Bikini Atoll - trip/tech report

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vjongene

Contributor
Messages
390
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47
Location
Willemstad, Curaçao
# of dives
1000 - 2499
In earlier discussions on ScubaBoard I promised to write a trip report about diving the wrecks of Bikini. I returned a few days ago, so here it goes. There is no possible way I could best the reports posted by Scuba Jim, so please look up the nine threads he posted here last summer if you want a detailed description of the wrecks, the history, etc.

The trip

Bikini is a long way from just about anywhere. We flew to Honolulu first, via Frankfurt and LA. After a day in Honolulu, where we visited the battleship Missouri and the WW2 submarine Bowfin (a good preparation for the Bikini wrecks), we continued on to Majuro, and to Bikini on the next day. Leaving Switzerland on Saturday morning this got us to Bikini on the following Wednesday. The one day / two night stop in Hawaii was a big help in getting our clocks reset.

The major event of the trip was the complete disappearance of our dive bag at LAX airport. After lugging our three bags through customs, we checked them with United to Honolulu. Only two showed up there, and the bag containing almost all of our dive gear was never found. I strongly suspect that the practice of opening all checked luggage for security checks has given thieves a golden opportunity to pick and choose high-value items, in this case two brand new Mares Morphos Twin BCDs and $4000 worth of miscellaneous dive gear. Fortunately, we were carriying our regs and lights in cabin luggage, and thus our most essential life support equipment was still in hand. I was lucky to find a dive shop in Honolulu that was still open at 5 pm on a Sunday, and to rent gear for the next two weeks. Thanks a bunch to the folks at See in Sea for saving our trip! It turns out that the items we missed most were our Cressi Space Frog fins, which were replaced by rentals barely fit for snorkelling. Also, I spent much of my dives squinting at a computer display and trying to guess what it was trying to tell me, since I really need a mask with prescription lenses that was packed in the dive bag... This will be in carry-on from now on. Fortunately, my Uwatec bottom timer has a clearly readable display with large digits, and this made things a bit more tolerable.

Anyway, we arrived in Bikini at the appointed day and time, and were transported under a pouring rain from the island with the landing strip to the island with the dive center. While summer is supposed to be the dry season in the Marshall Islands, I guess this is very relative, as we were treated regularly to this "island air conditioning" over the next two weeks. After being shown our quarters, simple but clean and comfortable, and having had a bite to eat, we were ready for our first briefing and check-out dive. There were eight divers in all, including my son and me, three Swiss divers with whom we connected in Majuro, an Australian couple, and a Texan whose father had served in Bikini and Eniwetok during the Korean War.

Technical aspects

Diving on the Bikini wrecks is by definition tech diving, as the wrecks are deep (110-180 ft) and the dives require staged deco. Nevertheless, the dive center does not require divers to be formally certified in tech diving. This may seem imprudent or even foolish, but having seen first hand how the dives are planned and executed I am convinced that their approach is sound, and that their operation is safer than many "recreational" ones.

The basic requirements for divers are as follows:
1) "Perfect" buoyancy control, i.e. to be able to ascend at a controlled rate (about 20 ft / min) without an ascent line, and to be able to stop at any depth for any length of time with an accuracy of a couple of feet.
2) Enough experience to handle all equipment (including camera or video if carried along) and to interpret gauges/computers while being significantly narced. This usually means at least 100 dives, and at least a dozen at depths of 120 ft or more.

The C-card carried doesn't really matter. For groups of experienced and duly certified cave/wreck divers, the DMs are willing (and even eager) to plan deep penetration dives into the wrecks. For all others, exploration is essentially from the outside, with a few "safe" and mild penetrations.

There are some basic rules that must be followed for all dives:
- signal a DM when air is down to 2000 psi
- start ascent at or before the bottom time defined during the briefing
- ascend at no more than 20 ft/min, hand over hand if using the mooring line
- make deep stops for 2 min each at 80 and 40 ft
- from 40 ft, proceed to deco station from below, never ascending to less than 35 ft
- on the deco station, stay at least 2 min at 30 ft, 5 min at 20 ft, and 10 min at 10 ft
- if your computer indicates a longer time at any deco stop, the computer has to be followed

We were provided with 17 l steel tanks filled to 240 bar for those diving singles (all but one in our group), providing about 4000 l (143 cu ft) of air. This was enough for all of us to reach the deco station with 100 bar or more, and therefore to do a full deco schedule on back gas in case we should not be able to reach the station (e.g. because the boat had to leave the mooring).

On the deco station (three bars hanging at 33, 23 and 13 ft), surface-supplied regulators allow divers to breathe EAN75. For those divers equipped with computers allowing gas changes (my son and I rented Nitek 3 computers from the center), the EAN75 is programmed in before the dive, and deco times are shortened accordingly. For those diving with "one mix" computers (mostly Uwatec Aladins), this is set to air, and the deco times are calculated for air.

During the dives, a DM hovers at about 40 ft under the deco station, making sure that no one skips deco, and guiding divers to the station if necessary. He also collects cameras so that the guests don't have to hold them during the long decos.

It can be argued whether these procedures produce "trust me" dives, or whether they are just sane guidelines that allow reasonably experienced divers to make deep/tech dives safely. IMHO, the latter applies. We were able to make two dives a day for six days (except for a skipped dive due to weather conditions) in excellent conditions, and the procedures were never seen as other than reasonable precautions against accidents. We all enjoyed the dives immensely, and beyond normal dive fatigue no one felt worse for wear. The DMs were there to help us have a good time, and to ensure our security. This they did in a very professional manner.


