On Saturday August 7th at 8:30 my buddy Darin pick me up at my place for the long drive to Port Hardy, after a few months of anticipation we were heading for a five days live aboard the M.V. Mamro. The dives I was most looking forward to was the wreck of the Transpac. The Transpac is a big fish boat that started life as an oil ring supply ship and it's considerably bigger than most other crabbers. The Transpac was northbound when she got t-boned by a coastal freighter. Rapidly taking on water the crew abandon the ship leaving only the engineer onboard, the engineer cut across the channel and grounded out on the shoreline before sinking stern first, lucky for us diver a ledge stop the Transpac at 285 below otherwise she would have sink in over 1000ft.
However on Saturday morning we were still a long way to our first dive, we first had to stop in Parkville to meet the rest of the crew, in total seven CCR divers were making the trip. After a five hours drive we arrived in Port Hardy around 16:00, we had four hours to kill before we could board the Queen of Chilliwack so we went for beers and wings. After we load a large amount of gear on BC ferries baggage cart it was time to board for our 10 o'clock departure, we found seats where we spend the majority of the next 15 hours trying to get some rest. It wasn't easy with the kids crying but I manage to get 3 to 4 hours of sleep in total, the Queen of Chilliwack doesn‘t any state room otherwise I would have spend good money to get one. We arrived at 3pm on Sunday in Klemtu, we could see the Mamro across the harbour but we had to wait an extra hour because the large door for the car deck could not open. From there we loaded our gear on the Mamro for 10 hours journey North to Butedale.
Butedale or what left of it.
Seven Megalodon RB on the skiff.
Butedale was founded in 1918 as a fishing, mining and logging camp. At its peak the population was around 400 people. Today only Lou is left to take care of what remain of the ghost town. Butelade would be our port of call for the next two days while diving the Transpac which is only half an hour away.
Dave Tomblin getting ready for his first dive on the Transpac
Early after breakfast on Monday we departed for the Transpac, before the trip I filled my diluent tank with 18tx45 and took two 80s for bailout one with 50% Nitrox and the other with 15tx55. Darin and I plan was to start easy with 2 dives at an average depth of 180 to 200ft. After we secure the Mamro on the downline we review the dive plan one last time. Myself, Jerry, Al and Darin would be diving together the plan was quite simple decent to a max of 200ft and get to know the wreck spending a maximum of 20 minutes at 200ft. As soon as we started our decent the viz open up under 30ft to a nice 50 to 60ft at 50ft I could see the white bow of the Transpac which rest at 110ft, we spend a good 5 minutes exploring around the wheelhouse, all the windows are still there the port door leading the wheelhouse is open so I took a good look inside because the wreck is vertical everything that was on the bridge is now seating on the aft bulkhead. Moving above the wheelhouse the mast and rigging are cover with cloud sponges, descending slowly 150ft we found the door of the after house open The only way to penetrate the wreck is to break trim and swim completely vertical so now the deck are bulkhead and vice versa, it’s a very weird feeling. Aft of the fwd house the deck is quite bare except for the large winches. After 15 minutes we started our ascent we had less that 25 minutes of deco, our plan all along was to deco on the wall instead of the upline that way we could also explore of course it’s a lot more fun to deco while exploring a nice wall than staring at a line for an hour. We went north on the wall for about 20 minutes turn around and swam back to the Mamro, our second dive was pretty much a repeat of the first one.
All set to explore the stern.
On Tuesday everyone made sure they had the proper gas to dive right down the stern which seat 285ft. For this dive our plan was 300ft for 15mins which gave us plenty of time to explore the stern area then make our way back, start decompression and explore the wreck at the same time. The after part of the wreck still have a large net that is now cover with cloud sponges. I had to take a look up and I could see the wheelhouse right above from 240ft, it not everyday one gets to dive a vessel pinned vertically to a wall.
The Meg Mafia.
However on Saturday morning we were still a long way to our first dive, we first had to stop in Parkville to meet the rest of the crew, in total seven CCR divers were making the trip. After a five hours drive we arrived in Port Hardy around 16:00, we had four hours to kill before we could board the Queen of Chilliwack so we went for beers and wings. After we load a large amount of gear on BC ferries baggage cart it was time to board for our 10 o'clock departure, we found seats where we spend the majority of the next 15 hours trying to get some rest. It wasn't easy with the kids crying but I manage to get 3 to 4 hours of sleep in total, the Queen of Chilliwack doesn‘t any state room otherwise I would have spend good money to get one. We arrived at 3pm on Sunday in Klemtu, we could see the Mamro across the harbour but we had to wait an extra hour because the large door for the car deck could not open. From there we loaded our gear on the Mamro for 10 hours journey North to Butedale.
Butedale or what left of it.
Seven Megalodon RB on the skiff.
Butedale was founded in 1918 as a fishing, mining and logging camp. At its peak the population was around 400 people. Today only Lou is left to take care of what remain of the ghost town. Butelade would be our port of call for the next two days while diving the Transpac which is only half an hour away.
Dave Tomblin getting ready for his first dive on the Transpac
Early after breakfast on Monday we departed for the Transpac, before the trip I filled my diluent tank with 18tx45 and took two 80s for bailout one with 50% Nitrox and the other with 15tx55. Darin and I plan was to start easy with 2 dives at an average depth of 180 to 200ft. After we secure the Mamro on the downline we review the dive plan one last time. Myself, Jerry, Al and Darin would be diving together the plan was quite simple decent to a max of 200ft and get to know the wreck spending a maximum of 20 minutes at 200ft. As soon as we started our decent the viz open up under 30ft to a nice 50 to 60ft at 50ft I could see the white bow of the Transpac which rest at 110ft, we spend a good 5 minutes exploring around the wheelhouse, all the windows are still there the port door leading the wheelhouse is open so I took a good look inside because the wreck is vertical everything that was on the bridge is now seating on the aft bulkhead. Moving above the wheelhouse the mast and rigging are cover with cloud sponges, descending slowly 150ft we found the door of the after house open The only way to penetrate the wreck is to break trim and swim completely vertical so now the deck are bulkhead and vice versa, it’s a very weird feeling. Aft of the fwd house the deck is quite bare except for the large winches. After 15 minutes we started our ascent we had less that 25 minutes of deco, our plan all along was to deco on the wall instead of the upline that way we could also explore of course it’s a lot more fun to deco while exploring a nice wall than staring at a line for an hour. We went north on the wall for about 20 minutes turn around and swam back to the Mamro, our second dive was pretty much a repeat of the first one.
All set to explore the stern.
On Tuesday everyone made sure they had the proper gas to dive right down the stern which seat 285ft. For this dive our plan was 300ft for 15mins which gave us plenty of time to explore the stern area then make our way back, start decompression and explore the wreck at the same time. The after part of the wreck still have a large net that is now cover with cloud sponges. I had to take a look up and I could see the wheelhouse right above from 240ft, it not everyday one gets to dive a vessel pinned vertically to a wall.
The Meg Mafia.
