Photos by Rick Grundy
Saturday began with one of those bleary eyed pre-dawn taxi rides to the airport. Once checked in, and surviving the heart attack inducing questions of ‘You do have a visa for Papua New Guanine?’ (answer no!) And ‘Your bag is 10 kg over weigh that gonna cost you.’ (luckily Air Nuigini includes SCUBA kit as sports equipment), Rick and I set off in search of a hearty breakfast. Simon rocked up as I am half way though my beacon and eggs, so we are only missing Sloanie, Etsuko and Steve Pearson (the organiser). Time ticks by, still no sign of them so we make our way to the gate, still no sign of them. As we board the plane everything is looking a bit sticky, then finally a rather flushed trio race on to the plane just before departure time – having had a taxi ride from hell. The flight stopped off at Brisbane, which enabled us to stock up on Duty Free and meet up with Greg who had flown in from New Zealand.
We arrived safe and sound in Port Morsby, the queue up to buy the visa (the queue was actually far short than the queue for the organised people who had got their visa in advance!). Once everyone had made their way through baggage reclaim and customs we meet up with Craig, the skipper of the Golden Dawn. The original plan was to have flown to Alotau, but the Golden Dawn had been in Port Morsby for engine maintenance which had over run, so we were able to drive down to port and board the vessel. Once on board we meet up with the rest of the group: Brian, Andy and Sheli who had flow in from Hong Kong the day before.
Photos by Nick Grundy
The afternoon was spent setting up dive kit, unpacking exporting the boat. As the prospect of a quick dive faded as the engine repairs dragged on the attention shifted to the upper lounge deck, the bar, and the local beer, South Pacific! With the engine repairs complete we set off in to the night, tucking into the beers and the duty free.
On Sunday the diving began in earnest with a 45m shake down dive on the Maritine Hibiscous – a freighter which had sunk about 10 years ago after hitting a reef while smuggling timber out of PNG. The warm clear water was everything we’d been lead to believe, and between the first dive and a follow up dive we able to explore much of awesome wreck. Monday’s diving focused around some exploratory reef dives that were interesting enough, although the strong currents made for uncomfortable deco stops. The last dive of the day was at a Manta Ray feeding station, – unfortunately the Manta Rays were out to lunch elsewhere, but there was a huge potato cod.
Photo by Rick Grundy
We woke up on Tuesday to find ourselves in Tawali Resort – on the north shore of PNG in Milne Bay Milne Bay We had stopped there due to yet more engine trouble, which was having knock-on problems with the air conditioners and compressor. With fills from the resort we set off in the tender to do two awe inspiring wall dives and the day wrapped up with a dive hunting for octopus in the shallows near the boat. With the repairs complete and all systems functioning we set off for Cape Vogel and the village of Boga Boga, arriving early Wednesday morning. Our reason for stopping here was Blackjack, a B17 Flying Fortress bomber that had ditched here during World War II. All the crew were able to escape and were helped ashore by the local villages just as the place sank. It now sits at a depth of 45 m, intact on a sand bottom, adjacent to the reef.
After two more reef dives on Wednesday, it was back to wreck diving on Thursday. This time a Dutch freighter, commandeered by the US and sent to the bottom by Japanese bombers on 8th March 1943. Intact and upright the S’ Jacob is home to a plethora of fish life, although with the deck at around 50m those not on rebreathers have only the briefest of visits. The wreck diving continued the following day with the USS Masaya, launched in 1920 as the USS Dale DD 290 it was a flush deck destroyer, however it was decommissioned in 1930, and converted to a banana carrier and renamed the Masaya. In early 1942 it was pressed back into military action and used as transport vessel with an Australian crew and US Army gunners. On the 28th March 1943 it was attached by Japanese dive bombers. During the attach it suffered extensive damage to the stern and sank, since them much of the wreck has broken up and collapsed, but still makes an interesting dive – even with the ‘poor’ visibility of about 15m on the second dive. The penultimate day of diving finished up with a shark dive on a reef pinnacle near by the Masaya, during which we saw plenty of white tip and black tip reef sharks as well as the larger silver tip sharks.
The final day was spent on the Yokoham Maru, a Japanese freighter sunk on 10th March 1942. Sitting upright in 70m the wreck is intact, but has been heavily salvaged, despite that still makes an excellent dive due to the enormous size of the vessel (over 6,000 tons displacement), the perfect way to finish off the trip.
View Gallery