Truk Lagoon trip report.

By Greg Zyner
Photos By Peter Blackman and Joshua Stark

In a word (or two) an absolutely fan-bloody-tastic trip.
If you do not believe me read on.

The group consisted of 16 divers ranging in age from 28 to 66 plus our leader, Peter the Great, (to distinguish him from 3 other Peters on the trip).

We were booked to do 14 dives over 7 days, however, most of us did around 20 with the deepest being on the San Francisco Maru at some 52m+.

The water temp varied from a chilly 27deg C on the dive with the sharks, to somewhat less chilly 29/30 deg C on all other dives. Most of the wrecks were in about 20-30m of water with some, like the Nipo Maru at 47m at the entrance to the engine room close to the sand. The visibility was pretty much infinite, There was so much to absorb that more than 50m of vis would have been distracting :-)

The wrecks were simply superb, one could see all sorts of articles, from beer bottles still in cases, ampules of white powder, still dry, sinks, lamps, machine guns, machine gun bullets, sinks, toilets, acetylene bottles, gas masks, engine parts, plane parts, truck parts, complete planes in the holds on the Fujikawa and of course tanks, howitzers and trucks. Some of the wrecks in shallower water had colorful coral both hard and soft and plenty of small fish life.

The Truk Stop hotel was very comfortable and well fitted out.There were plenty of stuff on hand to help with any questions or problems. To get from my room on the second floor to the end of the jetty, where I would hop on the boat every day it took me about 150sec.

There in not too much to do in Chuuk so one does not have too many distractions from diving....

The diving could not have been easier. The lockers where we stored our gear were located just off the jetty, so after breakfast it was a simply matter of putting on a wet suit, mainly used for protection rather than for warmth, and picking up all the gear from the locker and walking to the end of the jetty, where cheerful guides would help everyone getting on board.

A typical trip would take about 40min on the large boat, capable of taking about 20 divers, or about 25min on the smaller and faster boat taking 8 divers. The lagoon itself was like a lake in the middle of the ocean. the biggest ripple on the water was about 4inches.

Most of the wrecks in the lagoon where part of a supply fleet; set up to carry munitions, spare parts, diesel, water and other supplies.

We dove on the following wrecks:

• Shinkoku Maru - second largest wreck in Chuuk,one of eight oilers, great bridge
• Yamagiri Maru - passenger/cargo vessel converted to special cargo (mainly bombs and other munitions) ship famous for its human skull embeded in the ceiling of one of the holds
• Fujikawa Maru - passenger liner converted to airplane ferry, probably the largest variety of articles
• San Francisco Maru - passenger liner used on the route to San Francisco, and during the war used to ferry equipment (tanks, trucks) and supplies; tanks on deck, bombs/land mines and trucks in holds
• Kensho Maru - used to take supplies to Marshall Islands, has a terrific engine room
• Susuki "Free Dive" - a patrol boat
• Heian Maru - the largest wreck in Chuuk Lagoon, passenger/cargo vessel, used during the war as a submarine tender; periscopes
• Rio De Janeiro Maru - passenger liner (total of 1140 passengers) converted to a submarine tender during the war; heaps of beer bottles
• Fumizuki - destroyer; incredible dual props, no penetration on this wreck.
• Nippo Maru - used for various transport purposes,still has a tank and 3 howitzers deck
• Betty Bomber - Mitsubishi G4M1 Attack Bomber
• Emily Flying Boat - Kawanishi H8K1 Naval Reconnaissance Seaplane
• Zero (snorkelled) - Mitsubishi A6M5 Carrier Fighter

We dove a number of these wrecks, Fujikawa, Shinkoku, Kensho, Nippo 2-3 times.
There was just so much to see and explore and one feels much more familiar and confident on a subsequent dive.

By Thursday we were so confident with our wreck diving abilities that Peter let us dive the Shinkoku Maru as a night dive.
That wreck was terrific for that as it has lots of fish and a large number of safe swim-throughs mainly on the bridge and the forward hold at the bow.

Being on a wreck at night definitely adds a 5th dimension to diving.

The hotel put on a superb BBQ and a hula dancing show on our last day there.

What a way to finish off a terrific week of diving. If you consider yourself a serious diver this is simply, no argument, a must do trip at least once if not more.

And of course many many thanks go to our Abyss team for organizing the trip.