Spotting critters under Flinders Pier

 Macro, Ocean diving, Reef diving  1 Response »
Feb 092016
 
Spotting critters under Flinders Pier

I’ve dived Flinders Pier before and regularly but it’s been a while. Looking back through my photo archives, it’s been more than 6 months since the macro lens went on the camera. I think there were probably good macro opportunities in Truk Lagoon but it’s hard to concentrate on little things with great big shipwrecks in front of you. In just three weeks I’m off to the Maldives for two weeks of sharks and tropical waters, with a few hints of small critters. I thought I had better get the macro lens dusted off and back in service. It was a stunning evening at Flinders with the tide creeping in as the sun went down. I disturbed a big stingray [read more…]

Munitions in the cargo holds of Truk Lagoon

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  No Responses »
Feb 022016
 
Munitions in the cargo holds of Truk Lagoon

The supply ships present at Truk Lagoon during Operation Hailstone in 1944 were in the process of loading and unloading their supplies. With the world at war, a lot of these supplies were munitions big and small. The photo above shows one of the front holds of the Sankisan Maru with thousands of bullets piled up. Diving over the piles of lead is a strange experience – these bullets never got to their intended destinations and now sit peacefully on the bottom of a tropical blue ocean. These massive shells are quick fire ammunition in brass casings. From the other end it’s easy to see that they’re still loaded and ready so go, despite being underwater for 70 years. I [read more…]

Truk Lagoon Propellors

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  No Responses »
Jan 262016
 
Truk Lagoon Propellors

Propellors are one of the best wreck features to find underwater. They’re nice and recognisable and they always hang out in the same place. If they’re still somewhere down there, they’re usually fairly easy to find and identify. And the bigger the ship wreck, the bigger the propellor, right up to some very impressive sizes. There’s something about swimming between massive blades that could have quite easily chopped you up into little bits while in operation. A lot of the regularly dived wrecks out of Melbourne were scuttled and in some cases had their props removed before heading down to the ocean floor. Whereas the Truk shipwrecks went down with everything on board, so whether the propellors are present or not [read more…]

Elk River Exploration Report

 Cave diving, Caving, Victoria  6 Responses »
Jan 192016
 
Elk River Exploration Report

All of that floating around in the pleasant tropical surrounds in Truk Lagoon had to come at a price, and it arrived last weekend with 32 hours of painful caving in Elk River. After multiple set up trips to load in tanks to the beginning of sump 5 last year it came time to use them. The plan was for three divers (myself, Steve and Ryan) to traverse sump 7 and emerge in the freshly discovered Hall of Crazy Horses on the other side. We would take through an emergency pack of camping gear, a rope for lowering gear down the 10m high waterfall, and a selection of 7L tanks for push diving in sump 8. I also intended to [read more…]

Coral growth on the Truk Lagoon shipwrecks

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  No Responses »
Jan 122016
 
Coral growth on the Truk Lagoon shipwrecks

From the photos I’ve already posted here of the Truk Lagoon shipwrecks, you might be forgiven for thinking there was very little for your average reef-loving diver to look at. The insides of the wrecks are dark and rusty (albeit filled with interesting things) and the deeper wrecks like the San Francisco Maru get less light and less coral encrusting them. This post is to correct those illusions – the Truk Lagoon wrecks are covered in tropical coral and very active fish life. In the shot above you can see the small fish swarming around the kingpost pair, ready to dart back into the protective corals should the predatory trevally swim by. Most of the shallower wrecks have at least [read more…]

Engine rooms in Truk Lagoon

 Ocean diving, rEvo, Wrecks  1 Response »
Jan 052016
 
Engine rooms in Truk Lagoon

After an epic 2 weeks, 23 different wrecks and nearly 4,000 photos I’ve made it home from Truk Lagoon. As I churn through the photos (Why do I have way too many “final picks”? How does one choose between a giant propellor shot and a well lit cargo hold interior? How many trip photos can one reasonably ask friends and family to look at?) I was struck by how much I learned about ship layouts during my visit. The normal wrecks dived in Melbourne were mostly scuttled in the 1930s or 40s. This means both that anything interesting was removed first, and they’ve had a lot more time to break down. In many cases all that’s left is the hull and [read more…]

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