Airpig87
Registered
well, after a long 2 year wait, what I was waiting for had come...boarding the plane for my Truk Lagoon dive trip. Travelling from Perth, Western Australia I travelled Perth-Sydney-Cairns-Guam-Truk, totalling approx 20 hours in transit over a couple of days. Not being able to sit still or sleep on planes, I was pretty stuffed by the time we finally got there, but when we finally arrived and I saw where we would be spending our time over the next 9 days, every minute in transit was worth it.
From the airport, the 24 Perth Scuba crew jumped into the bus which would transport us to the Blue Lagoon Resort where we would be staying for the entire trip. Even though the distance from the airport to the resort is probably only 5km or so, it took us about 40 minutes to get there due to the poor conditions of the road, however, this only added to the great experience we had on the trip.
Once at the Blue Lagoon resort, we checked into our rooms and head off to unpack and get our dive gear ready. By the time we got to the resort we all needed time to relax, get sorted and gather our bearings and were given 3 hours to do so before we all met at the dive shop for our try out dives.
The rooms at the Blue Lagoon were good, nothing special of course but it had everything we needed, medium-large ensuite, 2 king single beds, cupboard space for clothing and a fridge. Their was a spot where a TV should have been but out of the whole trip I dont think any of us had any interest in watching TV. There was also a decent sized balcony which overlooked the lagoon and of an afternoon/night the balcony was generally a good place to find us in groups of 4-6 having a couple of drinks before heading to dinner or the bar and pool table.
Once we were all gathered and ready, we met at the dive shop with our gear and got kitted up. We had no specific order in which boat we were to be on for the first dive as it was our try dive, we had 4 boats to our group so we just got into groups of 6 and headed out to our dive site. After a 15-20 minute boat ride, my boat ended up at the Heian Maru, an ocean liner lying in approx 30m of water. Once we were briefed by our dive guide, we entered the water, I was amazed, no waves, crystal clear to the sand, no current, best yet, the water was a toasty 29 celsius. being a try dive, we were not being to adventurous however the guide did take us around the wreck, show us a nice swim through and pretty much just checked us out how we all handled ourselves in the water.
After our check out dives, all the dive guides were happy with how we went and talked to the tour leaders as to who would go in which boat depending on their experience level, which would determine which wrecks they would do. The next 8 days were nothing short of amazing on each wreck, I wont go into each as we did probably about 15 different wrecks over 20 dives.
The majority of divers were diving single tank on the shallower wrecks down to about 35/40m and anything deeper were slinging a 80cuFt between each buddy pair, those that were qualified to do so also had the option of using nitrox which at least a couple of boats took that advantage. My boat consisted of 7 people, 5 of which that dove single tank and would sometimes sling a 50 mix each, 1 sidemount diver who would sometimes sling a 50 mix, and myself, I dove twins and carried a 50 mix on every dive, however if I wasnt going to be doing to much deco I would just deco on air. For every dive, I just ran on my computer, for anything deeper than 40m I had wet notes which had profiles for various max depths and runtimes
for which I had worked out on V-Planner, these were only for incase my computer started playing up. for those on twins and sidemount, we were restricted to whatever dive times the single tank divers were running, however there were several dives where my dive guide was happy for me to break away when they started their ascent and I could have a bit more of a look around by myself which I am quite comfortable in doing.
Some of my favourite dives which I will be doing again given the chance:- The Fujikawa Maru, an amazing dive, so amazing that we did 3 dives on her. Her holds full of little bits and pieces from ammunition to medicine bottles even to bodies of zero fighters, the last dive on the Fuji being one of my favourites of the whole trip, we had roughly a 80 min runtime exploring the rear holds and looking at the plaques, the 20 minutes hanging around at deco we had 3 adult and a baby dolphin come within 2 meters to check us out and also quite a large Barracuda who we found later was a resident of the Fuji. If you get the chance to dive her, have a look at the plaques on the deck, turn 180 degrees and head for the entrance to the structure, just outside the entrance on the left is a little pile of debris, under which is a skull.
