No new news on Truk? Planning to go with Thorfinn, any recent opinions?

[SADS 669]

I have not seen any recent opinions about the Thorfinn. I am hoping to book with Capt H early in the new year and wondered if there was any news out there before I actually book?

Everything I have read is directing me to the T'Finn but 2 weeks is a lot of money and time to spend anywhere.............

Thanks and best wishes,
Kevin

 

[clownfishsydney]

I would not touch Thorfinn with a barge pole. Do a search and you will find many disgruntled customers. Best way is to do from shore, I would recommend Blue Lagoon. For the same amount of money, you can stay a lot longer and get to dive a vastly greater number of wrecks, especially the ones deeper than 35 metres.

 

[TheTrickster]

Off to stay on ThorFinn in 3 weeks (doing 3 days before with Blue Lagoon also). So will let you know.

Never been before, and haven't read any reviews either - will be interesting then...

 

[SADS 669]

Would be very interested in the 3 weeks time opinion ( email kjamespi@ aol.com) thanks for the heads up clown fish

all the very best
kevin

 

[roflcopter]

Off to stay on ThorFinn in 3 weeks (doing 3 days before with Blue Lagoon also). So will let you know.

Never been before, and haven't read any reviews either - will be interesting then...

I just sent you a PM. I would love to know about the thorfinn.

 

[joewr]

I would not touch Thorfinn with a barge pole. Do a search and you will find many disgruntled customers. Best way is to do from shore, I would recommend Blue Lagoon. For the same amount of money, you can stay a lot longer and get to dive a vastly greater number of wrecks, especially the ones deeper than 35 metres.

Hi,

It's been a few years since we last dove Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon. We stayed at the resort and dove with Blue Lagoon. It was fantastic, unique diving and I highly recommend it. A few notes:

1) Absolutely do some night dives. The coral and sea life on the wrecks is simply spectacular at night. Do you want to see Clown Anenomes? They are almost guaranteed on a Truk night dive.
2) Do the airplane wrecks. We planned these visits carefully. Firstly, we told the DM that we wanted to do the Betty, etc. at the end of the dive. Then we asked for one of the shallower dives and saved 700 lbs of air in our tanks. Now we could scuba dive the airplane wrecks for a long time since they are so shallow. Of course, you can snorkel them, but scuba was so much easier.
3) The DM's are pretty casual and you really need to be aware of your own safety issues. The way the dive boats anchor to the wrecks makes finding your way back to the boat a snap. But, in our experience, the DMs never once inquired about our air. Also, the boats that go out for night dives often have no running lights! After we discovered this, we always brought along an extra dive light and kept it on during the boat rides.
4) Do your homework--if you ask for a specific dive/wreck, they will take you to it. We did two deep dives--the Submarine I-169 at ca. 140 ft. and the San Francisco Maru at 150 ft. (It has 3 tanks its deck and that is a neat sight. However, you do not have to descend all the way to 150 ft. to see them.).

The shop at the resort usually has a copy of a book that describes all the wrecks and you can study it on your first day to get an idea about what you might want to see. Also this website is useful:

Truk Lagoon's Most Popular Wrecks - WWII Wrecks In Chuuk Micronesia

I hope this helps...

joewr

 

[TheTrickster]

Well I'm back from from our diving in Chuuk Lagoon (now I know the correct name!)

Videos here - https://vimeo.com/album/2597932

2 Days of diving with Blue Lagoon and 7 Days with ThorFinn.

All the diving was fantastic - if you are a slightly advanced diver, who is happy to go deep into wrecks, this is the diving for you. Multi deck engine rooms, well past points of visible light etc...

We had a mix of single (100cu), doubles and CCR divers and I think to be honest diving a twinset or CCR is the way to go, as you will mostly be hitting deco on every dive. On the San Fran, I had over 70mins of deco to do, according to my PDC...

