Wreck Diving: Japanese Seaplane.

I'm finding it difficult to keep blogging between sleeping and diving lately.  I really do enjoy all three activities but it's not working out well due to a slow internet connection and slow photo uploads.  However, I'm wide awake and it's 5:30 in the A.M. and cannot sleep so here's a new post.....

Went on another free, weekend, divemaster led beach dive with the Micronesian Diver's Association.  This particular dive was dove off the old Japanese fuel piers at the U.S. Naval Base, Guam.

Eric, our guide that day.  We're following some nylon line that is attached to the plane from shallower water as the visibility is not very good.

Approaching the seaplane's pontoons at 90ft.

Eric rubs off some of the silt that is covering the wings to expose the Japanese "Hino-Maru" or red rising sun roundels. 

 Here's a close up of the "Hino-Maru" still red, still intact.

Size comparison of the one of the pontoons with a diver.

Front of the pontoons.  It appears that the thin aluminum skin has deteriorated to expose the inner, stiffer ribs and formers.  

My buddies Dawn and Ky photographing a lurking lionfish.

Lionfish.

Eric again. This time we are on the right wing.  The flaps were left in an almost 90 degree down position.  Not sure if they were damaged or if it was intentional.

Inside the fuselage, pilot's seat.

Checking out the fuselage.

Diving Blue Hole

 Perhaps one of Guam's most geologically spectacular dive site is "Blue Hole."  A 60ft long limestone and coral tube that you can swim down into and out the bottom or swim into from the bottom and then up and out the top.  It's a really cool dive and anyone interested in diving who visits Guam should check it out!  These are images i took on my fourth time to Blue Hole.  I first dove it in 2005 with my best friend in high school (Mr. K. K.) on a senior spring break dive trip from Japan.  Since then I've been back 3 more times.  It never seems to get boring for me.  First went back on a weekend boat dive about a month ago with Micronesian Diver's Association and 2 more times as part of my PADI training for deep diving and assisting with an advanced open water class.

These were taken from the advanced open water class as part of my internship as a dive-master candidate with Seleen Divers off of Wes's sailboat:

Here are the two advanced open water students hanging on to the mooring at the hole.

Not usually this cloudy in the water but still a good 60-70ft visibility.  The top of the hole is visible as a dark blue shape left of center.

Getting closer as I work my way down the mooring line.

Wes says O.K.

Having a break sitting at the top of the hole around 60ft.

We make our way into the hole.

One of the students descending into the abyss.  Below 90ft the partial pressure of nitrogen in your system increases to the point where it becomes narcotic and you can get nitrogen narcosis.  Basically you feel drunk. A good rule of thumb is for every 10ft below 90ft is like having another martini.  

Small reef fish expecting to be fed come and visit.

The view looking up through the hole to the surface from around 100ft.

More fish waiting at the window at the bottom of the hole at 122ft.

Wes goes down and out first.  The top of the window is 122ft and the bottom is around 220ft with a steep slope that drops off well beyond recreational diving depth limits to 280ft.  Know your limits because with the spectacular visibility some inexperienced divers who aren't watching their depth go deeper than they should which has caused stupid accidents in the past.  If you drop a camera, or flashlight or diveknife, you aren't going down to retrieve it.  

After swimming back up the outside, we stop to look at a large boat anchor which holds another mooring.

just relaxing before the assent.

Lastly we stop at 15ft on our ascent for our safety stop for 3 minutes to off-gas any nitrogen micro bubbles that have accumulated in our tissues at depth before surfacing.  

All images shot with GoPro HD. 

Micronesian Air

When I'm not in the water assisting with open water students, and if the weather is nice, I like to fly.  If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know I'm into all sorts of adventurous endeavors.  Anyhow I was able to find a small flight school/air charter service here on island that was reasonably priced.  Micronesian Air.  http://www.guamcell.net/~mm/index.htm

My friend and scuba instructor Wada-San who I did my PADI advanced open-water certification with is also a private pilot and he introduced me to Micronesian Air.  Micronesian Air is a small charter operation that caters primarily to giving aerial tours to Japanese tourists here on  Guam.  It's a very nice outfit with bilingual staff and a cozy air conditioned office next to the control tower at Won Pat International Airport.  They have 3 aircraft: 2 Cessna 172s and 1 Cessna 152.  After a brief check-out flight, where their flight instructor evaluated my piloting skills before giving me the keys to take it solo or with passengers, I called up some new friends that I had met and asked if they would be interested in splitting the costs for an hour sightseeing flight around the island.

