Yes, Polynesia called...

    A vacation to Tahiti was one Jane had wanted to do for some time.  The time finally came and we packed our gear.  This trip was not billed as a dive vacation per-say, but hey I never travel anywhere near water without a FEOR handy.  Thus the FEOR was packed for travel.

   
FEOR in travel pack.

    A handy back pack made a convenient pack for full ocean gear;  mask, Churchill fins, snorkel, booties, swim trunk, lyra skins, scrubber charged FEOR, spare oxygen tank, extra scrubber with MSDS printout, some spare parts, tools, small flashlight,  a note for TSA and cell phone contact information.  (But I get ahead of myself.)

Passports

    This vacation almost did not happen.  The night before we were scheduled to leave, guess who finds out that His passport has expired.  Ok, I should have checked it sooner, but hey, we just went to Hondurous last summer with Tom Rose.  Surely it should still be good.  It wasn't, and some last minute scrambling at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles saved not only the trip, but my marriage!   Yes, I got a passport-in-a-day.  (It is possible, you need your old passport, new pictures, airline tickets with same day departure date, proper paperwork and a credit card.) I'll not get too much into the details...  it did take all day, we had about three hours to spare before our flight.  (Hey, we had it made in the shade. )  (Jane's note: This was a miserable experience; never give a government agent the opportunity to torture you because they will. We will NOT do this again...)  J

TSA

        I didn't think that my passport would be the problem.  I thought that my main problem may have been getting the rebreather out of the country.  I will admit that my unit looks a bit suspicious as it is not painted in bright colors and it contains chemicals.   And I had been hearing some tales of TSA stopping cylinders at the gate, and well chemicals are... chemicals.

      With valves off the tanks, flashlight available for inspection, MSDS, pictures of me diving the gear and little notes with my cell phone number all packed in and around the FEOR ... I sent it to the X-ray machines.

    I never saw the gear again till arrival in Tahiti.   A total and complete non-event.  Either my preparation helped, or they have seen enough dive gear by now that it was not a concern.   Returning from Tahiti was just as uneventful.

    I will pack the same way next time I travel with the rebreather.  Note: the rebreather was packed with tools and other dive gear such as mask, fins, snorkel, bathing suit, skins, etc.   I did not try to travel with the unit as single piece of "carry on".

Arrive    

    After an eight hour overnight flight we arrived in Papeete, Tahiti.  (One piece of luggage, Jane's clothes decided it wanted to travel on to New Zealand.  In a couple of days it arrived at the hotel.)


    After clearing customs we were greeted by our tour's welcoming agent, and driven to another terminal for transfer to an island hopper for a four and a half minute flight to Moorea.   Again we were greeted by the tour agents and we were driven to our resort.  
 

    The FEOR had arrived.   (In style.)

    A very smooth operation of door to door pick up and delivery service also worked perfectly on our departure. 

Resort

    We stayed at the Moorea Pearl Resort.  A beautiful resort, well staffed, exquisite accommodations and  food that was outstanding.  We opted for a meal plan as we were told the food was expensive on the island.  The best decision we could have made.  The dining made the vacation.  A five star restaurant.  In fact I think that the food was almost too pretty to eat!  But eat we did, and we enjoyed every bite.

    The first evening we went for a swim.  It was a surprise that the ocean temperature was warmer than the temperature of the resort's pool.  This was a nice welcome to the South Pacific.

Finding O2

    Well, as you know I had planned to use my FEOR in Tahiti.  The plan was to get a couple of my medical oxygen cylinders filled, and play with the unit in the lagoon around the island.  I planned for a total of six hours of dive time.  More than enough underwater play for a non-scuba trip.
     Before the trip I contacted Air Liquide to see if they can fill some of my medical oxygen cylinders.  On the telephone it seemed that they could adapt to a CGA 840, not my usual CGA 540.  (So I brought both.)
    Jane and I took a ferry to Tahiti to find Air Liquide.  After a little adventure we found our destination.  Then my troubles began....
    It turns out that they had no problem with the CGA 840.  They had a big problem with the inspection stamps on my cylinders.  US Hydro inspections are not valid in French Polynesia.  Seems that it has to have a French Hydro.  My stay was not long enough to get it inspected.
    I was not able to get a small oxygen cylinder from them to strap onto the FEOR.  They would have let me obtain a larger oxygen cylinder to decant from, (they just didn't want to see me decant with it),  but alas appropriate fittings were not to be found in the time I was on vacation.  Thus, after extinguishing plan B and C, plan D was put into effect.
    It was off to the le'hardware store.  After traveling in parts of the town that only longshoremen frequent, what did I find?  Would you believe... nothing other than an ACE Hardware store, complete with my favorite Bernz-O-Matic Oxygen cylinders.  I was In Like Flint.
    With all the spare valves that I brought with me, the one I omitted was the modified Bernz-O-Matic valve.  I really thought that I had evolved beyond that one, so I left it home.  And who was to think that I would actually have a use for it.  Never in my mind did I even think that I would find a US Bernz-O-Matic O2 bottle in Tahiti. (And after all the long distance phone calls, I didn't think that I would need it.)  
     But the CEDU is always prepared.  In my spare parts kit I included various hose clamps and hoses.  I thought that  I may have had to adapt odd cylinders to my rig.  By using the various tubing and hose clamps I rigged up a pretty simple and ingenious little O2 Addition Valve.

