The ride out to the first dive was rough - the first time we've seen whitecaps inside the lagoon. The dive itself was fantastic. It was another dive on the Fujikawa Maru (second dive our first day here). We stuck with the divemaster a bit longer and he knew what we had missed last time so we started at the holds we had missed. The first one had a couple of mostly intact Japanese zero fighter planes! It was very cool to see them there among the wreckage of the cavernous hold - though neither Stacy or I could figure out how they got them in! The second missed hold was full of shoes - slightly surreal to swim around an equally large cavern that was significantly carpeted in shoes. After the two holds we explored a bathroom, complete with a urinal, a galley (with a recognizable coffee pot), and a huge engine room criscrossed with catwalks and stairways. As our bottom time started to get low we started in on the decks - again they were fantastic due to the lush coral growth. The weather had gotten worse - the plus side was the great white noise of the driving rain on the surface above (plus the kaleidoscope pattern of rain drops above). The down side was the driving wind and rain made for a very cold and uncomfortable ride back to the hotel (no picnicking on an island in this weather!)
First thing back at the room was a hot shower. After warming up and eating our boxed lunches (in the room) it was time to head out on the water again. It was still grey out, but the seashad settled down so it was a relatively smooth ride out to our second dive, the wreck of another freighter, the Kiyozumi Maru. The wreck was resting on its port side, and we entered through the fatal torpedo hole into one of the holds. It really wasn't that exciting of a wreck, especially when compared with the Fujikawa. The artifact highlights were a bicycle (barely recognizable), and an air compressor and O2 bottles. The entire hull of the ship was almost completely covered with corals (mostly anchor coral) - it almost looked like a natural reef. Exploring the hull we found soft and hard corals, lots of little banded pipe fish, anemones, and tunacattes. The ride back was smooth and once on shore we did a thorough cleaning and hung everything to dry well. After another hot shower (such luxury) I read and tried to work on my journal. We had a pretty good diner at the hotel restaurant then drank a bottle of Chateau St. Michelle Merlot that I had brought with me from Guam. I ended up being up pretty late going through the days photos.
