Truk - San Francisco Maru dive profile

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Kevster

Contributor
Messages
437
Reaction score
49
Location
Perth, Australia
# of dives
500 - 999
Dive Profile for San Francisco maru-
I am heading to Truk next week (Blue lagoon resort) and i am considering diving the San Francisco Maru.
My last visit to Truk (on the Odyssey) i skipped this dive due to depth.
I believe the brigde is approx 45-50m and deck around 50+m.
I would like to see the tanks on the deck & the mines in one of the holds.
I have +700 dives, deepest to date is 46m on the SS Coolidge. I am not a tech diver. I would be willing to hire a personal dive guide if the Blue lagoon resort offers this service.

I expect to have 5mins btm time and a long/multiple deco stops.

Would appreciate any info regarding this dive.
 
The tanks are on the deck(bow) and the mines are inside the first cargo hold. They are fairly close to each other.
5mins bottom time shouldn't incur too much deco obligation. Ask for a bigger tank(13L) if possible.
 
Well, talk about opening up a can of worms here.

Let me preface this by saying that you need to understand Micronesians. If you tell your Blue Lagoon dive guide that you want to dive the San Francisco on a 53 CF tank, have 30 minutes of bottom time at 180 feet, and only incur a 5 minute deco obligation, he is likely to stand there and say “yes, yes”. Because in Micronesia it’s considered impolite to say “no”. Not to mention there might be a bit of a language barrier.

Now that said, I have dived the San Francisco several times, both as a recreational (?) diver and as a tech diver. The proper way to do it would be to trot on up to the Truk Stop and hire a real dive guide who will help you plan your dive. Blue Lagoon dive guides are, well, you’re on your own. You need to plan your dive carefully (yourself), tell them what you want, and execute it yourself. More than once I have had Blue Lagoon dive guides abandon me on a dive, once on the deck of the San Francisco. Yes, there I was with my dive buddy at about 180 feet and the guide took off for the boat, with the extra tank, without so much as a wave goodbye. They dive the **** out of their guides, so they are loath to spend any more time than necessary in deco. These guys do repetitive deco dives day after day, so it’s hard to blame them. But the bottom line is that they’re the dive guide, and abandoning their charges and heading for the surface is unacceptable under any circumstances.

I would recommend that you start by researching the US Navy dive tables. They are a wealth of information and you will most likely find that you can spend more time at 170 –180 feet than you think without incurring an excessive deco obligation. This is not professional dive advice, and you are responsible for your own safety. You may want to order up a hang tank with more than 21% oxygen in it with multiple regs. Blue Lagoon will fix you up with 100 CF tanks if you ask. Make sure that you check them to insure they’re full before you get on the boat. Their 100’s are compacts, so they need to be filled to 3300 psi. Chances are they will have considerably less than that when you check them. Make them fill them full. They won’t be happy, but make them do it anyway.

The San Francisco is an incredible dive. I assume that you are comfortable with blowing PADI recreational limits and have considerable experience at deeper depths. If not, don’t do it. The only dive better in Truk than the San Francisco is the Oite destroyer.

Again, my advice would be to contact the Truk Stop and plan a day diving with them when you want to do the San Francisco.
 
I expect to have 5mins btm time and a long/multiple deco stops.

I guess by bottom time you mean time at max depth; conventionally bottom time includes your descent time as well.

Since you said you're not a technical diver, who are you expecting to do your deco plan and how will you validate it?
 
Thanks for the replies to my original post.

I am just back from Truk.
I did manage to dive the San Francisco (just myself & guide), bottom time 9 mins, 6 mins on the wreck, total dive time approx 26 mins. Deco time was short with slow ascent and a couple of deep stops.

I could have stayed a few more minutes on the wreck but i did manage to see the Tanks & the Truks/Tanker in the hold.
Max depth was 50.6 m, the Tanks are around 48 m.
A great short dive
 
Blue Lagoon has the better resort grounds & ambiance; Truk Odyssey is the best of the liveaboards (now finally providing banked 21/40 trimix) ; but the Truk Stop Hotel/Truk Lagoon Dive Center has the better tech diving support --the only dive operation in all of Micronesia with Helium readily available for mixing any desired blend of trimix and Oxygen for Eanx30, and deco mixes of 50% and 100% always available as well. Blue Lagoon Dive Shop will only guarantee He & O2 supplies if you pre-order months in advance (they now have an Oxygen generation system finally installed), while Truk Stop always has the gases for the ad-lib/drop-in traveling tech diver (larger groups though should probably call ahead).

Also, for the deeper wrecks of the Fourth Fleet Anchorage (San Francisco Maru; Aikoku Maru; Nagano Maru etc), the Blue Lagoon Guides on single tank will only escort you down to the wreck and rarely guide you through, while Truk Lagoon Dive Center Manager Rob McGann or Dive Guide Nuwa will personally lead you on penetrations of the hull, cargo holds, superstructure & engine rooms and do the decompression profile along with you (if you're Technical Wreck/Trimix qualified). . .
 
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