Kwaj trip, Post 3: Scuba diving #1

The thought of blogging about all the scuba diving we did on Kwaj is a little overwhelming. This is due to the number of dives we did, the incredible range of extraordinary things we saw underwater, and the volume of photos taken of said extraordinary things!

It's going to be a big challenge to not overuse the words awesome, amazing, and incredible in my diving posts. Let's just get it out of my system right away: Diving is awesome! Diving is amazing! Diving is incredible! If you haven't got a really good reason not to, PLEASE try it. You'll be blown away by how fascinating (and fun) it is.

Here are some facts about the dives we did during our 19 days on Kwaj:

Total number of dives: 19
Number of boat dives: 2
Number of shore dives: 17
Number of night dives: 2
Number of wreck dives: 6 (on 4 different wrecks)

Maximum number of dives in one day: 3
Maximum number of consecutive days without diving: 3

Total hours spent underwater: almost 15
Average dive duration: almost 46 minutes

Number of sharks seen while diving: 2 or 3
Number of turtles seen while diving: many
Number of rays seen while diving: 3 or 4
Number of toilets seen while diving: 1

Total cost for us to dive on Kwaj: $100 USD each. No joke.
(P&M and John: THANKS!!)

I'm going to save most of our marine life photos for the next post, leaving me to focus on divers and shipwrecks in this one. (In my opinion this order makes sense because it will get progressively more mind-blowing as you read on!)

Here are some photos of us...

Me

Me, with Marissa in the background

Ben
(Marissa's photo)

Ben

Us
(Marissa's photo)

Messing around
(Marissa's photo)

And our fantastic hosts and dive buddies...

Marissa, dive buddy and spotter-of-interesting-fish extraordinaire
(here holding a cushion star)

Marissa towing the line

Peter holding a sea cucumber

Peter at the bow of K5 Side, a shipwreck lying
on its side on the ocean floor

Every one of our 19 dives was done with Marissa, and most were done with Peter too (but a few times the three of us dove while he was at work). On some dives we were also joined by one or more other locals - Rob, Bob, Betina, Jay and Dave.

Marissa did her 200th dive not long after we left Kwaj. She is a fantastic dive buddy, skilled at underwater communication and pointing out interesting sea creatures long before anyone else sees them. Peter's dive tally is less than Marissa's, but apparently he read the entire US Navy Diving Manual... for fun. Needless to say, they are both very competent, safe and knowledgeable divers - we couldn't have wished for better dive leads and buddies!

After our first couple of dives, Marissa became my dive buddy - and Peter became Ben's - for the rest of the trip. This was so that Ben and I - the two most inexperienced divers - didn't have to look out for each other. This arrangement made Ben and I feel a lot safer, although it probably didn't have the same effect on Peter and Marissa!

Underwater, we all used hand gestures to have conversations like this..

M: "Are you okay?"
A: "Yes, I'm okay."
M: "What's your air tank down to?"
A: "1700 psi."
M: "Ben's at halfway. Let's start heading back to the shore."
A: "Okay."

And after a while, Marissa and I could have underwater conversations like this, using only hand gestures and facial expressions:

M: "See there? That's one of those fish I was telling you about."
A: "Yes, I see it. You mean the ones that bury themselves in the sand when you startle them? I'm going to startle it so I can see."
*A startles fish; fish plummets into the sand and instantly disappears.*
A: "That is extremely cool!"
M: "I know!"

Or this...

M: "Did you see this stonefish? There are three stonefish here."
A: "Yes, I saw all three of them. Look here - there's a pufferfish. It's a teeny tiny one."
*M swims over; sees tiny pufferfish.*
M: "That is so cute!"
A: "I know! And look - I found the juvenile emperor angelfish you told us lives here. Can you see it through the coral?"
*M sees juvenile emperor angelfish.*
M: "Aww. I love them."
A: "I know. I can see why!"

We're pretty sure the boys did not communicate anywhere near this much. Guess we ladies have to reach our daily word quota somehow. It gives a whole new meaning to this Aussie saying!

(I must confess, however, that one of the conversations we had early on went like this:

M, thinking "I'll tell A to go where she wants to and I'll follow": *indecipherable hand gestures*.
A, thinking "M must be telling me to stop wandering off": *sticks close behind M for rest of dive*.

Haha!)

Of our 19 dives, six were "wreck dives", which means dives on or around sunken ships. (Penetration diving - i.e. actually going inside the shipwrecks - is banned on Kwaj, even for people who are qualified to do it. Likewise for diving deeper than 130 feet, and diving alone.)

There are many incredible aspects of wreck diving: seeing the outline of a sunken ship slowly appear through the watery gloom ahead... swimming along on top of the deck and thinking of the people who lived and possibly died on board (most of the wrecks around Kwaj are Japanese ships that sank during WWII)... observing the marine plants and animals that have since taken up residence... it's quite surreal, and utterly fascinating!

Here are some of our best wreck dive photos...

Me

Me

Peter

A gun turret on deck

A pile of unexploded mortars lying on the ocean floor near
one of the shipwrecks. We swam right over the top of them.
Does that thought make you nervous?!

 

Me... always posing!

And again...

...and again! (By the way, this is the hand signal for "awesome".)
(Marissa's photo)

Ben taking photos
(Marissa's photo) 

Ben taking photos
(Marissa's photo)

There aren't many photos of Ben, as he took almost all of our underwater shots (and did a superb job of it too). At one stage a fair way through the trip, I took the camera for part of a dive and we quickly realised I was NOT ready for it! The effort and concentration involved in operating a camera underwater immediately made all of my steadily improving dive skills evaporate. I ended up lying on my back between two pieces of coral, legs flailing rather like a bug that has been flipped over and can't regain its footing. The camera was quickly thrust back into Ben's hands!

