Diving Chuuk with Blue Lagoon Resort - Part 1
Dives: 13
Vis: 15-20m
Temp: 31°c
Max Depth: 52m
Packing all my gear before the trip. This is the first time I have travelled with my twin Manifold and bands. I got some conduit from Bunnings and some duct tape to protect the valve stems in the bag and some padding to stop my Twin tank bands from digging into other gear. Arrived at the airport to meet the rest of the crew. As I'm diving OC and most of the others are on Rebreathers my pack weight was quite significantly lighter (nothing new, right?). Ben B organised for me to take an extra case for him which was fine. Getting to the flight check in though and they started weighing carry on bags! This is the first time I have ever had my carry on bag weighed!! As I like to travel with my Regs in my carry on (easier to keep them from being damaged) mine was about 12kg... a little over the 7kg limit :( Luckily, even with Ben's extra case, I still had quite a bit spare in my check in so I was able to transfer some stuff, and put a few items in my pockets... to land at 6.8kg. Still heavier than my Hiking pack :p
Pretty standard affair getting through security and duty free. Picked up something to enjoy while on the island. Have breakfast in the terminal, still stupidly expensive... but I knew I would want something before the flight. Flying with Air Niugini, which my brother described as "Virgin Airlines when they were trying to compete with Jetstar and not Qantas" which is a pretty apt description. Got on board and was very happy to have an empty seat next to me (fellow traveller on the other end of the 3) and, after take off, Ben S was able to move out from behind me, to an empty row, so I could recline without any worries. Service was good too, they brought me a Scotch+Coke just as I finished my first (it helps to say Please and Thank you!)
Brief stop over in Port Moresby in PNG before continuing out flight onto out final destination of Chuuk (Truk) Lagoon. We landed just on sunset, beautiful pink clouds off on the horizon. I was middle aisle seat so I couldn't get any decent shot. By the time our luggage had made it and we got outside it was already dark. Unfortunately one of the people from Syd, who we were sharing a bus to the resort with, had a bag go missing. Airline couldn't tell if it was their Brisbane transfer or the PNG one but having lost a bag in the past I knew his pain. Luckily his rebreather case made it, but Fins and Mask and some other gear were in the other bag. Didn't sound like a show stopper, but definitely annoying using borrowed gear on deep dives.
We got checked in pretty quickly and headed back to the restaurant for food. After 2 meals on the plane and a pie while in Port Morsby I just opted for dessert, a nice vanilla ice-cream Sunday. Ben S got the Spag Bog while looked (and he confirmed) very tasty. All the meals coming out looked like they filled a big plate, so I shouldn't go hungry this trip. Finally back to my room about 915pm to have a shower before drifting off to sleep.
Woke up around 6 but didn't bother hopping out of bed until 630 ish. Apparently it was going to be a bit of a 'Take your time' morning, but I started feeling hungry and went down for breakfast anyway. Got to the dive shop around 7am and there was already a lot of busy people moving about. Lots of rebreather divers, so they were all packing their scrubbers and calibrating their computers. I was on the mission to find a Twin set. There were a couple to chose from but some were definitely better than others. Picked out one I thought was good, setup all my gear, then turned it on only to realise the left post valve was broken... Already sweating from the heat/humidity I took it all off and sought out a second set. Had to adjust the tank bands to suit my gear but then I was on my way. Also took the time to setup my stage bottle, just air at the moment but it will be a 02 mix when we plan to hit deeper wrecks.
For some reason they thought our group (9 total) had shrunk by 3 so Richard, Deb and I didn't have any boat assigned to us. After that was sorted and we got our gear on we decided not to wait for the Rebreather boat and headed out for our dive. Our first dive on 'Something Something' Maru (don't ask me to spell their names! Maru = Ship) was pretty good. Nice open deck/hull to swim into. A few Zero's (Japanese Fighter Plans) sitting nicely in the hull along with hundreds of 44 gal drums. We worked our way around the ship, quite a bit of small fish life, but not a huge amount of larger fish. There was one decent size school swimming around the super structure near the Bow though. After about 35min our guide arrived back at the line... so we decided to head off for a little exploring. We split with me heading off to find the engine, I barely poked my head in though, apparently you can swim it in a loop but not something to do by myself on the first dive... Just before we got back to the line again we saw the other guys heading down with their rebreathers so for our dive we basically had the wreck to just the 3 of us.
