Chuuk Lagoon - Ghost Fleet - Is land based diving possible?

[RRedd]

I am planning a trip and looking for some advice. Can you land base dive the Ghost Fleet in Chuuk or is it Liveaboard only?

 

[broncobowsher]

Blue Lagoon dive center. Excellent land based opereation.

 

[Doc]

Not only possible, but imagine this- it’s how we started doing it in the 1970’s. Blue Lagoon as per @broncobowsher, back to the original guy, Kimeo Isaac.

Examine your choices with great care, LOB vs LB, huge price differences. Value? Do not be distracted by piles of advertising money.

Feel the island, stand on that soil.

 

[Akimbo]

There isn't much to do on Chuuk besides diving and day boat transit times can be long. I think the value of liveaboards is worth it on a dive per trip basis. I prefer liveaboards that you dive directly from rather than transferring to tenders.

 

[lexvil]

I did 12 days at Blue Lagoon 10 days of diving and spent less than $5k, including the arduous airfare/trip including a short night at a vrbo on Guam. The live aboard would have made it $10k.

 

[BoltSnap]

I have done both, liveaboard and land based. Both have their pluses and minuses but also both are great. Most of the dive sites are very close to the land based operations and hence one can argue that land based can do everything a liveaboard can do. On the other hand, liveaboards stay in one sport and ferry their divers on their dingies to the various dive sites and hence one can argue that a land based operation is just the same and less expensive.

 

[runsongas]

odyssey has nicer rooms, unlimited nitrox, plenty of o2 for deco, preblended trimix, and can do more dives a day. blue lagoon actually has slightly better food, but the rooms are decrepit. maybe it was nice back in the 70s, but it looks like it hasn't been renovated since. you can dive right off the back of the odyssey for several of the wrecks and the lift is useful to get in and out with stages clipped on.

 

[Doc]

There isn't much to do on Chuuk besides diving and…..

When i was there, we were part of a film crew. My area of expertise was ‘modern conflict archeology’, so i found spectacular opportunities examining fortifications that were but 30 years old, yet all but being absorbed- as part of the jungle.

I am sure that there are local tour guides who will drive you about on such paths that we took days to traverse. In those years, we saw mostly intact fighter aircraft in 30fsw, surely gone by now….but there are such delicate relics still resisting the all enveloping jungle.

When you see the i-169 Shinohara Maru, she is “my” Silent Warrior, I watched in 1973 as her hatches were welded closed, now I’m told the Ocean has opened other huge holes in her after 50 years.

It is not “just wrecks”, it is silent history, both under and above the relentless Ocean.

Thanks for letting me ramble, my message to all- go if you can, when your skills are there, but read a lot before your trip…it will mean a lot more to you if you do.

 

[Akimbo]

t is not “just wrecks”, it is silent history, both under and above the relentless Ocean.

The topside 20th century history is not that accessible in Chuuk, especially compared to Palau and Peleliu. I was fortunate enough to make dive trip to Palau with a neighbor who grew up there in the post war era. It was amazing to have him show me caves, bunkers, and gun emplacements where he played as a kid. His father was in charge of restoring facilities (roads, utilities, etc) for the US State Department.

Chuuk's tourism facilities are very limited and the general indication was that self-tours were not safe.

A historic tidbit of interest is Allied POWs were often brought to Truk before being moved. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington of the Black Sheep Squadron landed on Truk as a POW as Operation Hailstone began. Boyington was shot down and picked up by a Japanese submarine a few days before.

 

[broncobowsher]

odyssey has nicer rooms, unlimited nitrox, plenty of o2 for deco, preblended trimix, and can do more dives a day. blue lagoon actually has slightly better food, but the rooms are decrepit. maybe it was nice back in the 70s, but it looks like it hasn't been renovated since. you can dive right off the back of the odyssey for several of the wrecks and the lift is useful to get in and out with stages clipped on.

I was there in late 2019, just before they shut down for Covid. The Blue Lagoon rooms were being remodeled at that time. Don't know if they finished yet. It isn't a 5 star, or even a 4 star resort. It is a bed to sleep in, a shower to clean up in. You really don't go there to hang out in the rooms. It is a nice resort in a third world country.

Being a gear head I also like looking at the cars on the island. It is an interesting mix on American market cars and older JDM. On the bus ride back to the airport I spotted a 3rd gen F-body in the corner of a property. That was a shocker to see that car on an island with roads as bad as they are. I fell in love with the little Pajero mini. Every once in a while I look for one to import as they are getting old enough to be eligible.

I have not done a boat based operation there. So I can't comment too much on those.