Steve P
Contributor
Diving Truk Lagoon had been a dream of mine since the mid 70's. It took longer than I expected, but finally made it. If you love wrecks you've either already been to Truk or its on top of your bucket list. If you're not a wreck nut but are planning a trip to Palau, I highly recommend visiting Truk. Read some history and then live it. These wrecks are slowly, but surely, being reclaimed by the ocean and there's no other place like this.
We stayed at Blue Lagoon resort. The dive op was great, rooms were fine, and the view was fantastic. Food service was very slow at times and most of the food was good but many guests, including, myself, ended up with a bit of food poisoning. Luckily for me, I got it after our last dive day so I didn't miss any dives. That was the the only downside of Blue Lagoon, but something to consider. My wife was fine -no GI problems.
Diving was simply amazing. We did 12 wrecks during 13 dives over 5 days. You can dive deep, of course, but my max depth was 123 feet and we didn't get much below 100 on most dives. There's plenty to see above those depths. My favorites were the: Fujikawa, Nippo, Rio de Janeiro and the Sankisan Maru. Shinkoku is a pretty wreck, but vis was bad the day we were there.
Penetrating into the holds / bridges of many of these ships can be easily done since many have either no or very limited overhead obstruction. As with all diving, stay within the limits of your training & skill level. Truk may not be the best choice for beginners, but you do not need be an advanced technical wreck diver to enjoy diving there. While we didn't dive the San Francisco Maru with it's 165+ depths, you can see a battle tank on the Nippo at 120, Zero fighters in the Fujikawa and the operating room & Japanese baths on the Shinkoku. We saw torpedoes, huge shells, ammo, cases of beer bottles, periscopes, trucks, telegraphs, boilers & cylinders in engine rooms and of course huge guns mounted on the bow & sterns of many ships.
An added bonus was spending some of our surface intervals snorkeling on a Zero fighter & on the Suzuki sub chaser patrol boat that still has a depth charge sitting on it's stern at ~ 40 feet. Oh yeah, there's plenty of fish & marine life contrary to some of the reports that I read. Vis varied from 40 feet to over 100.
Lastly, as you may know, Chuuk is very poor. I've been Honduras and other impoverished areas, but have never seen anything like Chuuk. You won't be strolling through towns, checking out restaurants. We never left the resort. I would go back to Blue Lagoon, but would probably try the Odyssey next time. It's expensive but highly rated.
We stayed at Blue Lagoon resort. The dive op was great, rooms were fine, and the view was fantastic. Food service was very slow at times and most of the food was good but many guests, including, myself, ended up with a bit of food poisoning. Luckily for me, I got it after our last dive day so I didn't miss any dives. That was the the only downside of Blue Lagoon, but something to consider. My wife was fine -no GI problems.
Diving was simply amazing. We did 12 wrecks during 13 dives over 5 days. You can dive deep, of course, but my max depth was 123 feet and we didn't get much below 100 on most dives. There's plenty to see above those depths. My favorites were the: Fujikawa, Nippo, Rio de Janeiro and the Sankisan Maru. Shinkoku is a pretty wreck, but vis was bad the day we were there.
Penetrating into the holds / bridges of many of these ships can be easily done since many have either no or very limited overhead obstruction. As with all diving, stay within the limits of your training & skill level. Truk may not be the best choice for beginners, but you do not need be an advanced technical wreck diver to enjoy diving there. While we didn't dive the San Francisco Maru with it's 165+ depths, you can see a battle tank on the Nippo at 120, Zero fighters in the Fujikawa and the operating room & Japanese baths on the Shinkoku. We saw torpedoes, huge shells, ammo, cases of beer bottles, periscopes, trucks, telegraphs, boilers & cylinders in engine rooms and of course huge guns mounted on the bow & sterns of many ships.
An added bonus was spending some of our surface intervals snorkeling on a Zero fighter & on the Suzuki sub chaser patrol boat that still has a depth charge sitting on it's stern at ~ 40 feet. Oh yeah, there's plenty of fish & marine life contrary to some of the reports that I read. Vis varied from 40 feet to over 100.
Lastly, as you may know, Chuuk is very poor. I've been Honduras and other impoverished areas, but have never seen anything like Chuuk. You won't be strolling through towns, checking out restaurants. We never left the resort. I would go back to Blue Lagoon, but would probably try the Odyssey next time. It's expensive but highly rated.
that's a great option.
