IJNS Irako wreck site. Palawan.

[Mike L]

As a relatively inexperienced PADI Advanced diver with almost 100 dives logged, including a few minor wrecks, I am amazed by this thread TeeJF. I have seen videos of the Truk wrecks but this is something in a different league!
Depth apart, diving in poor viz with constant silt problems AND accessing via the prop tunnel is some serious dive. And despite all this you still manage to get some great photos. THEN a long deco in a strong current (I have made 'safety stops' on a shot line in strong currents, tiring, and I know what you mean about mask dragging).
I do wonder sometimes if I have the brass gonads for tech diving, but I do know I currently don't have the cash!
Great report, I hope this and any similar ones don't get binned.

Mike

 

[TeeJF]

Even if the sinking was VERY slow, surely a mug would have floated away rather than just sit there an fill up with water. Ok, I'm over thinking this I'd just love to know, these little things make it all the more interesting for me though.

***runs off to the sink to try and float a mug....

Maybe it was already full with coffee... ergo it wouldn't float. Ha! You never thought of that one did ya!

Or maybe the table was really sticky with spilt sugary coffee because the engineer's mother used to complain at him endlessly when he was a kid and that turned him into some sort of anti-cleaning up revolutionary?

Whilst we are on the subject of nifty bits and bobs found on ship wrecks how about this...

Signaller's bugle, USS Saratoga, Bikini Atoll, 2006.

and...

Siebe Gorman Standard Divers helmet. USS Saratoga, Bikini Atoll, 2006.

Stuff like this is uber rare but there's loads of it in Bikini Atoll simply because it's all radioactive and can't be taken out of the water. As I understand it the emission is alpha particles only which decay to nothing within microns distance of the irradiated item and hence you are completely shielded by the water. And if I got that wrong that might explain the pain in my pods and the way they glow in the dark...

 

[TeeJF]

I have seen videos of the Truk wrecks but this is something in a different league!

I do wonder sometimes if I have the brass gonads for tech diving

Great report, I hope this and any similar ones don't get binned.

Mike

Gee Mike, thanks for that. Regarding tech diving, to be honest the hardest part is staying in touch when your mind starts to wander with narcosis. We both struggle a lot with early onset narcs - I once took my valve out at 54 metres in Bikini Atoll because I couldn't work out why it tasted metallic - so we took the tech diving route in order to be able to dive mixed gas and avoid narcosis. We both got a gas blenders ticket too which means we can mix our own gases so with a J of helium at considerably less than 4 or 5 Trimix fills it's a serious saving. And it's amazing to get down to 60 metres and feel no worse than at 26! From tech diving OC we moved to CC rebreathers which I love to bits but sadly TJ doesn't get on with hers, mainly because she's small and it's a huge rig, especially when you bung a 10 bail out on a side harness. But no, I'd urge you to at least get your Advanced Nitrox ticket ASAP and then perhaps take one of the tech intros. A twinset gives you huge flexibility.

must have been an spooky experience swimming through the ship.

Thank you. It didn't seem overly spooky, but then we were so keyed up with it being a fairly unforgiving dive we weren't thinking much other than the check drills every few seconds! Spooky was swimming through the car deck of a RORO that sunk off Cyprus. The ship lay on it's side and so up was a long way up but down was equally as far away too! Below you was blackness unless you shone your torch down at which point all you could see was a huge jumble of cars and lorries. And the only light other than ourt torches was the way in rapidly receding behind us with every fin stroke whilst the "light at the end of the tunnel", a deck access doorway in the bows seemed to get no bigger!

 

[jongriff]

Loved this report! very interesting & well photographed.

Come on man you can't ditch this!!

 

[Ninja Kitten]

AHHHH this is just fab!! i miss didving sooo much .. brings back some great memories...and of course this is derelict...its just under the water..amazing...and congrats on your new MOD bagde..i will now bombard you with rediculous questions...to raise the old blood pressure

 

[UE-OMJ]

Maybe it was already full with coffee... ergo it wouldn't float. Ha! You never thought of that one did ya!

No, I really didnt think of that and probably the right answer too.

 

[TeeJF]

congrats on your new MOD bagde..i will now bombard you with rediculous questions...to raise the old blood pressure

Ahhhhh you 'ikkle b*gg*r Bex! Thank you for that!

 

[TeeJF]

No, I really didnt think of that and probably the right answer too.

So by association if everyone on the Titanic had drunk sufficient coffee they'd not have fallen off when the stern reared up and would still be standing around on the decks admiring the fish!

 

[heeftmeer]

Really amazing report. Nice details like the divershelmet. You must feel lucky with such a find

 

[TeeJF]

Really amazing report. Nice details like the divershelmet. You must feel lucky with such a find

Thank you.

I would have felt extremely lucky had I been able to bring the helmet up but the trouble is, it's highly radioactive! Apparently it's safe to touch it underwater because stuff like that emits alpha particles that decay in fractions of a fraction of a millimeter after leaving the source but out of water they become dangerous.

But there was a much more mundane reason why the helmet didn't go into my luggage... you are absolutely banned from bringing anything to the surface in Bikini Atoll and you are diving with a guide at all times anyway.

So I was VERY frustrated!

How's the big urb-ex get together coming along?

 

[glass]

I get soooo jealous of some people on here. Great work!