Trip Report: Saipan, CNMI 2017 April 24-30

[kumimonster]

Hello all!

So after asking for some advice from a couple of lovely community members here, and a bit of searching on my own with a bit of added luck, I was able to turn a week of diving in the Marianas into a very history-filled and enjoyable set of days.

Even though most people suggested going elsewhere and even mentioned how the Marianas weren't worth really traveling to for diving, sometimes going some place else is just not an option. In this instance, my friend from California had moved to Saipan to work for the Dept of Fish and Wildlife. So going to another island/country to visit him wasn't going to work.
Flying from the states isn't the cheapest either, but luckily I landed a job in Tokyo so I was able to take advantage of being closer to book a flight to Saipan. Hurray for great coincidences!

My friend that lives there is friends with a guy who often books dives for travelers. He told me his friend would take care of everything and just let him handle things. Initially I was ready to do that, but when my specific requests were met with "oh don't worry about it" or delayed responses were met with "it's just island time" then I started to get worried. I decided to look for something that would instill me with more confidence.
I arrived on the 24th (mon). My plan was to dive 25, 26, 27, 28, and maybe the 29th. (The last day didn't happen because I needed a day off. (sunburn!)). I'm not a needy diver, but there were some specific dive sites I was really interested in seeing. And repeating sites during my limited time wasn't something I was interested in. Also, some of those sites were off the coast of Tinian - an island just south of Saipan. (Not everyone wants to go there).

From suggestions on ScubaBoard, I wrote a couple of places. In the end, they didn't really work out. Some took too long to get back to me, others would start out with strong communication and then just stop.
However Lisa at Fishguyz was one of the best I've had the pleasure of doing business with. She reminded me of Kerry from Rainbow Divers in Vietnam that helped me salvage my trip there. (She's no longer in Vietnam).

Lisa was a dream and set me up with CMLC Artha for my 2nd and 3rd day of diving. (There would also be a 4th). Fishguyz was booked up with a private charter during the days I had set aside for diving so I didn't end up diving with them however I did get to meet their captain/owner for a quick moment when returning one afternoon from diving!
Also, Lisa stopped in on my first day of diving with CMLC Artha which was great and I was able to give her the gift I brought over from Tokyo. (Fishguyz shares the location CMLC Artha is in).

CMLC Artha is a Japanese dive operator that's been around for about 30 years. They don't have a strong social media presence though (At least compared to some of the younger shops that only have an Instagram and Facebook account). They do have a website and there's a kind of FaceBook page, but again, no big social media push. There's a tripadvisor review but only one. I should remedy that.
Most of their business seems to be from word of mouth, repeat customers and referrals. (And I will be included in this!) Although they're primarily Japanese, they do have DMs that speak English as well as other languages.

Anyway, I'll post little by little below. Hope my wordy history and side notes don't bug you too much!

 

[kumimonster]

Upon my arrival in Saipan, I discovered from my friend, that his friend did not get any dives set up for us on the first day I wanted to dive. (Nor on the other day I kind of planned to let him attempt to organize).
So after a quick scramble, and with a little help from Lisa, I was able to book a couple of dives with Speedy Tertle for the morning. (Also recommended by someone on this board).

I am satisfied that I never have to do this dive again. My friend and I both had injuries that made this a lot more difficult due to the stairs. (My achilles and his knee). Our DM carried one of my tanks up and down and but my friend was stuck with his two. Someone from **another dive shop** helped him carry his 2nd tank up the stairs. :-/

Bring your own water or snacks. None were offered or supplied. There's a shack that sells drinks at the site so a bit of cash will be helpful. You'll definitely want to hydrate when you reach the top and I'm glad I had money with me.


Day 1. Dives 1& 2 combined.

The day after I landed on Saipan I went diving and took my friend with me.
We did two dives at the grotto and this video combines both of them.
The grotto is the "must-do" spot on Saipan. It's a collapsed limestone cavern that is fed by three underwater openings that divers can pass through to the open ocean. (You can't surface though because there's no real way to exit you from the rough water. Gotta go back the way you came). There's also another cave to access from the outside which we kind of checked out. Need to be decent on air though.
To access this place, you have to walk down about 118 stone steps - not all are even and some are a little slippery. There's banister to hold on to during your trip up and down but try not to squish the many spiders making their homes there. Some are really interesting looking!
After you get to the bottom, you follow along a short rope and step onto a large rock over some water. Time that large step while watching out for the current churning past. It's a giant stride into the water. Try not to land on one of the many snorkelers.
Lots of colorful coral and some fish, but other than that, not many other creatures. We got there early so we were the only ones on-site for the first dive. During our SI, the groups starting coming in droves and the space filled up quickly. So definitely earlier is better!
If you're wondering how your tanks get down there, that's all you. And you also get to get your gear up those stairs too. After diving. When you're wet, and tired and there are lots of people trying to get down and up the stairs who are a lot faster than you.
I'm sure there's different life to see here at night, however I'm pretty sure I never need to do this dive again. I can still feel my calves burning 4 days later. Glad I did it though.