Back on shore had a rinse and tried to establish some internet connection near the lobby. You wouldn't want to live with it but it's enough to get a few messages out, so good enough. I did a brief walk around the resort, there's not much. A small store, the resort lobby + bar + eating hall (restaurant) and the dive shop. Lunch was pretty good again, they definitely do decent food. I was expecting more heavily rice based dishes, but had a proper cheeseburger and fries for lunch. I also asked the reception about a Land Tour for Tonachau Iras (highest mountain in Truk) but they didn't know anyone that hiked it, so I'll have to make further enquiries elsewhere.
Met back at the boats for our arvo dive around 2. Popped in for another barmy 30.5°C water dive. This time the Breather guys were jumping in the water just before us, and heading straight for the bottom. We cruised along the top for a little bit before doubling back. I ducked into a sub deck and popped up under the guide and my buddies. Then the guide pointed in a window and mentioned 'over and down' which was a good enough signal for me. After poking me head around for a while I came across Ben B who muffled out 'Down Stair Well' through his regs so off I went (though apparently through the wrong stair well). I did manage to rack up a little deco while down there... 15min in total :o After a decent explore of the engine I headed back out to find my group. Back in around the Wheel house and then off back towards the line. Back on the top of the stack and we found a cool flat worm that was actually motoring along pretty fast before heading back to the boat. I was hanging in the blue for a good 13min. Other guys returned to their line just after me and one by one headed up before me. Tomorrow I'll make sure I have my Nitrox bottle ready so I can cut down some of my hang time. 77min total for my second dive.
Showers on and off for most of the afternoon but it was good to sit on the balcony with a beer and watch the rain fall down on the bay. We got pretty lucky not to get hit while on the boat, but I imagine we're going to get caught out once or twice before we head home. Wasn't long before we were off to the outside bar to grab some dinner. Most people grabbed some duty free on the way over so we got a few mixers from the bar and enjoyed a few drops. I had a Japanese curry which was ok, could have done with a bit more curry sauce to cover the very generous helping of rice. It also had an egg based topping, which seemed out of place... The variety of food available at Blue Lagoon is great though, which is really lucky as there's not really much choice to eat anywhere else. There was also some sort of government function on with lots of tables setup and a special delivery of beer. Which included at least 4 cartons of VB... so they mustn't like their officials much!
Woke up with the sun already shining about 530 but managed to get in another 20min of snooze time before eventually conceding and getting out of bed. Didn't need to be at the boats until 8am today. I got there a touch early to setup my EAN stage and before long we were off to another amazing wreck. For those not too interested in wrecks, there's actually quite a bit of growth on them, though I would be lying to say that coral was even a secondary focus of the diving here. Inside Wrecks > Outside Wrecks > Above Wrecks > Coral > more wreck would be the focus given on any dive. I still can't pronounce their names though. This dive were some huge torpedoes in the ship, it was a Sub tender so had some weaponry etc for them. Was a couple of Huge propellers still in good condition and some pipe fish and an Octopus. The group found another flat worm too, but I was too busy poking my head around the inside of the wreck.
There's quite a bit of time to kill between dives (almost 4 hours today), even taking into account a sit down lunch. Had the HDD full of shows to fill some time, but I can see there being a lot of just lazing about on the balcony later. There was a pool table near the bar too, so I might be able to convince someone to play a few rounds. We had organised to be at the boat at 2pm but after discussions at lunch decided that 130pm was better. Unfortunately the dive shop had organised another 2 random open circuit, whom they told 2.. so we waited a bit. Not their fault though, I guess.
