Misadventures in the South Pacific
It seemed like such a good idea at the time – fly from Sydney to the Marshall Islands to meet a dive buddy friend who I used to dive with in NY for a once in a lifetime trip to dive the infamous Bikini Atoll. How hard could that be??
Getting There Is Half The Fun – The Misadventure Starts
Initially I thought it would be easier to get to the Marshall Islands from Sydney than NY because I wasn’t that far. WRONG! From Sydney, I had to fly to Cairns-Guam-Chuuk (Truk)-Pohnpei-Kosrae-Kwajalein-Majuro – the “milk run”! To add to the amusement, from Chuuk to Majuro passengers on alternating sides were required to exit the plane with their carry ons and go through security at each stop. Ground crew searched the empty side of the plane, going as far as to remove the seat cushions! The milk run took all day to get to Majuro, departing Guam at approximately 8:30a.m. and arriving in Majuro at approximately 7p.m. My friend from NY, Bill, arrived the next morning.
Majuro – The Bad News
The owner of the Robert Reimers Enterprise Hotel (RRE Hotel) told us in the morning that she had been informed there was a problem with the plane going to Bikini, but Air Marshall Islands said it “should be OK by tomorrow, we’ll let you know”. That night we heard all sorts of crap about Air Marshall Islands from some expats who took us under their wing that did not give us a warm fuzzy. Wednesday morning the time to leave came and went. We were told “maybe this afternoon” but that didn’t happen either.
Then all hell broke loose. Flurries of phone calls and in the end Air Marshall Islands was grounded and they closed their doors. Apparently they had engine problems with both their planes. OK, that’s the short version. But apparently this was something they had known since the Saturday before we arrived! Anyway, the end result was the same - we were stuck in Majuro and there was a group of divers stuck in Bikini. We actually found out what was going on from the local newspaper, the Marshall Islands Journal, which somewhat made us instant local celebrities. Everywhere we went everyone said, “Oh, you’re the stranded divers!” My 15 minutes of fame and I’m on a remote island in the Pacific!
Majuro – The Good News
Above: A Majuro Sunset, Above Right: Nicole (second from left) and her dive buddies
We visited Jack and Lani at Bikini Atoll Divers, who were VERY helpful. They really did all they could to accommodate those of us in Majuro to work out what was going to happen next and they did everything possible to get the divers who were on Bikini Atoll back (don’t believe anything you may hear to the contrary). Eventually, the boat the Australian Navy donated to the Marshall Islands was used to retrieve the divers on Bikini after all other possibilities were exhausted.
I decided to stay in Majuro for the remainder of the time I had scheduled to be away, I liked the laid back atmosphere, the little slice of America I was experiencing and I figured that the diving would have been good anyway.
The Lonely Planet guide is a good reference if you plan to go, the following are just my experiences.
Majuro has a good variety of restaurants that are inexpensive and serve good food. There is a large Chinese population in Majuro, so that is the most common type of restaurant. We especially liked Monica’s, about a block from the RRE Hotel. There is a good Korean restaurant, The White House, across the street. The restaurant at the RRE Hotel, Tide Tables, is good and a popular nightspot. You can also organise a lunch to be packed for you for your day of diving, but I found it quite expensive, so I usually just got something from the supermarket. We took a taxi to the Marshall Islands Resort one night where we met the yachties and some expats who took us under their wing. Taxis are dirt-cheap! Other restaurants in town include Dar, Uliga, Lathbern and Flametree.
Majuro - The Great News
The diving in Majuro is FANTASTIC! We booked our dives for the rest of the trip with Brian at Bako Divers (www.bakodivers.com) whom I highly recommend for his knowledge of the reefs and focus on safety. Almost all the dive sites are within 30 minutes. The only exception is if conditions are right, then it’s worth the trip to a neighbouring atoll, Arno.
Diver experience level required ranges from total beginner to very experienced, although to get the most out of the diving an Advanced Diver level would be recommended. Excellent buoyancy control is necessary because on numerous dives there is no bottom or the bottom is the most magnificent coral gardens I’ve ever seen! The more experienced diver will enjoy the longer bottom times cruising over reefs at multi levels, the opportunity to penetrate a wreck for a deco dive and a wild dive on a wall with currents, down drafts and up drafts. But it’s not necessary; there are many beautiful dives with astoundingly white sand bottoms that gently slope away and plenty of the magnificent coral in scattered bommies. The vis is generally in the 30m+ range, although it was rather murky at a site called the Parking Lot about 15m vis.
