds like he can take care of us quite well.

I'll dive anywhere. But my wife is purely a warm water / tropics person. I expect that April Okinawa water would be maybe low 20's, about 22c maybe....
fine for me but a bit iffy for her. (if shes not happy, then I can't dive - therefore....)

So I thought maybe we'd try Siapan/guam in april and save okinawa for late autumn.

Only real deciding factors at this time are water temp, air temp, and aprox cost.

So, do you have any opinions? comment?
Should we go to Okinawa or Saipan in April (and a maybe something again in the fall)

Cheers

 

[jagfish]

What did Doug say Okinawa would be in April. I was there for a month in March, but that was a few years ago now and I forget. I was wearing a 5mm, but some days were cool if the sun was not out. It counts for a lot when you have someone like Doug to take care of you, especially when you only have a few days.

That said, the one downside of Oki for me is the airfare...can be as much as a flight to anywhere else in SE Asia so you have your choice. Saipan sounds cool...

 

[The Mushroom King]

downside of Oki for me is the airfare...can be as much as a flight to anywhere else in SE Asia so you have your choice.

That’s exactly why I've never made it to Okinawa before. But when I was checking airfares the other day I was surprised to see that the price difference was negligible between saipan and oki :notify: (within 10,000 yen of each other once you add in fuel surcharge and other crappy fees)

Not too much more to go to some other great places as well. But as we can only make it a quick trip, it'd best to minimize travel time as much as possible. Save the other locations for when we have more time !

 

[jagfish]

LOL...Yeah, one way to get around that is to travel when someone in your family has a birthday. One week (?) before and after a family member's birthday, all members get to travel for JPY 10,000 each way (as long as that travel is completed in that time period).

There are some other deals available, maybe Doug can fill you in...

 

[The Mushroom King]

My other (better?) half has stepped up and decided for me :icosm11: that she wants to go to Ishigaki. I don't know much about it, but it looks pretty nice... anyone have any thoughts on this place?

Do you think they will have 12L tanks? Those iddy biddy 10L look so Kawaiiiiii..... but...


Oh, and I stopped by the JAL and ANA websites and noticed they've both discontinued their birthday service.

 

[Mar Scuba]

Ishigaki is great, there are a lot of dive ops there but "choose wisely".

Probably won't see mantas, but you never know.

April can be iffy, I would stick with a 5 mil suit, your wife would be much happier going there in the summer.

For real warm water divers, Saipan or Guam are better options.

The domestic special birthday fares were quietly dropped last year. They were incredible deals for going to Okinawa or places like Kagoshima where there are hardly any discount fares.

 

[nori1841]

Hi all,

I'm recently taking advantage of 'otomo-de-mile' which is a good discount program.
If you have 10,000 miles, max three others can get two-way ticket's around 20,000 -25,000JPY with the same flights.

A Shopping mile is better way to increase usable miles.

https://www.jal.co.jp/dom/waribiki/mile.html

 

[Mar Scuba]

Nori, great advice!

Also, keep a look out for specials like on Northwest, they were offering a "Cash and Miles" offer to Guam or Saipan, 10,000 miles plus 25,000 yen. The current offer ended on February 5.

 

[The Mushroom King]

Ishigaki is great, there are a lot of dive ops there but "choose wisely".

Oh wise Zen Master, please elaborate on how to choose. I've been sending some e-mails to a few already asking some questions, what should I ask / look for?

Most responses I've gotten have said they only have 10 litre tanks (one place said they have 8) -- ballpark, how much less time would you get with a 10litre compared to a 12 liter assuming simple 15-20meter dives?

I also asked (purely out of curiosity) if they had Nitrox, and one shop said 'oh no, we never dive deep enough to need Nitrox' :shakehead That answer kind of worried me.
Hmmm maybe that is a good question to ask to help gauge general knowledge.....

Thanks Nori, that is good. Sadly I'm about 2000 miles short on my JAL card. Always good to keep an eye open however!

 

[Mar Scuba]

Send me an e-mail, please, and we can discuss Ishigaki ops offline.

10 liter vs. 12 liter tank, thanks to the Metric system, that is easy to calculate, considering that fill pressure is 180 bar, you are going to get 10 X 180 = 1800 liters of air from a 10 liter tank and 2160 liters of air from a 12 liter tank...but it is obvious that you are going to get 20% more air in a 12 vs. 10 liter tank.

You'll have to tell me your SAC rate in order to generate a calculation...