Other dives that were favourites and must do`s. The Yamagiri Maru, the Kensho Maru and the Sankisan maru. All three have great engine rooms to see, the Yamagiri is a great night dive aswell, however you wont be able to see the skull imbeded in the steel work at night. The Sankisan while probably not as good to most as the other 2, would have to be my favourite of the 3, I signalled to the dive guide that I was heading off to explore by myself which he was happy with and I headed towards the bridge. Upon finding the entrance to the bridge I came across a long dark passageway with which I could faintly see a doorway at the other end. I started to head down the passageway when a doorway opened up on my left into a large room which I think may have been the Bridge. after floating around in there just looking at the room and the mass of stair cases, I headed for my passage way which I turned left into to follow my original direct, before I came to the exit doorway, on the left where 2 rooms which contained what I think was the captains toilets and bath!! The feeling that you get finding something like this is unreal, even more so when you are diving solo, I believe that I appreciated it all alot more for that reasons.
The group only did 4 deep wrecks, of which I did 3, as I was feeling a little under the weather on the first dive of the day. we did the Nippo Maru, the Hoki Maru, the Momokawa Maru and the San Fransisco maru, I missed the Momokawa. The first of the deeps was the Nippo, a great wreck with a lot to explore however there was a ripping current. we still had time to see the tank and a little more along the deck but started our ascent after 15 minutes due to the current. Out of all the deep dives my favourite would have to be the grand dame of Truk herself, the San Fransisco Maru. We had already arranged with out dive guide that we wanted to get pictures of the steam roller on the sand at her side, so we dropped down and saw the wreck come into view at about 30-35m, we continued down to her deck at 50m and straight over the side down to the steam roller at about 63-65m. after getting a couple of pics we started our ascent back up the the deck and the holds where there was tanks galore on the deck, cars/trucks in the hold as well as bombs in another hold. the single tank divers started their ascent at 16 min while sidemount Ken and I stayed around the holds a little longer, into our descent on the 21st minute of the dive. although I would have like to have spent more time down there, when we left the holds at 55m my ascent time was reading at 60 min!! Luckily i swapped to my 50 mix when i got to 20m, it ended the dive with a 65min runtime.
The remainder of the trip was nothing shy of amazing, i recommend hiring a scooter if staying at the Blue lagoon and going for a scoot through town, you get some great smiles from all the little kids, a lot of strange looks from all the other locals but it is a great experience trying to navigate the pot holes none the less.
For anybody thinking of going to Truk Lagoon...DO IT!! it is a great dive holiday destinationand the wrecks are some of the best in the world. I highly recommend staying at the Blue lagoon resort, however having stayed there once now, I would like to try Truk from a liveaboard (possibly Truk Siren 2015????) although I would be happy to stay at Blue Lagoon again and again. The staff were great and bent over backwards to help us with whatever we needed, the meals at the restaurant were great and you were always greeted with a big smile, we even had the staff singing "pepsi pepsi oh so sexy" when one of the young guys on the crew ordered a pepsi at lunch!!
Aside from the diving we also had time for fun too, from playing pool at the ocean side bar to skinning dipping and swimming out to the moored Odyssey liveaboard all to be told we cant come aboard, (cant see why not???) too having a few too many drinks and having to skip the morning dive to being held up to the roof by 10 mates while I wrote "Perth Scuba 13-Drinkers with a diving problem" on the roof along with all 24 of our names off our dedicated trip shirts, to our last night where we partied with the dive guides and they cooked us our dinner BBQ, drinking too much (again) and streaking through the bar yelling obscenities from the Borat movie. seems to be alot of alcohol induced nakedness but hey, thats all the fun of the holiday ;-)
If you do get the chance to go, please take it, it is truly an amazing experience. Anyway, its time for me to get back to work, well, either work or start thinking about my next dive trip, Palau Siren May 2014!!!