Brian told us that he once had a coral enthusiast dive with him who had said prior to the dive he had an aquarium at home with over 200 species of coral. After the first dive at Jaybo Wall on the near-by Arno Atoll the coral enthusiast said he counted more than 300 species of coral on just that one dive! I didn’t see any sign of bleaching whatsoever, however, I did see three crown of thorns on one dive.
The fish and critter life is no less astounding than the coral. Most of the fish were the type that inhabits coral, however, there were several dives where we saw pelagics and some small reef sharks. There were a couple of dives where there was some big current, but we unfortunately did not see any really large fish, only our bad luck, Brian said they frequently see the likes of marlin. Here’s a list of the common names of the fish & critters I saw that was able to identify:
Grey reef sharks, blacktip sharks, whitetip sharks, marble ray, garden eels, clearfin, lizardfish, soldierfish, network pipefish, trumpetfish - most on Bridge Wall, lionfish, spotfin lionfish - Avenger airplane, anthias, coral hind, camoflage grouper, groupers, sixline soapfish, hawkfish, goggle-eye, broadstriped cardinalfish, bigeye trevally, golden trevally, pompano, rainbow runners, humpback snapper, black & white, snapper, fusilers, lined sweetlips, bream, lined spinecheek juv, goatfish, bronze sweeper, threadfin butterfly, lined butterfly, racoon butterfly, oval butterfly, Meyers butterfly, spottail butterfly, ornate butterfly, spot-banded butterfly, reticulated butterfly, chevron butterfly, longnose butterfly, pyramid butterfly, longfin bannerfish, pennant bannerfish, bicolour angelfish, flame angelfish, multicolour anglefish, emperor anglefish (juv/adult), regal angelfish, dusky anemonefish, threebanded anemonefish, pink anemonefish, chromis, blacktail dascyllus, humbug dascyllus?, reticulated dascyllus, banded sergeant, damsels, wrasses, bird wrasse, red parrotfish, sand perch, yellowtail fang blenny mimic, blenny, shrimp goby, dart fish, longfin spadefish (batfish), fox face rabbit fish, Moorish idol, Achilles tang, surgeonfish, yellow tang, unicorn fish, barracuda, tuna,clown trigger, titan trigger, orange striped trigger, picassofish, longnose filefish, spotted trunkfish, whitespot puffer, map puffer, black spotted puffer, whitespot parrot juv.
Most of these were spotted numerous times a day on the various dives. We did a total of 16 dives.
This area of the Pacific saw some action during WWII. There is a wreck of a fighter plane (Avenger) that is interesting to have a poke around. The lagoon was used as target practice for bombing runs and Central Reef has several unexploded ordinances incorporated into the reef. And then there is the Parking Lot, where the US military (and subsequently others) disposed of all sorts of vehicles after the war ended. Whilst Arno Atoll is considered some of the best diving in the Majuro area, the crossing can potentially be rough.
Here’s a list of the dive sites we visited and my assessment of the skill level required.
Beginner-Advanced: Illien Island, The Aquarium, Garden of Eden, Calalein (with no current), Parking Lot, The Avenger
Advanced-Intermediate: Calalein (with current), Illien Crescent, Illien Point, Arno Point, Jaybo Wall, Cen Pac wreck (no penetration or deco), Central Reef, The Bridge Wall
Intermediate-Experienced: Delap Point, Cen Pac (penetration wreck deco dive)
Summary
I highly recommend a visit to Majuro. The diving is spectacular; the atmosphere laid back, the prices moderate, the locals and the expats friendly. There are other things to do as well – a tour of the power plant, the clam farm (run by Tom the Aussie), a trip out to Laura beach, the Sunday BBQ - but we did nothing but dive. To have a trip get totally stuffed up and work out so well was phenomenal! For anyone who travels, you know that being adaptable is the key to enjoying whatever is thrown at you, this is especially applicable the more remote the locale and the more modes of transport that are involved. Bill and I are going to try again in August 2008 – but we will want to know BEFORE we go how Air Marshall Islands has been performing.