Getting wet in Vanuatu

We've been having a great time underwater here in Vanuatu.  Both diving and snorkeling, there's a lot to see.  Most known for its wreck dives, mostly from WWII, we've also found a fair variety of fish, and great underwater topography thanks to the volcanic origin of the islands.  The coral may not be as vibrant as we've found in Fiji or French Polynesia, but its fairly good in many places, especially where protected from the ravages of recent cyclones.

Wrecks

SS President Coolidge when launched

The big attraction in Vanuatu is the wreck of the ship SS President Coolidge.  It is an enormous luxury liner which was in use during WWII as a troop transport ship for allied forces.



With Vanuatu (then New Hebrides) used as a major allied base during the war providing bomber support for the Guadalcanal theatre in the Solomons (the largest base in the Pacific except for Pearl Harbor), the ports of Espiritu Santo and Port Vila saw enormous buildups of ships and troops.  It seems that the Coolidge was entering the port at Santo, which was heavily mined to defend against Japanese submarines.  She was given the secret coordinates of the safe course to navigate, but was not advised that the course was set through a mine field.  The captain, thinking the course was a bit close to a reef, and unaware of the danger of a deviation from the recommendation, made a change, and hit a mine.  The captain, knowing he was about to lose his ship, tried to run her up on a beach, but she hit a coral reef near the shore instead, sank, and gradually slid down to her current resting place.

Abandoning ship

The "Coolidge" is a big ship (653 feet in length, compared to the 883 foot Titanic).  She is also very accessible, as she sank close to shore, and as such is a very popular recreational dive destination.  (Most guidebooks and articles rate her as one of the top 10 wreck dives in the world).  There's a lot to see, both from the early days as a luxury ship, and her later days as a naval vessel.

The diving is quite deep.  She lies on her side on the sloping bottom, with depths ranging from 35m to 60m.  Dives at this depth have short bottom times, with some decompression likely required.  The payback is lots to see.  We found old military hardware, guns, and ammunition, medical supplies in the sick bay, a barbers chair anchored to the "wall", actually the floor, but the ship is on her side, which can be a bit disorientating, and other bits and pieces.  We only did two dives on the ship (a minimum of 6 are recommended to see it all, including the swimming pools, china closets, Japanese baths, engines, etc., but we felt we got a great intro to this amazing wreck.  Here are a few images from the Coolidge dives...

Descent to ship bow

 

Trying on a gas mask found in a locker on deck

Supplies in sick bay

 Another unique dive in Santo harbor is what is known as "Million Dollar Point".  When WWII ended, the Americans were preparing to abandon the base as they pulled the troops out.  New Hebrides was governed as a sort of joint colony of the British and French governments at the time.  The story goes that the Americans offered the huge quantity of military hardware to both the Brits and French for pennies on the dollar.  Hardware included trucks, tanks, jeeps, bull dozers, cranes, spare parts, etc.all in tremendous quantities.  Both governments declined the offer.  They knew that the Americans would not ship the hardware back to the States, and felt that if they waited until the yanks pulled out, they could get the goods for free.  The Americans didn't like these terms, and instead decided to drive all of the equipment into the sea.  A huge waste, and testament to pig headed leadership even among allies around the world.

But there it all lies, perhaps the worlds largest underwater military wrecking yard.  Makes for fascinating if not overly scenic diving, as you can make your away around and into the old equipment.  There's even an old naval boat wreck to check out while down there.

Cindi tries to start an old truck, while a little scuba gremlin jumps on her back!!!

Just to add to the variety, there are also plane wrecks to explore around Vanuatu.  Here are the remains of an old Dauntless dive bomber which went down, broke into three major sections and sank next to Aore Island, right near our current mooring position.  We went over with the crew of Legacy in our dinghies one morning.....made for a fun dive in about 75 feet of water..

Finally here are just some random shots from other dives we've been doing in Vanuatu.  This country just continues to amaze us with the variety of species and often great water clarity!!!

