Truk Lagoon: Heian Maru, Feb 24, 2014

HEIAN MARU February 24, 2014

We had originally arranged for two dives a day, but after our first two this morning we were hooked. We knew that each wreck had its own personality and stories. So, we signed on for the afternoon dive, our third dive for our first day.

After our first two dives, we returned to the resort by 1pm, stripped off our wet suits, hung them in the dive lockers, rushed to the room, had a quick (cold--one downside, not much hot water) shower, a quick lunch, put our swim suits back on, returned to the dive lockers and put on our wet wet suits. We were off again by 2:30.




























Some interesting observations we made during our first two dives:

In the US and elsewhere in the world Dive Masters are required to provide a pre-dive briefing before any divers enter the water. The briefing includes the dive depths, probable bottom times, an orientation of the dive site and a review of the underwater hand signals. Its a bit different here. Once we reached the dive site, our Dive Master, Namy, would put on his mask, jump in the water, locate the buoy which is generally 5-10" under water, tie the boat and come up to tell us how deep the wreck sits and which way we would swim. That was it, we were on our own!

None of the wrecks are marked with surface buoys. The dive guides just seem to have an uncanny sense of their location. There is no such thing as a GPS. Additionally, there is no such thing as a VHF radio, life vests or any safety equipment except one styrofoam float ring.

Namy, whose full name is Namason Aisek, is the nephew of Kimiuo Aisek, the founder of the resort and dive operation. Namy has been diving these wrecks for 24 years. He dives with no weight belt, rarely wears a wet suit and has no inflatable BC (dive vest). Just Namy, his air tank and a mask.

For our second dive he chose the HEIAN MARU, a former luxury liner cargo ship converted for military use as a submarine tender. It is 510' long and sits in 120' of water. We saw a photo of it in some old black & white photos taken before the war. It was a beautiful ship. Now it is the Lagoon's largest wreck. She gained fame in the 1970's when Jacques Cousteau showed her off on TV with her Japanese name and English name still visible on the bow. Today only a potion of the English lettering is visible. There are numerous visible submarine parts including a disassembled periscope obviously being transported (the corresponding photo is not real clear) and there is a photo of the long passenger corridor that made a great swim-thru. It had a huge propeller and a moss covered landing platform.

We entered the water at 3:14, and stayed down for 44 minutes reaching a maximum depth of 79'.

















These ships are fascinating. I can't wait to see more. I only wish we knew more about the history of each. We do know that over 2000 Japanese sailors, 150 Truk civilians and 30 US service men lost their lives. For years after the raid, the remains of the Japanese were left untouched in their resting places. In 1984, the bones of the Japanese were collected and the families of those who died, came to the Lagoon to have a massive memorial during which they cremated all the remains.

Our first day was a real education. We took lots of photos so, after surfacing, showering and changing, it was time to get the photos from the camera into the iPad. Unfortunately, I can only show a few of these on the blog.

Great diving!





Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon

The Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon is the title of a book written about "Operation Hailstone", the US air attack on the Japanese Mandated islands in Micronesia on February 17, 1944. Truk Lagoon, 633 miles south of Guam, is a group of islands formed as the interior of the cone of a volcano began to settle leaving multiple mountainous peaks on the inside with the exterior edge of the cone forming a protective barrier reef. In 1914, Imperial Japan acquired control over these islands from Germany. Recognizing that the Lagoon provided an excellent natural harbor, the Imperial Japanese saw it as a perfect location for a naval base. Over the next few decades the Japanese built Truk Lagoon into a primary facility for their naval operations, including five airstrips, seaplane bases and a torpedo boat station.
















In the same period they began fishing and setting up fish drying and canning plants throughout the islands, exporting their products back to Japan. They had a huge presence in these islands until 1944 when after their famously devastating raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US saw an opportunity to retaliate. While February 17 is recognized as the historic day of the attack, the Japanese ships and islands were bombarded for almost a year.

The US Navy succeeded in isolating Truk. And, although the islands that made up the Lagoon were not the target of the amphibious attack, subsequent air raids and submarine attacks denied Japan effective use of their vital base.

The Japanese lost over 375 aircraft and 45 ships. Among the ships sunk were cruisers, destroyers, sub-chasers, tankers, and cargo carrying supply ships. Their fishing fleets and processing plants were totally wiped out and on September 2, 1945 the imperial Japanese Command formally surrendered Truk aboard the USS Portland.









For over 70 years, these relics have languished around these famous islands resting calmly at the bottom of Lagoon. Still visible are remains of most of these warships, freighters, tankers and airplanes as well as row upon row of railroad cars, motocycles, torpedoes, mines, bombs and human remains. The coral crusted wrecks attract a diverse array of marine life including SCUBA divers from all over the world.



