Logbook Scuba Dive # 363 - USS Saratoga (CV-3)
| Logbook Scuba Dive # 363 - USS Saratoga (CV-3) |
Good| Cylinder Set #1 | |||
| Cylinder Type: | Cylinder Size: | Working Pressure: | Supply Type: |
| Steel |  24 litres |
300 bar |  Open Circuit (OC) |
| O2: | He: | Min. PPO2: | Max. PPO2: |
| 21% | 0% | - | 1.4 bar |
 EAN 21 |
MOD: | EAD: | END: |
| 56.6 m | 56.6 m | 56.6 m | |
| Start Pressure: | End Pressure: | Diff. Pressure: | |
| 257 bar | 102 bar | 155 bar | |
| Avg. Depth: | SAC Rate: | ||
| - | - | ||
| Cylinder Set #2 | |||
| Cylinder Type: | Cylinder Size: | Working Pressure: | Supply Type: |
| Alumimium |  11 litres |
200 bar | Open Circuit (OC) |
| O2: | He: | Min. PPO2: | Max. PPO2: |
| 50% | 0% | 0.19 bar | 1.6 bar |
| EAN 50 |
MOD: | EAD: | END: |
| 22.0 m | 10.3 m | 22.0 m | |
| Start Pressure: | End Pressure: | Diff. Pressure: | |
| 200 bar | - | - | |
| Avg. Depth: | SAC Rate: | ||
| - | - | ||
| Cylinder Set #3 | |||
| Cylinder Type: | Cylinder Size: | Working Pressure: | Supply Type: |
| Steel | 7 litres |
232 bar | Open Circuit (OC) |
| O2: | He: | Min. PPO2: | Max. PPO2: |
| 95% | 0% | 0.19 bar | 1.6 bar |
| EAN 95 |
MOD: | EAD: | END: |
| 6.8 m | -8.9 m | 6.8 m | |
| Start Pressure: | End Pressure: | Diff. Pressure: | |
| 200 bar | - | - | |
| Avg. Depth: | SAC Rate: | ||
| - | - | ||
| Avg. Depth: | SAC Rate: | ||
| 19.88 m | 16.60 litres/min | ||
| Gas Mixture: | |||
| - | |||
| On our Tuesday afternoon dive, we returned to the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier. This time, we made our way to the forward elevator shaft and ventured down to see a fully intact Curtiss "Helldiver", canopy open, wings in the stowed position, with live bombs in the bomb bay just a little forward of the plane. This is what it was all about! As this wreck offers the shallowest dives in Bikini Lagoon, we would often dive on her in the afternoon as the second dive of the day. There is so much to explore that you could keep diving on "Sara" for years and still keep finding something new. Edward Maddison began diving the nuclear ghost fleet in the 1980s and has made more dives on "Sara" than anyone, yet still looks forward to every dive. On a later dive, we headed off the starboard side of the ship towards two more Helldivers lying on the sand. These had been secured on the deck during the atomic blast but were torn off their chains and came to rest some 40 metres away from the wreck. The interior of the Saratoga is vast, to say the very least. Permanent lines have been laid in some areas. With seven decks of passageways, rooms, storerooms, accommodation, galleys, etc., you could spend the rest of your diving career on this warship and never grow tired of diving her! One of the dives that totally blew my mind was when three of us, led by Peter Fear, penetrated the dive locker and beyond. We went past the storage shelves, into a large room and then through a doorway into the dive locker, where we saw two standard dress diving helmets sitting alongside each other. On coming out of the dive locker, we headed down a passageway with rooms off to either side. One was some form of dining area or kitchen, with plates stacked up high in a corner. Another had Coke bottles strewn about, and I resisted the temptation to souvenir one. We headed back outside and then went to another level into a machine shop located at the bottom of the port side of the main elevator. Lathes, drill presses, grinding pedestals, workbenches and all the other paraphernalia of a well-equipped workshop are all still in situ. Everything was covered in the finest red rusty silt, possibly still radioactive if you dug deep into it! This wreck is just so impressive. Countless planes, bombs, artefacts, plates, bowls, jugs, etc., lay untouched since 1946. In a German documentary made about diving at Bikini Atoll on the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier, the narrator stated that the Saratoga was so large that you couldn't go from one end to the other on a single dive. Well, on our last dive at Bikini Atoll for the trip, three of us decided to go bow to stern and back on the Saratoga and truly take in the vast expanse of this magnificent aircraft carrier. Old "Sara" is quite simply the greatest wreck dive in the world! |
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