|
 Nippo Maru 353’ Lies upright with port list, decks at 110'. Dive #1 - Log #289 127’ for 1:00
Waking tired and a bit our of sorts, I wander up at 0700 and grab some breakfast as Capt, Lenny positions us over the Nippo for our morning’s dives. I slowly awake with cups of coffee and very slowly get my head around the dive.
It’s another deep one – around 100-130', the deck cargo includes tanks and cannons and the wheelhouse is really nice. After getting mind and equipment ready we splash in and surface swim up to the bow (a fair distance on this 130’ vessel), grab the tag line and swim down to the bow of the Nippo.
I grab a quick shot of the winch and then we swim quickly to hold two – full of large water tanks and then spot the tank on the side of the deeper port deck and shoot several shots of it.
We swim back up to the starboard rail and continue aft to the rear deck where several artillery cannons await our lenses. Computers beeping that we’re approaching our 140’ MOD, we shoot several shots and I do a quick swim over hold 5 and check out he huge artillery gun barrels lying as deck cargo. This is shoot and swim at 127’, so we swim up quickly to the wheelhouse afterwards.
I pause as a couple of other divers exit and stand at the windows of the bridge looking out to the forward deck, king posts and holds, putting myself in the shoes of countless Japanese sailors who saw the same view.
We move into the steering station with deco time rising and shoot several shots of the wheel, telegraph and inclinometer before exiting out a window and going to the up line. We do several deep stops and finish off our 8 mins of deco at 15’.
Several others do a second dive on the Nippo, but I decide it’s time for a break until the afternoon.
Dive #2, Log #290, Betty Bomber, near Etan, former airstrip 69’ for :48
We checked out the bombed out ruins of the administration and bunkers of the large airbase over an hour long tromp in the jungle. Everything is so grown over, it was hard to see where the airbase was, but it was interesting to see the badly damaged shore installations, as well as the sunken ships; both were targets of the attacks.
Arriving back at the Odyssey, we were ready for an easy dive on the wreckage of a “Betty” bomber in the lagoon to cool off. I swam down and found the broken remains in 60’ of water on the sand bottom. I shot the bomber in available light, the navigator’s seat, and then several angles and close-ups of the instruments and toilet sitting outside.
We follow Nick the guide over to the 2 engines 200’ away that had broken off on impact. Shot a couple of shots of them and then back to the boat with a quick stop to check out a pair of colorful butterfly fish.
Dive #3, Log #291 Hoyo Maru 470’, upside down. 50’ for 1:18
We do our usual night macro dive swimming along the edge of the turtled vessel’s huge hull. It’s a nice hard coral garden on top with large outcroppings of sponges and soft coral on the sides. Shooting the invertebrates, you’d think you were on the bottom - you couldn’t tell it was a wreck.
All of a sudden, a huge hole opened up as we swam along, jagged in the darkness. Frosted with growth, it was punched inwards and broken girders and coils of cable could be seen inside. I caught Marcia’s eyes and then dropped vertically into it, shinning my light to be sure I didn’t drift underneath an outcropping of the hull. Something, probably a torpedo, probably had really punched the hell of it.
The rest of the dive was back to the reef shooting small stuff. We went home when we got bored, still with 1400# of gas.
|
