Hi all,
Just a quick update about the Yamashiro Project. A complete trip report will be published as soon as I find a decent Internet connection.
Diving the Yamashiro
July 18th 2006
After a long night to recover from the long (and extremely damaged) road to Hinundayan, we woke up at 6:00AM, ready to finally go diving. A quick untasty breakfast in a local restaurant and we start to load the rest of the equipment on the boat. While preparing and testing the rebreathers, we now have our support divers ready to help. The first one is Eveline Verdier, a Trimix Instructor Trainer. The second one is Ross Hemingway, the designer of the so-appreciated v-planner decompression software. Ross lives in the Philippines and comes for the day to help us. The opportunity to discuss about VPM, V-Planner and new features that would soon come...
A few more hours to finish to prepare everything while the boat already leaves to the dive site. The slack tide is at 10:30AM and our diving window is quite tight. Later than that, the current might be very strong.
Rob finds the wreck in a record time and everybody is so glad to see a big peak coming on the screen of the depth sounder. On a bottom of 198m, the shipwreck of the HIJMS Yamashiro shows a top depth of less than 176m. We all start to imagine some massive superstructures.
Unfortunately some final fine-tuning delay us and the tide already starts. The current peaks up very quickly and the weather deteriorates in a matter of minutes. Rain shower, waves and wind just replace the sun and calm sea we appreciated in the early morning. A strong 3 knot current in the opposite direction of a steady wind will decrease the chance to safely dive on the wreck today. No way to plan a 6 or 7 hour decompression in this conditions.
After a few attempts to moor up the boat, we quickly retreat to a protected bay where everybody enjoy a shallow dive on a muddy bottom. The Yamashiro is not ready to be explored today. Different teams tried to dive the shipwreck and never succeeded. There is no reason why we should win this priviledge on our first attempt!
And it was a very useful day to check all the equipment, do some last-minute adjustments and be used to the boat and the local environment. And we spent the day eating crackers and candies, so nothing to complain about. Let's go back to sleep!
July 19th 2006
Different day, different story. The current is still very strong today, even at slack tide and after several attempts to hook the boat on the wreck, we decide to try another technique. The boat crew, always very helpful quickly makes a shotline with a weighted anchor (a standard anchor with two dumbells strapped!) with almost 300 m of line and sterofoam buoys. We drop the shotline on the wreck and the all line goes down very fast. I try to imagine the effect when it lands on the wreck... Anyway, our support diver Eveline, swims to buoys to remove the excess line. There is no slack. The current pushes everything so hard that it will be very difficult for her to set up the deco line with the stage tanks. Pim, Bruce and I start to gear up. A long process with the equipment we'll use: dry suit, rebreathers (Ouroboros for Pim, Inspiration for Bruce, Megalodon for me), bail-out tanks, etc...
The boat is very close to the shotline when I jump first in the water. Nevertheless I work very hard to reach it. Because of the waves, I decide to wait just below the surface while doing my equipment check. At the surface, Pim has a 1st stage regulator O-ring that blows up at the last minute. The all crew helps him to fix the reg but it's already too late. He decides to abort the dive.
Bruce, who had some problems with the Hammerhead
, decided to switch back to the normal Inspiration electronics, therefore limited in depth. He will stop at 120m.
I descend along the shotline at a 45 degree angle. The only way to go down is to pull myself with the rope. That's the plan but it's quite a hard work. Several times I have to stop for a few seconds and catch my breaths. I'm quite happy to have a pre-production radial scrubber in my Meg. Such a heavy exertion at depth wouldn't be possible with the standard axial scrubber. It's a very different environment than a cave!
At 120m, a big thermocline and the temperature drops from a comfortable 29C to a chilly 22C. I still kick hard and pull on the rope. It becomes darker and the current doesn't decrease.
180m. The line is horizontal, 15m above the bottom. I follow the line and discover a huge hull in front of me. My Halcyon canister light has flooded and I have to use a 10W HID light. The beam is narrow and hardly covers more than a few metres. When I finally reach the wreck of the Yamashiro, I'm already 14 minutes into the dive. A quick check at my handsets and my computers and I start exploring the wreck. It's so dark and the wreck so huge that it's difficult to have any clue about where I am. I see superstructures, a hull and it looks like the complete wreck sits on her side. After a few minutes on the bottom, my VR3 and my tables strongly remind me that it's maybe the right time to start my ascent. Already!!
The current is still there, the line still almost horizontal and it takes quite a while to reach my first deco stop at 150m. When I pass the thermocline I start to relax and realize that the water is warm and the visibility excellent. I can see Bruce at a depth around 80m. I feel good like during any tropical recreational diving, but I'm still at 120m holding on a line that will be my best friend for the next six hours.
Slowly I pass all my deep stop before reaching the intermediate (longer) stops. Time to use my jon-line as my soft hands don't really like holding the rope so tight...
Eveline is waiting for us at 40m. Pim will also act as a safety diver for this dive. He brings me a plastic bag with two drinks and FHM Magazine (the only magazine I found!). Eveline comes back from time to time to take some pictures. Everything looks fine, so far...
Sorry guys, I'll write the rest tomorrow!