The dives

Scuba Jim having provided blow-by-blows of all of the wrecks, I will not elaborate here. All I can say is that the dives were absolutely fantastic, without a single exception. My least favorite was probably the USS Arkansas, because it lays almost exactly upside-down and exploration is therefore somewhat limited. We made two dives on the USS Lamson, a fully equipped destroyer that is small enough that one can take in the whole wreck in one dive, but so rich in treasures that one wants to make more. The dives on Sara, almost 1000 ft long and 140 ft high, are beyond description. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures, since the charger for my digital camera was in the lost dive bag... I hope to post some video when my son gets around to editing it.

I will post a report on the second leg of the trip, Rongelap Atoll and the MV Oleanda, in the near future. Stay tuned...
 
So what ever happened with your lost equipment? Did the Airline or TSA cover the loss? Or are you still in the process of remediation? Just interested because we are headed to the South Pacific through LAX in October and don't want to suffer the same fate.
 
Tobagoman:
So what ever happened with your lost equipment? Did the Airline or TSA cover the loss? Or are you still in the process of remediation? Just interested because we are headed to the South Pacific through LAX in October and don't want to suffer the same fate.

The bag is considered lost, i.e. no one has any idea where it ended up. United has been relatively apologetic, and told me that they would cover at least the cost of the rentals. In principle, they are liable for $2500 per passenger, as LAX to HNL is a domestic flight (for international, they are limited to about $9 per lb). I am in the process of producing a full inventory of the bag's contents. I hope to get my money back before they go belly up... I have no idea how the airlines and TSA split liabilities in a case like this.

Sadly, there is no way one can take a full complement of dive gear as carry-on, which would be the only safe option.
 
I'm going to Truk in Dec., and because of video equipment, I'm really limited to what I can carry on. About the only items I will carry on are my UW housing w/ the cam inside. (about $4000) I have to check through all support equipment (batteries, lights, etc.) and dive gear. Man, I hate being at the mercy of these thieves at the airports that have full authority to go through bags behind closed doors. My only option is to insure all my stuff just for this trip. A lot good that's going to do me when I get to Truk and all my stuff is in some pawn shop in LA. and How Can One Avoid It??? The 20 some hour trip will be one giant worry when I say good by to my equipment in Detroit and hope the important stuff is there in Truk when I arrive. I'm Sad!

Barracuda2
 
My wife and I traveled to Australia last month lugging along our cameras and dive gear. One thing to watch out for is some airlines are starting to weigh the carry on and Quantus for one limits it to 7kg/bag (15 lbs), along with the normal size limitations. Enforcement depends on the agent but we got nailed twice (18-19 lbs, smaller than size limit) and they insisted on the bag being checked even though it was acceptable on two other legs of our trip (agent didn't weigh). Could understand in a small plane but this was Airbus size.

What they don't seem to care about is a backpack, which in this case I was wearing both times. My len's alone for my Fuji S2 are probably 15 lbs, which along with most of the other critical equipment were in both our backpacks. Each of which was probably around 20#'s+ with regs, housing, strobes, etc...

Would suggest hiding whatever you can in backpacks and beware of the weight checks for carry-on bags looks like some airlines are starting to do.

Other checked bag with support gear took out insurance and cringed while hoping it made it.

Kev
 
The now weigh carry on for long trips to Asia. However, my impression is that the keep the checked in stuff unlocked is only a recommendation. On my trip in January 2004, they opened my box (as it has the TSA tapes all over). Most people on that flight left their bags locked. I used AMEX to buy the plane ticket and had signed on for additional baggage lost/delay insurance. They paid me for my loss without a single word of argument. It's a good thing that my loss was not over $1,000 as it was the max that is covered.
 
Qantas has become particularly strict up here in North Queesnd in checking the weight of any large (ish) hand luggage bags, backpacks, trolley bages etc... including laptops & briefcases we fly regularly for work purposes and are continually getting our hand luggage taken off us and having it stowed in checked luggage, i have found the later we are running the less they check cause they have to get the luggage out and us on the plane and all thoughts of weighing even checked luggage is gone - this method is not recommended though as my blood pressure was rising dangerously.
 
Congratulations on the great trip, vjongene.

I've had some difficulties getting some answers out of Tim via email, and I was hoping you could help:

*I use Vplanner. Do they have a problem with you running a different deco profile than the one they proscribe?

*What are the bottom temperatures?

*I am allergic to being seperated from my deco gas. Do they have Aluminum 40's there, or will I have to ship them?

Thanks for posting the trip report!

All the best, James
 
fdog:
Congratulations on the great trip, vjongene.

I've had some difficulties getting some answers out of Tim via email, and I was hoping you could help:

*I use Vplanner. Do they have a problem with you running a different deco profile than the one they proscribe?

My feeling is that they are quite willing to adapt to divers with tech training, if you can convince them that you know what you are doing. They may still insist that you conform to the minimal deco times in their "standard" schedule. I actually had a Pocket PC running GAP, but was unable to use it because the charger disappeared with my gear bag...

*What are the bottom temperatures?

The temperature is an even 29C from top to bottom.

*I am allergic to being seperated from my deco gas. Do they have Aluminum 40's there, or will I have to ship them?

This I don't know. They do have a large selection of tanks, but none of the DMs/instructors was using stage bottles. They were diving steel doubles in a DIR configuration. Shipping anything to Bikini is going to cost you dearly, though ($1.50 a lb for each flight segment with Air Marshall Islands).

HTH,

Victor
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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