Just as we were gearing up one noticed I was donning twins and asked if I was a "Techy Tech" diver (in a pretty thick Russian Accent) to which I replied 'Umm... Sort of?' Which got him excited, his buddy was just on air so his eyes lit up and started talking about how when we did the deeper wrecks he could setup twins and grab a stage for diving, suits me. This wreck was on it's side and probably not as exciting as the last few. We went in through a huge torpedo hole but were out again fairly quickly. As we were swimming along the (sideways) deck I ducked in and out of the hull, bumping into a few of the rebreather guys, occasionally poking my head out to signal to the guide I was still ok. Came across some 18inch artillery shells, they were massive. Ducked back inside a few times and crossed paths with a few divers before meeting the rest of the crew on the top (starboard side) and switched over to my stage to work off some deco. As it was when we were returning to the line I only had 1 min of deco left, good timing!
before we went for dinner a few of us hung near the bar to try get some sunset shots, while talking we decided the meals have been so big that Rob and I could share a Fried Chicken Plate. We still had some chips left on the plate when all was said and done. Got the word that near on 40 new divers were turning up tonight... and it seems like at least half of them decided to visit the bar tonight. Everything is going to be busy in the morning...
Definitely busy at breakfast. They had setup more tables and were running a buffet to get people through. You could still order your normal meals, but I opted for the buffet. Was $10.50 and I probably ended up eating as much as the $7.50 bacon and eggs I had the day before, got some fruit too though, so it was ok. Dive shop was a mess, people going all sorts of directions looking for tanks or a bench space to setup their gear. One group seemed to have a fairly organised leader dishing out instructions to a large group. Other divers were kind of just mulling about until something happened (staff aren't exactly pro-active here, they're good with a prompt though.) The 2 ring-ins on our boat were late again. Told a 8am meet for no-later than 830 departure, they arrived about 845.... Deb, Richard and I were ready for 8 (just before) so standing around with the heat of the concrete, even just in a rash shirt, was becoming unbearable. I took a few 'rinse showers' before we eventually set off.
Today we were on our way to a slightly deeper wreck. 26 at the shallowest point, the line tided off to the wheel house. Lots of Plane parks (Propellers etc) and Truck parts (huge tires, engines) all through the hull. As a group we ducked inside briefly before heading back over the side of the boat, working our way back to the wheel house. At around the 25min mark the 2 were about ready to head back up (it was a deep dive) and 5 or so min later Deb and Richard went up too. I kept heading along, wanting a good picture of the throttles in the wheel house and as I exited I saw the entry to the engine room, so I had to go have a look. Lots of gang planks and stairs and some awesome gauges. Right in the back of the engine room there was hardly any natural light and I had the entire structure to myself. After getting close to a required 30min deco time I started heading up too. Got to my drop tank and switched which cut my deco time in half, but at the end I was still sitting in blue water by myself for about 19 min. I could see the others having a swim around the boat while they waited and one free dove down to about 6m to say hi.
Despite our very late start we still seemed to return before the other boats (though they would have been our longer if on shallower wrecks, and some were still sorting gear too) so after a quick shower our group headed down to lunch to beat the rush. Internet was pretty weak before, but now with all the extra people it's not worth sitting around for. Pro-tip I got from one of the other returning divers was to just sit your phone up at reception then head off for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner and by the time you come back it might have sent that message for you. I think that's how I'll handle the pic of the day uploads (I already resize them) from now on.
Rio (our guide) was a lot more clear about 1:30 "Ready to leave" this time with our boat so I made my way down at 10 past and to my surprise the other guys were there early. This time we were actually waiting on a tank fill which was ready to go at 125. We headed off to a shallower wreck, which had it's back half completely blown away in the raid. Still had 3 cargo holds intact... ish. First had a lot of 50mm machine gun bullets, loads of them. So much that you couldn't see the floor through them. Second hull had some truck parts and the third was carrying medicine. A lot of the bottles over the years have been collected and perched to make for better photos. Even above the wreck there were quite a few fish swimming around, nice big school of Jacks and we even had a pretty decent size Barracuda stream past.
After the dive discussion turned to tomorrow. Another deeper wreck like in the morning so one of the ring-ins, whom we've discovered were from Kazakhstan, was going to get kitted out with twins and a stage. After everyone was done rinsing gear we headed to Ben and Johns balcony for a few beers before returning to the bar for dinner. We were a little earlier tonight so we must have beat the rush because food was fairly prompt. A few beers and discussions about near death experiences and complete silt outs while diving later and it was time for me to head to bed. Fairly early night, but diving has a tendency to make one tired.
