I just returned from a month of diving in Palau and Truk.
Palau was wonderful; all the things they say about it are true.
18 of my dive buddies from Vancouver chartered the Big Blue Explorer. This is five star accommodations. And the diving spectacular.
We did dives to 200 feet were the water was 85 degrees and the vis the same as air. Sharks everywhere, and the coral etc beautiful. Over the next little while I will be posting some photos on my web site so stay tuned.
Well after 10 day there we dumped off anybody who wasnt advanced Nitrox / Deco divers with experience in penetration and headed to Truk.
Actually it is now called Chuuk. Anyways ten of us arrived at the Truk Stop Motel were we met our dive guides etc. We had pre arranged for them to supply us Oxygen, which we would later use for decompression. Air was our bottom gas.
We also had an understanding with our guides that there would be unlimited depths and run times. This was going to lead to some spectacular diving
You all know the story of Truk so I wont bore you with history, just think of it as a wreck divers paradise were you could never in a life time dive all there is to dive.
We managed to dive on ten wrecks; some shallow like the magnificent Fujikawa Maru with more marine life per square inch than anything I have ever seen. Starting at the surface and ending in the engine room at 110 feet this wreck is easy to dive and stunning.
The two wrecks that stood out were the San Francisco Maru sitting in 220 feet of water; there has been very little diving below recreational limits because Oxygen just came available this year for decompression. Ill describe one dive here.
We drop down on the San Francisco Maru right on top of two tanks sitting on her deck then we swam her beam to find another, descending into the cargo hold the next level had several vehicles in quite good shape, but people had been there, we were on a mission to go deeper in her belly.
Descending into the hold there was a passageway to a long corridor, even though she once had eight-foot ceilings they were now reduced to four foot because of the silt sitting on her floors. I tied off my line to a vehicle sitting in the hold and entered the darkness. My hid light lit the way as I made one turn and then the next working my way down the hall to the crews quarters, then down a flight of stairs barely wide enough to fit a small boy much less my large ass with four tanks hanging on me.
Tanks oh yes this was a six tank dive, all 80s, four with air and two with 70% [the highest concentration we could get] I configured the tanks as such. Doubles of course on my back, and two additional tanks of air on my belly clipped to my shoulders and the bottom to my scooter ring. Two additional deco stage bottles were left at the descent line for recovery latter. Then to be clipped the top to my shoulders and the bottom to the bottom of my doubles.
Down the stairs I went to were few had been before me, at 210 feet I found myself in a large room which was once divided by wood partitions to make crews quarters. The wood all but gone, I continued until the end of my four hundred foot reel and then stuck my arms down into the silt up to my shoulders I pulled up endless amounts of artifacts, partial uniforms, china, sake bottles, bones, a gun, gas masks, etc. at 45 minutes my VR3 computer was telling me time to go. As my deco time was getting long. I retraced my line reeling it in as I went. So as not to lead anybody down there that shouldnt be.
As I came back into the bright blue light I felt as if I had just been in a tomb, something from Disney though were they were still there playing cards and drinking Sake, and asking me to stay with them. My first deco stop was still inside the wreck as I ascended I realized in the Pacific North west we dont limit our dives by the cold or our air supply but by the size of our bladder. I was thinking this with a very long sigh of relief.
I then started up the line for my long decompression. But it was so worth it my total dive was just over 190 minutes without a bit of chill, and I wet myself at least four time [how great is that] I carried out of there with my a good stack of china for others to see and then we left them in a little wood box on the side of one of the tanks as a present to some curious diver in the future
Our next wreck is one that was discovered just five years ago, and has been closed to diving because of the strange fluid that was leaking from it. It sits about 1-½ hours out from our hotel in 250 feet of water. That story another time as this is getting to long
Palau was wonderful; all the things they say about it are true.
18 of my dive buddies from Vancouver chartered the Big Blue Explorer. This is five star accommodations. And the diving spectacular.
We did dives to 200 feet were the water was 85 degrees and the vis the same as air. Sharks everywhere, and the coral etc beautiful. Over the next little while I will be posting some photos on my web site so stay tuned.
Well after 10 day there we dumped off anybody who wasnt advanced Nitrox / Deco divers with experience in penetration and headed to Truk.
Actually it is now called Chuuk. Anyways ten of us arrived at the Truk Stop Motel were we met our dive guides etc. We had pre arranged for them to supply us Oxygen, which we would later use for decompression. Air was our bottom gas.
We also had an understanding with our guides that there would be unlimited depths and run times. This was going to lead to some spectacular diving
You all know the story of Truk so I wont bore you with history, just think of it as a wreck divers paradise were you could never in a life time dive all there is to dive.
We managed to dive on ten wrecks; some shallow like the magnificent Fujikawa Maru with more marine life per square inch than anything I have ever seen. Starting at the surface and ending in the engine room at 110 feet this wreck is easy to dive and stunning.
The two wrecks that stood out were the San Francisco Maru sitting in 220 feet of water; there has been very little diving below recreational limits because Oxygen just came available this year for decompression. Ill describe one dive here.
We drop down on the San Francisco Maru right on top of two tanks sitting on her deck then we swam her beam to find another, descending into the cargo hold the next level had several vehicles in quite good shape, but people had been there, we were on a mission to go deeper in her belly.
Descending into the hold there was a passageway to a long corridor, even though she once had eight-foot ceilings they were now reduced to four foot because of the silt sitting on her floors. I tied off my line to a vehicle sitting in the hold and entered the darkness. My hid light lit the way as I made one turn and then the next working my way down the hall to the crews quarters, then down a flight of stairs barely wide enough to fit a small boy much less my large ass with four tanks hanging on me.
Tanks oh yes this was a six tank dive, all 80s, four with air and two with 70% [the highest concentration we could get] I configured the tanks as such. Doubles of course on my back, and two additional tanks of air on my belly clipped to my shoulders and the bottom to my scooter ring. Two additional deco stage bottles were left at the descent line for recovery latter. Then to be clipped the top to my shoulders and the bottom to the bottom of my doubles.
Down the stairs I went to were few had been before me, at 210 feet I found myself in a large room which was once divided by wood partitions to make crews quarters. The wood all but gone, I continued until the end of my four hundred foot reel and then stuck my arms down into the silt up to my shoulders I pulled up endless amounts of artifacts, partial uniforms, china, sake bottles, bones, a gun, gas masks, etc. at 45 minutes my VR3 computer was telling me time to go. As my deco time was getting long. I retraced my line reeling it in as I went. So as not to lead anybody down there that shouldnt be.
As I came back into the bright blue light I felt as if I had just been in a tomb, something from Disney though were they were still there playing cards and drinking Sake, and asking me to stay with them. My first deco stop was still inside the wreck as I ascended I realized in the Pacific North west we dont limit our dives by the cold or our air supply but by the size of our bladder. I was thinking this with a very long sigh of relief.
I then started up the line for my long decompression. But it was so worth it my total dive was just over 190 minutes without a bit of chill, and I wet myself at least four time [how great is that] I carried out of there with my a good stack of china for others to see and then we left them in a little wood box on the side of one of the tanks as a present to some curious diver in the future
Our next wreck is one that was discovered just five years ago, and has been closed to diving because of the strange fluid that was leaking from it. It sits about 1-½ hours out from our hotel in 250 feet of water. That story another time as this is getting to long
