Diving Chuuk with Blue Lagoon Resort - Part 2
Dives: 12
Vis: 15-35m
Temp: 30°c
Max Depth: 62m
After I got back to the room there was no sign that Rob had returned from the chamber yet, but as I was packing away gear he returned. He was let out a little while ago, but told no more diving for at least 4 weeks. So he spent some of the afternoon trying to organise an earlier flight home. There really isn't much to do around here if you're a non-diver. Not really any beaches to relax on and read a book either. It's beautiful, sure, but a week here as a diver that isn't allowed to dive would NOT be fun.
Weather had improved overnight so plans were made to dive the Oite, one of the deeper wrecks worth doing. It's a much longer ride out in the boat, near on a hour. That doesn't sound long at all to some of my usual local dives, but out here where the drives have been 5-25min it seems like a long time. Dropped onto the wreck and stopped right next to a massive 50cal machine gun. Soon after there were some remains from the fallen soldiers on the deck. It's amazing diving here with all the wrecks and munitions, but it's also worth remembering that it's only possible due to the battle that took place here. Operation Hailstorm was responsible for the sinking of 53 ships with over 275 aircraft destroyed and the loss of life is approximated to be 4500+. The Oite had been blown in half and it was a 30m swim to the bow section, more munitions including depth charges and the brass detonator heads of missiles and a few more bones in the ship. Many of the ships have had their remains recovered though some of the deeper ones, like the Oite, were left as they were too difficult to recover at the time.
Afternoon dive was on the Kiyuzumi, one I had dived earlier. This time with a different guide though so it felt like a different dive. Keeran also pointed out a skull that had been fused to the hull of the ship by an explosion, something that was too deep to go looking for when I was on the OC boat. We also took a tour of the engine room, which went quite a bit further than my Kazakh friend and I were willing to go without a guide. Lots of gauges, breaker switches and valves catching your eye in the dark. At one point I was stopped taking some pictures and apparently I was taking too long as Keeran came back towards me pretty quickly to ask if I was ok. Yep, all good, just like taking my time. There was also a few (now mostly gone) bikes and some other cargo stored in the holds, didn't spend too much time on them as I was now into deco (which was reached quicker as there was still a hangover from the deeper morning dive.)
Lots of people were having their last day of diving today. Those finishing have a special BBQ dinner (with their Guide and Skipper) with lots of goodies, including whole roast Pork. As they were all off at the special BBQ area (only 50 or so meters away) the dinner bar felt pretty quiet. After they were done a few came over and it was busy again, but not as much as it has been the past few nights. It might be busier tomorrow though, they'll have a day off before the flight home and without much else to do they might visit the bar. In the morning we found out that Keerans Cousin had passed away and the funeral was today we tried to organise a different guide so he could have the day off but there wasn't available. We said we could just take our boat and follow behind Rio's boat, but the boss wasn't keen on that plan either.
The wind had picked up again and it was a decent 20min ride to our Morning Maru. Sitting on the surface, rocking a little, while Keeran was giving a brief I started to get a little too warm geared up and the lumpy seas weren't making me feel the best, so as soon as I was able to rolled off the boat and sat about 7m under on the line waiting for everyone else to join me. The sun was in a pretty good position for a silhouette shot of the boat though, so that was nice. I was able to hang out in the shade and not worry about being burnt and there were quite a few Bat fish keeping me company too. The wreck was another slightly deeper one, nothing like the Oite though. While it wasn't deeper I spend a bit more time down on the wreck (including some exploring the engine room) and tallied up a decent chunk of decompression time. John and Ben were heading down to the stern to check out the props and I followed for a bit (about 10m above them) but by that time had had enough and turned back. Just as I turned a Shark (which I think might have been a Black Tip Whaler) looked like it was heading straight for Ben, but it seemed to not realise it was heading for a diver and was out of there quick smart as soon as it seemed to notice them. I got back to the line just before everyone else and then we all enjoyed the 20 min + hang time before getting back to the boat. There's only so long you can be entertained by a few bat fish, and I have empirically tested and determined it to be substantially LESS than 20 minutes.... possibly as low as 5.
