At 0800, we were picked up by the dive company at Kosmos. Jaime is a dive master, but we still went with the local dive shop because we wanted to be with someone that knows the area. It was just the three of us with the local dive master. The boat ride over to the Coolidge was pretty short. From the surface, it didn’t look like there would be anything of interest. We tied to a mooring and went down the mooring line. The visibility was the worst we have seen yet in the entire South Pacific, but compared to San Diego, it was great. We couldn’t see the bottom from the surface, which made Eric nervous. He was already uncomfortable about going to a wreck dive where it would be easy to get trapped into a small space, and the lack of clarity pushed him over the edge and he decided to sit this one out.
Jaime and Christi descended the line, which was tied to a corner of the bow. The wreck wasn’t clearly visible until we got pretty close to it. From the corner you could swim over the top (which is the side of the boat), or continue descending to the foredeck. We continued descending. There were lots of fish around there were a couple of enormous angel fish, a big school of fusilier fish which are dark blue fish with bright yellow split tails, a few silver (trevallys) jacks, a tuna, a few parrotfish, and long nosed butterfly fish, to name a few of the species.
As they descended, the whole front of the ship came into clear view. The ship is absolutely massive. Christi felt like a small speck next to it. Christi and Jaime followed the local dive master as he swam over the foredeck, which still has equipment laying around ready for use. There is an anti-aircraft gun with a pile of large shells still stacked up ready for firing, gas masks and rifles lying about.