To be honest, this type of diving isn't for the hand holding, 'the DM will take care of me' type of diving, you should know your stuff, its fairly deep - you should know your limits. They will take you to the site, show you around and then make their way back to the shot - its up to you, if you want to stay longer or follow them. Most of the time a couple of us were down on the wreck before the guide, they are cool, its a 'follow me if you want' type thing. None of this 'WHERES YOUR BUDDY!?! finger pointing' rubbish you get.

Staying at Blue Lagoon at the beginning, was comfortable, clean and very welcoming. Too be honest the diving was a bit more expensive than I provisioned for, as tax etc is all on top - but the staff, facilities, dive guides etc were great. Food was very western, and pretty good value.

ThorFinn - Lance who is well into his 70's now, wasn't as active as I imagined. I was expecting lectures of do's/don'ts and the rest, but he was hardly seen, I presume fixing this and that. When we did see him, he was very jolly and talkative. The boat is old, but I have to say very well kept and is in fine condition for the 'oldest liveaboard'. You can tell Lance is proud of the ship.

Cabins are nothing to complain about - some are ensuite, some are not - I would recommend upper deck cabins to get away from the heat / noise of the engine room / compressors..

We were spilt into 2 smaller tenders off the ThorFinn and the group sizes were ideal. The food on board was definitely aimed at Meat eaters, we had a couple of Veggies on board and I think they must of lost weight... there was a choice at breakfast of what you wanted, but lunch and dinner was a 'eat what you're given'. Saying that the food was nice and varied. You must try the Island steak at breakfast The crew we all excellent, you felt they wanted to help, not just smiling for the sake of it to your face as you get in the Red Sea (sometimes)

We dived all the popular sites and at the end even got a dive on some deeper / less visited stuff by request.

There were no restrictions on what type of diving you wanted to do, be it Solo (which I did) group of 5 - whatever - wreck penetration without a guide - up to you...
They only stipulated max of 60min runtimes (which we hardly ever kept too) and that you do their recommended stops (which I can't remember - and again no one followed) it was all pretty relaxed.

They run a funky price system, which we all agreed didn't seem to make sense, but as we hired the whole boat, we got them to agree slightly more easier to understand pricing... o2 for the CCR was coming in at around 80-85% so OK, but not super.

Defo will be going back to ThorFinn in a couple of years.

 

[MalibuJerry]

I stayed at the Truk Stop. Good food, good rooms. I went into the kitchen and told the cook how I liked my eggs and such and he made them custom for me. They took me to the sites I wanted to dive, when I wanted to go. Good price. If you stay on shore, hike up into the hills. there are some Japanese cannon and fortifications up there.

 

[roflcopter]

I recently stayed on the thorfinn and I will give an honest review here.

The diving..... amazing! Absolutely amazing! The guides were top notch, very knowledgeable, very helpful, etc. You rarely needed to wait more than 5 minutes to get to the dive site from the thorfinn's central location.

The food. Decent and plentiful. I dont think you will enjoy if you have any dietary restrictions or if you are vegetarian / vegan.

The boat.... well.... Its old. Its not a resort and you are in a 3rd world country so dont expect luxury. Ive never been on other liveaboards there so i have no idea how they are but this one is basic. Its an old whaling ship that has lots of old time character. I enjoyed it for the most part but lots of things screwed up on the ship during our stay that ive read in other reviews that make me think its always like this, the captain just says things like "oh this is a surprise". The air conditioner messed up about midway into the trip and it was HOT below deck. I had a strange suspicion that this issue is nothing new on the thorfinn.

Like I said, the diving was amazing. The boat.... outta 5 stars i would give it a 3. Im not really a luxury traveler nor do i need much. The experience was awesome and I would definitely go back.

 

[Donnah]

We dove Truk from the Truk Aggressor. It was a great week. The boat tied up to a wreck and we were on our own unless we requested a DM. Major rule was to be back BEFORE they moved the boat! The briefings were excellent -- what to see and where to find it, where not to go and what not to touch. We didn't have to use zodiacs. By the end of the first day, every buddy team was on a different schedule. Sometimes we were the only 2 on a wreck. The twilight dives were fascinating. I loved the freedom of diving when I wanted to. We were there at the 50th anniversary of the bombing.