We went with Sergei from Speedy Tertle Dive Shop (Saipan) and it was the only shore dive for the week. I prefer boat dives.
He helped with the tanks though. My foot/ankle still wasn't 100% from that work injury and I also had aches and pains from the Tokyo performance to deal with so I definitely did not plan on doing this dive so soon upon arrival. But we did get it out of the way!

 

[kumimonster]

Day 2! Dive 1 Fleming Wall (Tinian)



Dove with Cmlc Artha for my second day of diving in Saipan. I’d dive with them for the rest of the week too. I ended up doing three dives on this day, two were down south at Tinian Island. I got to hang out with Nelson on this first day of diving with CMLC.

Fleming Wall was one of the dive sites I wanted to check out at Tinian. We dove this first before heading over to the Tinian Grotto. Both were wonderful.
I'd like to visit the island some day. Tinian is known for the launch and load points for the B-29 bombers that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Operation Starvation dropped naval mines into harbors and sea lanes depriving Japan of much needed food supplies.
Incendiary bombing missions were launched from North Field as as other bases but this one was responsible for the most destructive air raid in history - ever - in March of 1945 on Tokyo.

Tinian Island was taken after the Battle of Saipan. The US began the campaign on July 24, 1944 and continued south until August 1. Three battleships, 5 cruisers, and 16 destroyers bombarded the island. 9000 Japanese soldiers garrisoned on the island were eliminated.
Like Saipan, Tinian also has a suicide cliff - this one at the south of the island. Here, civilians and soldiers chose to jump to their deaths on the rocks below rather than surrender.
Tinian became the busiest airfield of the Pacific Theater.
Goat Island, a bit further south, had a Japanese garrison that gave up after the surrender
Murata Susumu, was the last hold out and was captured in 1953. (Impressive!)

Fleming Wall is a wall (duh) and as you coast along it, you can look down 200 feet into the deep blue water. As you look out, there's even more blue. Look up and again, more blue with the sunlight shining down. There's quite a bit of vis here. Also quite a bit of life on the wall, lots of smaller fish and corals but some of the things are the things that require you slow down to look. We did spot a nice sized marbled ray (round ribbontail ray (Taeniura meyeni)) chilling out on the rocks as well as a hawksbill turtle. I didn't get very close to the turtle. I'm probably still traumatized from the giant aggressive loggerheads at my lemon shark dive the month prior. I didn't want the thing to eat me. haha

 

[kumimonster]

When you head to the boat for your dives, you walk down a path to a little sandy beach. There's a dock there and some stairs to access it.
Be prepared to get wet! When the water is up, it'll get your shorts and shirt wet. Some people like to suit up at the shop but if you're not one of them then make sure you've got your things in dry bag and get your phone out of your pocket!

The water is supposed to be the same temp all year long with very minor changes. Most of the divers I saw wore full suits.
I was comfortable with a 3mm shorty. In the afternoon I'd just have on my hooded lavacore vest (no sleeves).

Definitely bring something to protect you from the sun and wind. Some of the boat rides out are a bit long and chilly.

If you forgot a towel, just ask for one! CMLC supplies them!

There are also lockers! You can leave your stuff here for your dive, or even overnight if you don't need it.

Lots of space here. Plenty of room to chill out. Don't forget to leave a message on the wall if you can find some space!

If you do two dives in the AM you get to have lunch. I got lunch every day. My friend said there was a charge for his lunch (he joined us for two pm dives). I don't care. It was good. And there there was even extra stir-fry beef and vegetables that they offered us! The 3 days I was with CMLC Artha, there was beef, pork belly, and chicken in bento boxes. Yum! They also offer you water, coffee and tea.
Boat snacks were supplied as well as water. And iced tea one day too!

You can take and fill out these slips of paper for your log book. There's a little map of the dive site on some of them too.

 

[kumimonster]

Day 2. Dive 2. Tinian Grotto (Tinian).


Tinian Grotto was the second dive of the day. It's also one of the popular sites I had read about and honestly, I kind of enjoyed parts of it more than the Saipan Grotto. Maybe because it didn't require all those steps to climb up and down. It's smaller though, and yet I found the openings to be really pretty and yet less ominous than Saipan. The openings here let in more light. The openings also let you see an inverse waterfall as well. Kind of. As the air bubbles escape the cavern they leave streaming trails heading up to the surface. You can check that out at the end of the video.

