Sunrise Catchers & Dolphins

There are great rewards in being an early morning riser. One of them is catching a sunrise on Saipan. Funny how you'd think catching a sunrise is relaxing but sometimes racing down Middle Road at 5:30 am to make it in time is stressful! Sunrise usually is around 6 am. My favorite place to catch sunrise so far is Bonzai Cliff in the Northern part of the island. Its about a 15 minute drive from where I live.

It's true that no two sunrises are ever the same. Some of them are electrifying and some just peak through the clouds. Its rainy season and the clouds are out. If you're patient and willing to wait sometimes in the rain to see when the morning sun breaks through the clouds . . . it is a spectacular site. I don't know how anyone can live on this island and not experience a sunrise atleast once a week. If I could, I'd watch it everyday but I'm usually swimming or running that early.

Monday morning Greg and I spotted a pod of atleast 20 Spinner Dolphins making their way across bonzai and towards Bird Island!! How lucky were we. They looked really small but really playful. We were so excited since this was the first time we ever saw dolphins in Saipan! Sorry no pics of the dolphins. They were hard to capture since they blended in with the waves. We also saw two turtles below us just riding the waves.

There is this other spot near bonzai where the fishermen sit above the cliffs and fish. I really love this spot because it gives you a clear view of the sunrise, bonzai cliff, and suicide cliff. You also can dangle your feet while sitting on the cliff ledge which is about 100 ft from the waves crashing below. Such a sweet site.

Drop In The Ocean

These days it doesn’t take much to make me happy. Besides the obvious bare essentials all I’m really interested in right now are warm sun and scuba life. Scuba diving in Saipan has become a weekly thing for me. Luckily I am fortunate to have so many dive buddies to share my passion and adventures with like the Piersons, Tammy and Mark James, Judy & Dennis, Missy, Atsuko Eck, Harry, Angelo, Mike T . . . the list goes on and on.

This past Sunday I set out on the Aqua jet boat with Moretti and Mayuki. Because it had been raining the whole day on Saturday I didn’t know what type of diving conditions we would have the next morning. It turned out to be an amazing day of diving after all. A blue sky was more than I could ask for.

The first dive spot we hit was Bonzai. Here’s a picture of what Bonzai looks like from below. I was just on top of Bonzai Cliff Saturday morning watching the sunrise. The current was really strong and the waves were pretty rough. I was excited to get in the water. Scuba diving has transformed me into a fearless explorer in every aspect of my life. Something that I was not before I came to Saipan.

To maximize our diving time Moretti, Mayuki, and I made it a point to be the first ones in the water and the lasts ones out. When we first entered the water we had to hang onto the rope and descend. The strong current made it really hard for me to descend at first.. Moretti and Mayuki made it down first and then I slowly followed. It was crazy but fun! Once we made it to the bottom of the anchor we grabbed on to what we could and tried to stay low. I was resisting being carried away with the current but the deeper we dropped the less we felt it. At one point the surge pushed me into some coral and I got stuck with a sea urchin on my finger tip =( It was actually pretty cool that my blood was green coming out!

Bonzai is a beautiful dive spot. There’s a big drop off and it sort of reminded me of the wall diving I did in Palau minus the sharks swimming around. There were plenty fish and coral to see. We saw two huge Napoleon Wrasses. We dropped down about 22 meters, I was searching for Nudibranchs all day. I’m a bit addicted to them.

During surface interval a lot of the other Japanese divers were sea sick and throwing up on the side of the boat. I think its really annoying when they don’t even consider that you are still in the water and the current is making their vomit flow towards you as you climb up the ladder. It’s disgusting! Anywho, I quickly got over that while snacking on my yummy Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss cookies (sorry Harry!) and I decided to go for a dive.


Our final dive was supposed to be Spotlight but the diving conditions were too rough. We ended up diving Wing Beach instead but I didn’t mind at all. Wing Beach is one of my favorite dive spots the other one is the Grotto. We had great visibility and there wasn’t really a current. We saw a lot of Nudibranchs, an eel, and a turtle! We followed the crack searching every little nook and cranny. The last time I was there on a boat dive we dove the arch. There’s so much more to explore. I want to go back!









So you see, I did take more underwater pictures this time around Harry! Thanks for naming me the Canon camera wrist model=) Thanks again to my dive master and friend, Mayuki for a great day of diving and the pictures of us diving. I still have to post my Naftan/Obyan dives.

And just for kicks . . . try flossing Moretti style.

Holidays In Saipan

I love living in Saipan because we not only get government holidays but we get the Catholic holidays as well! Thanks to the Cathollics I get a three day weekend. In the years I have worked I have never had Good Friday off in the states.

So Friday instead of sleeping in like a normal person would, I woke up at five o'clock in the morning to watch the sunrise with Grant and the other missionaries at Bonzai Cliff. It wasn't too long ago that Grant saw a whale and her baby surfacing up near Bonzai Cliff. We were hoping we'd catch a glimpse of them again. We weren't so lucky this time but I did enjoy having an early breakfast hearing the waves crash on the rocks below us while watching the sun light up the morning sky in pink and coral hues.

Life is good.