Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 102

Oops

Well. That was unexpected. Apologies to the world in general. Hope we don’t all die.

Return of the Nitrox Cowboy

This is far from the best lionfish photo I’ve seen, but it’s probably the best one I’ve taken, on the stern of the depth charge wreck, described below. For the last four days I’ve been diving the lagoon at Chuuk, formerly known as Truk, in the Federated Republic of Micronesia. The lagoon is covered with wrecks destroyed in Operation Hailstorm in World War II, and I’ve dived a number of them. The last dive took place this afternoon, after which there will be a big party with barbecue, and then...

Dawn Squall

One thing about this trip, I’ve taken an amazing number of terrific dawn and sunset photos.

Mystery Plane

I’ve run a number of mystery plane contests, with my online friends of the Ground Observer Corps never taking longer than about 20 minutes to identify the plane. So I thought I’d put up a poser. What plane did I find here on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean? There’s an oval defense blister on the side, another blister on top, and a cigar-shaped fuselage. You can see the remains of an engine nacelle on the wing. The other diver should give it scale. What have I found? The clock is ticking.

Last Night’s New Moon

Manta Ray

It’s always been my ambition to view a manta ray, or devilfish, though luck has always been against me. One of the best places in the world to see a manta is the German Channel in Palau, a channel in the reef blasted by German engineers in support of their phosphate mining endeavors, back when the islands belonged to Wilhelm II. When the tide is on the ebb, water just pours through the German Channel, bringing food along with it. All the mantas have to do is hover there, or turn barrel rolls,...

Ghost Ship

Wanna hear a ghost story? (It’s still Halloween in the States, I believe, though I’m on the far side of the dateline myself.) This is the story of an unknown ship, known as the “depth charge wreck” or the “helmet wreck,” from its cargo. It was a Japanese sub-chaser sunk during the Second World War, probably in 1944, though there is no record of it. No one knows the ship’s name. or the names of the crew, or when it was sunk or by what means. It wasn’t even discovered till the 1980s. Strange, b...

Afloat in the Philippine Sea

Return to Palau

After two days on airplanes and in airports, we got to spend a night in a luxury hotel. It caters more to Japanese than American visitors, so the breakfast buffet had some interesting choices. I had a vegetable stir-fry of udon noodles topped with a couple eggs sunny-side-up, along with tropical fruit and coffee, and from the terrace I could view thePalau Aggressor, which I’ll be boarding in a few hours, for a week of undersea adventure. Last time I was in Palau I got an award-winning story o...

Oceania

I’m going off to the Pacific for two and a half weeks, to commune with my finny friends. Much of that time I’ll be on a boat with no phone or internet connection, which I for one find to be a delightful prospect. The rest of the time I’ll be on one or another island. I don’t know what the online setup there will be, but I expect it it will make me long for the good old days of dial-up service. I don’t think they’re running a lot of T3 connections to Pacific atolls, but maybe I’m wrong. Postin...