We're about to experience these historic artifacts and hopefully provide readers some interesting stories of our adventure.


Our stay in Truk will be at the Blue Lagoon Resort and Dive Shop founded by a man, who at 17 witnessed "Operation Hailstone." He was born in 1927 while Truk was still under Japanese rule. The Japanese used native islanders for manual labor and young Kimiou Aisek witnessed in horror as his friends perished aboard the exploding Aikoku Maru. The U.S. Navy strikes set the course for the rest of his life.

During the Japanese naval occupation, Aisek, an experienced diver who had worked on several ships was familiar with all their assigned moorings. After the attack, he knew where all the ships had gone down and with that knowledge he later dived with many world renowned divers, authors and filmmakers.

He founded the Blue Lagoon Resort and Dive shop which has been central to the success of many projects on the Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon. Aisek passed away in January 2001 but his sons and grandsons carry on the resort, dive shop and traditions.














Our journey started in Florida this morning, February 22, 2014, with a scramble. Our 4:30 am cab never showed and we had few choices for getting to the airport at that time of day. Already 20 minutes late we headed to the airport in our car and on the way spotted a cab and waved him down. He followed us to the office parking lot of a friend. We transferred our bags, left the car in the lot and made it to the airport in plenty of time.

Our flights took us from Fort Lauderdale, to Houston, from Houston to Guam with a stopover and plane change in Honolulu. From Guam we caught a flight to Truk. When we checked our bags in Fort Lauderdale to Truk, the ticket agent looked at the baggage claim printout and said "Where is that?"

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Truk Lagoon, "Where is that?", she asked. Well, we can attest, it is a long way from Florida. The flights were all fine but the last leg of the itinerary, from Guam to Truk, was just about the limit for me. It was our last two hours of the 25 hour trip and I felt every minute.

It was dark when we landed. We and several other divers from different parts of the US and Japan were met by the hotel vans. Loaded in the vans, we left the fairly modern airport for the trip to the hotel and, it was a "trip".

As the guide book had warned, the potholes are so deep a pedestrian could drown! It was a long, bumpy (an understatement) ride for a very short distance finally at 11pm arriving at the Blue Lagoon Resort, spartan, clean, pretty and in a beautiful setting.







Monday, February 24, 2014

After a local breakfast of eggs, fish and garlic rice, we set out for our day of diving. Our first stop was the dive shop to show our certification cards and sign the dive registration form. On the form is a column for putting the number of dives you have done in the past. We look at what the other divers had written and were stunned by the numbers. There were divers who had done 400+, 500+ up to 1500+ dives. Gasp! What have we gotten into??

Our dive guides were waiting. There is Awora, the boat captain and Namy, the dive master.



Awora and Namy (as he explained to me Namy means "wave" in Japanese) took our gear and set up our tanks along with those of three other divers with whom we would share the boat for the week. They were Mark and Martin, both from the UK but currently working in Kuala Lampur. Both are dive instructors.



And there was John, from New Zealand currently working in Bankok. He is a Dive Master. They are three friends traveling together.





The sky was heavily overcast, as if the clouds were going to open up any minute and by the end of the dive, it was pouring rain. The water temperature during our entire stay was 82 degrees.

Our first dive was on the Japanese aircraft ferry, Fujikawa Maru. It rests upright at a depth of 99' and still contains part of an aircraft, barrels and multiple gas masks. On the stern helm the engine throttle stood untouched and only mildly covered with growth.

We were overboard at 9:33am and stayed down for 44 minutes reaching a maximum depth of 91'.


















After the dive we motored to a "Castaways" type of island, very tiny, surrounded by a ring of sand, with a cluster of palm trees in the center and a picnic table. After a required surface interval of over an hour we were back in the water to dive the 126' cargo vessel, GOSEI MARU, resting on its side at a steep incline. The stern is 8' below the surface but the bow drops down to 100'. About mid way down Namy demonstrated drinking beer under water. Notice his wet suit pulled down to his waist.

The ship is covered in lush growth including huge zig-zag oysters, something I've never seen before. Next to it resting in the sand were several large torpedoes. On this dive we were in the water for 50 minutes, reaching a depth of 94'.














These two ships were a fabulous introduction of what was to come.

Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon

The Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon is the title of a book written about "Operation Hailstone", the US air attack on the Japanese Mandated islands in Micronesia on February 17, 1944. Truk Lagoon, 633 miles south of Guam, is a group of islands formed as the interior of the cone of a volcano began to settle leaving multiple mountainous peaks on the inside with the exterior edge of the cone forming a protective barrier reef. In 1914, Imperial Japan acquired control over these islands from Germany. Recognizing that the Lagoon provided an excellent natural harbor, the Imperial Japanese saw it as a perfect location for a naval base. Over the next few decades the Japanese built Truk Lagoon into a primary facility for their naval operations, including five airstrips, seaplane bases and a torpedo boat station.
















