Technical Scuba Diving
During most trips to dive the wrecks at Bikini Atoll on Master Liveaboards, about mid-trip, the boat will conduct one dive in the morning and then plan a trip ashore to Bikini Atoll in the afternoon for a picnic and to wander around. Bikini Island was the "control center" for the nuclear tests performed after [...]
Intro The Nagato played a pivotal role in World War II and she will forever be inextricably tied to the US entry into the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Given her place in history, she has been on my "to-do" list of wreck dives for as long as I can remember. There is [...]
Background For quite a while now, we have been finding and documenting various "dumped" WW II airplanes off of Point Loma, California. They are Corsairs, TBM/F Avengers, and SBD Dauntless aircraft. The original post back in Sept 2021 and then the follow-on post (Part II and III) in Aug 2022 identified over a dozen of [...]
Intro Calendars and dates are a human construction. We have given meaning and importance to specific dates and sometimes circumstances collide in interesting ways. This is a story that starts on August 24, 1943 -- 80 years ago today -- and involves an interesting connection recently made. Tyler and I have had a longstanding project [...]
Background I had been doing a lot of photogrammetry work on the Saratoga and had one idea that was a "well, if it happens" project. Namely, it would be interesting to build a photogrammetry model of the island (or tower) structure on the wreck. In the photo below, the 5" guns are on the far [...]
Intro In terms of shipwrecks, Destroyers are probably my favorite types of ships to dive. I think of them as the "utility players" in a Navy. There are many different types and sizes of destroyers, but the general characteristic is that they are designed to escort and protect larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or [...]
Intro This is my 250th post and it is an epic one! Sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and enjoy! Everybody that goes to Bikini dives the USS Saratoga (CV-3) aircraft carrier and there is certainly plenty to see both inside and on the exterior. It is one of only a few dive-able aircraft [...]
Background This is a wreck that Tyler discovered off Point Loma about three (?) years ago so it isn't anything new. We went to dive it after the dive on the unidentified object. I had never been on this wreck and figured it might make sense to build a photogrammetry model for others to use [...]
Intro The USS Arkansas (BB-33) is a Wyoming-class dreadnought battleship of epic proportions and history. She served in both World War I and World War II. It is cool to think of diving a battleship that served in both World Wars. She was built over 110 years ago. The term "dreadnought" refers to a type [...]
This will be a short, but very useful post for anybody who is planning to dive the interior of the USS Saratoga (CV-3) in Bikini Atoll. I was recently on a dive trip to Bikini Atoll with The Dirty Dozen Expedition group and spent a lot of time working on three different photogrammetry projects. The [...]