Thanks for reading
Tristan
From the airport, the 24 Perth Scuba crew jumped into the bus which would transport us to the Blue Lagoon Resort where we would be staying for the entire trip. Even though the distance from the airport to the resort is probably only 5km or so, it took us about 40 minutes to get there due to the poor conditions of the road, however, this only added to the great experience we had on the trip.
Once at the Blue Lagoon resort, we checked into our rooms and head off to unpack and get our dive gear ready. By the time we got to the resort we all needed time to relax, get sorted and gather our bearings and were given 3 hours to do so before we all met at the dive shop for our try out dives.
The rooms at the Blue Lagoon were good, nothing special of course but it had everything we needed, medium-large ensuite, 2 king single beds, cupboard space for clothing and a fridge. Their was a spot where a TV should have been but out of the whole trip I dont think any of us had any interest in watching TV. There was also a decent sized balcony which overlooked the lagoon and of an afternoon/night the balcony was generally a good place to find us in groups of 4-6 having a couple of drinks before heading to dinner or the bar and pool table.
Once we were all gathered and ready, we met at the dive shop with our gear and got kitted up. We had no specific order in which boat we were to be on for the first dive as it was our try dive, we had 4 boats to our group so we just got into groups of 6 and headed out to our dive site. After a 15-20 minute boat ride, my boat ended up at the Heian Maru, an ocean liner lying in approx 30m of water. Once we were briefed by our dive guide, we entered the water, I was amazed, no waves, crystal clear to the sand, no current, best yet, the water was a toasty 29 celsius. being a try dive, we were not being to adventurous however the guide did take us around the wreck, show us a nice swim through and pretty much just checked us out how we all handled ourselves in the water.
After our check out dives, all the dive guides were happy with how we went and talked to the tour leaders as to who would go in which boat depending on their experience level, which would determine which wrecks they would do. The next 8 days were nothing short of amazing on each wreck, I wont go into each as we did probably about 15 different wrecks over 20 dives.
The majority of divers were diving single tank on the shallower wrecks down to about 35/40m and anything deeper were slinging a 80cuFt between each buddy pair, those that were qualified to do so also had the option of using nitrox which at least a couple of boats took that advantage. My boat consisted of 7 people, 5 of which that dove single tank and would sometimes sling a 50 mix each, 1 sidemount diver who would sometimes sling a 50 mix, and myself, I dove twins and carried a 50 mix on every dive, however if I wasnt going to be doing to much deco I would just deco on air. For every dive, I just ran on my computer, for anything deeper than 40m I had wet notes which had profiles for various max depths and runtimes
for which I had worked out on V-Planner, these were only for incase my computer started playing up. for those on twins and sidemount, we were restricted to whatever dive times the single tank divers were running, however there were several dives where my dive guide was happy for me to break away when they started their ascent and I could have a bit more of a look around by myself which I am quite comfortable in doing.
Some of my favourite dives which I will be doing again given the chance:- The Fujikawa Maru, an amazing dive, so amazing that we did 3 dives on her. Her holds full of little bits and pieces from ammunition to medicine bottles even to bodies of zero fighters, the last dive on the Fuji being one of my favourites of the whole trip, we had roughly a 80 min runtime exploring the rear holds and looking at the plaques, the 20 minutes hanging around at deco we had 3 adult and a baby dolphin come within 2 meters to check us out and also quite a large Barracuda who we found later was a resident of the Fuji. If you get the chance to dive her, have a look at the plaques on the deck, turn 180 degrees and head for the entrance to the structure, just outside the entrance on the left is a little pile of debris, under which is a skull.