In the same period they began fishing and setting up fish drying and canning plants throughout the islands, exporting their products back to Japan. They had a huge presence in these islands until 1944 when after their famously devastating raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US saw an opportunity to retaliate. While February 17 is recognized as the historic day of the attack, the Japanese ships and islands were bombarded for almost a year.

The US Navy succeeded in isolating Truk. And, although the islands that made up the Lagoon were not the target of the amphibious attack, subsequent air raids and submarine attacks denied Japan effective use of their vital base.

The Japanese lost over 375 aircraft and 45 ships. Among the ships sunk were cruisers, destroyers, sub-chasers, tankers, and cargo carrying supply ships. Their fishing fleets and processing plants were totally wiped out and on September 2, 1945 the imperial Japanese Command formally surrendered Truk aboard the USS Portland.









For over 70 years, these relics have languished around these famous islands resting calmly at the bottom of Lagoon. Still visible are remains of most of these warships, freighters, tankers and airplanes as well as row upon row of railroad cars, motocycles, torpedoes, mines, bombs and human remains. The coral crusted wrecks attract a diverse array of marine life including SCUBA divers from all over the world.



We're about to experience these historic artifacts and hopefully provide readers some interesting stories of our adventure.


Our stay in Truk will be at the Blue Lagoon Resort and Dive Shop founded by a man, who at 17 witnessed "Operation Hailstone." He was born in 1927 while Truk was still under Japanese rule. The Japanese used native islanders for manual labor and young Kimiou Aisek witnessed in horror as his friends perished aboard the exploding Aikoku Maru. The U.S. Navy strikes set the course for the rest of his life.

During the Japanese naval occupation, Aisek, an experienced diver who had worked on several ships was familiar with all their assigned moorings. After the attack, he knew where all the ships had gone down and with that knowledge he later dived with many world renowned divers, authors and filmmakers.

He founded the Blue Lagoon Resort and Dive shop which has been central to the success of many projects on the Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon. Aisek passed away in January 2001 but his sons and grandsons carry on the resort, dive shop and traditions.














Our journey started in Florida this morning, February 22, 2014, with a scramble. Our 4:30 am cab never showed and we had few choices for getting to the airport at that time of day. Already 20 minutes late we headed to the airport in our car and on the way spotted a cab and waved him down. He followed us to the office parking lot of a friend. We transferred our bags, left the car in the lot and made it to the airport in plenty of time.

Our flights took us from Fort Lauderdale, to Houston, from Houston to Guam with a stopover and plane change in Honolulu. From Guam we caught a flight to Truk. When we checked our bags in Fort Lauderdale to Truk, the ticket agent looked at the baggage claim printout and said "Where is that?"

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Truk Lagoon, "Where is that?", she asked. Well, we can attest, it is a long way from Florida. The flights were all fine but the last leg of the itinerary, from Guam to Truk, was just about the limit for me. It was our last two hours of the 25 hour trip and I felt every minute.

It was dark when we landed. We and several other divers from different parts of the US and Japan were met by the hotel vans. Loaded in the vans, we left the fairly modern airport for the trip to the hotel and, it was a "trip".

As the guide book had warned, the potholes are so deep a pedestrian could drown! It was a long, bumpy (an understatement) ride for a very short distance finally at 11pm arriving at the Blue Lagoon Resort, spartan, clean, pretty and in a beautiful setting.







Monday, February 24, 2014

After a local breakfast of eggs, fish and garlic rice, we set out for our day of diving. Our first stop was the dive shop to show our certification cards and sign the dive registration form. On the form is a column for putting the number of dives you have done in the past. We look at what the other divers had written and were stunned by the numbers. There were divers who had done 400+, 500+ up to 1500+ dives. Gasp! What have we gotten into??

Our dive guides were waiting. There is Awora, the boat captain and Namy, the dive master.



Awora and Namy (as he explained to me Namy means "wave" in Japanese) took our gear and set up our tanks along with those of three other divers with whom we would share the boat for the week. They were Mark and Martin, both from the UK but currently working in Kuala Lampur. Both are dive instructors.



And there was John, from New Zealand currently working in Bankok. He is a Dive Master. They are three friends traveling together.





The sky was heavily overcast, as if the clouds were going to open up any minute and by the end of the dive, it was pouring rain. The water temperature during our entire stay was 82 degrees.