I made two flights.  The first one was with my flight instructor friend Chris who's half Japanese and friend Iree from Palau.  The second was with another friend of mine Melanie from Texas and one of her friends.

If anyone is interested the prices for 1 hour are as follows:
4 people at $40 each.
3 people at $50 each.
2 people at $75 each.

The more people, the more fun it is!

So anyway I had lent my camera to my passengers to take photographs with and here are some of the nice views:

Agana Tower.

Cessna 172 N80328, the bird that I'm flying the most.  1977 M model, leather interior with the nice big 180hp swinging the prop.  Much better performance than the 1969 K model that I was flying back home in NJ with only 150hp.  This one is operating under the auto fuel supplemental type certificate.  While not as nice as running on straight 100 octane low-lead avgas, they save money despite not being able to to lean out the fuel mixture at altitude.  But it's Guam, we rarely hang out higher than 3,000ft above sea level.

Preflight checking the electrics and verifying that my fuel gauges agree with my visual inspection of the tanks.

We share the air here with the "heavies."  Waiting for a 737 to land before I can take off.

"Balls to the wall!"

Left turn off the departure end of the runway heading towards Tumon.  Two Lover's Point in the distance.

After a left turn from the runway, we head south to follow the coastline.

The capital, Hagatna, "aa-gaan-aa."

Fish Eye, at Piti.  At the end of the pier is an underwater observation deck where tourists come to watch a diver pose for photographs and feed the fish.  I applied for this position but the current guy won't quit so I'll have to wait or try something else.  Right before the end of the pier is "Seawalker," a popular Japanese tourist attraction where they where special bubbles over their heads and are lowered down into the water to watch the marine life.  The reef here is spectacular and very shallow so the true colors brought out.  I spend a lot of time here freediving (no air tank.) with my camera and trying to capture the awesome colors.  The Japanese love to wave at me through the windows too and try to get me to stay down long enough  for a photo.  My apnea skills are no where near as good as seasoned free divers so I can only really manage 20-30 seconds at 35ft before I shoot to the surface for a breath.  One of my tasks in order to become a divemaster is to map this site.

Apra Harbor.  The main shipping entrance for Guam.  The U.S. Navy has a base on the far side of the harbor mostly for submarines.  In the middle of the Harbor at around 80-130ft deep lies the double shipwreck of the S.S. Cormoran and Tokai Maru. The Cormoran was a German freighter scuttled by her crew during the first world war and the Tokai Maru was a Japanese freighter sunk by American torpedo during the second world war.  Both wrecks lie side by side and you can dive down and touch both at the same time.

Orote Point.  This used to be a Japanese air base during the war and today is U.S. Naval Base, Guam.  A couple miles to the right of the peninsula is "Blue Hole," a giant limestone and coral tube that has a top at 60' and bottoms out at around 130.'  It's one of the most popular dives to do on Guam. In the foreground on the tip or Orote is Spanish Steps which is an amazing snorkeling spot.  Only accessible by land if you're military or accompanied by someone military otherwise you must get there by boat.  

Submarine with SEAL pod on it's back.

Base housing.

Chris and I.

Agat Marina.  MDA's dive boats leave from here.

Iree from Palau who took all the photos.  Her first time in a small aircraft and first time using an SLR!

Approaching the southernmost tip of the island.  Cocos Island which is a tiny strip of land just of the south of Guam.

Cocos.  There is a small daytime only resort that you can visit.  The reef is long, wide and flat and has lots of fan coral as well as white tip sharks, dolphins, sea turtles.

Leaving Cocos.  You can see where the difference in depths are.  Lighter blue is shallow and the darker blue is deep.  It leads all the way to the Marianas Trench, the deepest known place on the planet.  Also there is a fairly strong current and it carries all the way to the Philippines.

 Southern Guam.

Here's where I decided to go low over the waves. Also we had to get lower since the Air Force was busy that day and I already had to clear the way for fighter jets and a C-130. Since the south is not considered  a densely populated area we can fly as low as we like provided we are at least 500ft linear away from any person, man-made object or vehicle.  Here we are at 200ft above the water at a brisk 120mph.  It's a lot of fun.

Incredible color over Talafofo Bay.

I wonder if this is one of NORAD's or NOAA's tracking stations?

Leo's Palace one of the most expensive condos on Island.

On final approach to land on runway 6 Left at Won Pat Int'l.

The author at the controls right before touchdown.

Second flight for the day.  Melanie flies right seat.

