Ishigaki, Part I
After I got back from Christmas in Gig Harbor, Yuko and I spent a quiet few days in Komazawa for the new year's holiday, or Oshogatsu, including an obligatory visit to our local shrine, before traveling down to Ishigaki-jima, an island about 400km southwest of Okinawa. Ishigaki is actually much closer to Taiwan than to Okinawa.
We met a good friend of mine from when I used to work in Gifu on JET, Chris, and his girlfriend Mitsuko. It was the first time I'd seen Chris in quite a while, and our first time meeting Mitsuko. Chris and I planned the trip mostly so that we could get a couple of days diving in before our big trip on a liveaboard boat in the Philippines in April; I especially needed to get in the water, since all of my gear is new - I bought it all after Yuko and I got back from Palau last May. I needed to try the gear out and make sure everything worked well before going on a 6-day trip out on a boat 100 miles from land.
It turned out the weather in Ishigaki was really, really cold and stormy. Apparently it was an unusual cold snap, but it ended up only being a few degrees warmer than Tokyo, with strong winds and rain: bad diving conditions. Still, we came that far and dragged all of our heavy dive gear down, so there was no way we weren't getting in the water.
I had brought a 5mm wetsuit, a hood with a bib that covers my chest and back, and an inner liner like a tight-fitting swimsuit, as well as boots and gloves, so I figured I'd be pretty warm. Sure enough, in the water we were fine - the water temp. was actually a cozy 23 deg. C (73 deg. F). When we got out of the water and were waiting on the boat between dives, though, we were positively miserable. The air temp. was only 13 deg. C (55 deg. F) with a constant, heavy wind, so even leaving all of our gear on it was freezing. Everyone on the boat, including the dive instructors, resorted to pouring scalding hot water meant for tea down our suits in order to keep warm. Since the wind was strong there was also a pretty good swell, and even though we only dove in a more protected corner of the island and had a pretty sturdy dive boat, we still got tossed around a fair bit. Chris and I were both OK, but on our second day of diving they took out a couple in their 40s for their first diving experience - I doubt they will forget it anytime soon. On the way out to the dive site, Chris and I could hear the woman squealing with every big wave the boat took, and when we got out of the water after our first dive of the day, the woman was flailing over the prow of the boat and making wretching noises. Luckily she didn't have much left once we get back aboard, but we had to do our best to ignore her periodic puking on the way back to land, less we get sea sick ourselves.
In all, Chris and I only got 4 dives in over 2 days. About all one could expect under the conditions. First day highlights included a huge moray eel that projected about 3 feet out of its hole and stared at us intently as we passed by, a trumpetfish, a cute little pair of dartfish, purple queen anthias, and a big school of about 50 pinnate spadefish - actually quite an impressive site. Of course the water was also full of the kinds of tropical fish you always see, too: anemonefish, various kinds of angelfish, surgeonfish, butterfly fish, etc.
For our second day, I rented a digital camera and took pictures with wreckless abandon. Quite a few didn't come out that well (who knew that even fish get red eye!), but a few actually turned out pretty well. Second day highlights included a bandtail scorpionfish (a kind of rockfish - it's the many-colored one at left that blends into the seabed), 2 lionfish, and 3 kinds of anemonefish (Tomato Anemonefish, dark red with a single large blue band; Clark's Anemonefish, the more typical looking nemo type anemonefish; and Pink Anemonefish, the pink one with a white stripe going down its back).
There's more to tell about the trip, but that's all I have time for now. There will have to be a second installment . . . tune in again soon.
We met a good friend of mine from when I used to work in Gifu on JET, Chris, and his girlfriend Mitsuko. It was the first time I'd seen Chris in quite a while, and our first time meeting Mitsuko. Chris and I planned the trip mostly so that we could get a couple of days diving in before our big trip on a liveaboard boat in the Philippines in April; I especially needed to get in the water, since all of my gear is new - I bought it all after Yuko and I got back from Palau last May. I needed to try the gear out and make sure everything worked well before going on a 6-day trip out on a boat 100 miles from land.
It turned out the weather in Ishigaki was really, really cold and stormy. Apparently it was an unusual cold snap, but it ended up only being a few degrees warmer than Tokyo, with strong winds and rain: bad diving conditions. Still, we came that far and dragged all of our heavy dive gear down, so there was no way we weren't getting in the water.
I had brought a 5mm wetsuit, a hood with a bib that covers my chest and back, and an inner liner like a tight-fitting swimsuit, as well as boots and gloves, so I figured I'd be pretty warm. Sure enough, in the water we were fine - the water temp. was actually a cozy 23 deg. C (73 deg. F). When we got out of the water and were waiting on the boat between dives, though, we were positively miserable. The air temp. was only 13 deg. C (55 deg. F) with a constant, heavy wind, so even leaving all of our gear on it was freezing. Everyone on the boat, including the dive instructors, resorted to pouring scalding hot water meant for tea down our suits in order to keep warm. Since the wind was strong there was also a pretty good swell, and even though we only dove in a more protected corner of the island and had a pretty sturdy dive boat, we still got tossed around a fair bit. Chris and I were both OK, but on our second day of diving they took out a couple in their 40s for their first diving experience - I doubt they will forget it anytime soon. On the way out to the dive site, Chris and I could hear the woman squealing with every big wave the boat took, and when we got out of the water after our first dive of the day, the woman was flailing over the prow of the boat and making wretching noises. Luckily she didn't have much left once we get back aboard, but we had to do our best to ignore her periodic puking on the way back to land, less we get sea sick ourselves.
In all, Chris and I only got 4 dives in over 2 days. About all one could expect under the conditions. First day highlights included a huge moray eel that projected about 3 feet out of its hole and stared at us intently as we passed by, a trumpetfish, a cute little pair of dartfish, purple queen anthias, and a big school of about 50 pinnate spadefish - actually quite an impressive site. Of course the water was also full of the kinds of tropical fish you always see, too: anemonefish, various kinds of angelfish, surgeonfish, butterfly fish, etc.
For our second day, I rented a digital camera and took pictures with wreckless abandon. Quite a few didn't come out that well (who knew that even fish get red eye!), but a few actually turned out pretty well. Second day highlights included a bandtail scorpionfish (a kind of rockfish - it's the many-colored one at left that blends into the seabed), 2 lionfish, and 3 kinds of anemonefish (Tomato Anemonefish, dark red with a single large blue band; Clark's Anemonefish, the more typical looking nemo type anemonefish; and Pink Anemonefish, the pink one with a white stripe going down its back).
There's more to tell about the trip, but that's all I have time for now. There will have to be a second installment . . . tune in again soon.
posted by ERG @ 4:30 AM
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