So we could finish a little earlier we organised a shorter midday surface interval and were soon headed out to the Rio De Janeiro. Ben B has been on it a few times but yet to see the engine room, when I dived it a few days with Rio, the guide, he showed me a very easy (but slightly tight) way to get in. As soon as we dropped on the line I showed Ben the hole and, after he unclipped one of his extra bottles to fit through the hole, we were off inside. Spent a good 25min exploring the different gauges and breaker switches before heading back outside. We were back near the line by about the 32 min mark and Ben headed straight up. I still managed to accreu some Deco, but only 2-3 min, so hung out on the deck which was about 10m before clearing it and heading up the line myself. The others weren't far behind either. Ride back to the dock was a bit bumpy again, Chuuk definitely isn't living up to the 'always smooth' reputation it's apparently earned in the past.
Despite quite a few people shipping out in the wee hours of the morning the Dive shop still seemed to be playing catch-up. Plenty of tanks still needed filling in the morning, Including the small air bottles for the rebreathers and my twins! Got there at 8 ready to go, but waiting on fills took just shy of 50min. I know they're busy, but it was a very long wait in the heat of the morning. We headed off under ok weather to another one of the slightly deeper boats. There was the old Lantern still on the bow in pretty good condition, lots of trucks and some guns on this ship. It was pretty deep throughout though so I quickly ran up some deco and headed back to the line. The other guys not too far behind me. As I hung on the deco line with a 6m ceiling I felt a small tug on my line, a Side-mount diver had managed to get himself caught. I watch as he, seemingly oblivious to this extra drag, kept swimming off to the anchor line. Had I held tight on my line (and not paid any attention) he would have dragged me up past my limit and could have caused some pretty serious issues for me. I dropped some air and gave a quick tug on the line myself and he finally realised there was a problem. All he could do was muster a half-hearted "woops, my bad" wave.
Back on the surface and the weather had turned for the worse. Bucketing rain and strong wind, swell was a bit lumpy but not bad considering the other conditions. Still the rain and wind alone had quite a bit of chill in them. As soon as I started making my way up the ladder I decided that for the ~10-15 min I would be waiting for the others was better spent in the warm tropical water rather than the chilling windy rain. Once we were all back on board we set off back to base tucked in behind an island for a short stint which was ok, but most of the way back we were crashing into the 1/2m swell with rain drops stinging into my back. It seemed to be getting worse during lunch so there was talk of panning the afternoon dive.
With a small reprieve in the weather we decided to head back out and sneak in our dive. Another converted merchant ship with a few things loitering about the hull. The engine room was pretty cool and easily accessible too, with one of the gauges having fairly clear English writing. At the stern there were two Depth Chargers crates and a few large guns etc on deck. Wheel house was cleared out but in a room near it there was an old port hole laying on deck, making a useful prop for pictures. The Cargo Holds were largely empty, but pretty fun space to swim through. Back on the surface and the weather was even better again. Pretty smooth ride back, though we did suffer through a small shower. Not 2 min after we docked back at the dive store the skies decided to open once again and it started pouring down rain. Didn't even have enough time to fully unload the boat before it hit.
The weather continued into the afternoon though appeared to ease just before dinner. Some of us still went to the outside bar at first while others sought more protection inside. While at the bar the wind picked up to at least 40 knots so those few still outside joined the crew safely inside. After dinner Ben B borrowed my phone to (Messenger) call home, there has been some problem with the internet for the past few days where most Apple devices seem to keep getting rejected from the network. I've been fairly lucky, being able to eek out my (low-res) pick of the day while leaving my phone at reception most nights.
In the morning the rain was already heavy. By the time we were due to head out you couldn't see the resort 'beach' which was barely 100m away. Even after it had cleared away my 50% mix stage tank still wasn't full (apparently they like to fill all the Air Tanks first.) Being the only tank needed for 6 people to go and not having it filled, while we wait for ~8 air tanks for various other groups was annoying... We finally headed out and were in following seas of 2m swell, was ok to head out in, not great on the way back. Was pretty sloppy on the surface and rain reducing sight lines blocked out a cardinal mark making the first wreck near impossible to find. After spending a good 25min trying anyway we shifted plans and decided on the San Fran! Battle tanks!