Our first dive was on the Japanese aircraft ferry, Fujikawa Maru. It rests upright at a depth of 99' and still contains part of an aircraft, barrels and multiple gas masks. On the stern helm the engine throttle stood untouched and only mildly covered with growth.

We were overboard at 9:33am and stayed down for 44 minutes reaching a maximum depth of 91'.


















After the dive we motored to a "Castaways" type of island, very tiny, surrounded by a ring of sand, with a cluster of palm trees in the center and a picnic table. After a required surface interval of over an hour we were back in the water to dive the 126' cargo vessel, GOSEI MARU, resting on its side at a steep incline. The stern is 8' below the surface but the bow drops down to 100'. About mid way down Namy demonstrated drinking beer under water. Notice his wet suit pulled down to his waist.

The ship is covered in lush growth including huge zig-zag oysters, something I've never seen before. Next to it resting in the sand were several large torpedoes. On this dive we were in the water for 50 minutes, reaching a depth of 94'.














These two ships were a fabulous introduction of what was to come.

Kid's Summer Trip Bahamas 2013

The ODIN Freight Express

There is never anything routine about our trips to the Bahamas. As many times as we have come here over the last 25+ years, no trip is the same, even if we return to the same spots,which we do often.

Our summer trip this July began as most do. A few weeks or even a month before, we receive an email from our friend, Mr. Pinder the art teacher at the Louise McDonald High School in Bimini with a list of his art supply needs for the coming year. This year's was particularly long and contained some large heavy items, like a laminating machine that took two men to put on the boat.
We had several gallons of school glue, seventy-five balls of rug yarn, ten yards of rug weaving canvas, two cases of printer ink, several reams of copy paper, colored markers, a case of acrylic paint tubes, artists' brushes and canvas, several gallons of clear shellac and a myriad of other items.

A week or so before departure we received a call from our fishing mate, Willie. He wanted meats, a case each of coke, sprite and water, two cases each of toilet paper and paper towels and a case each of Snicker bars and Peanut M&Ms. We know that most of the items are for Willie and we consider that another form of a "charitable" contribution but the candy? Well, it is for Marie, the lady for whom he works--sometimes. She owns a liquor store and Willie unloads her liquor orders when the mail boat arrives. She sells the candy out of her store. She'll pay us back.

By the time we accumulated and loaded all these goods we had used almost all available space on the boat. Jay, our captain, did a masterful job of stashing the items so that they would be out of the way and would be in balance for the running of the boat. Even the floors of the shower stalls were being used.















During all of this packing we got another email from Mr. Pinder asking if his niece, Sasha and grand nephew, Renaldo could catch a ride with us. They had been visiting family in Florida and were ready to return to Bimini.

Then, the afternoon before we were leaving, Robbie Smith, the dock master from one of the marina's called and asked if we could bring three small packages his sister (in Miami) had for him.

Jerry agreed to meet the sister that afternoon to pick up the packages. When he reached the appointed meeting place he spotted a mid-size car with two people in the front seat and a HUGE box extending from the front seats over the back seat to the rear window. He approached the car and recognized and greeted the driver. The second person came around from the passenger seat and next out from under the HUGE box came a small frail elderly woman who apparently had ridden, curled up on the back seat under the box all the way from Miami.

The HUGE box contained a 50" flat screen TV--hardly a "small package". The other two boxes each contained 22" flat screen TVs. He said it took him a while to figure out how to get the large box out of the car. They couldn't remember how they got it in.





After all our Bimini "goods" were accounted for we began loading the provisions necessary for our trip with "the kids".

Jerry really got into the "toys". We have beach umbrellas, beach chairs, sand buckets and shovels, kids' fishing rods, boogie boards and other water paraphernalia including water guns (which, I warned, he will live to regret).

We bought two more ice chests for extra refrigeration to hold ten gallons of milk, lots of yogurt, cheese, assorted lunch meats and, of course, almost 100 cheap hot dog wieners Jerry bought to feed the sharks at Compass Cay.









The morning of our departure, Sasha Sawyer and her 5-yr old son, Renaldo showed up at the appointed time. We should have known--traveling by private boat from Florida to Bimini has its advantages. They came with two huge heavy duffle bags, two suit cases an additional box and a large birthday cake. It was Renaldo's birthday.

With everything secure, our exhaust pipes well below the water line and Renaldo asking a million questions we were off right on time.

Because of the added weight and in an effort to conserve fuel, we stayed around 9 knots which was a slow but comfortable speed.

Renaldo was excited and all over the place. His combined energy and curiosity was a preview of what was to come when four boys between the ages of 5 and 7 would be joining us for ten days.

About an hour or so into the trip Renaldo had worn himself out. The rest of the time was snoozeville with the red bucket nearby, just in case!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Compass Cay, Exumas