Diving Wing Beach, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

Diving at Wing Beach during the past four months is the best ever. Every dive serves up a amazing number of underwater critters. So far this is my favourite dive site on Saipan. A number of divers have asked what camera, housing and strobe are used in the latest underwater photos. Currently shooting with a Canon G-10 camera in the Canon WP-DC28 housing. The external strobe is a Sea & Sea YS-110a with a fiber optic wire cord to fire the strobe via the camera's internal flash. After 29 diehard years of shooting with a battered collection of Nikonos 35 mm cameras, I finally made the move up to the digital age. Kodachrome 2009 R.I.P.



Fire goby or Fire dartfish (Nemateleotris magnificas)

Featherduster tubeworm (Sabellide)

Nudibranch (Phyllidia tula)

Spot fin lion fish (Pterios antennata)

Juvenile Lion fish (Pterios volitans)

Dusky anemone fish and Porcelain crab

Yellow white mouth moray eel? or a Undulated moray eel? or a Leopard moray eel?

Snowflake moray eel (Echidna nebulosa)

White mouth moray eel ( Gymnothorax meleagris)

Juvenile Blackside hawkfish (Paracirrhites fosteri)

Leopard blenny ( Exalias brevis)

Red-spotted blenny ( Blenniella chrysospilos)

Sailing and Diving on Rota Island, Micronesia

Lin and Sooke at the visitors dock in the Rota West Harbor Marina after an overnight sail from Saipan. The 72 mile sail took 13 hours in light winds. A group of spinner dolphins were riding the bow wave for a few minutes during the sail. Of course Lin was asleep at the time and missed the spectacle of bio-luminescence as the dolphins streaked through the water.

The village of Songsong on the south end of Rota. The entrance through the reef into the West Harbor is on the top right. Wedding Cake mountain or Mount Taipincot is in the background.

Orangefin anemonefish (Amphiprion chrysopterus) on the Coral Gardens.

Dusky anemonefish (Amphiprion melanopus) and a Arc-eye hawk fish (Paracirrhites arcatus) in the Coral Gardens.

Reef whitetip shark (Triaenodon obesus) resting on the bottom in Senhanom Cave.

Spotfin lionfish (Pterois antennata)on the Table Top dive site.

Spotfin lionfish (Pterios antennata) in the Coral Gardens.

This steam locomotive was used to transport sugar cane to the Nanyo Kohatsu Kaisha (1918 to 1944) sugar mill in Songsong village.

Fire box for the sugar mill steam boilers. The sugar mill was a military target in WW II and was bombed a number of times by aircraft from the US aircraft carrier task force.

14 mm coastal canon located on the east side of Rota. The Japanese installed two canons to protect the East Harbor.

Ancient latte stones at the As Nieves quarry. The quarry is dated back to 800 BC.

The limestone pillars and caps were quarried by fire and primitive hand tools. Fires were started in trenches and the burned limestone removed. The process stated over again until the stones were roughed out. Mason then chipped and trimmed them into the caps and pillars. Earth was pushed under the stones to raise them to surface level and workers moved them out of the ground to be moved to construction sites.

All the stones were abandoned in the quarry. Many are cracked and sustained damaged over the years. It is a mystery why the stones were never used.

Lin on a 44,000 lb. cap stone. There are similar ancient latte stones throughout the Mariana Islands on Guam, Tinian, Saipan, Pagan, and Anatahan islands.

ALINGANO MAISU sailing from Palau arrives in the Saipan Lagoon.

Francis Toribiong crew member from Palau, happy to set foot back on land after a difficult 39 day passage from Palau. The canoe battled strong 20 to 25 knot north east trade winds on the bow the whole passage. Constant tacking was required to sail the 800 miles directly upwind to Saipan.

ALINGANO MAISU in the calm Saipan lagoon. Sesario Sewralur the son of Mau Piailug was the master navigator and skipper. The 54 foot Polynesian double hull canoe was constructed in Hawaii and is a gift to Mau Piailug for helping the Hawaiians learn the nearly lost art of open ocean voyaging. The canoe is based on Satawal Island and is used as a training vessel in Yap and Palau.

Map of the traditional Carolinian sailing canoe routes of Micronesia. The passage from Palau to Saipan is 800 miles in distance. The distance from Satawal and Puluwot to Saipan is 500 miles. Map credit to Douglas Herman of Pacific Worlds.

