Kerama Islands Dive Trip

The Kerama Islands are a cluster of small islands 32 kilometers southwest of Okinawa, Japan. Most of these small islands are uninhabited, yet offer a beautiful backdrop for boat trips to the crystal clear waters around them. While I have been able to dive quite frequently around Okinawa, sometimes accompanied by Heather, Pie, or Bug, I rarely get to dive with all of them at once since someone typically has to stay back to keep an eye on Miss Kicky Feet and Chipmunk while the others go diving. On this occasion, however, we were able to arrange alternate care for the little two and the four of us departed on a dive boat for the day to the small island chain. It did not disappoint! At the first location that we stopped to dive, I looked over the side of the boat and could see the bottom clearly. It looked as if we were in maybe 10 feet of water or less when in reality it was closer to 50 feet deep. We geared up and dropped into the water to explore the area. The reef was healthy, vibrant in color, and alive with fish and turtles. We spent almost an hour exploring before returning to the boat to head on to our next dive location. The second site was a little bit deeper than the first, but still just as clear. From the bottom we could look up and see the hull of our dive boat bobbing above us with perfect clarity. After exploring this site for about an hour we surfaced and boarded the boat. Since we had been under the boat during the beginning and end of our dive, we knew there were no hazards below the boat. With our Divemaster’s permission Bug proceeded to leap from the second deck of the dive boat into the water. Since he was still wearing his wetsuit but had shed his lead weights and other dive gear, once he jumped in, he popped right back up to the surface due to the extra buoyancy of his wetsuit. Of course Pie then decided she needed to try this too. After watching their two successful jumps pretty much everyone else on the chartered boat decided they too needed to experience the thrill of jumping from the upper deck into the water. This went on for probably 20 minutes or so before the captain decided it had gone on long enough and that the time had come to return to the dock on Okinawa. I really enjoyed being able to dive with Heather and two of my children, and the memory of leaping from the second deck of the dive boat will stick with us for quite a while. On the return trip the weather took a turn for the worse, which is always a possibility on a sub-tropical island. The waves grew in size, the wind picked up, and the sky turned darker. One of the other divers was sitting at the back of the boat fanning herself and trying to hold her nausea at bay. Pie, on the other hand, was not sea-sick at all and was actually leaning off the side of the boat with her head in the wind loving life much like a dog hangs its head out the car window into the wind. The stark difference between the other diver and Pie made me chuckle.