Today is the big day – we get to do one dive on the San Francisco Maru. Considered the “million dollar wreck”, the San Francisco is an old steam ship converted to a munitions transporter. It had more than $1 million worth of bombs, torpedoes, mines and aerial bombs in its cargo holds when it went down in 1944. Amazingly enough, the bomb that sunk the San Francisco missed all of the extremely explosive cargo.

It is a deep wreck (the deck sits in about 165 ft. of water, 200-210 ft. to the sand. Even with doubles and 100% oxygen for our stage bottle, we knew we were going to have limited time to spend on the wreck. Given that this was our first time on the wreck, we decided to get a general overview. We started in the engine room and dropped down to check out the engines. We then swam along the starboard deck towards the stern. While we were there we saw a large black tip shark swimming along. From the stern we circled around port side and swam toward the bow. We swam through the superstructure and came to the deck where three tanks are resting. We stopped and took a few pictures before moving to the forward holds. We had a few more minutes of bottom time so we dropped down into the first hold and checked out the mines, aerial bombs and munitions.

From there, we made our way to the bow, saw the bow gun and began our ascent. We completed our decompression obligation and were out of the water in a little over 90 minutes. The San Francisco is a fantastic wreck…I am hoping to come back again and spend a little more time on her.

Given the depth and time spent on the wreck, we had a long surface interval before hoping in the water for our last dive of the trip. This one was on the Kensho Maru, a well preserved freighter resting upright on with a list to port in 130 ft of water. We decided to drop into the engine room first to check it out (according to the briefing and guide books, the engine room is one of the highlights of the wreck). Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones with that plan. As we were entering the engine room four people were exiting…and there were another two down there. Needless to say the visibility wasn’t crystal clear, but it was amazing nonetheless. We dropped down to the lowest level of the engine room and zig-zagged our way back up. It was no where near as disorienting as the engine room in the Heian, but I think the fact that that wreck was on its side may have been a contributing factor in that feeling.

After the engine room, we poked around the superstructure and saw the galley and the mess hall. We then made our way forward to the bow where we saw the bow gun. We looped back to the stern and checked out the props before beginning our ascent. We spent a lot of time on the kingpost as it was covered in coral, anemones and sea life. There were hundreds of schooling silversides that would envelope you as you swam around. It was an entertaining way to end the dive.

Back on the Odyssey, it was time to tear down and rinse our gear. We were almost done with our gear when several boats with locals on them pulled up to the stern. They laid out some beautiful wood carvings (everything from love sticks, to masks, to storyboards, to statuettes). We bought a few things and went back to taking care of our gear.

Our cabin was on the same level as the dive deck. As you rounded the corner on the port side, there was a big cleat used to tie up the boat. For the past seven days, every time we passed it, one of us would say “watch out for the cleat.” I was walking gear back to the room as Scott rinsed it. I had a wing in my hand and was looking at it as I rounded the corner. Wouldn’t you know it, after seven days of saying “watch the cleat” I catch my left pinkie toe on the corner of it and tear the toe nail off. Fortunately, John is a nurse so he took care of it for me. All I can say is if it had to happen, I’m glad it happened after we had finished diving.