Dropped down the line and Ben B immediately pointed out the 3 Japanese Tanks still on board. After admiring them for a bit I made my way to the main gun on the bow before dropping into the hull. In the hull there are crates upon crates of Bombs, Sea Mines, Shells and Cordite (fuse.) So many munitions that would make some very very big holes in the ground. Some of the wooden crates, those more exposed/by themselves, had rotted away exposing the bombs and the Cordite had spilled on the floor and looked like a very dangerous game of pick-up-sticks. You could take any one of them to the surface today, strike a match and still have it burn with blistering intensity. After that there was just enough time to inspect the Tanks a little more and pose for a picture before starting the slow staged ascent to the surface. The majority of my time underwater on this dive was spend in deep blue water, you couldn't make out the San Fran below us so I spent 45+ min looking off into a dark blue abyss, hoping to spot a shark. Worth it.
Wind increased in the afternoon again, back up to the 40+ knots of last night. No rain though, which was good. After 1 drink outside we once again sought out the shelter of the dinning hall. Miraculously the winds had dropped significantly overnight, to a level we even though the Oite (long boat ride, into the wind/swell) was possible. After 5min of that we decided that it wasn't even remotely good enough and headed off in search of a different wreck. This one was fairly deep as well, especially in the bowels of the engine room. It was on about a 45° list which is a little off putting, but I found some stair wells and made my way down. Heaps of large pieces of machinery scattered all over. At one point I was a little turned around, but as I was taking reference points along the way I was able to quickly sort out my bearings and just as I reached my exit point Ben B had a helpful torch lighting the way, I had made a bit of a mess downstairs though, kicking up some fine dust particles into the water, so I advised that he probably didn't head down there... After we exited we went to check out the Propellers, with John giving them a vert thorough inspection. I ducked down to snap a pic but as I was already pushing Deco limits didn't stay long. Cruising along the edge of the ship back to the like I ascended and spent the next 30min once again looking off into the blue waters.
After a quick discussion for the afternoon destination (not wanting anywhere too deep) we headed back to Fujikawa, which would be my 2rd time. Having already seen the planes in the hulls twice not I opted to follow the guide through a dark tour near the engine room. At one point it got pretty mucky ahead of me so I saw a shortcut and took it. Was through a very tight doorway, the kind you would turn sideways if you were walking through, let alone with twin tanks and a stage bottle hanging off you. Turning on my side though I was able to squeak through with minimal 'clang.' A few turns later and we were at the maintenance/spares room. Lots of spare parts for the ship/engine in here, sadly none that would have helped fix the Mini-Van size torpedo hole. The visibility has definitely turned for the worse on this wreck though, first dive here was 15-20 m and today it would have been lucky to be 10m on the deck. Inside the wreck was a little better though, as long as no other diver was in front of you... (and, at times, definitely not behind me.)
The wind was still blowing but had dropped off enough to eat outside again. After dinner, and a few drinks or 2, we hi-jacked the 'sound system' with the Bluetooth on our phones to play something other than the Island music which was on repeat. The bar had run out of mixers. All mixers. Not even a can of Pepsi in sight. Not sure when the next ship comes in, but they need it. Plenty of stuff on the shelf, and cold beers though, so we made do.
Up ready for our last day of diving, weather has barely improved but the ones planned for today are more sheltered and shorter trips. We dropped in on the Nippo and I spent a little time admiring the battle tank before heading off to the torpedo blast hole, used as entrance to the engine room. After a while it was time to pop back out. There were plenty of munitions (looked like 50 cal bullets) and shells in one of the hulls and Gas masks and boots etc. It's sad to imagine that all those boots belonged to people that didn't even have the chance to put them on before being sunk. After the hull I floated up a bit to check out the wheel house and telegraph station before returning to the line once more for deco stops.
