Conference noted::scuba

1397.0. "Kwajalein" by TEACH::DAN () Thu Feb 13 1997 18:30

I'm sorry that this note is so late after the trip but we moved our office 
in January and have been off of the network for about four weeks.

I was in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands from 11/26-12/19 working with a Raytheon 
unit that was moving from a VAX/VMS platform to Alpha/Digital Unix. Almost 
all of the people (about 15) were divers and the majority were PADI or NAUI 
instructors. As a visitor you can join the local scuba club on a monthly 
basis for about $25. A member will take you out for a "check out" dive just 
to verify your diving skills. Then, you can budy dive anytime. You will get 
the combination to the lock on the "tank house" where you can pick up full 
tanks 24 hours a day and no limit on how many you take. They only ask that 
you return them ASAP and rinsed off.

At the marina where the tank house is located you can rent B-boats...20 ft. 
boston whalers for $20 per half day (4 hours) plus gas. On one dive trip 
there were 5 divers and 10 tanks. With gas, my share of the expenses was 
$7! None of the rental boats have lights so you must know someone with a 
private boat for night boat dives. I did all of my night dives from the 
shore.

The diving is terrific. You have a choice of lagoon side or ocean side 
diving. The "lagoon" is actually the world's largest caldera (tens of miles 
across) and the Kwajalein Islands are the ring from the ancient volcano.
Both sides have many WW II wrecks. The ocean side has a nice wall and there
are 30-40 ft. surge channels between the wall and the shore...nice coral 
and ocean life. The German ship Prinz Eugen - sister ship to the Bismarck - 
is only a 15 minute boat ride from the pier. It sits upside down with the 
stern exposed above the water and the bow at 110 ft.

My best dive was with a group doing some spear fishing. Sharks, sharks and 
more sharks!! The divers had a hard time getting the speared fish onto the 
boat before the sharks got the fish. At times it was a feeding freenzy. I 
counted 13 at one time. I stayed a distance and just watched.

You'll need to bring all of your gear or borrow a resident's. This is not a 
dive resort and there is no place to rent gear. The water temperature was 
84 F at 100 ft. There were no strong currents and no cold currents...just 
warm waters. The ocean side visibility was about 100 ft. and maybe 75 ft. 
in the lagoon.

You can take the local commuter plane to neighboring islands for diving at 
even more remote sites. I didn't get the chance due to work and some 
days of poor weather. The island Roi-Namur is a 30 minutes plane ride north 
and has excellent dive sites and a scuba club and tank house also.

This is a large site for Digital systems - VAX and Alpha - and there are 
Digital employees there throughout the year. If someone mentions a need to 
work on a Raytheon contract at Kwajalein, grab your gear and take it! If I 
don't get another contract by the year's end, I'll still pay my own way to 
get back.

You can read about some of the wrecks at 

	http://www.cenpacdive.com/kwajalein.html


Feel free to call me or e-mail if you get the chance to go there.

dan
301-429-2213