My day was progressing with little excitement when I happened to glance from my apartment towards the ocean at 11:30am and saw a cluster of whalewatching boats in front of the harbor. I grabbed my stuff and took off for my kayak. They'd moved a kilometer east when I reached the port entrance so I paddled hard in that direction. It's quite rare for the whales to enter the waters between the islands because the water is so shallow, but usually once or twice a year they make a pass through. It's been a goal of mine to kayak with the whales so this was my chance.
[that's me on the right.. forgot my life jacket]
It wasn't terribly exciting at first, until the big male surfaced only a few meters away from me and took a very loud breath ("reeeeeeeeer") and then slapped his tail on the way down. The whales are very aware of what's happening on the surface and they never come up for a breath and hit something, even a kayak, so there was no reason to worry. But it was hard not to be a little scared so close to such a monstrous creature while I was in my little plastic toy.
We continued following them around that island in the picture until it became boring, then I split off and kept wrapping around back to Zamami. En route I stopped at a long beach to do a little combing. This is where I found my best beachcombing discovery ever: a digital camera inside waterproof housing.
[the rhinestones point to a female owner?]
I was pumped! The case had a lot of sand in all the holes so the buttons didn't really work, but the inside appeared to still be dry. Hope! When I got home I pried it open:
I tested the power button but nothing happened, so I took out the SD card and put it in my computer. A whole bunch of underwater pictures came up along with a few that appear to be off of a Naha-based dive boat. Also, I think this girl is the owner:
What do I do now? I am in the market for a point-and-shoot camera, but I feel a little guilty about claiming this one. Plus it's not a super great camera (though it does come with housing!) and I don't have a battery charger. I checked the metadata on the photos and they were taken around October 11, 2010. But I don't even know where to start to try and find this girl.
Addendum: I forgot to mention that after finding the camera I also found a large glass fishing float. It's my eighth large one, so you can understand how I forgot.
3 comments:
Well, I would send that info to Bluefield Dive and maybe a picture of her. They keep records and will probably be able to track her down somehow from dive boat manifestos or maybe even recognize her. At the very least I am sure she would like to have her holiday memories back.
Of the dozens of dive shops in Naha, why Bluefield Dive?
Definitely agree on getting her photos back to her (and the camera, really).
Ahhaaaaaa! Her wetsuit! The blog came through!
Thanks k! I just looked up Bluefield dive and they have a site - I will attempt to contact them tomorrow!
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