It was a very short ride to the afternoon Maru and we dropped in pretty quickly. I had done this one with Deb and Richard last week but this time with the breather guys Keeran took us on a loop tour amongst the guts of the ship which was pretty cool. There was a reel line tied off for the engine room, this wreck was completely on it's side and the whole area had been badly damaged by bombs. We were weaving in and out of twisted metal and gang planks, stairs collapsed and loads of wires criss-crossing the path, easy to get caught on if you weren't paying attention. Near the IP of the loop there was a huge wall of breaker switches, long enough that my torch light didn't even reach to the end. Following the line back out, through the twisted metal, was easier than I thought it would be, before I knew it we were back outside and heading back to the boat for beers.
When back on shore everyone got to the task of cleaning dive gear. Dunk tanks for wetsuits, cleaner water for cameras and regulators, hoses to wash our rebreathers and inside of wings/BCDs, Steramine tabs to disinfect loops. Fun times. Just as I had finished and started to hang stuff out to dry there was just the slight sprinkle of rain. I opted to take all my gear back to the room and hang it out there. Air-Con does a pretty good job of drying out the air. If it's a sunny day tomorrow I'll spend some time moving gear into the optimum positions. It's usually just the boots I have to worry about as they take the longest to dry. It was our last day of diving the dive shop (and crew that has taken care of us for 2 weeks) puts on a BBQ buffet dinner. Loads of amazing food to share around.
In typical diving luck the day of no diving had much better weather than the last few days. Still a little windy, but no-where near as bad. A few of us jumped on the day tour bus to head off to Nefo Cave with a huge cannon in it. Next stop of the tour was a high school which is housed in the converted building which use to be the Japanese communications building. Before we could get there though we past some construction workers on the road, the side pass they had up the hill was a bit slippery and down to a single lane. As we approached there was a school bus trying to get up but kept spinning it's wheels. Eventually, it was towed up the hill... by another school bus. Good view from the roof od the school though. Third stop was meant to be the Lighthouse however some on the tour had an afternoon flight and after the bus delay we were running short on time. Add to the fact that we had the Bus instead of the Mini-Van which meant a ~1hr walk the consensus was to opt out.
Back to the resort for lunch and sort out some gear. Actually enjoyed some sun so I was able to get the boots out to mostly dry. Also time to fix up the dive shop for the 'additionals' bill. o2 stage bottle gas added up to just over $350, extra tank (as I was diving twins) fills were $7 each and Manifold/Bands hire was another $10 a day. Had I known that I might have gone to the trouble of setting my own up. Oh well, lesson learned and using theirs was definitely easier.
Most of my gear was dry by mid-afternoon with the exception of (as usual) my boots, so I started packing it away. We had a pretty reasonable time to head to the airport in the morning (just after 7am) but I wanted to be fully packed the night before anyway. It's just easier than doing any thinking/packing in the morning. We headed to the bar for a few final drinks before saying our goodbyes to the night staff and fixing up the final room bill (that we've been putting all our food on) and heading to bed. Food is surprisingly reasonable here, both taste and price, when you consider that the have a 100% Monopoly on the market.
I had pre-ordered (and paid) for breakfast so the morning went pretty smoothly. Dropped my bag in the lobby and went in for breakfast which they had ready very quickly for us. Soon it was time to head to the airport and check in. They manually search all the bags (both for safety and to ensure no-one is taking home any souvenirs... like 50 cal bullets or detonator caps... They aren't exactly as efficient as a major airport so even the ticket check-in takes a little bit of time, but they're friendly and soon has us all through. We got to sit in a really good waiting room. Nice comfy couches, probably the best seats I've ever had in a airport, including Lounges.