Arc eye hawkfish

Great camouflage of black striped goatfish

Dorid nudibranch

Granular sea star

Lionfish, highly venemous

Gorgonian fans

Snowflake moray eel

Mantis shrimp

Diving in the Galapagos

Hey there....Cindi here with our first Galapagos dive report.  Sorry that this is a bit delayed, but we had been waiting for some underwater photos to arrive from a fellow diver...never showed up, so, sorry, no pix.  Although Adam was sidelined with his mangled shoulder, Kevin, Emily, and I continued to dive at each island we've called upon.  In Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island we chatted with several dive companies and finally found a great one, Macarron Divers, to take us to a highly recommended location.........Gordon Rocks.

Gordon Rocks is usually reserved for more advanced divers but when the dive master learned that we'd just been diving at El Leon Dormido (The Sleeping Lion), it was "no problema".

Bright and early, their boat picked us up right from Bravo, and headed to our dive site.  We were joined by a German traveler, Steffi who had just returned from several days on a live-aboard dive cruise.  Although she had done three dives per day in very cool locations, there wasn't time for Gordon Rocks so she took this day trip with us.

After our check dive to test gear and weights, we headed down, down, down to 100 feet.  Gordon Rocks is a volcanic islet with much of the land underwater.  It is semi-circular shaped with several underwater pinnacles that are home to sea urchins, wildly colorful reef fish, eels, spiny lobsters, and sea stars in every nook and cranny.  We saw a stone fish (venom is more deadly than a cobra's) that was completely camoflaged within the rocks as well.  We were soon joined by sea turtles, manta rays, galapagos sharks, white-tipped and black-tipped reef sharks and scalloped hammerhead sharks.  At one point, there were hammerheads above us, in front of us and an adult with a baby swimming on the bottom.  Sharks were literally everywhere!!!  For those of you who know me (Cindi), you know that for years, my fear of sharks was my primary reason for not becoming certified to dive.  Amazingly, we have seen sharks of one sort of another on almost all of our dives.......I haven't been munched yet... seems to be a good way to overcome the fear of these awe inspiring critters!

The second dive of the day was at another area of Gordon Rocks and was equally spectacular.  Our dive guide was great at spotting and pointing out critters for us. 

A few days later, Bravo saddled up and headed to Puerto Villamil on Isabella Island, where we remain today.  Here we arranged to have Isabella Divers boat pick us up from Bravo, and headed out to Isla Tortuga, about 30 minutes from our anchorage.  Like all Galapagos islands, this one was volcanic in origin and so the porous rocky reefs were full of colorful wildlife, similar to our other dives.  No sharks on this dive but we had sea lions and sea turtles to swim with, and I saw my first sea horse (caballito del mar) in the wild!!  Very cool. 

Diving tomorrow with friends from other boats Spruce and Mystic Moon, at Quatro Hermanos site......more to follow!

Between dives, we observed the giant frigate birds in their mating season.  The males have a large inflatable sack in their neck that they puff out to attract the females.  The sack is bright red and shaped like a valentine heart....how romantic!  You could see the red pouches dotting the island as they sat around looking studly and cool. Their stud bubble was burst in a hurry when they tried to fly with the sack inflated.  The usually graceful birds became completely awkward (and probably lost their sex appeal!).

At any rate, the diving continues, though Adam's left flipper is fairly badly damaged.  He had an MRI while he was back in the USA last week.  When the orthopod opened the images, he hesitated for a moment, and just shook his head and said "Whoa"......not a good sign!!!  Turns out that one of the 2 tendons that connect the bicep to the shoulder is completely severed.  And the socket, made of cartilage called the labrum, is badly torn as well.  Surgery is clearly the answer, but we simply don't have the time for the surgery and more important, the extensive rehab therapy now, as we'll be on our way to French Polynesia in about 2 weeks.  When we arrive in New Zealand in November, he plans on having the work done back in Seattle.....hopefully it'll be ok.