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Posted By: Nickens, Dan
Date Posted: Oct 1, 2015
Description: ""Another day, another island.""

That would have been the bad news for Marines hopping from one hellish island battlefield to another leading towards Japan. For SuRi and its SeaRey, it was good news: another sunlit day to explore the tropical beauty of another Solomon Island.
Date Taken: August 10, 2015
Place Taken: Pavuvu, Central Province, Solomon Islands
Owner: Dan Nickens
File Name: 34a Suspension in Action 6524.jpg   - Photo HTML
Full size     - <img src="/show.php?splash=6vqGN2HNrh">
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Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=6vqGN2HNrs">
Category: Yacht_Tending_Solomon_Islands
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Read what others had to say:

Nickens, Dan - Sep 30,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Sunga was too busy to brief me about wrecks in the lagoons of Pavuvu, so I went off to search on my own.      Attachments:  

Wreck Searching
Wreck Searching

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Sep 30,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    The 1st Marine Division established a camp in a Levers Brothers coconut plantation on Pavuvu. It was used primarily for recuperation after horrific combat on Cape Gloucester and Peleliu. It was also a staging area for the invasion of Okinawa. This would of been one of the island locations for which the combatants may have had pleasant memories.      Attachments:  

Quiet Bay
Quiet Bay

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Sep 30,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    SuRi found a nicely protected parking spot just offshore from a coconut plantation. As Sunga told me later, the plantation owner cleaned off relicts of war when they returned to business after peace was declared.      Attachments:  

Camp Parking
Camp Parking

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Sep 30,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    SuRi was a local attraction for the native children. They turned out in force as the sun set.      Attachments:  

Local Spectacle
Local Spectacle

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Sep 30,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Night comes quickly in the tropics. Instead of driving the children home, more came like flittering moths. They paddled to the artificial lights of SuRi.      Attachments:  

Last Light
Last Light

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Sep 30,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    One canoe separated from the flotilla surrounding SuRi and paddled tentatively towards the SeaRey. When they reached a respectful distance they stopped and stared.

There were three in the little canoe. Two young boys and a teenage girl. I waved them closer.

Ever so slowly they approached. I waved them towards my side of the cockpit so that the bow of the canoe edged under the port wing. "Would you like to see inside?"

I got an enthusiastic response from the boys. The girl just smiled shyly.

At first the boys just stared in wonder. I encouraged them by turning on the electronic displays and pointing out what they did. They started asking questions. Good questions. The older boy was studying navigation at a Catholic school.

Loading SuRi was going really slowly. "Would you like to sit in the cockpit?" I asked. The two boys looked to the girl. She smiled and nodded her head.

Often inviting boys into the cockpit is an invitation to mayhem. Not these two young gentlemen. They had to be encouraged to move the control stick, to lower the flaps, to move the rudder. They politely took turns.

The marine radio called me to bring the seaplane in. "Would you like to ride in with me?"

Before answering they looked to the girl. She smiled. I asked her to move closer to SuRi where we would join her again. She was off quickly and in position easily before I maneuvered close for loading. She was back as soon as I shut the engine down. She and the boys thanked me profusely as they floated away making room for the yacht tender to attach.

No old wrecks were found this day. At the end of the day, however, there was no regret. Showing kids still living in the early part of the last century the cockpit of an electronic seaplane was invigorating. Seeing the past is good. Glimpsing the future is even better. 		     Attachments:  

All Lit Up
All Lit Up

    
  
Don Maxwell - Sep 30,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Well done, Dan!     
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    What prospects for a day of exploration! A old volcano loomed in the distance. A submerged volcano lurked just offshore. And Sunga said the wreckage of a B-24 lay on a nearby beach.

Vangunu is part of the New Georgia Islands. The center piece of the island is a giant cauldera symmetrically rising up from the surrounding ocean. The volcano is now cold, filled with the luxuriant green of a tropical jungle.

Not far away a new island is forming. Just 13 nm south is a submarine volcano, Rejo te Kvachi ("Kavachi's Oven". The volcano is one of the most active in the Pacific, putting on a show for SuRi last year, often erupting and forming shallow islands up to 1 km long that are quickly eroded away. The rising mountain is fueled by the nearby Indo-Australian subduction zone, just 16 nm further south of the volcano.

The hot spot was recently newsworthy for the discovery of two species of shark found living in the hot, acidic water of its molten crater. The remote seamount sits in water 1 km deep. Its frequent eruption prevents any benthic growth, but the surrounding water teems with fish. How do they do that? Why do they do that?

When Kavachi is active, islanders on Vangunu and Gatukai are treated to nighttime fireworks. It comes at a price, however: fear for what a major eruption could do to their idyllic islands. 		     Attachments:  

View to a Volcano
View to a Volcano

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Sunga wasn't exactly sure where the B-24 wreckage was located and he quickly left with the divers. He said it was on a beach. It was up to me to find it for myself. How hard could that be?      Attachments:  

Room to Explore
Room to Explore

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    I assumed the airplane had been ditched to end up on a beach. So, look for a beach that you would want to land a large bomber on, right?      Attachments:  

Island Curves
Island Curves

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    A long beach would be great for an emergency landing, but not one so narrow, bordered by reef and jungle.      Attachments:  

Long Beach
Long Beach

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    A sand spit might be nice in an pinch for a bomber landing but there was no wreckage in sight.      Attachments:  