After about 2 hours in the waiting room we had an airport staff member come in and tell us we all had to leave now. No explanation, just that we had to get back to the main airport area. On the way there we overheard phrases like "Crash" and "Plane in the water" and while we didn't see anything from inside the departure lounge we started piecing together information about the Plane crash;
Plane Crashes into Chuuk Lagoon
That was our plane, it was landing to pick us up and take us home. Obviously flying out today was no longer possible so Air Niugini sorted us out back with Blue Lagoon and they soon has a bus to pick us up again. The Air Niugini were super helpful on the ground and in addition to covering accom also told us they would take care of the bill for all the food as long as we had to stay as well. You have to give a lot of credit to the Chuukese people too, immediately after the plane hit the water they were to their personal/work boats and heading out to help. Without the amazing response from the local people, helping to evacuate people off the sinking plane, I'm not sure if it would have gone so well. By the time we were released form the airport and driving back to the resort you could barely see anything left of the plane, as it had mostly sunken. All we saw was barely the tail fin exposed. Lots of others closer and helping with the rescue managed to capture a few images though, like the one below.
Can't say that day or the next spent in Chuuk was all that exciting, while there are a few places to walk around and it's beautiful here... there's not exactly a whole lot to do to fill in your day. I ended up spending most of the day watching some TV and playing some games on my laptop. There was another few good byes at the bar and a whole heap of new faces. Blue Lagoon had at least 35+ people come in, they had to reshuffle some room numbers (there was 14 of us in total that were disrupted by not being able to fly out) but they took it in their stride and were really helpful.
Our next flight was at a much less reasonable 430am which meant a ~1am wake up and getting to the lobby just past 130am. As I got to the lobby I saw the bus take off, which I thought was strange... Turns out they had some American Airlines passengers (on a slightly earlier flight) and forgot about the 14 or so of the Air Niugini passengers... The guy at the desk roused the owner of the resort who quickly responded with his Dodge Ram (very large Ute) a mini van and 2 other cars (driven by Security guards) to whisk us away to the airport. It's always good hopping in a car that has about 6 lights blinking away on the dash board, including the 'Check engine' and 'Hand-break' lights, which persisted for the ~25min bumpy journey.
Through the arduous Check-in / Security process again and we were through to the normal waiting room, with metal uncomfortable chairs. The plane to take us this time was a smaller one than the last, but it landed without incident and got us to Port Moresby safe and well. We went to the transfer desk to be informed that the afternoon flight to Brisbane had been cancelled (news to us, as that's the flight they booked for us yesterday!) so rather than heading to the international transit lounge a staff member helped us through Immigration/customs (I got a stamp, so that counts as a visit, right?) and through to the help desk.
There were a few options for heading home to Australia, none sounding all too exciting. A flight to Sydney at 2pm, and flight to Cairns at 5pm amongst them. There also appeared to be another flight, from Qantas though not Air Niugini, heading direct to Brisbane Mid-afternoon. Having had enough of travel already Ben S hit up the desk (he's Qantas Gold (?) member I think), put his negotiating skills to work and got a ticket for that flight. With this information in hand, being the best way home for us, Ben B hit up the desk too and soon we all had seats on the flight. It was still a few hours before we could check in so we went to a cafe just inside the airport to kill some time before eventually getting through and being allowed access to the Paradise Lounge as a gift from Air Niugini. Very easy to kill time in there with some nice food (Richard took a particular liking to the Chocolate Eclairs.) Eventually we arrived back in Brisbane, said our goodbyes (wished Richard and Deb a safe journey onto Melbourne) and made our ways home.
A very long day of travel to get home resulting in a very tired me but sometimes when you travel you have to just roll with the punches. I would like to very much thank the staff at Blue Lagoon resort in Chuuk for being so helpful (not only in extending our stay, but the entire time there) the Air Niugini team for their immediate action in helping us sort out accom/food/flights and Lounge access, their professional and very friendly attitude in the event of a disaster out of their control and the staff at Allways Diving, who worked (on a Public Holiday, Grand Final Day) to help liaise with Air Niugini in getting us home. It's easy to get cranky in those situations (and I'm definitely not saying I didn't at times) because you're tired, worried and just want to get home. It's easy to blame the staff on the ground, but everyone did a wonderful job in helping us and I definitely would recommend all 3 for any future travellers.
