Wednesday's Dive 1

The first dive of the day was to view a Corsair airplane that had hit the water just off the coast of Oahu. It was in 1946 just after the end of WWII. A newbie on a training flight ran out of gas and set it down very nicely in the water. It must have been a whole lot calmer than I went out.

The waves were very choppy. We were getting 12 - 15 foot waves and we were in a little 20-foot boat. We all got somewhat seasick and I was one of only three who kept their lunch. Once I was in the water my stomach settled down.

The airplane lies in 105 feet of water. It's fuselage was relatively intact and the wings were still in place. The skin however was gone in many places. There were skipjacks everywhere! That's a kind of fish. The bottom was mostly flat and sandy with the odd coral popping out around the wreck. Although there was a fair current on the way down, it disappeared near the bottom so the view was at least 50 meters (150 feet). I sped up acclimating to the salt water with a couple of bouyancy excersizes to get used to the density difference. It really ends up saving air even on a deep dive like this. Once that was out of the way, I started looking around proper and did a lap around the plane.

The fish were everywhere inside and immediately around the wreck. It actually made them hard to differentiate they were so thick. We had been informed/warned about two large eels living in the wings but I didn't see either. Others did. Surrounding the wreck were little green garden eels, thick as grass. The moment one of us would try to get close, they would duck down into their holes. A look at the bottom made me think that they must run almost all the way to the wreck when divers aren't about. Squirrel fish, scorpion fish, puffers, and yellow tangs were amongst the varieties I identified.

One fish I remembered distinctly, but can't find a name for, was a little guy hanging out in one of the rusty brown finger(?) corals. The fish was about the length of my middle finger. The face and tail were black with a narrow grey stripe running vertically just in front of the dorsal fin. Within the grey stripe and at the top, there was a white inverted chevron. It was all alone but a very playful little fellow nonetheless. I asked about the fish back up on the boat, but no one knew what it was. If anyone has an idea, please post a comment and let me know.

At 100 plus feet, one doesn't get a lot of bottom time and I had sucked some major air getting over the seasickness at the beginning of the dive. At 12 minutes, I was down to 1000 psi and just as I was about to signal the dive master that I was heading up, he turned and motioned for Russel ( a cop from Kentucky ) and me to start up. Russ started up fast (must have been doing some heavy breathing too), but I slowed down after my dive computer started screaming at me. I bought a Suunto Mosquito just before leaving on our honeymoon. It turns out to be a tad sensitive and I can set off the "slow down" alarm just by moving my arm too quickly, but it turned out to be a boon here. When I stopped and looked down, I saw a starfish resting on the sand about 2 wingspans starboard of the plane. I was about 30 feet up the dive rope from the bottom so it must have been HUGE. I started looking around as I continued to rise up to my safety stop. There was a cluster of several more star fish just a few feet away. I didn't see any clams to feed on, but they must be nearby, or the starfish were probably between sites. They don't move very fast after all. As I got higher, I did see some dark patches near by and it looked like the plane was in a shallow bowl, which explains why we didn't see the rest near the bottom.

After a good 5 minutes at 15 ft, I climbed aboard again, undressed, got some water to steady my stomache, and kept my eyes on the horizon. Russ followed me on board, made the mistake of looking down at his fins to take them off and lost his breakfast a minute or two later. The fish love that stuff, and when they come to the surface it tends to attract preditors. It can be a great show for the others still waiting on their safety stop. Felt sorry for Russ though. I will put in the details on the second dive when I get the pictures about 2pm today local time.

[Connie] Yes there will be sea turtles.