One stoked  aviatrix!

Tumon Sands.  Guam's own Waikiki sort of.

Tumon.

Clouds over the hills.

1.5 Months

I've now been living here almost a month and a half.  I'm getting used to tropical weather again.  Reminds me of Singapore only there isn't any public transport and there aren't any true highways.  The water is much cleaner and there is lots of marine life to see.

I've started my divemaster training after completing my advanced open water certification.  Apart from that I've also taken some additional courses; Nitrox, Wreck, DPV (diver propulsion vehicle) and Rescue diver.

The most fun was DPV and the most useful was Rescue.  DPVs are small electric powered scooters that you can use to move through the water faster than you can swimming. They help you cover more ground, decrease your air consumption.  It felt like flying underwater!  I highly suggest renting the old Bond movie: Thunderball to get a better idea. You have to be careful of your depth as you can inadvertently cause a rapid ascent or decent causing embolism, decompression sickness or baro trauma respectively  

Rescue basically touched on my American Red Cross Lifeguarding course I took back in high school but had special techniques for rescuing divers and dealing with diving related emergencies.  Saving a panicked swimmer in a pool is one thing but saving a panicked diver underwater or on the surface even with small waves is no easy task.  The trick is to get away from a panicked diver/swimmer by diving underneath them where they won't follow you, then popping up behind them to grab hold of their tank valve which makes manipulating them a lot easier.  Other skills are CPR, rescue breathing, basic first aid, and oxygen care.  (More on that for Nitrox.)

On top of everything I'm learning more about my dive computer and how to not accidentally set an elapsed dive time alarm which gave me a really scary "time too long" warning 15 minutes into my 3rd dive of the day one weekend after some deep diving on a wreck.  I had thought that the computer had gone into "deco" (decompression) mode but couldn't figure out why since we were shallow, it had only been 15 minutes and my previous surface interval (time on surface between dives) was 3 hours.  More on decompression theory later......

Nothing really interesting besides my rental car popping it's radiator hoses again.  This is my 3rd major car problem in a month.  Nissan Sentras are pieces of shit no matter what decade they were made in!  You get what you pay for I suppose, but still....

Recurring dreams; why won't they just go away?

It's been about year since that dreaded phone conversation ended.  If you're reading this, you know what I'm talking about.   Had one of those dreams again last night.  I have no idea why.  It's one of those where you can remember everything.  The frequency has been less and less and since my stop in Japan and then moving out here. I haven't had any in this new apartment until last night.  I don't want to have these dreams anymore.  Waking up to reality is painful, so get the fuck out of my head!!!  

Ocean.

Salt on my tongue, sting in my eyes.  
The water brings a weightlessness.
Bobbing up and sliding down the wave crests, take a breath of cool dry air.
Descend below the surface, feel the pressure squeeze between the ears.
"Pop" as I equalize. 
World goes blue.
Kick.  
Respire.
One atmosphere, two, three. 
Glance at the the time.
Take look around, coral, pelagics; intermingling.
The surface of a different world basking in blue light.  
Look up at a vast rippling mirror, watching the bubbles rise.
Oh how cool.

"Life's a beach, and then you dive..."

Now I'm all for the simple things in life.  I seek enjoyment through the experience of doing something whatever it may be.  Spontaneity is key.  That's why I am.  Did I have a plan?  Of course not.  I've never had a plan.  And I do not seek one either.  Not to be cliche' but you only live twice; to learn what displeases you and to discover what thrills you.

Stress sucks, mundane sucks, empty promises suck even more.  What-if's are a waste of time to even contemplate.  You can't trust anyone other than yourself.  Only you will understand what it is like to do something.  Others' opinions which provide a useful point of reference cannot influence your decisions.

In end of 2007 when I finished my term abroad, through Thai customs I ordained for 14 days as a Buddhist monk.  While the experience was not the most interesting experience I did meet another fellow monk who had a piece of paper taped to his door with the following typed on it:

The Kalama Sutta:
“Do not believe in anything (simply) because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything (simply) because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

-Buddha 
Anjunttara Nikaya Vol. 1, 188-193 P.T.S. Ed.


To date this is the most important bit of information I've ever come across.  Nothing I've ever learned or read comes close to this.  




So here I am.  The sand feels nice between my toes.  The wind is calm and the water looks inviting.


(Here's some recent photographs:)

About to hop off the kayak for a dive in Tumon Bay.

Following my guide who is from the island of Yap.  

At night on the reef at Gun Beach.