 

[kumimonster]

Day 2, dive 3


2017 April 26 - Saipan / dimple

Third dive of the day off Saipan's west coast. Originally planned to do four but three was a good idea. I was still worn out from the steps of the grotto! Actually, I'll just say Nelson, the DM, was tired and I was making him work too hard.
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Dimple is a really nice and easy site. There's a little bit of current. It's basically a large mound of dirt with a depression at the top in the center. You get off the boat and start swimming around the mountain, slightly against the current. When you reach the far side you just catch a nice drift back!
It's also covered in a forest of hard coral. Some coral looked like alien skyscrapers while others reminded me of the tree platforms in fantasy films where elf-y type creatures live. Other coral looked more like giant bunches of broccoli.
When you drift back over the top it's like watching the surface of another planet pass below you.
They all offered lots of holes for fish and creatures to hide in. . There were lots of friendly and curious fish. Some seemed to want to play or chase you away. There was also a moray that didn't do much but stared, a white tip shark, and during the safety stop, the hawksbill turtle showed up!
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Some of the fish were in love with Nelson.

 

[kumimonster]

2017 April 27 - Saipan / Obyan Beach
(Day 3, dive 1)


There are two ways to dive Obyan - either from the shore or from a boat.
If there’s a choice, I’ll take the boat.

This was the first dive of the second day with Cmlc Artha (3rd day of diving on Saipan tho). We got ourselves loaded up and headed south. This time not as far as Tinian but we did cruise for a little while because Obyan Beach is actually south of the airport.

It’s a nice dive as well but on this day we had a bit of current. It wasn’t terrible but it did make an easy dive more of a chore. I didn’t get much video that wasn’t wobbly so it’s a short and sweet one. Lots of coral and then sandy spots. Again, nice, however not my favorite of this trip.

Many areas of Saipan still have remnants of the war scattered around different parts of the island. Some pieces can be found on land while others are below water. In either case, you’re not supposed to handle them because there are undetonated pieces that are still capable of exploding. In your face!

藤澤珠紀 (Tataki) was the DM for the rest of my CMLC trips!
Fumio O. dove with CMLC on the first day I was there. He’d end up diving everyday I dove with CMLC but he didn’t do the PMs.
Another woman joined us this day. I think her name was Matsuo - it was written on all over her gear. Some days she did 2 dives, some days she did 3.
We were also joined by another couple who had close to 1000 dives. They were very nice too. Everyone was cool actually. Eventually I would see the latter two out of the water and in the sky because they were also on Delta flight I took from Saipan to Tokyo

SaipanD3.d1.Obyan

 

[kumimonster]

New 2017 April 27 - Saipan / Agingan
(Day 3, dive 2)


After Obyan Beach, we decided to go for a spot with a little less current. We headed west and then a bit north around Agingan Point and dove there. This spot is the closest point to the island of Tinian.

On land, there are ruins and other artifacts of an ancient Chamorro village. During WW2, it served as a Japanese defensive post. Apparently there’s also a 17th century wreck here (the Spanish Galleon Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion) but I didn’t notice!

I really loved this spot but I ended up taking no images and very little video.
The reason is because this spot is desperate for a clean up crew.
So much fishing line and lead weights of all sorts of shapes and sizes.
There are glass bottles and other random objects too, from wheels to just plain garbage. However some of it is now a part of the reef since coral has grown over it.
I did find a couple of nice and shiny beer cans which ended up topside.
By the time I came up from this dive, my pockets were full of small weights, lines, and other junk. Also some sharp little hooks too.

Again, I really did enjoy this site. But I said before, it really needs a group of people doing some good clean up work. It’ll take time. The plastic lines are really tangled up into the coral.

 

[kumimonster]

2017 April 27 - Saipan / Mysterious Sands


Day 3 / dive 3.
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Cmlc Artha hooks up a great lunch at their shop after you dive with them in the morning. You don’t have to be booked to dive with them in the afternoon either. It was a bento box with some salad, veggies and a meat of some sort. The first day I had beef, the second day it was pork belly, and the last day it’d be chicken! They even had some extra stir-fry as well as kimchee which they offered the divers too!
After having an awesome lunch we set out again with 藤澤珠紀. We headed out to the boat and stuck around the west coast. This time to a site with a sandy bottom and a pile of rocks where we spied a number of rays. We crept along the bottom so as not to chase them away. We saw quite a few during the dive.
Lots of sand, and lots of rocks and coral spread out made for a relaxing dive.
It was nice seeing the rays. Also spotted a small lion fish (pterois) which I learned is native to this area of the Pacific. I never realized that. I know when I went diving in Belize and some other areas divers would actively hunt them because they’re harmful to native fish and the environment. They happen to taste really good too.
However most of the ones I saw during the week of diving off Saipan were too small to be much of a meal!

SaipanD3.d3.MystSand

 

[kumimonster]

2017 April 27 - Saipan / Bakudan


Day 3, dive 4


Bakudan. I found out it means ‘bomb’ in Japanese. I only found one mention of it online in English in someone’s blog. There’s supposed to be a bomb at this site that one can check out but I don’t recall seeing it.

Anyway, it’s a nice dive site. Peaceful with pretty coral and some sandy spots. Spotted a nice turtle chilling out on the rocks.
Incredibly blue water too! It’s a shallow dive as well so long bottom time!

Again another great dive with CMLC Artha and Mr T! (tamale)