Other dives that were favourites and must do`s. The Yamagiri Maru, the Kensho Maru and the Sankisan maru. All three have great engine rooms to see, the Yamagiri is a great night dive aswell, however you wont be able to see the skull imbeded in the steel work at night. The Sankisan while probably not as good to most as the other 2, would have to be my favourite of the 3, I signalled to the dive guide that I was heading off to explore by myself which he was happy with and I headed towards the bridge. Upon finding the entrance to the bridge I came across a long dark passageway with which I could faintly see a doorway at the other end. I started to head down the passageway when a doorway opened up on my left into a large room which I think may have been the Bridge. after floating around in there just looking at the room and the mass of stair cases, I headed for my passage way which I turned left into to follow my original direct, before I came to the exit doorway, on the left where 2 rooms which contained what I think was the captains toilets and bath!! The feeling that you get finding something like this is unreal, even more so when you are diving solo, I believe that I appreciated it all alot more for that reasons.
The group only did 4 deep wrecks, of which I did 3, as I was feeling a little under the weather on the first dive of the day. we did the Nippo Maru, the Hoki Maru, the Momokawa Maru and the San Fransisco maru, I missed the Momokawa. The first of the deeps was the Nippo, a great wreck with a lot to explore however there was a ripping current. we still had time to see the tank and a little more along the deck but started our ascent after 15 minutes due to the current. Out of all the deep dives my favourite would have to be the grand dame of Truk herself, the San Fransisco Maru. We had already arranged with out dive guide that we wanted to get pictures of the steam roller on the sand at her side, so we dropped down and saw the wreck come into view at about 30-35m, we continued down to her deck at 50m and straight over the side down to the steam roller at about 63-65m. after getting a couple of pics we started our ascent back up the the deck and the holds where there was tanks galore on the deck, cars/trucks in the hold as well as bombs in another hold. the single tank divers started their ascent at 16 min while sidemount Ken and I stayed around the holds a little longer, into our descent on the 21st minute of the dive. although I would have like to have spent more time down there, when we left the holds at 55m my ascent time was reading at 60 min!! Luckily i swapped to my 50 mix when i got to 20m, it ended the dive with a 65min runtime.
The remainder of the trip was nothing shy of amazing, i recommend hiring a scooter if staying at the Blue lagoon and going for a scoot through town, you get some great smiles from all the little kids, a lot of strange looks from all the other locals but it is a great experience trying to navigate the pot holes none the less.
For anybody thinking of going to Truk Lagoon...DO IT!! it is a great dive holiday destinationand the wrecks are some of the best in the world. I highly recommend staying at the Blue lagoon resort, however having stayed there once now, I would like to try Truk from a liveaboard (possibly Truk Siren 2015????) although I would be happy to stay at Blue Lagoon again and again. The staff were great and bent over backwards to help us with whatever we needed, the meals at the restaurant were great and you were always greeted with a big smile, we even had the staff singing "pepsi pepsi oh so sexy" when one of the young guys on the crew ordered a pepsi at lunch!!
Aside from the diving we also had time for fun too, from playing pool at the ocean side bar to skinning dipping and swimming out to the moored Odyssey liveaboard all to be told we cant come aboard, (cant see why not???) too having a few too many drinks and having to skip the morning dive to being held up to the roof by 10 mates while I wrote "Perth Scuba 13-Drinkers with a diving problem" on the roof along with all 24 of our names off our dedicated trip shirts, to our last night where we partied with the dive guides and they cooked us our dinner BBQ, drinking too much (again) and streaking through the bar yelling obscenities from the Borat movie. seems to be alot of alcohol induced nakedness but hey, thats all the fun of the holiday ;-)
If you do get the chance to go, please take it, it is truly an amazing experience. Anyway, its time for me to get back to work, well, either work or start thinking about my next dive trip, Palau Siren May 2014!!!
Thanks for reading
Tristan
but ill try do them tonight, otherwise in a few days when I get home from site. With regard to the work that needs to be done, I guess that can be true in some aspects of the resort, but at the same time, you have to look at what and where it is and go into it with an open mind. I travel to bali/indo quite a bit so I kind of knew what to expect with the situation that the islands are in. at the same time we had a large group of 24 with ages of 17 through to 65 and everybody seemed quite happy with the accomodation, mind you, you dont need to leave the hotel as there is simply nothing to do on the island apart from site seeing.