Sailing Canoes From Satawal Arrive on Saipan

Two 27 foot traditional Carolinian sailing canoes arriving in the lagoon after a 5 day 500 mile passage from Satawal Island in the Caroline Islands of Yap. Three master navigators and twelve student navigators made up the crews.

Sailing down the lagoon to Killi Beach. Managaha Island is in the background.

Sailing canoe MAKALii' TEENAGER and the Mae i Siu in the background.

The crew dropping the mast and sails in preparation for the traditional welcoming ceremony

Two Hobie Cat 16's met the canoes and followed them down the lagoon. Lino M. Olopai, master navigator and Ron Smith, skippers.

Topias Urupoa, master navigator of the Makali TEENAGER from Satawal was first to be welcomed on shore.

Andrew Igomal master navigator of the Mae i Siu from Satawal walks ashore.

Topias Urupoa, master navigator is 70 years old. Although blind from diabetes, Topias can still use his remaining senses to sail and help teach navigation to his students.

Benigno R. Fitial, Governor of The CNMI on the left and Sebastion Anefal, Governor of Yap on the right greet the navigators and students in the welcoming ceremony.

Lino M. Olopai and his wife Fifi were on the welcoming committee. Lino has completed 3 passages from Satawal over the years and is a permanent resident of Saipan.

Sailing and Diving on Tinian Island, Mariana Islands

View of the west side of Tinian Island. Barcinas Bay (Turtle Bay) is on the left, Tinian Harbor in the center and Taga Beach Bay to Carolinas Point on the right encompasses the newly created Tinian Marine Preserve. We anchored in Barcinas Bay (in the sand alleys between the coral heads of course!) and Taga Beach. Barcinas Bay has numerous turtles and has a local name of Turtle Bay the beach is a protected turtle egg laying area.

Two stripe Juvenile Dusky anemone fish (Amphiprion melannopus) on the reef off Taga Beach.

Hawks bill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata bissa) gliding over the coral heads on Barcinas Bay.

Single stripe adult Dusky anemone fish (Amphiprion melanopus) on Taga Bay Reef.

Typical 15 to 20 knots north east trade winds sailing to Tinian Island. Sooke loves to have a single reef in the mainsail in these perfect sailing conditions.

B-29 Enola Gay on Tinian North Field. US Army photo 1945.

We rented motor scooters and visited the old WW II airbase, North Field to view the atomic bomb pits where the B-29 Enola Gay loaded the atomic bomb "Little Boy" for the first atomic mission to Hiroshima, Japan on August 7, 1945.

"Little Boy" in the concrete bomb pit No. 1. US Army photo August 1945.

The bombs were too large to fit under the B-29's, concrete pits were constructed and the weapons were raised up in to the bomber bay doors by hydraulic lifts.

Atomic Bomb Loading Pit No. 1 that housed "Little Boy" prior to the mission to Hiroshima. There was some controversy over which was actually Pit No. 1 as the two pits were filled in with earth until 2005. During the 2005 excavations and construction of the viewing enclosures the problem was resolved. An astute National Parks employee observed and compared the location of ladder access rungs in various old photos of the bombs located in the pits and determined which was the correct one.

Atomic Bomb Loading Pit No. 2 that housed "Fat Man" prior to the mission over Nagasaki, Japan August 9, 1945. US Army photo

"Fat Man" was carried by the B-29 "Bock's Car". US Army photo August 1945.

One interesting site on Tinian is the ancient House of Taga located in San Jose village. These 16 foot high pillars (haligi) and cap stones (tasa) were hand carved from limestone quarries on the island and transported to the site. The coral latte stones are unique to the Mariana Islands. Ancient latte stones are found on Pagan, Anatahan, Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and Guam islands. The caps shown here weigh 22 tons and the pillars weigh 32 tons. Latte stones were first constructed starting around 800 B.C. and were still in use during the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Most sites were abandoned by 1700.

There are no accurate theories on what the function of the large stone formations were used for. Some think they were used to support large ceremonial houses and burial platforms. Smaller practical versions can be found over the island and historians say they were used as structural bases for homes, food storage, and sailing canoe storage in the ancient island villages.

Sooke in idyllic sailing conditions on the way back to Saipan. Photo by diving friends at the Tinian Grotto.

The Chamorro people of Tinian are very gracious and proud people. Many are descendants from Yap, Spain, Germany, Japan, and the USA as various nations controlled the island throughout Tinian's history.