During the summer of 2006 Martin and Tracy flew half
way round the world to scuba dive in Truk Lagoon. The lagoon has a fringing
coral atoll and several small islands which make it ideal as a naval base.
Chuuk is now part of the Federal States of Micronesia and has only recently
been renamed "Chuuk" from it's better known name. To dive the lagoon has
been a lifelong ambition for Martin. Getting there was quite an ordeal and
we left England on Friday morning and stopped off overnight in Amsterdam
- quite an odd arrangement but our round the world ticket stipulated FOUR
stop overs and as we were flying KLM to Manila a night in the 'dam seemed
to make sense as a means to use up a stop. From Manila we changed to Continental,
- possibly the worst airline in the world - and island hopped via Guam into
Chuuk, finally arriving at about 10 PM local time on Sunday feeling
suitably jetlagged!
During the Second World War the Japanese Imperial forces established a
heavily fortified outpost in and around the lagoon - in the process
they altered Etan Island so much that from the air it still looks like a
gigantic aircraft carrier. Etan became a heavy bomber capable airfield and
also played host to Zero fighters. A short distance away from Etan was a
seaplane depot and a submarine base. Finally the vast Japanese fleet support
ships were anchored all over the lagoon as far as the eye could see.
In 1944 the Americans caught the Japanese on the hop and commenced a massive
aerial attack with dive bombers and torpedo planes. The result
today of this attack is a veritable diver's delight - there are so many wrecks
in Truk Lagoon it is actually quite difficult to decide which to dive upon.
We were unfortunate not to get particularly good visibility during our week's
diving as we had caught the beginning of the rainy season and run off from
the land resulted in a lot of silt suspended in the lagoon. However compared
to UK waters it was still very, very good - we never had less than 10 to
12 metres visibility at any time and on the deeper wrecks the viz usually
approached 15 metres plus. With water temperatures in the region of 27 degrees
a wetsuit was only neccesary to prevent skin abrasion whilst we swam through
the vast areas of rusting metal. Deep penetration of the wrecks was
very much the norm almost from day one and we regularly went down into engine
rooms and deep holds, often working our way back up through the inside of
the wrecks. Sadly the remains of some members of the crews can still be found
in the more inaccesible areas of certain wrecks including skulls and long
bones however we were extremely careful not to disturb them and to treat
them at all times with due respect.
During our 6 actual diving days we visited:
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Diving in Truk is a very interesting experience
from many points of view. We opted to remain land
based rather than use a live aboard. Undoubtedly
the live aboards offer better facilities in
terms of twin sets , Nitrox etc. and in the number of dives
it is possible to carry out within a day but despite
the advantages we did not fancy being couped up on a
boat with nowhere to go for a week. Our hotel was
the former Continental Airlines complex situated right
on the beach overlooking the lagoon and our room
was set in amongst coconut palms complete with the
obligatory tunnelling land crabs and a multitude of
feral cats - oh, and lets not forget the occasional fearsome
sized cockroach! The rest of Chuuk is a bit of a
messy place to be perfectly honest with road-side dumps
of litter and abandoned and decaying heaps of old vehicles everywhere amongst
the lush tropical vegetation . The hotel complex is quite large and
seems to have a small village and shops within it's fences
- there's even a school - however it is apparently all owned and operated
now by the dive shop Blue Lagoon who we were
using. Our guide Rendi proved to be exceptional
and as one of the longest serving guides with Blue Lagoon
he managed to turn up a constant stream of amazing artifacts for us to
see in almost every nook and cranny of every wreck
we visited. The highlight of our week is hard to chose for there
were so many but two or three come to mind immediately - the long swim through
on the Heian Maru where we began deep in the engine room
and did not exit again until we had swum right back up
almost to the highest part of the wreck - a
corridor running across the front of the bridge area
where spare periscopes can still be seen on the floor. Then
there was the Nippo Maru with it's deck cargo of small tanks and light field
artillery. Finally there was the deep penetration into the engine room of
the Fujikawa Maru where we "flew" along catwalks and down stairs last walked
upon by men more than half a century earlier.
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