Dive! Dive! Dive!

I was going back through the posts and I realized that I have been HORRIBLY remiss in updating our diving progress. Matt and I have done some serious diving in the last half-year and the pictures/stories on the blog don't really reflect that.  We recently passed our goal of spending 24 hours under water and that hasn't all been shore-diving at Electric Beach.  Since the last dive blog, we've gone to 4 different wrecks:

1. The Sea Tiger

This ship is about 165 ft long and 40 ft wide, sitting upright on the ocean floor at around 100-115ft deep.  Apparently it was a Chinese-owned vessel involved in "illegal activities".  After a run-in with the coast guard, it was purchased for $1 by a Hawaiian submarine tours company and purposely sank as an artificial reef.

This was our 15th dive, and it was more than just our first wreck dive- it was our first time diving below 60ft AND our first night dive!  Go big or go home, right?  The "night" dive part was supposed to be more of a "twilight" dive.  We'd need our dive lights (read: expensive flashlights), but there'd still be some light trickling down from the surface.  Due to boat issues at Dive Oahu and some other frustrating time-draining issues, we did a true night dive.  It was pitch-black.  It was also free (as opposed to $120) so that was good.  We took a video, but it's very dizzying... so here are a few stills from the video.

93 ft below at 1m46s



Big Moray greeted us...his head diameter is probably 7-8in.  Don't mess with this guy.

This is a pretty cool shot of how you can only see what's in the beam of the flashlight...also of some of the ship itself.

Very expensive glorified flashlight.  If you look closely you can see the ship looming out of the darkness.

In all, I would describe this dive as spooky and disorienting.  It's really trippy being completely surrounded by vast, utter darkness.  Oh and, by the way, you're 100 ft below the surface.  I enjoyed it.  It was a completely new experience, the ship was like a haunted house under water, and it was really fun to move the light into the darkness and see schools of fish scatter at the sudden light.

2. YO-257 and San Pedro

The YO was a Navy refueling vessel that served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.  It could hold 20,000 gallons of fuel and is about 165ft long.  Like the Sea Tiger, it was intentionally sunk by a tourism company to form an artificial reef at around 100ft deep.

The San Pedro was a commercial fishing vessel, built by the Japanese, that caught fire and was also purposefully sunk.  I included these together because, if the conditions are right (and they were for us), the ships are near enough that you are able to swim a short distance under water from the YO to check out the San Pedro.

This dive was great!  We went with AquaDan and some other good diving friends - Mike and his 2 kids.  Here are some highlights:

On our way to the site, we were escorted by Spinner Dolphins.  This picture does not do justice to how many there were/how cool it was.  It DOES show our building in the background, though :)

As we were descending down the line, we ran into a school of fish.  The vast quantity of fish in the school was enough to be impressive, but what was equally impressive was how they were swimming in a wall-like formation.

The wall was about 2 ft thick and extended down farther than I could see.  Really bizarre!!

Awesome fish face.  Rah!

Looking down on the YO

Mike's kids and me.  Am I asking someone to fight me?

Inside the San Pedro.  So many fish!

Black Triggerfish

Turtle at the San Pedro.  We saw SO MANY turtles on this dive.

There are two turtles in this picture, the second one is to the left of the first, resting on the deck.

There are 3 turtles in this image.  The guy to the right must have a shell of at least 3 ft.

 

Going into the YO

This seaweed lined the walls and ceilings

In the ship - so much life!  Dense schools of red fish...

Tile floor of the YO

close-up

Looking down into the YO

Yes, I still take squint-eye pictures underwater.

This little millet butterfly fish escorted us back up.

3. The Corsair

This is one of my favorite dives we have done.  Not all the wrecks we've dived have been shipwrecks....The Corsair is a plane-wreck.  A 33'-long WWII-era Corsair crashed in 1946 while on a routine training mission.  The pilot survived and swam to shore (a looong swim).  The plane rests in 110ft of water, surprisingly preserved. 

On our way! The boat left out of Hawaii Kai

We descended to the plane resting on a lunar-like landscape.  It was incredible.  Surrounding the plane, about 20 feet from it in all directions and stretching as far as I could see, was what looked like seaweed.  However, as I swam closer, the seaweed would sink lower and lower into the sand.  What it actually was was a field of garden eels:

eeeeeeels

They are about as thick as my little finger and face into the current, eating small creatures that flow with the current.  So. Cool.

We are only able to spend about 20 minutes at the plane because of the depth and nitrogen loading, but we got some great pictures:

Favorite Picture.  So amazing, seeing a plane under water..

I am examining a very pointy shell.  Good back-up weapon.  You know, just in case.

Matt about to hop in and fly this baby

No, that fish is not photoshopped onto my face.  That little jerk timed it perfectly to ruin our picture.

Attempt #2 - floating away with the current

The cockpit.  We were warned that a moray likes to hang out there, so we didn't go all the way in.

Matt poking the altimeter.  AquaDan in the background being awesome.

These are some of AquaDan's pictures from the dive:

Crocodile eel - they can grow to almost 3 ft long, but most of that is usually buried in the sand, ready to ambush some prey..crocodile style

This looks like some of the craziest photoshop ever, but that is Matt perfectly positioned in the cockpit.  Very psychedelic.

If you look closely, you can see us taking pictures of the plane in the background.

That recaps our wreck experience here on Oahu.  There is so much more to show and tell you..hopefully I can keep up with my catching up.

The admiral decided against buying a new hat because he was afraid of cap sizing.