Friday 20 November 2015

The dives just keep getting better.


Today's first dive was on the San Francisco Maru. One of the most famous and best dive in the lagoon. Sitting up right in a out 60m of water makes this a deep dive and ideal for the rebreather, giving plenty of time to look at the tanks on the deck at 50m and still have time to explore the holds.  The San Fran' is a 117m long cargo passenger ship and some times called the million dollar wreck because of all the items packed on board. The iconic image is of the 3 Japanese light tanks that are just  in front of the mid ships accommodation but there is very much more.all the holds are crammed with large and small munitions, beach mines, torpedoed, bombs, trucks and weapons of war.
The dive today was a long one even using the rebreather, 40 minutes on the wreck required over an hour of decompression stops and most of the divers were in the water for 2 hours but on this occasion I don't think anyone minded the deco and all would have liked to spend more time exploring this wreck, the visibility was also much better at over 25m which made finding your way round very easy. 

The second wreck today was the Kiyosumi Maru which could not be more different to this mornings dive like many wrecks she is resting on her side after suffering both torpedo and bomb damage in the American attack. Slightly longer than the San Francisco at 137m and siting  on her port side with sea bed at 30m the Stbd side is at around 14m and more like a reef than a wreck with both hard and soft corals she is a haven for juvenile fish of many types. Some artefacts still remain in the holds including bicycles oil drums and propeller blades. Some human remains are still on the vessel including a skull that is attached to stbd side of the hull in one of the holds.  


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