At breakfast we noticed the wind ha d 'picked up a bit' which was unfortunate, that said if Moreton bBay looked like this we would say it was a brilliant day... It was another busy morning at the dive shop with people not knowing where to go. Someone had organised an addition 2 ring-ins for our boat but as Rio (our guide) was sorting everything out (including the dive plan for a somewhat deeper dive) he decided that an extra 2 was too much. So he took their gear off and they must have found another boat to jump on. As Anton was rigging his stage bottle his 2nd stage started free flowing (and wouldn't stop) not a cheap way to use a 50% mix :o Eventually he got a new one though, switched it over and we headed off to the Nippo (about 48m on the sand.) Anton was now kitted up with twins and a Deco mix so Rio was happy for me to take him through the Torpedo hole into the engine room. Deb, Richard and Daniyan were to stick with Rio closer to the deck. As we arrived there was another boat with us and as we started donning gear another 2 (!) showed up. Not wanting to follow in the murky wake of other divers we quickly dropped into the water and Rio pointed me in the direction I needed to go.
Engine room was amazing, entry was slightly restricted by steel beams that fell witg the explosion, once inside that though it opened up a little and there were gauges, valves, stairs, gang-planks and heaps of structure to squeeze between and around. As I was leading (and paying more attention because of the deep, confined, overhead environment) I didn't stop to take many pictures but it was all amazing to soak in. By the time we worked our way out of the bowels of the ship we had already amassed 15-20min of Deco time. There was also a few things to see on the deck, cannons, truck remains, anti-aircraft guns and a tank. Sadly we missed the tank (though looking at the map after, only barely) but swimming along the deck and seeing the rest was still good. Plus a reason to dive it again! By the time we headed back to the line I was at about 45min of hang time. Luckily I had a slightly higher Nitrox fill of 56% so when I reached that and swapped gas that pretty much halved it. Still, sitting at 7 meters, with nothing but blue water (and the vague outline of other divers from the other boat doing the same thing) for ~22 min isn't the most exciting thing to do. Worth it though. At one point a bunch of little fish, maybe 4cm long, started swimming around Antons head like a Halo of fish. We returned to the boat to find our very patient buddies who had been waiting a good 40ish min for us to return. Thanks guys!
Anton and Daniyan were keep for 3 dives today (2 is good for me with these depths) so out second scheduled dive was brought forward to 12. As we got back just before 11 it was just enough time for a quick lunch before circling back to the dive shop and heading out. Shallower dive for this one, only ~31 on the sand. Swimming through the torpedo hole, which on this ship you could fit a bus through, and along the upturned wreck Anton and I got distracted by another engine room, signalled our intentions and headed in. The first entry was a bit of a tight squeeze with me just scraping by. Anton, slightly larger, gave it a go but ultimately turned back, I poked my head out a difference entrance (easier to see the sunlight shining from inside) where he was able to easily cruise in. As the ship was on it's side the stairs and walkways provide a simple but cool 'maze' to navigate through. Often you have to strafe sideways while heading slightly up/down to make it through without dragging your legs (or smashing your tank) on hand rails or walls. After we exited we continues along to the prop, which I barely recognised because of how much growth it had, and then were on the 'top' (side) of the ship in ~14m water looking at small Brain Coral bommies and any critters we could find. Despite it being a lot shallower I still managed to get some deco time, just 2min though. By the time I had cleared that, and my safety stop, Deb and Richard were also on their way up the line.
As we were back when the majority of divers were out I tried my hand at the internet once again (to see if I could get a draft of this post at least 1/2 synced) and had limited success. The text seemed to sync fine, but it was a chore to try Hi-res photos, even when I was the only one there. Soon as someone else turned up there wasn't much point trying (and it wouldn't have been a nice thing to hug the bandwidth anyway.) Maybe with a little each lunch/dinner time I can have the first half of the trip report up by the time we're ready to leave :p The numbers at the bar seemed to have dropped off significantly tonight, guess they all got tired too.
