The San Francisco Maru and a New PR

June 28, 2016, 10:07 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Dive #21 San Francisco Maru, 170ft, 38min dive

The San Francisco Maru is an iconic dive, in Truk Lagoon, and for that matter, in the world. The wreck is legendary for its tanks that sit on the decks, the amazing bow gun that has much less growth on it than all the others because of its depth, and the amazing water trucks, still intact that sit inside the holds. Oh yes, and the cargo hold filled with bombs. All of it, starts at 160ft. This is a deep dive by recreational standards but is a testament to how good planning and preparation can make many things safe.

This is a dive that is different. During the week of diving, you prepare and do debriefs on every dive. Every aspect of every dive is taken seriously but this dive, the mood changes. Going this deep requires a solid plan that can’t be deviated from. To divert from the plan may make your dive buddies think that you are suffering from nitrogen narcosis, which essentially means that you’ve become high from nitrogen and this type of narcosis can cause a lot of opportunity for trouble at depths, especially inside wrecks. You go over the route for the dive again and again with the group.

When I did this dive in 2013, I hit a new personal record of 157ft. I felt on top of the world. It was, and still is, to date one of my best dives. I’ll never forget how good that felt, how accomplished I felt to get that deep, safely.

Diving for me has never been about records but … I’ll admit. I wanted to break that one. When I did the dive in ’13, I had gone for a safe dive plan because I wasn’t sure how my body would react at those depths. When I got to 157ft and felt amazing, I could only look into the holds at the bombs and water trucks longingly because it wasn’t in the plan and we had to stick to it. I wasn’t going to waste my opportunity this time.

Again, at 157′ (which is about the depth of the deck), I felt amazing. My thoughts were clear, my breathing was good, and it was time to enter the holds. Dropping into the hold with the bombs, the sheer volume of them was overwhelming. It was while floating in the hold, I started to realize the narcosis had set in. When you know yoursel and what your brain does under narcosis, you can control it when it’s in the early stages. You start to focus on the task at hand and try to keep your brain sharp. By the time we swam through to the other cargo hold and began to swim by the water trucks, I was hearing superhero music in my head. Although I certainly did feel like a superhero in that moment, it was my sign for it’s time to get out of there. It was fun but now was time to go. The slow assent went well, decompression time were right on the money and we got back on the boat feeling on top of the world. I didn’t even realize until we were hanging out decompressing that I had hit 170ft.

There is nothing like diving the San Francisco Maru and I had just done it twice.

Stubs.