By Tim Gernold
Hi all,
I had a great dive the other day and I just had to share. There are certainly some advantages to living in Micronesia.
I just bought a used boat and I took it outside the lagoon to the
ocean side of the wall to a favorite local spot called Speedball,
named after the missile launch complex on that side of the island.
It is a pretty steep wall dive. Reef extends out about 100 yeads
from shore at a average depth of 20ft, then a sudden drop to 6000ft.
This sight is also famous for the schools of grey reef sharks that
seem to like the area. Why, I don't know. Yesterday didn't disappoint.
My boat is a Marshallese special, which means it ain't pretty but
its very functional. Another American expat bought the hull a few
years ago and basically built it up by hand using fiberglass and
plywood. Like I said, it ain't pretty. It's also painted in the
colors of the Marshallese flag. Blue, white, and....orange. We have
a white spot at the bow that I'm thinking of painting a sharks mouth,
ala Flying Tigers. The Army provides rental boats for us, but they
are pretty shitty. Run down and unreliable. I can't tell you how
many times we've limped back to the marina with one engine, or the
steering broke, or the time I spent the entire 10 mile trip
continuously squeezing the priming bulb so the engine could still
run. Thought my hand was gonna fall off.
Anyway, my new toy is a late 60's 24' Boston Whaler hull with twin
50hp Honda outboards and all the electronic goodies like GPS, 3D
fish/depth finder (its kinda fun to watch it freak out to go from
30ft to 6000ft), and radio/CD player, but believe it or not the
most appreciated feature of the boat is the canvas top. I've spent
too many days out on the rental boats getting sunburnt. The boat is
a little underpowered IMO, but those Honda's are sweet. Very quiet
and very fuel efficient. I have a 68 gal fuel capacity and I can go
from one end of the atoll to the other and still have plenty of fuel
left over. If the boat was a little more seaworthy and could handle
the open ocean a little better, I could drive right up the pier at
Bikini. Wouldn't that be a trip? Anyway, boat handled the six ft
seas pretty well, just had to take it easy.
On with the diving. Like I said, almost everything is wall diving
along the oceanside reef. Had great visibility both above water
and below, around 150ft. We dove down to 135' and discovered an
impression in the wall. It would be a real stretch to call it a
cavern, but I think you get the idea. Didn't have much time to
explore it because this was a no-deco dive, but later plan on
doing some more dives in the area to check it out. It seemed kinda
weird because usually you don't see much fish life at these depths
along the wall, except for some large palegics, but in this
impression was a lot of the same species of fish you'd find at
much shallower depths. A lot of bumphead parrotfish and various
kinds of smaller groupers. After spending a few minutes at that
depth, we slowly worked our way up the wall to shallower depths
and along the peak of the wall. I saw a whitetip reef shark that
was hunting for something. It kept circling a small area along
the reef. It wanted something really bad. What I found really
interesting was a small gray reef shark that didn't like the
whitetip in its area. As the whitetip was hunting, the gray kept
making passes at it. I've never seen that before between sharks.
I've had grays make passes at me, but I've never seen them go
after another shark. I watched them for a few minutes then moved
on. I'm sailing along in the current looking down along the wall
and I see what I thought were a couple of sharks below me but
they turned out to be some damn large yellowfin tuna's. Easily
over 100lbs ea. Still cruising along the reef and see some
spotted eagle rays. One of them darts for the surface and
breaches. Interesting to watch underwater.
We were within sight of the anchor line of the boat and I happened
to look down along the wall again, and I see what I thought looked
like a piece of black canvas moving in the current. I don't know
why I thought it was canvas but it looked like cloth debris. I
turned back to the eel I noticed and I happened to turn my head
and I saw this black shape with a gaping mouth about 5ft from me
and moving slowly in my direction. Scared the @!#$ out of me. It
turned out to be a 10-12' manta. My first manta in diving two years
out here. As it passed over me, all I could think of was the opening
scene in Star Wars. I started humming the Darth Vader theme. Very
surreal. I pointed out the manta to Kim and she didn't look in the
right direction and the manta almost brushed up againist her. She
caught sight of it at the last second and it visibly scared her, too
but only for a second, then it went to go check Roger out and then
merrily went on its way. No sign of fear at all, just curiousity.
Absolutely amazing creatures.
A few minutes later, we are stowing our gear on the boat and went
to pull anchors. One of them didn't release and it looked like
somebody was going to have to gear up again. Not me...not me... I
can honestly say my Spare Air has found a home. When the anchor
fouls, mask, fins, and Spare Air and your all set. Roger was the
lucky one, really. As he was about to jump back in the boat the
manta reappeared. Kim and I were looking at Roger and the manta
as they took turns staring at one another about two feet apart.
It was funny as hell to watch from the boat. Roger would turn one
way and the manta would turn to match him move for move, always
face to face. Roger finally exhausted the Spare Air and jumped
back in the boat and the manta checked out the boat for about 5
minutes. I really hated to start the engines but we had to get
moving.
We trolled along the reef on the trip back and caught two 30lb
mahi mahi. No more discussion what we were doing for dinner. As
we were coming through the pass back into the lagoon we met up
with a pod of dolphins. They traveled with us for a few minutes
then went on their way. They really like the pass at tidal change.
Tons of fish hang out. The pass also makes for a great dive, but
currents can exceed 10knts so it takes some planning.
It just doesn't get better than yesterday. Piloting my own boat
on the ocean, great diving, great fishing, seeing all the wonders
of the underwater world and sharing it with great friends.
Days like yesterday make me want to stay out here forever and make
me forget all the frustrations of living on an isolated island.
Yesterday was about as perfect as it gets.