Tropical Colors
Tropical Colors

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    If I had to crash somewhere this would be my pick! Lots of nice water and white sandy beach.      Attachments:  

Good Spot
Good Spot

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    It seems I wasn't the only one that liked this spot. By the time I came around to try it out the crowds had appeared.      Attachments:  

Popular Spot
Popular Spot

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Some locations were clearly not suitable for emergency use.      Attachments:  

Bright Lines
Bright Lines

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    From open ocean to dense jungle with no transition!      Attachments:  

Beachless
Beachless

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    There were just too many places to ditch a bomber! I had to go back to the boat and wait for Sunga. When he got back from his dive, he took me there in a boat. I went back later in the SeaRey.      Attachments:  

Going Around
Going Around

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    All shot up.
One engine feathered.
Losing altitude fast.
Not going to make it back to base.
Too low to jump out.
Got to set it down somewhere.
Ditching was explained theoretically in training, never practiced.
Now it's a life and death reality.
There is only one chance to get it right.
A sheltered cove looks like the place.
That's it.
Dead ahead. 		     Attachments:  

Approach to Ditching
Approach to Ditching

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    The resting place of one B-24 is on this point.
One wing lay in the water.
The fuselage lay along the shore.
It's covered now with water and jungle. 		     Attachments:  

End Point
End Point

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    What's left of a big wing 72 years after its last flight.      Attachments:  

Edge of Destruction
Edge of Destruction

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    The gravesite of the big airplane is in the jungle. The shattered remnants seem much too insubstantial to represent the bigger than life bomber.

The bomber's gravesite is not shared by the crew. The doomed flight departed from Henderson field on its last mission. The crew got lost in that night's bad weather. An island was spotted on radar. The crew concluded it was Russell Island. It wasn't.

The B-24D named "Bundles for Japan" circled through the remainder of the night, waiting for dawn. When dawn lit their location, the pilot realized they were too far to reach any safe haven. Weighing their now limited options the captain decided that they should jump.

They did. All of the crew survived the jump except one. The surviving crew was rescued and returned to service.

The airplane circled on autopilot until it ran out of fuel. An autonomous landing ended on this edge of land.

RIP B-24D "Bundles for Japan"
Crashed February 16, 1943
Pilot Captain Uhner Newman (survived)
Co-Pilot Eugene J. Marx (survived) Gregory, SD
Navigator Jack Newton (survived)
Crew Sgt John L Knisley (KIA, BR) PA
Crew Henry Wolf (survived)
Crew Silas Bell (survived)
Crew Anthony Chudsik (survived)
Crew Wayne Shirley (survived)
Crew George Gathers (survived) 		     Attachments:  

Gravesite
Gravesite

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    SeaRey N415SR returned to base with crew, thankful to be back safely onboard.      Attachments:  

Return to Base
Return to Base

    
  
Nickens, Dan - Oct 01,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    After a long, eventful day of flying I was having a quiet late dinner with some of the crew. A normally calm engineer suddenly burst in. "It's blowing! The volcano is blowing!"

After a few seconds of stunned silence we all jumped up and raced to the aft deck. "There! There! Look at those fires!"

We didn't have to be told where to look. There, on the horizon, a hellish glow lit the night. Great flaming masses were shooting into the black sky.

"Kill the lights so we can see it better!" someone yelled. One of the stewardesses, ever considerate of her responsibilities raced back into the interior. "I'll tell the guests."

"It's beautiful," someone whispered.

It was, but it was also strange. It wasn't like anything I'd imagined or seen. It was, um, a bit subdued for a volcano. There was no rumbling, no lightning. No great glowing plume. It didn't seem right.

The night was dark, but I could dimly see the silhouette of the Vangunu's peak in the distance off the port side. The inferno we were witnessing was off the stern. Kavachi should have been to starboard. This was in the wrong place.

As we stared the fiery spectacle began to subside. As my eyes adjusted I began to see individual fires. I gave voice to my doubts. "That looks like a forest fire."

"A forest fire? Didn't you see it shoot upward?"

"I did. I'm betting someone used an accelerant to get the fire started." I was just guessing.

"You didn't see it when it started! It was like a blast, mate."

"Did you hear an explosion?"

"Um, no. But it might be far away."

"We are in a cove. That looks like it is on a hill on the western side. It's not a kilometer distant."

Once the element of doubt was introduced, skepticism spread quickly. The first mate grabbed binoculars and studied the now subsiding phenomenon. His verdict: "It's a fire. You can see the trees burning."

"Yeah, but maybe that's just the aftermath," a deckhand suggested.

I just shook my head. "Could be. Let me know if it blows up. I'm going to bed."

We left during the night so there was no visual confirmation of a fire on the aft hillside. The great faux eruption was never mentioned again. 		     Attachments:  

Scary Volcano
Scary Volcano

    
  
Mike Reisz - Oct 03,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    When I saw the first picture, I thought it was a SeaRey on aero-tow. That would be pretty cool, but I don't think the
glide ratio would allow for good thermal hunting.

As always, a great read. Thanks for posting! 		    
  
Don Maxwell - Oct 04,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    I did, too, Mike. Then I noticed that it was being towed empty--no pilot. THEN I got around to noticing the hoist. (Most important thing last probably isn't very practical, but it can be more exciting.)     


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