A beautiful new day here in Chuuk. As 6:30 rolls around we find ourselves moving to our first dive destination of the day, the Nippon Maru, a 353′ freighter. After Mike’s briefing, the group scattered to begin their dives on the wreck. Chuck is running slower this trip and is not splashing the minute the briefing ends. However as he pointed out, he and Connie are still the first ones in the water.
Dive one saw most of the divers touring the forward section of the wreck and the superstructure. This structure was made of steel unlike most of the other freighters we have visited this week so far. As such, the floors and ceilings are intact and make for more interesting swim throughs. The bridge still has an intact steering station (minus the wood spokes) and a telegraph. The windows facing forward are rimmed in soft corals and look out on a fully decorated king post and mast.
Holland had a better photo dive this time and Alex complained that he needs a photographer to follow him. He is not overjoyed at taking videos with his go pro. And he would rather star in the videos rather than take them. So should we say a star is born!
I get so lonely sitting at the bottom of the engine rooms when everyone swims away from me. Steve accused me of not paying attention on the exit from the room, I was just lost and found my way out of the bomb hole in the bottom. Alex’s only response was. Steve probably does not have the same feelings at the moment. Our second dive ended without a lot of fan fair but everyone had a great dive.
During lunch, we are moving to another wreck site, the Rio de Janeiro Maru where we will be spending the rest of the day. It is a passenger vessel lying on its side and full of lots of saki bottles and other surprises.
During the transit the group read, hoped for an internet connection and was entertained by Alex tossing m&m’s to Nathan and to himself over his back.
The pool is open!
and the race to the wreck begins with Chuck and Connie in the lead followed by Charlie and Rick, then the Geibel clan followed by the rebreather guys and Alex and Susan. Steve and I pulled up the rear, not wanting to muck things up for everyone else; yes, Steve had more drills and these promised to be the dirty ones.
The passageways were relatively clear and most of the divers were clear from the wreck and then we started — line drills, blacked out diver drills, out of air divers trying to exit seeing and blind, lost line drill. By the time we finished, silt was pouring out of the hatches and we were covered in rust. The good news was we were both out if the wreck the bad news was that Steve’s first stage was leaking. No problem though, a gas shutdown drill for real. This of course means that Steve completed his Wreck penetration course. Just one more dive to finish his Technical EANx course.
Jess finished off the evening with a story telling session about his dive in a nuclear power plant. A cool way to end the evening.
Tomorrow the Hoki Maru — Alex’s favourite wreck in the Lagoon.