Many Kwaj residents are such experienced and relaxed divers
that they can operate an amazing assortment of sophisticated
camera gear without ever looking like upended bugs!

You may have noticed that I mentioned a toilet earlier in this entry. It wasn't a typo! Out near one of the dive sites called the "Coral Mounds", someone has placed a toilet. It's become quite a popular photo opportunity. When I showed the first photo below to one of our friends, she was quite horrified, and expressed confusion as to how one could perform this function underwater while fully clad in scuba gear. Rest assured that I'm not "oversharing"... it's just a prop!

Ben
(Marissa's photo)

Dave

Me

Me on a different day. The photos of me making
my approach to the toilet are funnier than when I
finally got there. It's harder than it looks!

The dunny

I'll leave you with a shot of us exiting the water. The next entry will be all about the creatures of the deep!

Peter and me

Kwaj trip, Post 2: New Year's Eve

[If you're observant, you may notice that I haven't posted about December 30th (our second day on Kwaj and also our 5th wedding anniversary!). However, that's because the main thing we did was dive, and I'm planning to dedicate a few upcoming posts solely to diving!]

The last day of 2011 - our third day on Kwaj - was the first time we experienced a few tropical rainstorms on Kwaj. They lasted for about 10 minutes and reminded us of Australia. In the afternoon, the sky was overcast instead of the usual bright blue with fluffy clouds. Although the temperature was still balmy, the rain and clouds meant that this was considered a crummy day on Kwaj! The temperature there is usually around 31 degrees Celsius (87 F), getting down to about 26 degrees Celsius (79 F) overnight. Just perfect!

The working week on Kwaj is Tuesday to Saturday, in order to be more in line with mainland USA (since Kwaj is 20 hours ahead of the US west coast). However, Peter only worked a half day, and then came home to an omelette lunch (made by Ben). Later, Marissa and I rode to Surfway (the grocery store) to get a few ingredients for the meal we would be cooking that night.

Around 3pm, we went to the Small Boat Marina and completed the paperwork necessary to rent two double kayaks. The kayaks were stored at Camp Hamilton Beach (beside the runway on the lagoon side of the island), so we grabbed life jackets and paddles and then rode our bikes up to CHB and launched the kayaks there.

The lagoon side of the island is reasonably sheltered and calm, so it was a nice paddle up to the beach we chose at the west end of the island. The wind was at our backs though, so we knew the return trip would take a bit more effort!

At the beach, we went swimming in the ocean and sat under the trees to wait out another rainstorm. We saw lots of hermit crabs and snails with interesting shells crawling on the rocks and sand. There were green shells, lilac shells, spiky shells, round shells, and long pointy shells. One large hermit crab couldn't fit all the way into the shell he had chosen, but he would bundle all his legs together outside of the shell to make himself as small and smooth as possible, then stick his eyes under the rim of the shell, poking them out now and then to see if we had stopped hassling him yet!

Our kayaks at the nameless beach we had all to ourselves

Ben and Herm

Eyes out...

...and eyes in!

After spending an hour or so there, we paddled back to Camp Hamilton Beach – against the wind, so it was a good upper body workout. However, you know the temperature's pretty perfect when you can be kayaking in the ocean, getting soaked with waves and rain, wearing short sleeves... and not even have goosebumps!!

Peter and Marissa kayaking in the rain

Peter, Marissa and Ben at Camp Hamilton Beach

Back at Small Boat Marina, we saw a fishing boat return, so we stayed to watch the catch being cleaned and the innards being thrown to the waiting sharks. We could see a number of sharks actually following the boat into the marina, and soon there were about 20 nurse sharks clamouring for treats below where we were standing!

Ben took a video showing the frenzy when the fisherman, Rick (a high school social sciences teacher on Kwaj), threw the remains of a filleted fish to them. Some blacktip sharks also came cruising in during the kerfuffle, but quickly swam away again – apparently they like to keep their distance.

The day's catch

Rick

Nurse sharks waiting for yummy fish guts

Layers of sharks - the darker ones are deeper

It was interesting to see some shark suckers hanging out with the sharks in the shallows. These are slim, 30cm-long fish with suction caps on top of their heads. They use these to attach to the underneath of sharks (or occasionally divers) and hitch a ride!

After spending a while in the Tank House talking to Rob, a colleague of Peter's we would be diving with the next day, we rode home and made honey curry chicken on rice with stirfry veggies for dinner. Ben also made two berry pies for the next day. For dessert, we ate decadent sticky pecan buns that Marissa had made that morning. Yum!

As it was New Year's Eve, at 9pm Marissa, Ben and I went bowling with some other locals (Peter stayed home to catch up on some sleep). The bowling alley had eight lanes, thumping music, manual scoring, plenty of balls of each size, and nicer shoes than I've ever seen in a bowling alley. It was $10pp for unlimited games. I was constantly impressed with the facilities on Kwaj, considering the population is only 1500!

The bowling alley was filled with NYE revellers wearing glittery hats and glow sticks. Our group had two lanes and we were with P&M's friends Kristi and Bryon (from the Bomb Squad) and Betina and Charlie (a helicopter pilot). We bowled for 3 hours and welcomed in the new year with the various noise makers provided. It was a fun night!

Ben, me, Marissa, Kristi, Bryon, Betina, Charlie

Happy New Year!