Technical Scuba Diving
Intro I published a Top 10 Diving Recap in 2020 and then again in 2021. This year I am making it a "Top 10 Dives and Projects" list since quite a bit of my diving this year has been working on more longer-term projects that involve multiple dives on the same wreck. It has been [...]
As they say, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade." We had reserved a 2-3 day window to dive the USS Perry which is the pinnacle of wreck diving in Palau. Unfortunately, the wind and weather were not cooperating so we considered a few other options (BTW, the team eventually was able to dive the [...]
One of the benefits of going on a wreck expedition with Aron and The Dirty Dozen is that you sometimes get to dive wrecks that are either not well known or not dived very often -- or both. Such was the case when we had the opportunity to dive a wreck that was located relatively [...]
The Amatsu is the longest wreck in Micronesia (502 feet) which is saying a lot given all the cargo ships and oil tankers that sank in that area during WW II. Ship type similar to the Amatsu Maru She was obviously a highly prized and prioritized target during Operation Desecrate 1 since she was large [...]
Intro I had already booked and paid for my March 2022 to trip to Palau when Aron Arngrimsson from The Dirty Dozen Expeditions reached out to me and said that they were organizing an inaugural expedition to Palau and asked if I wanted to go. I was having troubles getting wreck dives scheduled for my [...]
Background The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Iro was an oil tanker built in the early 1920s in Osaka, Japan. It is a relatively large wreck with a length of 470 feet and a beam of 58 feet. Unlike some of the other wrecks in Palau, the Iro was NOT a merchant ship that was converted [...]
Palau has some fantastic reefs and walls. Below are some of the sites I visited during my Mar/Apr 2022 trip to Palau. One of the great aspects of Palau diving is that there is something for everyone, including wrecks, caves, shallow reefs, steep walls and a wide variety of sea life. This is a long [...]
The Teshio is another converted Japanese merchant marine ship that sank during Operation Desecrate One. She is 321 feet long with a beam of 45 feet and offers ample opportunity for penetration and exploration. There are two large holds towards the bow from the superstructure which is slightly aft of amidships and two holds near [...]
Background Chuyo Maru is one of the many shipwrecks in the lagoons around Koror that resulted from Operation Desecrate One. A "maru" is a Japanese merchant ship. During the war, many merchant ships were converted for use in wartime and equipped with guns, depth charges, etc. in order to help defend themselves as they ferried [...]
Intro The "Jake" Seaplane is a somewhat famous, if easy, dive in Palau. It is very close to the Palau dive shops and hence easily accessible for a 3rd or 4th dive of the day given the location and shallow depth. My goal on the dive was to build a photogrammetry model to document the [...]