WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME... LOL
So today started like any other day would. There were no dives planned and no tourists for the day so i helped Neil run some errands. Later Neil asked if i would be interested in testing out a regulator that he had just serviced for a customer. Of course my answer was YES! He then mentioned that we would be diving to the deepest part of the Japanese ship wreck at Bonegi beach - The Hirokawa Maru. At a depth of 57 meters! This is deeper than what most divers would ever attempt to do! It is extremely dangerous and is not for the faint hearted! Diving at these depths should be taken seriously. In life I’m always pushing myself to the limit and I was determined to do this.
We arrived at Bonegi beach at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The seas were the wildest I’d ever seen here on Guadalcanal. I was a little nervous... ok, i lie! I was shit scared but I wanted to prove to myself that i could do this. I rigged up my gear and noticed that the air pressure in my tank was extremely high. It is normally filled to about 200-220 bar and the needle was sitting at 290 bar (o_0) i asked Neil about this and he checked my rig and came to the conclusion that my pressure gauge was incorrect with a difference of 45 bars. I made a mental note that i had to recalculate my readings every time i checked my air usage.
We made our way into the raging waters. Neil said that we would get in (with GREAT difficulty) and descend straight off the beach down to the wreck. But i seemed to miss understand what he said and decided to swim on of the surface for about 20m before descending. This made it more difficult with waves crashing on top of me. I had no idea where Neil was (o_0) I reached a point where i decided that i should be passed the corals and rocks by now and that it would be safe to descend. As my head submerged under the water there was zero visibility with the waves picking up all the silt from the sea bed. I reached a point where i started to freak out. Everywhere i looked all i saw was a white cloud of silt -i couldn't see a dam thing. So many thoughts were rushing through my head and my heart rate must have increased to 200 beats per minute. I didn't know which way was up or down and prayed that i would eventually just hit the sea floor like a rock. I could feel the waves on the surface tugging me every time they passed. Then out of nowhere i got this yank on my left fin. I looked down and the visibility was so bad that i could only make out that it was a hand tugging me. I turned my body in that direction and made my way to where this tug had come from. I descended about another 5m and i escaped this cloud of death into beautiful clear waters! It was like i had entered a different world altogether! The water had become calm and there was now visibility of 25m. The tug was from Neil that had been waiting patiently of me to arrive.
I gave Neil the OK and we started our search for the ship wreck which we knew was to the left down the steep embankment of the shore. My heart stepped down to its normal pace and my breathing followed. The fish that we passed along the way were carrying on with their everyday life. even though the water above us was so crazy and wild, it didn't affect them one bit. The ship started to appear out of the dark blue sea and eventually became clear. We travelled along the deck of the ship going deeper and deeper with Neil glancing over at me regularly to ask if i was OK. We started passing parts of the ship that i would only see from a distance. I then started seeing things i had never seen on this ship before, it then hit me that i was traveling into the unknown. The deeper we made our way down the less and less marine life there was. We were getting so deep that not even fish or coral grow there.
We eventually made it to our deepest part of the dive and a strange thing happened to me. I became narked (nitrogen narcosis).
Narcosis results when gas under pressure dissolves into lipids in nerve tissue and retards nerve impulse transmission. the Meyer-Overton hypothesis, states that the more soluble a gas is in cell lipid, the more narcotic it is. Nitrogen is pretty soluble, which is why you get narked when you dive. Nitrous oxide is very soluble, which is why dentists use it to make drilling time a happy time, whereas helium is not very soluble in cell lipids, making it ideal for deep diving.
This causes you to get a sensation of being extremely drunk, like the time your college buds agreed to chug shooters every time the hockey team scored, and they won, 98–zip. At first i started to freak out a little but i knew in the back of my head that this would happen and focused hard on remaining clam (well, tried too, lol) I must say that it’s a dam cool feeling. I was so zoned out and couldn't focus on a single thing. I found a piece of a luminescent orange plastic buckle from someone's mask that must have floated down there somehow. I picked it up and felt like i was staring at it for hours, lol. It was so trippy (x_0) after a few minutes the feeling wore off and I carried on with the dive.
Neil pointed out to me a gun that was mounted on the stern of the ship that was probably still in the same position it was last fired. We made our way through a small gaping hole in the back of the ship into what must have been a storage compartment. We turned on our torches and searched this huge room. We found a caterpillar tractor used to hall heavy artillery around and a huge artillery piece of some sort, all still it perfect condition. We couldn't spend too much time at this depth because we had seven atmospheres of pressure on us. With every single breath we took in, it would work out the same amount of taking seven breaths of air at the surface - so in short, we were using up huge amounts of air in a short period of time...
We started our ascent through the ship. This was such an amazing experience! There are huge rooms throughout the ship and to try explain the size of this ship is impossible! I would shine my torch down corridors and compartments and not even see the end. There are still ladders on the walls that were used in WWII. This made me realise that i wasn't just diving at an amazing dive site... and that hundreds of lives must have been lost in these passages and corridors that i had been swimming through. The feeling i felt at that point was indescribable. We exited the ship at about 30m through a hole on the deck that must have been formed from an American Bomber plane. This was quite a change of scenery, from dark, dull and rusted passages through a gaping hole into the bluest sea i have ever seen, with fish and coral life everywhere! It was an amazing dramatic change.
We made our way towards the point of exit onto the beach but had to do decompression stops at 6m for about 5 minutes and another decompression stop at 3m of about 13-15 minutes. We do this so we don’t get bent (which you can read about in one of my previous blogs- explaining what it is and how it effects your body). At this point of the dive i was running very low on air and was getting a little worried... Neil had a pony bottle clipped onto him (a very small bottle in case of an emergency) so i decided that it would be a smart idea to stay close to him :P
After our computers on our wrists gave us the go ahead that it was safe to exit the water we started kicking our way back to the shore. We felt the waves above us tugging us along the way and as our heads popped out the water, we noticed that the weather had changed for the worse with +/- 6m high waves! Neil took his regulator out his mouth and shouted to me, "As soon as you can stand up quickly take off your fins and make your way out as quickly as possible!" i got to a point where i thought it was safe to do this, i left my regulator in my mouth so i wouldn't breathe in any of the salty water. I managed to take off my right fin and the surging water swept me off my feet and pulled me further and further out to sea. With waves constantly crashing on me. I glanced over at Neil that was standing on the shore with his eyes as worried and wide as I’d ever seen. I turn my head back to the vicious seas and the biggest wave came slamming down right on top of me. I put on my other fin that I’d been grasping onto so tightly and started kicking as hard as i could to make it back! A few seconds later i found it harder and harder to breathe, i took four more breaths of air and then.... nothing!!! My tank was now depleted! I took the regulator out my mouth and manually inflated my BCD (Buoyancy Compensator Device) i had to stay focused and not panic... i had to be careful to breathe at the right times and not to swallow any water! I could feel my body taking strain and getting weaker with every kick from my legs. I then used the waves to my advantage, i made sure to kick hard every time one came passed me. Using its currents to bring me back to safety. i eventually made it back to standing ground and removed both my fins in a second almost losing one to the deep blue!
What an experience this was, but all in all! It was totally worth it!
Here are some under water pictures to look at =D
Ship wreck, Sun and Me =D
Under over Shot
Windows from the wreck lying on the sea floor.
Ship wreck and me.
A bent ladder on the vessel.
Hirokawa Maru's mast (me bottom left-gives you an idea on size)
