Hawaii Landing Craft diving location Oahu, LCU
Dive Locations in Hawaii
The LCU or Landing Craft Unit is one of those dives that is seldom advertised to the general public and is not a well known Oahu diving location. It is located just off the coast of Hawaii Kai, a bit west of the mini barge and east of Diamond State Park.
It is kind of out the way from the Corsair plane wreck
location which is highly advertised and most dive companies would rather not traverse there due to
the expense of fuel.
At Oahu Diving this isn't an issue.
Although not requested much I still enjoy taking customers to this interesting
Oahu diving location. Scuba diving the landing craft sits upside down in about 80 feet of
clear blue Hawaii water. Currents can be tricky here so we will use the line to make our accent
down. The mooring line is actually attached to the stern prop area of the
landing craft. The landing craft or LCU
lays upside down so it looks kind of weird and slightly confusing.
Doing this dive for the first time as a night dive would give me a
headache. At this point we
like to drop down to the 80 foot area then head to the mid-ship location for an easy entry. Since
the landing craft is upside side it is looks like an accident of some sort, in other words this
wreck was not precisely planted underwater and yes this wreck dive
was purposely put down as an artificial reef.
Once inside or actually once underneath the landing craft you will notice a bunch of white tip reef sharks relaxing in the large shaded area made by the main cargo bay stretching overhead. This is the best area of the wreck in my opinion. Various small rooms are accessible however again since this landing craft is upside down is is very strange to get a good "navigational" feel for this area. Monitor your gauges at all time in this area.
Remember there is a huge steel boat above your
head so you must not forget this ! After penetrating the landing craft lets head back out and
finish up on the outside of this Hawaii shipwreck. The one thing that you most likely noticed
is these
huge concrete wall sections scattered around the bottom. There must be over 100
pieces of these wall
sections down there and were placed there for the acumination of reef fish
so it is said. Remember I said this
dive location in Oahu is not heavily advertised
to Hawaii tourists. However on the other hand
fisherman love this area. Those concrete wall structures bring in tons of reef fish who use these
man made walls for shelter and breeding.
Poking around this area you will sometimes find lobster. Although I routinely see more snapper, butterfly fish and trigger fish. On the outside of the landing craft I have seen Galapagos sharks too. Not everyday but more than the average Oahu shipwreck dive. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say this dive is a , well, a 7. My reason for this is I just don't like square , 90 degree angles while scuba diving. Is that strange ? Maybe it is just me. Do not get me wrong, customers do enjoy this dive, I also enjoy it but would rather dive on the Corsair or the Baby Barge wreck in Oahu.
Thanks for visiting Oahu Diving of Hawaii. Scuba diving the Landing Craft of Oahu weekly, diving boat charters and PADI Scuba courses in Honolulu, Hawaii.