Extreme Adventure Diving!

Went to Pakin (pronounced paw-keen) Atoll yesterday which sits about 30km West-Northwest of Pohnpei.  I had met Dan on scubaboard.com and he had chartered a boat for the local dive club to take us out to Pakin from Nihco Marine Park.  There were 5 divers and 3 snorkelers with us for the trip.  The boat was owned by Wilbur who went with us and operated by his son Joe and assistant KM.  His other Jayson was in an assist boat (as needed so many tanks) with two other helpers.  The boat we were on is a 30 foot long skiff, open-bow boat.   It was a bit rough out on the open ocean with some pretty big waves - I'd estimate 8-10 feet?  Big waves for what seemed a small boat.  Travel time to the atoll was about 2 hours.  We were to meet some Seventh Day Adventist teachers (college students) out by the reef but they were nowhere to be seen.  So, we prepped our gear and went in the water.


Dive Seventeen
Site: Pakin Atoll 

Dive Buddy: Dan

Other divers: Brian, Rick, Ron

Duration: 66 minutes

Max Depth: 65 feet

Visibility: 175+ feet

Outside temp: 86.0 degrees F

Water temp: range from 82.4 - 85.3 degrees F

People keep asking me if I've found what I'm looking for on this trip and if I were looking for fantastic visibility, I found it today.  Estimated 175 feet of viz+.  The cleanest water I've ever dove in.  Pakin is a sheer wall with all sorts of caves, etc. all along.  We dropped down right on a stingray in about 60 feet of water.  He was propped in a crack in the wall and Dan took several photos.  You can see Dan's photos of the ray and other things we saw here:  Pakin Atoll - May 15th.  We slowly moved along the wall at our own leisure and as the viz was so fantastic - could dive your own profile while easily keeping track of your fellow divers.  I saw several nudibranchs, tons of giant clams, christmas tree worms, soft coral, hard coral, clown fish and I did spot a white tipped reef shark cruising at about 150 feet below the surface...below us.  It was an amazing dive and loved the viz!

We then had an hour surface interval where our boats would hand fish.  If you saw the gear I showed you the first day on Kosrae - the fisherman don't use much more except the line test is more and  their spool a bit bigger.  They call it hand fishing.  No pole.  The other boat pulled in a huge grouper while we off-gased nitrogen.  We then headed to the northwest point of the atoll and prepped our gear to go in the water.

Dive Eighteen
Site: Pakin Atoll 

Dive Buddy: Dan

Other divers: Brian, Rick, Ron

Duration: 71 minutes

Max Depth: 61 feet

Visibility: 175+ feet

Outside temp: 86.0 degrees F

Water temp: range from 82.4 - 84.6 degrees F

I enjoyed the second dive more than the first.  Perhaps because I was more comfortable with the other divers and/or the site.  I entered a small cavern and explored around - several red grouper hanging on the top. Saw wahoo, nudibranch, small black urchin, small star fish, box fish and more clown fish.

The ride back is where the adventure comes in.  It was POURING rain and we couldn't see the atoll we left or the island we were going back to and the waves were big and we were going against them.  We actually had to grab my compass and guide the captain back at 95-100 degrees East. It was wet - we were all soaked and our gear got a nice rinse even though in bags, etc., lol.  We spotted several schools of fish on our way back in.  The birds play an important part in the fishing because the birds close in on the bait fish where there's a school of larger fish eating them.  I'm talking hundreds of birds - all in on spot on the ocean.  It looks like a black cloud!  We finally started to see land again and the waves did calm down a bit but it was a bit of a scary ride most of the way but I did feel safe.  We drank beer and talked about our dives and life in general on the way back.  One of the deck hands - KM - is of Polynesian descent and looks very much like my nephews.  Shary - is Julian part Polynesian?  Same eyes as Luke/Danny - exact!  Wish I had my camera to snap a photo (was recommended to me not to take it as everything gets wet - glad I listened).  We were then greeted by a school of dolphins that guided us back into the harbor.  Probably 30-40 dolphins?  I went up to the bow of the boat and watched them cruise right in front - it was really cool.  The fisherman don't like them because they can't fish with them so near the boat.  We arrived safely back to Nihco.

I was going to call a taxi but Wilbur offered his son Jayson to take me back to the Village so I accepted.  This family must be doing quite well because he picked me up in a fully loaded Toyota Tacoma - beautiful rig.  Felt so luxurious compared to what I've been riding in, lol.  I offered to buy him dinner and we had some very enjoyable conversation.  He went to school at UC-Riverside so we talked about the Lakers, sports, life on Pohnpei, etc.  He is really a neat kid and was happy to be able to buy him dinner.  He is leaving for Vegas in two weeks to go party - I asked him if it was his first time - he says he goes 2-3 times per year.  Funny kid.

Then came back to the village for a much needed shower and a wonderful night's sleep.