Diving the North Hawaiis

[teksimple]

OK. Sounds good, Wildcard. My girlfriend is all over it, and is an excellent diver/instructor to boot. Um, do we need to find you a diving cutie? (I non-diving cutie may come in handy, though, if she can handle a boat). We will need to get a Special Use Permit (SUP) from the Fish and Wildlife Service, so our intentions have to have a benefit to the general public: either an informative TV production or a scientific survey are some options. I can write those applications, but we better start early. My preference is to go to Nihoa, Necker, and La Perouse, whcih is reasonable for a two week trip.

Another possibility is getting a sponsor involved, like Discovery Channel, but then we would have to follow some of their regulations. Better is to do it after the fact and sell the production speculatively, if we put up the cash.

Are you in Hawaii now so that you can do some chartering research? I happen to be in Baghdad for the time being, paying for my next round of diving toys.

- Kent

 

[Wildcard]

Im supposed to be in Bagdad myself right now but they keep uping my pay to keep me in Hawaii, rough I know. I'll look around and see what I can find for boats.....Ive never sailed but I have seen the sail boaters a lot and it dosen't look too hard. Sit at the dock and drink martinis and complain about the weather when it's windy. When it's dead calm you take the boat out under power and complain about the lack of wind
BTW I just got my cutie dive certified.

 

[teksimple]

I'll look around and see what I can find for boats.....

I think I found some boat possibilities. Check this out:

HUNTER 54 - "ESCAPADE"

or I think this may even be better:

BENETEAU OCEANIS 500

This definitely looks to be in my price range. Lets say three weeks at $5k a week. Thats $5k per couple, assuming 3 couples. That ain't too bad for a 3 weeks dive vacation, diving places very few have gone before.

For a sailboat, I would recommend that everyone dives closed circuit rebreathers. Imagine getting to dive all day long using only 15 cubic feet of gas. No need to huck tanks around all day. You got me thinking serious about this Wildcard, but would you be willing to get a closed circuit rebreather (about $5k for a good used KISS rebreather with training)?

I may just have to start a web site for this, to see how much interest would be generated.

 

[KrisB]

teksimple: does a CCR not require occasional refilling of breathing gas also? If so, does it not have to be a single gas with high-purity levels? Would it not be easier to lug a compressor along than to have to figure out a way to refill these, albeit small, but specialized tanks?

This looks like a lot of fun -- I just wish I was in a position to be going on an adventure like this!

 

[teksimple]

teksimple: does a CCR not require occasional refilling of breathing gas also? If so, does it not have to be a single gas with high-purity levels? Would it not be easier to lug a compressor along than to have to figure out a way to refill these, albeit small, but specialized tanks?

A CCR has two cylinders (or spheres, as it may be in the case of my Mk 15.5 ex-military rebreather): your diluent, and your oxygen. For depths <190fsw, your diluent is typically air.Technically speaking, you could do a 6 hour dive or so with just the few breaths from your diluent cylinder to fill your lungs at depth, AND THAT IS IT! All the other gas used would be from your oxygen cylinder, which is the only gas that your body actually metabolizes. In practice, that is different. Every time you rise a little bit during your diving profile (no one does square profiles, right) your rebreather will vent some air from the counterlungs, so you will lose a bit there, or every time you clear your mask, or inflate your B.C, etc. BUT, I have spent several hours underwater and still had 2000 psi in my 21cf O2 sphere and 2800 psi in my diluent.

And no, these cylinders/valves use the same valves as regular cylinders, so you don't need any special adaptors to fill them. We would need a compressor and a booster pump because we do need to top off the diluent cylinders and use the booster to fill the O2 cylinders from the K-bottle. The bottom line is, you would not be filling tanks all day long from a large compressor as you would on a normal liveaboard dive vessel with a half dozen diver fiends on board.

hope that answers your question...

This looks like a lot of fun -- I just wish I was in a position to be going on an adventure like this!

Handy with a 9mm or Windows 2003 server? There are plenty of contractor jobs in Baghdad right now. That's the only reason I can afford these trips and toys.

Aloha

 

[KrisB]

Handy with a 9mm or Windows 2003 server? There are plenty of contractor jobs in Baghdad right now. That's the only reason I can afford these trips and toys.

I can work my way around the latter -- I'm MCSE on Win2k and have done some work on 2k3... PM me some details if that's the side of things you're involved with.

Cheers,

 

[Wildcard]

I think I found some boat possibilities. Check this out:

HUNTER 54 - "ESCAPADE"

or I think this may even be better:

BENETEAU OCEANIS 500

This definitely looks to be in my price range. Lets say three weeks at $5k a week. Thats $5k per couple, assuming 3 couples. That ain't too bad for a 3 weeks dive vacation, diving places very few have gone before.

For a sailboat, I would recommend that everyone dives closed circuit rebreathers. Imagine getting to dive all day long using only 15 cubic feet of gas. No need to huck tanks around all day. You got me thinking serious about this Wildcard, but would you be willing to get a closed circuit rebreather (about $5k for a good used KISS rebreather with training)?

I may just have to start a web site for this, to see how much interest would be generated.

Not only would I be willing but am working to that level as fast as I can. But even if we can't get a boat load of CCR divers (and I would like a light boat load) a small gas compressor is only a few thousand bucks and can be resold at the end of the trip. Just need a dozen tanks. It's an exploration trip. We won't be underwater forever (I hope .

 

[teksimple]

Well, I have been talking to Mike at Hawaii Charters and this other guy on Kauai. Mike has a 65 foot cruiser available for $12k a week that would fit 8 and gear/toys VERY comfortably. Or, we could do the cheaper route with possibly two boats out of Kauai. The 65 footer is a very fast sail boat that would get us there very quickly, for more dive time. With enough advance notice, I am thinking the 65' is the way to go. Two weeks, $24k /8 people = $3k per person. With such a large boat, doing regular scuba won't be a problem. Of course, I would strictly dive my CCR.

I submitted a modified proposal to a film production company with whom I am familiar to see if they want to have a shot at making a documentary. One expressed interest, but their whole team has to talk it over...maybe a week or two befoer they get back to me. There is a lot of interesting stuff up on those islands. Recently discovered shipwrecks, pre-Hawaiian archeology (Marquesans, or menehune). So before I start opening it up for takers, lets wait to see what those guys at the production company say. Then it could be just us with our cuties, and the film crew, etc.

But I am definitely in to it. Summer 2006 sounds so far away already!