Rota Island

Saipan is small! Do you know how small? I went diving in Rota this past weekend. While we were on the diveboat our Captain Mark shouted "hello "across the way to a guy named, Scott, who was on the dock unloading the fish he had just caught. Anyway, our boat full of Japanese divers waved to Scott as we were on our way to dive the Table Top site. This morning my patient is sitting in my chair and he mentions he is from Rota. I said, "really? I was just there diving in Rota." Then there is silence. The "ah-ha" moment occurs and we realize that we saw each other in Rota. Rota Scott was the one unloading his boat that day we saw him. Small island!

Rota is a small, beautiful island about a thirty minute plane ride from Saipan. Rota exceeded my expectations especially for diving. Everyone knows how friendly the people are in Rota. There are no stop lights in Rota and no traffic. Often at times I felt like we were the only one on the island. As you are driving or walking everyone waves to you . . . not only on dry land but underwater too! I went with my coworker Atsuko and my friends, Mayuki and Satche. Mayuki use to live in Rota for six years, but she is currently a dive instructor here in Saipan and owns Heart of Gold Dive Shop or HGD in Chinatown.

We spent two days diving at a total of six dives. Alot of fish action in Rota! I would recommend anyone to dive Rota. They have alot of breathetaking coral gardens, wall diving, and the famous Blue hole. The deepest I dropped down was about 115 ft and then I slowly made my way up looking for guess what-Nudibranchs! I'm fascinated with Nudibranchs.

My favorite part of the island was Bird Sanctuary. I've become a bird watcher since I've been in Saipan. We watched the seabirds glide across the sky with the waves crashing along the shore. There are stairs that take you down and around the sanctuary. I need to get a camara with a better zoom lens.

My fist time to night dive was at Blue Hole. I was nervous! Attatched to our tanks was a fluorescent light stick. We had blue and our dive masters had red. It was easy to identify who was who underwater. It wasn't as dark or as scary as I thought it would be. We descended with our flashlights in hand ready to explore Blue Hole at night. I have to say that this was probably my most favorite dive. All the lobsters were out and we even saw a shark. I pointed my flashlight in a certain direction and the shark would follow the beam of light wherever it would go. It was sweet! I had such a great time and look forward to diving more in Rota someday.



I'm still working on my dive slide show for Rota and I will post it up later.