altaskier
Contributor
We are back from a great two weeks in diving, first in Palau (Palau Royal Resort and Sam's Tours) and then on the Truk Odyssey.
Palau was great, with highlights including a real shark parade while drifting along a wall, and snapper spawning. I did a liveaboard (Ocean Hunter I) in 2009, and I have to say I liked that a bit better as we didn't have hour-long boat rides to and from the signature sites. The rock islands are gorgeous to cruise through, and Sam's Tours did a great job, but I got to more sites with fewer crowds of divers underwater on the liveaboard.
Truk was superlative! We went with a mixed group from the midwest USA (mostly Chicago), and some friends from Croatia. There were also four rebreather divers on the boat.
Lots of people have written great descriptions of the various dives in Truk, so I'll just say a few words about our group which had sort of three categories of divers: recreational divers with nitrox certifications and 100-300 dives (such as my wife), tec divers on doubles and 50% with 400+ dives (me), and the rebreather team. What really impressed me is that the Odyssey was able to handle us all. Dar took the rebreather divers, and the other guides rotated around between diving and deck help, and working with the rec and tec groups.
The recreational people were all on single tanks and used the standard 28% nitrox (give or take - of course we all analyzed every fill), and didn't really venture below about 120 feet. Most people got slightly into deco once or twice, so it's good to understand your computer's display and do the extra stop time. Thus they missed some of the deeper spots on some wrecks, and didn't do extended penetration, but they all had a grand time anyway.
For the tec people on doubles, we were obviously able to go deeper into the wrecks and stay a bit longer. In some cases we dropped 50% stage bottles outside the wreck, while if we were just doing cargo holds we kept the deco bottles with us. The guides were great at leading us through into engine rooms etc., always checking that we were happy before going in and going further.
The rebreather people sometimes went with Dar, and sometimes on their own.
Because we'd usually be tied up at a wreck with enough time to do two dives (at least for the shorter dive times of the open circuit people), we were able to stagger our entry times a bit. That was really nice, though we did have some times where we had a bit of a crowd on the deco hang bar.
I would not go to Truk without 100 dives or so and nitrox training, and experience diving to 100-120 feet. But if you have that, then you can thoroughly enjoy yourself. It's even better to go with a tec certification; in fact I finally got tec certified a year ago with this trip in mind.
Enough people have said the following, but I'll echo it anyway:
1. The Odyssey is fantastic. Really helpful staff, great food, great setup for diving. We were all highly amused by the elevator lifting us out of the water. They did a great job handling our three categories of divers.
2. The water is really flat in the lagoon, so no problems with seasickness. My wife was a bit worried about that before the trip, but those worries vanished as soon as she was onboard.
3. The wrecks are cool for history, and they are also decorated with beautiful coral and fishies. We saw only a few sharks (unlike Palau), but we did see many schools of fish. The wrecks are showing their age, though, with some superstructures having collapsed. I had a chunk of metal fall on me inside one wreck (probably dislodged by air bubbles) and that was slightly disturbing.
4. Blue Lagoon resort has pretty grounds with palm trees, though there are lots of trip reports that say the food and hot water service are not fantastic. We had a canceled flight and stayed an abbreviated night at the Truk Stop Hotel, which has lots of character and was fine for us but it's quite a bit more basic and in the crowded, not-very-elegant area near the commercial docks.
Palau was great, with highlights including a real shark parade while drifting along a wall, and snapper spawning. I did a liveaboard (Ocean Hunter I) in 2009, and I have to say I liked that a bit better as we didn't have hour-long boat rides to and from the signature sites. The rock islands are gorgeous to cruise through, and Sam's Tours did a great job, but I got to more sites with fewer crowds of divers underwater on the liveaboard.
Truk was superlative! We went with a mixed group from the midwest USA (mostly Chicago), and some friends from Croatia. There were also four rebreather divers on the boat.
Lots of people have written great descriptions of the various dives in Truk, so I'll just say a few words about our group which had sort of three categories of divers: recreational divers with nitrox certifications and 100-300 dives (such as my wife), tec divers on doubles and 50% with 400+ dives (me), and the rebreather team. What really impressed me is that the Odyssey was able to handle us all. Dar took the rebreather divers, and the other guides rotated around between diving and deck help, and working with the rec and tec groups.
The recreational people were all on single tanks and used the standard 28% nitrox (give or take - of course we all analyzed every fill), and didn't really venture below about 120 feet. Most people got slightly into deco once or twice, so it's good to understand your computer's display and do the extra stop time. Thus they missed some of the deeper spots on some wrecks, and didn't do extended penetration, but they all had a grand time anyway.
For the tec people on doubles, we were obviously able to go deeper into the wrecks and stay a bit longer. In some cases we dropped 50% stage bottles outside the wreck, while if we were just doing cargo holds we kept the deco bottles with us. The guides were great at leading us through into engine rooms etc., always checking that we were happy before going in and going further.
The rebreather people sometimes went with Dar, and sometimes on their own.
Because we'd usually be tied up at a wreck with enough time to do two dives (at least for the shorter dive times of the open circuit people), we were able to stagger our entry times a bit. That was really nice, though we did have some times where we had a bit of a crowd on the deco hang bar.
I would not go to Truk without 100 dives or so and nitrox training, and experience diving to 100-120 feet. But if you have that, then you can thoroughly enjoy yourself. It's even better to go with a tec certification; in fact I finally got tec certified a year ago with this trip in mind.
Enough people have said the following, but I'll echo it anyway:
1. The Odyssey is fantastic. Really helpful staff, great food, great setup for diving. We were all highly amused by the elevator lifting us out of the water. They did a great job handling our three categories of divers.
2. The water is really flat in the lagoon, so no problems with seasickness. My wife was a bit worried about that before the trip, but those worries vanished as soon as she was onboard.
3. The wrecks are cool for history, and they are also decorated with beautiful coral and fishies. We saw only a few sharks (unlike Palau), but we did see many schools of fish. The wrecks are showing their age, though, with some superstructures having collapsed. I had a chunk of metal fall on me inside one wreck (probably dislodged by air bubbles) and that was slightly disturbing.
4. Blue Lagoon resort has pretty grounds with palm trees, though there are lots of trip reports that say the food and hot water service are not fantastic. We had a canceled flight and stayed an abbreviated night at the Truk Stop Hotel, which has lots of character and was fine for us but it's quite a bit more basic and in the crowded, not-very-elegant area near the commercial docks.
