How to dive Truk

[WetPup]

Hi all,

I'm pretty much convinced that I should book my next dive trip to Truk, but am seeking advice on the best way to go about it. I'm a recreational diver with ~200 dives, and have always stayed pretty much within PADI recreational limits (max. ~42m). I understand that some of the diving at Truk is deeper than this. Is there the possibility to dive these deeper sites while doing a tec course on site somehow? I have been tossing up between staying at one of the land-based resorts or a liveaboard, and have not really been convinced either way yet, so I'm open to suggestions.

I'd appreciate any advice from people who have been there before on the best choice for resort/liveaboard, and what the options are for doing deeper dives (or whether I should just forget it?).

 

[Kevrumbo]

Manager & Instructor Rob McGann at the Truk Stop Hotel Dive-ops
One of the best Technical Wreck Instructors in all of Oceania. . .

 

[WetPup]

Thanks

You don't think there's any great benefit to going out on a liveaboard in Truk then?

 

[Kevrumbo]

Thanks

You don't think there's any great benefit to going out on a liveaboard in Truk then?

If all you had timewise was one week, then the Truk Odyssey would be the best way to visit all the popular wrecks within non-technical recreational depths (5 to 6 day itinerary, at least 3 dives on a particular wreck site/or 3 different wrecks per day).

 

[WetPup]

Yes, I'm probably only going to go for a week. So I guess I need to decide:

Visit the popular wrecks and just stick to recreational limits?

Or go to Truk Stop and do the intro tec course so that I could dive the San Francisco Maru?

Decisions!

 

[Kevrumbo]

Yes, I'm probably only going to go for a week. So I guess I need to decide:

Visit the popular wrecks and just stick to recreational limits?

Or go to Truk Stop and do the intro tec course so that I could dive the San Francisco Maru?

Decisions!

Wetpup, you will have the option to do the San Francisco Maru aboard the Truk Odyssey Liveaboard, but unless you have technical certs, they probably won't let you use their 11L Alu twinsets and Eanx50/Oxygen deco gases. So in other words, you will be doing the San Fran Maru (usually last dive of the week long itinerary) on a single 11L Alu cylinder (they do have larger steel cylinders for hire as well) . . .and it will be an unsatisfyingly short bottom time of maybe 8 to 10 minutes with a few minutes of mandatory decompression on the ascent starting around 12m. . .

 

[WetPup]

So it can (in theory) be done without the tec course? Good to know, I'll have to give it some consideration. I am a relatively conservative diver by nature, and I don't want to do anything especially complicated. Just really want to go check out the tanks on the deck

 

[Kevrumbo]

So it can (in theory) be done without the tec course? Good to know, I'll have to give it some consideration. I am a relatively conservative diver by nature, and I don't want to do anything especially complicated. Just really want to go check out the tanks on the deck

Very Good! But there is sooooo much more neat stuff to see on her (and San Fran Maru is starting to collapse/break-up now after 70 years on the bottom). . .

San Francisco Maru at 150'/45m - ScubaBoard Gallery

 

[WetPup]

Very Good! But there is sooooo much more neat stuff to see on her (and San Fran Maru is starting to collapse/break-up now after 70 years on the bottom). . .

San Francisco Maru at 150'/45m - ScubaBoard Gallery

Nice

Believe it or not, that's actually what prompted me to put this trip on top of the dive list. I was diving in Indo a couple of weeks ago, and one of the divers I met at the resort mentioned that a number of wrecks were starting to disintegrate and some were starting to leak fuel and avgas. Apparently it had burned a couple of people So I want to get this trip in before it becomes impractical to dive there.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Wetpup, I have been to Chuuk six times now and I would say that going all that way from Australia for only one week is not a wise expenditure of money. As the largest cost is the airfare to get there, staying longer is not that much in real terms. Since we get four weeks annual leave, lack of holidays should not be a reason to only go for a week.

I would say that a minimum of two weeks is required. I have done Chuuk liveaboard and land based and believe that land based is best. The cost for one week on a liveaboard (with airfare) is similar to staying for three weeks on land. The advantage is that you are only doing two dives a day instead of four (safer), you will do more dives and do more wrecks (the liveaboards tend to stay on one wreck for multiple dives).

Again, I would stay at Blue Lagoon as they have more boats, closer to the wrecks and are far more flexible in their diving. As to doing a course there, do it here before you go, that way you will enjoy better all the dives. The San Francisco Maru is an easy dive so long as you are good on air and a competent diver.

Yes, the wrecks are breaking up, but the wreck that was leaking aviation fuel stopped many years ago and is now diveable. The oil leaking seems to have not got worse in the almost 25 years since I first went there. In any case, the tankers are empty and any fuel is only coming from the few oil powered ships that actually had a significant amount of fuel in their tanks when they sank (most had little fuel due to Japan's dire state in 1944).

For more information about Chuuk and the wrecks see my web site: Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site