I was a member of the Reef Rover Club on Okinawa, from Dec. 1969 - Jan. 1971. Is the club still going? The diving back then was OUTSTANDING, no matter where you went on the island. Sadly, shortly before I left, an oil rig south of Okinawa, started leaking, and cude oil followiing the currents started ending up on the beaches of Okinawa. I sure hope that is no longer the case.
Lots of left over ordinance scattered on the bottom, in places, meant you needed to be extra caucious. One idiot picked up two US hand grenades in the water, and took them to an MP shack. He scared the daylights out of them, as they could see the pins were so corroded they were about to fall out. After duct taping the handles down and calling the bomb squad, they found out that both grenades were still alive.
The spookiest incident I had was way up north off Highway 1 about a half mile from the Point. We found some small caves in the coral, and went in look for lobster. I was looking up in small holes for those spiny lobsters, when my dive pardner got his mouth close to my ear, and was yelling. Through the bubbles, I could make out, "MINE!" I was wondering "What is his?"; when I saw him give me the danger signal and point down. My eyes popped out as I saw the magnetic ship mine just below my feet. With my heart in my throat, we booked out of that cave. A couple weeks later we did get up the nerve to go back and check it out. It had a football shaped hole in the back which most likely had rendered it harmless many years ago, and the bottom third of it was encased in coral.
Have Fun!
DC
Lots of left over ordinance scattered on the bottom, in places, meant you needed to be extra caucious. One idiot picked up two US hand grenades in the water, and took them to an MP shack. He scared the daylights out of them, as they could see the pins were so corroded they were about to fall out. After duct taping the handles down and calling the bomb squad, they found out that both grenades were still alive.
The spookiest incident I had was way up north off Highway 1 about a half mile from the Point. We found some small caves in the coral, and went in look for lobster. I was looking up in small holes for those spiny lobsters, when my dive pardner got his mouth close to my ear, and was yelling. Through the bubbles, I could make out, "MINE!" I was wondering "What is his?"; when I saw him give me the danger signal and point down. My eyes popped out as I saw the magnetic ship mine just below my feet. With my heart in my throat, we booked out of that cave. A couple weeks later we did get up the nerve to go back and check it out. It had a football shaped hole in the back which most likely had rendered it harmless many years ago, and the bottom third of it was encased in coral.
Have Fun!
DC
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