Today we dived on the wreck of the Rio de Janeiro Maru.
The name can still be seen on the ship.
One of the photogenically speaking, “beautiful wrecks” of Truk Lagoon, is the Rio de Janeiro Maru. It lies on it’s starboard side.
The ship was built in 1930 and was a beautiful 8 deck passenger liner. She sank on her anchorage after being struck by 2 bombs during “Operation Hailstorm” on Feb. 17, 1944.
She lies between 12m and 24m depth. The stern is still in good shape. The cargo includes many cases with bottles, coal and coastal defence guns.
It is a 141m, 9,626 ton Naval transport ship. It was used as a submarine tender vessel by the Japanese in WW2.
It is a beautiful wreck to dive on. Swimming along the deck passages and through the cargo holds, has an eerie feeling. The stern with it’s gun is in good shape.
The deck and superstructure is all covered with corals and millions of colourful fish all over.
The bow deck, however, is clean with very little coral life on it. The very large bow gun can also still clearly be seen. Truly a beautiful wreck to dive on.
We recently dived in Truk Lagoon. It’s a bit of a mission getting there. All flights are via Guam, where you can’t be in transit….. you have to clear customs in and out on any connecting flight. So needles to say many connecting flights are missed due to the beaurocraticaly caused delays.
However, Truk or Chook, as it is also called, is heaven for wreck diving. There are wrecks for all levels of dive competency. The wreck depths vary from on the surface to more than 60m deep.
We stayed at the Blue Lagoon Resort, which was very good. The dive shop at the resort is also very well equipped an well run. A great setup.
Our first dive was on the Heian Maru. A great wreck to wet your appetite for the rest.
The 155m, 4,862 ton Heian Maru was a luxury passenger liner-cargo ship. On her maiden voyage in 1931 she set a world trans pacific speed record. She was later used as a submarine tender by the Japanese 6th fleet.
The Heian is the largest wreck in Chook Lagoon and was made famous by Jacques Causteau in a TV show in 1970.
She was sunk during the WW2 in “Operation Hailstone” in February 17-18, 1944.
She lies on her port side between 12m and 36m depth. In the holds are torpedoes, periscopes and timber supplies. The huge prop of the ship is still in tact and covered with coral like most of the ship.
It was so named by Christopher Columbus to honour the Queen of Spain.
This must count as one of the great dive locations in the world! It’s part of Cuba, which is the largest island in the Antilles, separating the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico in the North from the Caribbean ocean to the South.
Avalon operates 6 liveaboard boats, all in the same area. They all dive the same sites, but you would think that you are the only boat in the area. You never see the other boats. It takes a whole day to get to the liveaboard from Havana. A bus picks you up at your hotel in Havana at 4am on Saturday and takes you to Jucaro Port, a 9 hour bus ride. The bus is quite comfortable and makes a couple of stops along the way. From here you take a 2 hour boat tide to the Jardines de la Reina where you board one of the Avalon liveaboard boats, which will be home for the week. At the end of the week, on Friday, you leave the liveaboard again during the course of the morning and arrive back in Havana at your hotel again at about 9pm.
We stayed on the “Tortuga” which is more like a floating hotel. It is anchored in one place and does not sail anywhere.
Avalon is the only dive operator in this whole marine park, which lies south of the gulf of Ana Maria. It is 60 miles off the southern coast of Cuba. An archipelago of 250 virgin coral and mangrove islands spresd over 75 miles. It has been an official Marine park since 1996.
Avalon also does fishing trips in the same area. It’s all catch and release fly-fishing.
Staying on the Liveaboard is great. A nice big air-conditioned cabin with your own on suite shower and toilet.
A stunning sunset marks the end of every day and then it’s time for Mojito sundowners and Salsa. The food on the boat is excellent.
The diving was great. We made 3 dives a day. They transport you with a very sleek, fast 33 or 41 ft dive boat to the dive sites. We did not have Nitrox available, but they were busy working on the installation. So, it would be available in future. Almost all the dives were fairly shallow. Hardly ever deeper than 30m.
You can’t complain about any diving done at 27 degrees C water temperature and 40m+ viz.
There are also many caverns to swim through.
This whole area has many schools of large fish, such as snappers, groupers, jewfish and sharks. There are 6 different shark species, namely, silky, reef, lemon, blacktip, nurse and hammerheads.
The Silky-sharks and Caribbean reef sharks are beautiful, with their almost golden colour and so streamlined.
Grouper and silky shark.
Apart from that they are also inquisitive and keep swimming with you within touching distance.
Caribbean reef shark.
On the last day we also dived in the mangroves, because the sea was a bit rough due to the wind. The mangroves are like a complete different world. It is more muck diving, with all the hermit crabs, critters and especially many upside down jellyfish ( Cassiopea).
Upside down jellyfish ( Cassiopea).
The streaming sun rays bouncing through the branches, creates a wonderful, pleasant, eerie like atmosphere.
Riding on the dive boat between the mangrove islands on the absolute flat, mirror surface, is like gliding on jelly. You also have all the beautiful reflections on the water all around you.
Walking on the beach of the islands won’t be complete without encountering some iguanas. They are also inquisitive and not scared of humans.
Iguana
Beautiful to watch and film. On the beach of one of the islands we also came across Hutias, also referred to as “banana rats“. This specific one that we came across, seemed to love our cold drinking water.
Hutia drinking water.
Diving in the mangroves would also not be complete without filming the odd crocodile. They call them Caimans in this part of the world.
Caiman
It’s another one of the many dive experiences that makes this part of the world so very special.
