MacDuyver
Contributor
Happy St. Patricks Day!
It was a somewhat dreary day as i set out to meet a friend up by Onna. As we got to the water we were convinced that our 3-tank St Patricks Day dive would get cut short. There were clouds rolling in and we were diving a fairly advanced location known for its tendency for conditions to shift abruptly. The seastate was low though and the clouds weren't kicking up significant waves in the distance, so we decided to proceed. The water was chilly, the lighting was flat, and the usually abundant fish were sheltering in the reef and not out like usual. The water was a bit cloudy with visibility at 25m or so, which sucks in Oki, but would likely be pretty decent conditions most other places.
To our surprise, conditions improved through the day, and we got all three tanks in. The surge at depth was nowhere as dramatic as it was towards the surface, and we spent the day explorying a stunning network of rock and coral canyons. As we progressed through the day, the clouds broke, and the fish came out as well, from 15 all the way down to 90ft. We found the typical banded sea kraits, a lionfish the size of a football, an even bigger puffer, morays, and even some white-tips, which are always a treat.
All in all, despite the poor outlook at the onset, and my camera's best attempts to not work right, it was an incredible dive, and the bad forecast resulted in us having the entire area more or less to ourselves to enjoy the otherwise tremendous day.
The moral of the story is: unless it's good conditions for surfing, it's pretty much always good conditions for diving in Okinawa.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Deco Beers were green Kirin Ichibans.
It was a somewhat dreary day as i set out to meet a friend up by Onna. As we got to the water we were convinced that our 3-tank St Patricks Day dive would get cut short. There were clouds rolling in and we were diving a fairly advanced location known for its tendency for conditions to shift abruptly. The seastate was low though and the clouds weren't kicking up significant waves in the distance, so we decided to proceed. The water was chilly, the lighting was flat, and the usually abundant fish were sheltering in the reef and not out like usual. The water was a bit cloudy with visibility at 25m or so, which sucks in Oki, but would likely be pretty decent conditions most other places.
To our surprise, conditions improved through the day, and we got all three tanks in. The surge at depth was nowhere as dramatic as it was towards the surface, and we spent the day explorying a stunning network of rock and coral canyons. As we progressed through the day, the clouds broke, and the fish came out as well, from 15 all the way down to 90ft. We found the typical banded sea kraits, a lionfish the size of a football, an even bigger puffer, morays, and even some white-tips, which are always a treat.
All in all, despite the poor outlook at the onset, and my camera's best attempts to not work right, it was an incredible dive, and the bad forecast resulted in us having the entire area more or less to ourselves to enjoy the otherwise tremendous day.
The moral of the story is: unless it's good conditions for surfing, it's pretty much always good conditions for diving in Okinawa.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Deco Beers were green Kirin Ichibans.
