Ok, I rambled on a bit last time and never arrived but here we go.
Bikini Atoll is high on the holy grail lists for any technical diver trips are very limited, expensive, and the place is hard to get to.
The wrecks sit in 60+ meters so all the dives fall into the technical decompression category using twin tank Open circuit or rebreathers which carries a high level of risk before you even start with entering wrecks that are over 70 years old and sunk with an atomic bomb. How cool is that?
I'll kick off with one of the biggest the USS Saratoga which was a WW2 Lexington class aircraft carrier and sunk with the Baker bomb test on the 25th July 1946. Launched in 1925 and 270m long and 32m wide it's bloody huge. Then the bomb tests were carried out the ships were fully armed and loaded so these are not like the stripped-down sunk as artificial reefs for divers you get now.
This is the Saratoga in 1944 courtesy of the US Library of Congress.
The flight deck sits at about 40m but the water is clear and you can see the outline of the bow as soon as you jump in and start to descend. The first dives will just be on the flight deck but there is still plenty to see. The deck guns in front of the fin are still there.
Along with the anti-aircraft guns in wells alongside the flight deck.
If you want to do a little exploring there is still time to make your way into the bridge and radio room situated in the fin alongside the flight deck.
But an hour's dive is over so quickly and even at this shallow depth, there is still an hour's deco to do before you can surface.
Subsequent dives let you drop into the wreck the aircraft lifts were down so they are a good way to get inside at the different decks.
But sometimes the holes can be a bit smaller.
The planes that were on the flight deck were blown off with the shock of the atomic blast and now sit at 60m on the white sand below the wreck.
One challenging dive into the interior and along the maze of corridors is to the old diver's locker where the original hard hat diving gear and rubber suits still sit.
Deeper dives need longer deco stops sometimes it was almost 2 hours after the deeper dives, mind you there is always the constant company and things to keep you amused while you wait out the long minutes at each level.
Well, Hivers I do hope you enjoyed that trip to the USS Saratoga I'll look at some of the wrecks in Bikini Atoll another time.