Weather was blowing up a bit today, probably 10kn winds. Long drive out to the boat too. With the bumpier seas the wooden planks you sit on were feeling less and less comfortable. Still we arrived pretty soon and dropped in for a dive, another freighter but this one had a whole heap of construction equipment on board. Bull dozer, Steam Roller and quite a few trucks all in various stages of decomposition. Swimming along Ben B poked his way out of a hole in a collapsed section and warned me that it was a bit too "might collapse on your head at any second" and motioned for me not to head in. Still took a look with my torch but it did seem pretty squirriely. Moved on and found a hole in the side of the ship, headed in to find wall to wall bottles (Sake or Beer maybe) with some deep dark holes heading off into the bowels of the ship, but at that point we were already into deco so opted out.
Afternoon talks lead to discussions about tomorrow, the rebreather boat is going to a deeper wreck (60m) and thought I might like to join. Calculations put me having about 15min to explore the wreck and an hour or so enjoying the tranquil blue nothingness to safely get back to the boat. Sounds fun. Just as we sat down to dinner the skies opened again. As we were at the outside bar the roof was fine but the wind was blowing the rain sideways and everyone quickly moved to one corner of the bar. They even went to the trouble of putting up some of the bars storm shelters. Divers can spend hours wet under water, but a little bit of warm tropical rain sends them running for the covers.
Headed off to breakfast in the morning and it seems that the packed out resort is catching up with the staff, wait times have been increasing quite a bit... Still a lot of rain about too so the deeper wreck was out. I went for a dive down to the Submarine, relatively simple dive, no penetration and not too much to see. One of the other boats had a few guys in costume, including one in a Darth Vader get-up. Light Sabre and all. Sadly, they were more focused on their photo ops than their trim and they were kicking sand up all over the place. One of the few things to see was the propeller and there was a cloud of sand hovering around it...
The next dive was on the Rio which had landed on it's side after being sunk. Lots of bottles in their crates still littered the deck. Rio (our guide, not to be confused with the Ship) trusts me quite a bit more now so he pointed out the entry hole to the Engine room and sent me off on my way. A few twists and turns later (losing any natural light) and I was in the belly of the ship. Lots of gauges, dials and engine parts. Absolutely pitch black without my torch on, so you have to pay attention on the way in so you know how to get out. After poking my head around for a while I had started to kick up a little silt of my own (very fine silt that will lift with the slightest of movement, and air bubbles from an open circuit regulator aren't very slight) so it was time to find my way to the exit while I could still see. Making my way back to the boat I came across the smallest Sea Cucumber I have ever seen, thought it was a Nudi at first glance it was that small!
Got back and had a little late about and watched a movie on the laptop when Steve knocked on the door chasing a change of clothes for Rob. Odd request out of the blue. Unfortunately Rob had a dizzy spell while gearing up for their afternoon dive, suspected Inner Ear or possibly Neurological Bends, not good. He was placed on oxygen and a car arrived to take him to the hospital to spend time in the chamber. While we were down at dinner we heard that they couldn't get a hold of the Chamber Operator and he had returned back to our room, though still on oxygen. Our Kazakh friends, now having finished their dives, brought out some of their local vodka to share with out group. Apparently it's tradition to have to finish the bottle once opened, but luckily there was enough of us there that most people only took one shot. Maybe 1 and a half... It was really smooth vodka thought, might be worth it for the next trip where we organise cocktail mixes.
The hiss of the o2 unit filled the room, but it's definitely quieter than some snorers that I've had to share a room with, and I had good ear plugs. Woke in the night to a sore throat, joy. Felt a little better in the morning but as it was meant to be a rest day anyway I decided to skip the morning dive. Majority of the others did decide to take up an extra dive, as the weather hasn't been optimal some of the deeper they were chasing so they didn't have as much residual gas build up. Rob was picked up and taken to the chamber at 9, he's looking and feeling a lot better know but definitely better safe than sorry.
I started feeling better over the course of the morning so I decided to put myself down for the arvo dive, but I'll finish off this post and probably fit in a nap before then. While the weather hasn't been with us this first half we've had some really good diving, here's hoping for better weather on the second half!
