TRUK and YAP in March

[Seadeuce]

Thats odd I was on that boat, cert lvl of divers was not raised as a issue.
Who where your crew? what did you think of it overall?

This was '96, a few months after four Japanese were lost at Peleliu and I think the Captain (Navot) was a bit apprehensive about going there.
But, at Blue Corner, he told the lady diver aboard - who had only 30 dives done - that she should miss this dive as she "would not be able to get down in the swell".

I told her that the swell was no prob., well used to it here at home, and took her on the dive which she enjoyed quite safely thank you.

There is a review on Undercurrent about that trip by that girl's husband/partner, and it echoed all our thoughts.

Not nice to travel half way around the world and not be given the opportunity to see the best sites. It still sticks in my craw, as you can guess.

What we did do was good BTW, food excellent (remember Solomon?) and safely organised. But the tour op. I booked with had all this promo literature that guaranteed "experienced diving for experienced divers". No wonder they went bust (Sea & See) Carl Rossler take note!

Navot only had one thing on his mind that trip, the upcoming launch of his flying boat diving. This didn't last long either it seems.

There you have it, I loved Palau as a destination but IMO could have come away with better memories.

Seadeuce

 

[Jim Kerr]

I can relate though. I went to La Paz, Mx for a week and there was one dive site I wanted to go to badly. The dive site was "El Bajo" and is a sea mount where Hammerheads are known to come by the hundreds. The Captain would not take us there because we had a couple of "novice" divers.

 

[+Jon+]

PF: i know another diver that had 4 or 5 recompressions in it on one of his trips to truk he seemed to think it was adequate, turned out he wasnt bent tho, oh he only had travel insurance on his gold master card and said that covered him fine.

Sorry for high jacking this thread for just a little bit.

Seadeuce; the current crew told me about that accident, im not surprised everyone was a little anal following that.Navot now apparently owns fish&fins, i wonder when you where there did you met Francis i think he may have still owned it then, hes a bit of a dive legend around palau,?
Navot is all about the $ this was the impression i got from him and echoed by the staff, who where fantastic. I was a little dissapointed with the "advanced" dives the current would not have been above 4 knots at any site. I really enjoyed the trip not so much for the diving but because the crew where great.
One thing that pi$$ed me off was they overbooked the boat so we had 7 for the week and for the first time in the history of fish&fins they refunded some money.
Oh and the food was the best ive ever had on a liveaboard. chet a nepalese fellow was the cook yum yum

*highjack over*

 

[Seadeuce]

No, didn't meet Francis, but heard enough about him!

C' la vie I guess.

At least, in Truk I had a brilliant trip. Would go back tomorrow if I could afford it.
A solo night dive on the Rio de Janeiro Maru was magnificent!


Happy Christmas


Seadeuce

 

[+Jon+]

Yeah I loved truk too, and prefer it to palau....but I am partial to big bits of rusty stuff

Happy Christmas to you

 

[pilot fish]

Merry Christmas To All

 

[pilot fish]

The two books on Truk wrecks came this week. I have scoured these two books plus searched on the Internet and cannot find any reference to Japanese causalties / deaths from the US raid in Feb 1944. I have found out that 38,350 Japanese Navy and Army personnel where on Truk and the surrounding islands at the time of the attack but there is no reference to causalties/deaths. Does anyone know that figure?

I heard that one Japanese troop ship was hit with 1500 men aboard but I can find nothing further about personnel losses. It seems that 40 Americans were killed but I'm not sure that is even correct?

Would apprecaite any info you guys have on this. Knowing this Board's depth of knowledge I'm sure someone will have these facts .

 

[Mike Veitch]

Do you have Operation Desecrate 1 by Klaus Lindeman?

Or the Wrecks of Truk (not sure the name) by Dan Bailey?

Those are both good books

 

[+Jon+]

The troop transport was the aikoko and im sure it had 1600 on board, what are the books you have?

 

[pilot fish]

Do you have Operation Desecrate 1 by Klaus Lindeman?

Or the Wrecks of Truk (not sure the name) by Dan Bailey?

Those are both good books

Yes, I have those books "Hailstorm Over Truk Lagoon" by Lindeman and "WWII Wrecks of Truk Lagoon" by Dan Bailey. Both great books have much detail but not the record of Japanese fatalities. Strange because it has every other bit of information you could ever think of.