More Okinawa Diving

The newly completed apartment house Jen and I moved into, consisted of 6 units, 3 upper and three lower. Jan and I took the single upper unit that had no common wall with another unit. The second person that moved into the apartment complex as Ken Profrock an Air Force Sergeant that was in the munitions attachment on base. Ken had been on base several years was fluent in Japanese.
After Jan and I had completed our scuba courses we found out that Ken was also a scuba diver and he gave Jan one of her first shells. We drove quite a few times with Ken. Jan and I dove almost every weekend either with the reef rowers club or on boat trips arranged by Slava. Jan and I also dove  at night and shared our favorite dive sites with Ken and he shared his favorite dive sites with us. At the end of one night dives with Ken as we came up to about 10 foot the entire reef exploded in a white cloud as the coral started spawning, it was a brilliant experience.
On July 4th weekend of 1989 we convinced Ken to go with us on a dive weekend to the island of Kume Jima. We had to take a three hour boat trip, west, out of the port of Naha. There were seven of us and we loaded all of our gear onto a pallet that was loaded onto the boat. We made one stop at a small island and then continued on to Kume. The cabin of the ship was just an open area that was carpeted and people just laid down on the carpet and fell asleep for the time of the trip, no shoes allowed in the cabin. People met us at the dock, loaded up our equipment, and took us to the hotel. The next morning we set out for two dives with a 2 hour intermission between the dives.
After the dives it was time to explore the island and hunt for glass balls along the shore that had escaped from fishing nets. Motor scooters was the method of transportation. Climbing around coral near the shores, Jan fell and got a nasty cut on her right shin and we went back immediately to the hotel. The cut that Jan had was bleeding and required stitches. We were told where a doctor could be found to attend to the wound. Ken volunteered to go with us. Jan and I on  one motorbike, Ken on another. When we got to the doctor Ken did all the talking and the doctor spent much time bandaging up Jan’s leg after putting in a few stitches. Needless to say she could not dive the next day and spent it with her camera taking many pictures of the local area. After diving the next day Ken, Jan, and I on our motorbikes toured the island.
Once we returned to Kadena, I took Jan to the naval hospital and had a doctor look at her leg. The doctor said what ever doctor worked on her leg did an excellent job and healing would be swift. Having Ken accompany us to the Japanese doctor and do the talking was really appreciated.