Sunday San Francisco Maru

Wow ........ This has got to be my very best ever wreck dive. The 'cisco sits in about 70m of water so it needs to be planned as a technical dive as only Rob of us had the technical gear to do it justice we had the boat to our selves. For those who are interested we planned a 58m 20 minute bottom time dive with deco gas of 50%
O2 and a cylinder of 80% O2 hung on the 5m line. Checking the gas in the morning one of the deco side slings was a little light at 45% O2 but as we had calculated the plan with a lot of spare gas we decided to stick to the bottom time and extend the deco to suit.
Dropping on to the wreck you catch you first site at about 20 m when the bridge starts to appear and as you drop deeper you get a good view of most of the wreck in water of around 30m viz. The bridge is at about 42m and from there you can see the 3 tanks which the wreck is famous for. From the bridge we went over to the bow gun and down into the first hold the is still full live mines, some of which have have been stolen by the local fisherman to go dynamite fishing on the reefs. Following the hold we got a good look around the tanks before the guide left us and we carried on doing the rest of the rear holds that are still full of ammunition. The 20 minutes bottom time were over all to soon and we started our slow deco assent at 20m we changed on to the 50% O2 mix for and at 5m we moved on to the 80% O2 mix to end the dive hanging under the boat for 25 minutes may not seem like fun but we had a a few shoals fish to take our minds off the time. Before we knew it was the end of the deco and 100 minutes of the dive had gone by.

So to sum it up totally blown away by what must be one of the most amazing wrecks in the world.

Photos from Saturday

Don't you just love bat fish. Check out the small shrimp in the anemone

Saturday dives

Only three dives were planned for today, the first one was the Momokawa Maru a 107m 3829 tonne freighter this wreck is off the east of Dublon island and is resting on its port side in over 40 m of water. After dropping down on to the bow at around 35m we went through the forward holds which contained a mix of aircraft parts, oil drums, machinery and large artillery shells finally coming out at the bridge where Steve left us to go up with his ear problem. Once back on the boat the guide decided to head back to BLR for an extended lunch break so that Steve's ear could settle down and he would get a good chance of doing the next dives.
So after a long lunch we set of across the lagoon for about 40 minutes, which is about the most we have done, to dive one of the few real navel vessels in the lagoon. This is the destroyer Fumitsuki which was undergoing repairs and could not leave with the rest of the Japanese task force. The 103m 1913 tonne wreck was only found in 1987 and sits in about 35m. Most of the wreck is sitting up right but the bow section from the forward gun has collapsed and is on its port side. Because the wreck is unstable no penetration was allowed but it was a good wreck to swim around.
The last dive of the day was back on the Shinkoku Maru the 10000 tonne tanker we dived on the second day. This time we took a slightly different route giving up a bit more time to look round the engine room & bridge.

Ramblings from Truk Lagoon.

We had the first of the diving casualties today Steve our un elected group organiser is suffering with an ear problem and finding it difficult to equalise on the way up on Momokawa Maru the first dive of the day and is suffering a bit.

Today's dives are all quite deep too 40 to 30m so the guide has moved rings around to give us all a longer break and Steve's ear a chance to recover. The diving is pretty relaxed and you get the guide and driver for the week so they get to know you. Jonkey our guide is very easy going and has a laugh and a joke with us now and again. In the water he sets a really relaxed pace underwater and points out all the good stuff as he goes. Our boat driver Mac is a real another great guy an yesterday turned the boat round an fished out my hat when it blew off but even better on our afternoon rest stop he went back in to the wreck of the patrol boat we dived the other day and fished out the weight pocket that one of out group lost while we were diving it on Wednesday.

I suppose I had better say a bit more about the Blue Lagoon Resort. Since arriving on Monday I have managed to find the the reception, gift shop, restaurant coffee shop and, no surprise, the bar. It all has a great rustic atmosphere and laid back pace but the service has been faultless. The one or two little niggles have been sorted quickly with out any issue or argument so full credit to them. There are quite a lot of staff keeping the grounds and apartments clean & tidy but I think this must be a major employer on this corner of the island and a little local community has grown up around the resort. However not every one lives close by and you can see the boats brining in the staff and taking them away to the local islands.

The food really has been very good and the menu is split up into 3 main sections. International, read American, steaks & fish grills, various pastas etc. Japanese, would put Waggamamas to shame, and local which are various chicken & pork stews and spiced dishes which are also really nice. So far I have sampled each of the sections and I have no complaints at all and can really recommend the grilled tuna, Yakisoba and the chicken & pork Adobo :)

Some photos from yesterday (Friday)

Some bits for divers

Doing 3 or 4 dives a day would be a lot better on nitrox but it would workout very expensive as all the O2 is shipped in and the mark ups at each stage are high. See the attached photos for the prices much more expensive than the Red Sea where nitrox is about £3 a fill or even free. Trimix is available at around $4.5/ cubic ft and rebreather divers can be catered for with but they do like some notice. The facilities for mixing gasses are all very good and the guys that do it are well trained which is good to see so if you do want to dive mixed gasses on the deeper wrecks you should have no worries apart from the credit card bill.

One option to keep the costs down and help with the off gassing is to use a 50% O2 mix for the 5m safety stop this is being done by 2 Australians also diving here who are doing some of the deeper wrecks on air. That way the deco cylinder will last for a few dives but you have the advantage of hi O2 deco

Fridays Dives

Is it already Friday :(

Rainy day today. The hope that it would stop soon after breakfast have ended when the sky's were still very over cast at lunch time, not an issue while you are diving but the boat rides to the sites are getting wet too. It's also very humid and sticky as the temperature is still above 30 deg so it is much nicer in the water.
Todays dives have been the Hoki Maru a 137m 7112tonne freighter that sits upright but has suffered a blast destroying the fore holds to the bridge, the aft holds are full of earth moving equipment and trucks. This was quite a deep dive at 40m and all of the divers ended up with 5 or 6 minutes of deco time.
The second dive of the morning was the Kensho Maru 117m 4861tonne freighter that sits with a slight list to port. This was a really nice dive as while we checked out the bow gun a pair of eagle rays circled above us for about 5 minutes, unfortunately just a bit to far for good photos. After checking out the bow we returned to mid-ships and went down into the engine room and back onto the aft deck via the galley where the range and cooking utensils could still be seen.
No island trip for lunch today so it was back to the resort for a pit stop and some lunch
Both the afternoon dives were quite unusual. The first was a large ocean going tug the Futagami this 40m 625tonne vessel sits on a slope with the stern at 12m and the bow at 25. This wreck is not visited that often and was very silty but the bridge and hold was quite interesting and the outside well encrusted with coral. Penetration was quite difficult because of the silt and small access doors.
The last dive of the day was on the Emily flying boat. The wreckage of this plane is upside down and well broken up but the huge 38m wing and engines are easily recognisable. It is believed that this plane was carrying Vice Admiral Hara when it was attacked by American fighters but managed to escape only to crash and break up on landing, the Vice Admiral survived.