Today we woke up and semi packed our gear in anticipation to board the SS Thorfinn. My dad has wanted to dive on this boat for over 25 years. Today, I got to live out his dream. We settled our bills, did a little bit of shopping at the dive shop and then headed to the lobby for our ride to the Thorfinn. We were picked up at the pier by a zodiac dive boat and were transported to the SS Thorfinn who sat anchored about 10 mins away. We boarded the boat and it was full on dive mode! We all had diving on our minds and started setting up our gear. I went for a walk on the boat to explore my home for the next 7 days.
I came across Lance, our captain of the SS Thorfinn. He was quite the character. He later briefed us and gave us a great history lesson of Chuuk Lagoon. Chuuk lagoon was considered the Gibraltar of the South Pacific. It was thought to be heavily guarded and impossible to take out. After the reconnaissance mission they soon discovered it was not as guarded as they had thought. The Japanese had cracked the codes that the Americans were using so the Americans sent out false information to trick the Japanese preventing them from seeing the attack coming.
The history of the SS Thorfinn is just as fascinating. It was originally a Norwegian whaler. It was used to capture whales and was soon known for being extremely lucky as they always had the highest number of whales captured. Later it was sold and Lance purchased the boat and was originally going to use it as a tugboat for oil tankers. The deal fell through so he sailed it around doing every job imaginable. Some of the stories he told made me realize that he has had quite some epic parties on this boat. I could listen to him for hours hearing about his stories.
It was about 2pm and time to head out for our first dive with the SS Thorfinn. We dove the Momokawa Maru, which was a 3,820-ton passenger-cargo ship, 351’ in length. Her deck sits at about 120’ and the structure beings at 70’. Our guide took us into the engine room located mid-ship. I had a lot of trouble equalizing on this dive. It cut into my ability to capture footage because if I couldn’t clear my ears, it could cause some serious problems. I eventually was able to get down to depth where we explored the engine room and were weaving in and out of narrow spots. It was more challenging than usual as I was diving with a stage bottle. The stage bottle acts as a safety bottle giving me more air in case of emergency and can also extend bottom time. It clips on the side of my body and is snug to minimize any chances of it getting caught.
After coming out of the engine room I realized I was completely narc’ed. Being narc’ed is what happens as you go deeper on compressed air, its why many divers dive Nitrox which is a higher mix of oxygen than our atmosphere. For example, I usually dive Nitrox 32%, which means there is 32% oxygen compared to our atmosphere of 21%. As you go deeper and the gas compresses its effects your body differently so having higher oxygen content can prevent some of these systems. There does become a point where too much oxygen is toxic but that’s another lesson. Since I was on compressed air, I could feel the effects of being nac’ed. It felt like my head had just been shot to the moon. I was completely spaced out and it made me extremely uncomfortable. It is often compared to being really drunk. To combat these symptoms you just ascend a bit to a shallower depth. I started feeling it at 130’ so after coming up to about 110’ it all cleared. The wreck was really nice, I only wish I had more time to explore it under better circumstances. I got a little swim through the bridge of the ship, which was nice. Others on the dive saw cargo holds with plenty of vehicles and tires. There were also propeller blades that I didn’t get to see. We had about 20 mins of decompression on the way up to allow our body to “off-gas” excess nitrogen in our system. We headed back to the SS Thorfinn where we were greeted with snacks such as spring rolls, cookies and juice.
We chilled out on the boat and in the bar area watching Tropic Thunder while I got a head start on typing up the blog. At 7pm it was time for dinner followed by a night dive for 8pm.
I boarded the boat, it was really choppy on the water and I started to question if I was up for the dive. I wasn’t feeling the greatest, I could feel pressure in my sinuses and my throat was a little itchy. We boated out to the Kensho Maru. This was a boat ride to remember. We were being tossed around on the sea and took us a while to spot the buoy in the pitch black. We came across the buoy; the boatman threw the anchor at it and hooked onto it. One big wave later and the anchor snapped right off. From there it was down hill. It took us another 45 mins to find and anchor to the buoy. At this point my condition started to get worse and I was just not up for the dive.
I called the dive and let my buddies dive worry free. Chris had his Nautalius lifeline on him, which is a device that can call in the coast guard in the event they get lost. I was lying on the deck of the boat and my dive buddies had descended into the pitch black of the South Pacific Ocean when I heard the motors on the boat crank into full gear. I opened my eyes to see that the second anchor had snapped. I knew the guys were planning to be down for 45 mins so at this point all I could do was wait. Later on I saw Jody’s camera lighting up the ocean. It was like someone grabbed the moon and put it at the bottom of the ocean.
I pointed it out to the captain and we started to head toward them to pick them up. The waves had them bouncing all over the place but everyone made it back safely. I spoke with Chris after the dive and he said as they were descending the anchor went flying past his head. At that point they just shrugged and realized there is nothing they could do but continue the dive.
I headed straight to bed for a good night sleep with hopes of diving the next day.
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Justin Steele
The Green Ranger