Close up of the Field Expedient Oxygen Addition Valve
 

    What I did was to make the gas path from cylinder to FEOR with vinyl tubing. I clamped it in place at various points with hose clamps.  A Valve Actuator was made from a piece of heavy wire which pierced the tubing and put pressure on the schreader valve of the cylinder as I actuated it.  The double layers of Vinyl tubing were pierced by heating a smaller diameter piece of wire and melting a path.  The larger piece of wire was tightly held in place and provided a good water tight seal during the dives. 

FEOR ready to dive (Time to check out the anchorage in the background.)
F

f     This was most definitely a "Field Expedient" operation.   And as usual, it may have not looked pretty, but it sure worked.  (Do I need to patent that valve arrangement?  I would hate to see in a couple of years some major dive equipment manufacturer making a retro version of this unit for the nostalgia market.)

    As expected the unit worked flawlessly.

    The dive was most pleasurable.  No bubbles, no troubles, and no questions asked.

Other Activities

    This trip was not billed as a dive vacation.  My obsession with homebuilt life support equipment is at best tolerated by my wife.  (I love her for that.)  We did act as normal tourists for most of the trip, and only engaged in this covert evaluation of using "indigenous logistical resources for field expedient operations" as a side bar.  Activities other than rebreather diving  which were enjoyed were  swimming, snorkeling, free diving, and a guided Island Tour.

    The guided tour was very interesting as they used 4 wheel vehicles and drove where goats would fear to roam.  The tour also stopped at a distillery where we were able to sample all of their liquors, all of their liquors, all of their liquors.  (Did I say all of their liquors?)

    We rented a car and went snorkeling at various scenic locations around the island.  Now I must apologize to appropriate authorities for the possibility of trespassing in order to reach the beach. (Can't keep a Marine off the beach you know!)

     
Enjoying ... the ubiquitous cocoanut, an opportunistic Motu, and a nostril serenade by our guide.

    A trip to Tahiti must include Tahitian Black Pearls in one form or another.  The Pearl Museum on Papeete was most interesting, and various jewelry store and crafters on Moorea were a must.  Way off the beaten trail, in an enchanted location that rivaled the set of the Swiss Family Robinsons, we stumbled upon an artist who among other things makes custom jewelry.  Jane had found her souvenir from Tahiti.

 
Jane's Black Tahitian Pearl ring, artist and his wife are shown with Jane.

Dive Adventure

    Our only planned scuba trip became cancelled as a tropical storm presented itself.  The rain came, the surf was up, and in the aftermath some trees were up rooted and roof's of some buildings were blown away.  But no major damage occurred, an in no time we were back enjoying our tropical paradise once again.

The winds blew, but the flowers remained.

    With the cancellation of our dive trip we had a "free" day with no activities planned.  The hotel suggested we take the opportunity to enjoy the shelter of the room to weather out the storm, and partake in various hotel room games.   With that suggestion we engaged in our own island costume party, learning how to wear the Pareu in all sorts of ways. (Some images of which may not be suitable for minors.)

The many faces of a couple of wild and crazy islanders. (Don't ask me to turn around.)
 

    Since our open circuit scuba dive trip was cancelled we never were able to evaluate the resident dive operation.  In conversations before the vacation, I was informed that they would not be able to help me in my quest for oxygen.  In fact in the conversations I had with them, I got the distinct feeling that the concept of diving with oxygen was of great concern to them.  As a result, I decided to keep my distance from that operation. 

  
    CEDU gives Moorea a thumbs up as suitable for Closed Circuit Field Expedient Operations. 
The next time you are in French Polynesia seek out an approved CEDU facility near you. 
(It will display the approved CEDU trademark, or it may not be able to confirm or deny its very existence.)

Going Home

   
    The vacation was over, but not the adventure.  We had the afternoon to enjoy the hotel after our noon check out, as our flight off the island was at 5pm.  Some more swimming and poolside relaxing was in order.  It was in order until my stomach started to give me some problems.  I don't know what kind of bugs got to me, but the stomach cramps got worse as the afternoon went on to the point that I almost thought I would not be able to fly.  I tolerated the island hopper to Papeete, and at the last minute felt well enough to board the jet for our flight home.  I still don't know what I ate, but I was sure glad to be home safe in the USA. 
 

    Vacations are fun, it is always nice to meet new people and see new places.  However, as Dorothy would say, "there is no place like home."   It was good to get back home.

Till next time,
Smile,

Dr. Bob
Crestline Experimental Dive Unit

Another side of tropical life.

    Other memories that do not photograph well are smells.  I could have understood the smell of diesel fumes in the port area of Papeete, what with all the shipping and auto traffic in the city.  But I was surprised by the smell of burning matter I noted all over Moorea.  It turns out that everyone, yes everyone burns "jungle growth" on their property.  One reason is that it is a way to get rid of the ever-growing jungle that encroaches upon every square inch of the island.  (One person told us that his fire pit has been lit and smoldering for the past thirty five years.)  But, the main reason is that the smoke keeps away mosquitoes.  It is a kind of natural insecticide.  Our hotel fogged the entire grounds for bugs each morning.  Thank you.       ;.

Some picture postcards of our trip 

Links:

Moorea Pearl Resort

Dr. Bob's Rebreather Main Page