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10 GREAT CAVERN DIVES Saipan’s Grotto named one of the best
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Posted on Dec 28 2000
Sport Diver Magazine, a popular bimonthly publication dedicated to informing the world’s diving enthusiasts about the latest and greatest in dive locations, equipment and such, recently published in their November/December 2000 issue the “10 Great Cavern Dives Around the World”, listing Saipan’s Grotto as number two, beating out Guam, Hawaii, and the Caribbean.
In an article by editor Pierce Hoover called “Shadowland,” the author details the thrill and danger surrounding cavern diving.
An underwater cave is a tunnel or room shrouded in darkness, from which no entrance can be seen. A cavern, by contrast, is the portion of a cave that receives some degree of natural light. In the area known as the cavern zone, divers can see the entrance clearly and are close enough to the surface to make an emergency swimming ascent.
In their description of the best cavern dives, the Grotto was depicted quite accurately and included the “103” stone steps you walk down which leads to an underground cavern with a high dome ceiling the size of a church.
Sport Diver Magazine’s listing of the Ten Great Cavern Dives include:
1. Chandelier Cave, Palau
2. Grotto, Saipan
3. Blue Hole, Guam
4. Cumber Caves, Little Cayman
5. Sheraton Caves, Hawaii
6. Ginnie Springs, Florida
7. Dos Ojos, Mexico
8. La Sirena, Dominican Republic
9. Blue Cavern Point, Catalina Island, California
10. Atlantis Blue Hole, Andros Island, Bahamas
