Diving the SS President Coolidge, Espiritu Santo...

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Here is my second entry on Vanuatu. I have to admit, exploring an active volcano and diving one of the biggest WWII wreck is a little too much for me over a single blog.



My trip is soon turning to an end. I came back home in Bali last night, and yes, it feels good to be at home!



Espiritu Island, also known as Santo is a 45 minutes flight from the capital Port Vila to Luganville. The flight is on the local Air Vanuatu ATR72. The are few things to see or do around Santo. I'm here only to dive the US President Coolidge wreck, so I have to admit I didn't do it all the way to Champagne Beach. This beach is one of the only cool ones around. Yes, cool beaches are not much on my agenda on this trip!



The little city of Luganville depend big time on tourism and the Coolidge is one of the main reason for the visit. I'm staying at the Espiritu. Pretty nice little hotel with a decent restaurant and 13 clean rooms. The Espiritu is also hosting Pacific Dive, the top dive center with who I'm booked five dives for the coming three days.



The SS President Coolidge was sunk by the Japanese in October 1942. The wreck lies on his side. It is a massive cargo ship, lenght above 200 meters and a good 25 meters large. You spot the wreck starting at 20 meters and going all the way to below 70 meters in the sand at the stern. The wreck is lying few meters from the beach, so no need for a boat ride here. Only three active dive centers do offer dives to the Coolidge.



This is one if not the last big wreck that doesn't required tech diving that I didn't dive. I'm booked for 4 dives on the Coolidge plus one dive on the Million Dollar beach few hundreds meters further.



You will find 2 groups of divers diving this place. Those who do one dive and that's it just to tick the box of diving the Coolidge, and those like me who do multi days to go a little further. Few divers will actually do around 10 dives on this single wreck! So the first dive is always a discovery one. I'm paired with a French lady going for a single dive and not much experience. Our DM, Rex, knows what he is doing and let me have fun behind them. First dive, 31 meters deep, basic penetration and the discovery of the top of the wreck. As it is normal with wreck, lot of stilt around, so visibility is not amazing on the outside of the wreck. My little torch and camera won't help much when it comes to pictures, so I keep my eyes opened and enjoy the ride.



My next three dives on the Coolidge are still with Rex, but this time it's only 2 of us. Next two we are penetrating straight on in the wreck. This is so much fun. we are going via very very narrow passages. The wreck lying on his side means that much of the cargo has been tossed upside down and you need to use your imagination when it comes to trucks and other cargo.



On my last dive, we went all the way to the stern. The Coolidge name is at 64 meters...wouldn't be ideal as it would mean just going down than up for some solid deco levels. Instead, we keep on top of the stern to 56 meters. Next we are entering the wreck at 54 meters and dive all the way inside the wreck to the top cargo hauls. That was a 67 minutes dive, 27 minutes deco time on a solid 27 degrees dive...lot and lot of fun!



You will also see the pictures of my single on the One Million Dollar beach. Here, at the end of the Second World War the Americans have dumped tons over tons of heavy equipment they didn't want to bring back home after the war. Imagine, Espiritu Santo was hosting around 100,000 Americans during the War, making it one of the biggest US military base of the South Pacific during WWII. When they left, they simply dumped on a single beach all their heavy equipment. So yes it's a mess, but it's a fun one worth a dive, I wouldn't push a second one here!



Enjoy the pictures! One more final blog is on the way before my next trip coming end of September! Travel safe!

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