Our C-Life Dive School Truk Expedition started at Heathrow Airport where I bumped into a fellow diver/friend I met last September on the MV Excel Red Sea. Nick, was off to the Philippians to do his final Trimix Re-Breather Course and eagerly requested I reported back to him about our Truk trip. We fly with a Singapore Airways flight (12hrs) from Heathrow to Singapore. We transferred to another Singapore Airways plane to Manila for 6hrs. Singapore Airways was absolutely great. The food was suburb and the courteous cabin crew were lovely. Roger and Giles had the best treatment in Business class with more room and on tap drinks and food. Manila is not a place I would recommend to anybody who wishes to breath.! A huge smog layer envelops the whole city, which may have something to do with the ancient diesel buses they have. Anyway we booked into a Hotel for the night before embarking on the next leg of the journey.

From Manila we flew to Guam, with Continental Airways which was a much lower standard all round. None of my group booked an upgrade so we all had to slum it in economy. This flight was a mere 3.5hrs where we transferred again onwards to Koror in Chuuk Lagoon. Hurray. :0). Chuuk is a (FSM) Federal state of Micronesia as is Yap, Pohnpie and Kosrae. In 1982 the FSM signed a 15-year Compact of Free Association with the US.

We had two nights in the Blue lagoon Resort in Truk (BLD). Just to mention now the original name is Truk but now they have independence they prefer to be referred as Chuuk. Anyway the Hotel was fine, staff very good. I had a damaged suitcase which was re-stitched in a day to perfection. We decided to get into the dive swing by booking two days diving before boarding The Truk Odyssey. We were not disappointed with the wrecks sites at all.

BlueLagoon Resort (BLD) accommodation overlooking the beach, BLD Dive Centre. 'A C-Life sticker is on right window/glass next to Open sign.'

Truk is wreck-divers heaven. In 1944 Operation Hailstorm, a US aerial assault devastated Japanese maritime fleets or 260 planes, 60 vessels and amongst are submarines, Japanese Zeros, Betty Bombers, Destroyers and Supply Ships. Warm tropical nutrient rich waters have converted the wrecks into flourishing artificial reefs.

About 60 Maru's were sunk, which is Japanese for ship in WWII. We dived the Fujikawa - 35m, Heian Maru - 32m, and The San Francisco Maru - 50-70m, and used our wings with twin tanks. This was a fantastic taste of what was to come. These wrecks in Truk are so intact, smothered in soft and hard corals. When a diver finds something of interest say a perfume bottle it is put in a place ontop of the Pilot house or wheelhouse for all to see. These are called display areas. China, human bones and sake bottles are the norm. All these wrecks are littered with Sake bottles. No wonder they lost the war !!. I did see 2 skulls and many bones which I did video. It is bad luck to touch the bones we non of us did, I think.

If you haven't seen this site before go and have a look at the write ups, photos, and DVD of the Maru's.
http://www.truk-lagoon.com/ships.html
Also check this site out as it has old photos of the wrecks and dive maps http://www.seawolfproductions.com/Shipwreck%20Museum/Truk%20Lagoon/index.html
And this from the SS Thorfin http://www.thorfinn.net/truk_lagoon_wreckmap.html



  
Japanese Skull, Kawasaki tank on The San Fransisco Maru, plaque on the Fujikawa Maru and gas mask.

On the 6th November we boarded the luxury Truk Odyssey and what a fabulous MV she is. I was stunned by how much living space we had, from spacious cabins to lounge area. This boat really is the best Liveaboard I have been on, so far. The clientele are usually Americans, thus yes all the other guests were Americans which was great all speaking the same language - just. Not many of the guests talked to myself and Caroline only Roger and Giles to start with and then we were informed of our dive kit differences. 'You look like 2 Terminators, sexy and scary at the same time'. Well thank you, I think, and that explains it. We were expecting allot of divers donned with pink fins and walking on board in golf trousers. But they were not, thankfully and everyone was great once we broke the ice and allowed the mortals to talk to us. Only Joking. No I mean it was fine. Of course it probably looked odd 2 girls in twins tanks, (or doubles in that part of the world). Caroline was just able to be seen over her kit, fully teched up with greenforce torches, stage bottles and huge wings. From then on we all had a great time on the boat. We completed 20 dives from The Odyssey. During our week we had a couple called Paul and Becky re-marrying with a short ceremony on the boat in front of all the guests as a surpice to Becky. And Caroline Trewhitt had a special birthday cake made by the cook. The food was OK on board. The only criticism I have is the diving was too relaxed as many divers completed solo dives and racked up 5 or so deco dives per day.

The Odyssey

   
Cabins, TV room and lounge/Dinner

  
Giles Thorpe (Junior), and Roger Thorpe (Senior).

 
Caroline with Birthday cake (21 again), and fully loaded

    
Serena Teched up x 3.

We (myself and Caroline) did have one little disagreement. One of the crew would not let Caroline and myself dive longer than 15mins on The San Fransisco Maru. This lies in 70m of water but the deck area we had planned to dive was in 50m. Seeing as we had dived twins all week, were the only 2 able to dive this depth from our qualifications and we had done many a deco dive we were quite annoyed they all of a sudden decided to put the rains on divers. I suggested they should not guide divers on this wreck due to its depth, the divers do not have the qualification to do this and their insurance will not cover any eventuality, and be prepared to have the socks sued off the Odyssey. I was told 'we are not guiding only supervising and yes we have had someone die from us taking them to this wreck'. Hmmm, interesting I thought. So of course we went with the flow of these guys and still came up ages before the majority as we had stage bottles and they didn't. All that fuss for nothing. They though we were going to be on the line for about an hour. Not.

The second slight potential problem was with a diver getting stuck in an engine room of a wreck on the last day for 10mins and nearly running out of air, with torch failure. Every divers nightmare. We were to dive as a small group of 4 but this did not happen as the one diver wanted to get in asap rather than wait for us to have a longer surface interval. Myself and Caroline did get momentarily stuck inside the engine room, it was getting a squeeze with all our twin kit on. Before anything went wrong we decided to reverse out and enjoy the outside of the wreck. While starting to come out we saw Alan surrounded by a rush of bubbles popping out from a corner of the engine room and rushed over to show me his PG. He was in PSI and was within the red mark. Oops no air, hear take my 2m long hose and breath this, I thought. I offered my reg twice and he was getting flustered then shot off ascending towards the stern of the boat and the hang tank. All I could do was watch him get to the boat. A very typical panic response I am afraid. After we finished our dive with stop we got back onto the boat to be welcomed with a certain quietness. I went to find Alan for a chat. He was knocking back several G&T's at the time. Obviously I had missed the point when he was at his most emotional but still I was to find a very scared diver. He kept saying 'I was so glad to see you when I did in the wreck'. Apparently he and his buddy decided to do their own thing and rather than wait for me before going into the engine room as planned he decided to go and have a look first, this was his first mistake. This is where it all went wrong. Extremely low viz, torch failure and entrapment for 10mins with accelerated breathing totally freaked him out. I think 1minute would do it for me let alone 10mins. So let this be a lesson to you all. If you are going to insist on solo diving, do not use a single tank, one torch and penetrate a wreck without a reel to mark your entry/exit points. Unfortunately Alan was pushing his luck all week. I do hope he learns from this very stupid error. This was the last day of diving on The Odyssey which was obviously not the best way to finish our amazing time on these Jap wrecks.

I would highly recommend diving the Truk wrecks for the history and artefacts to look at. Plus other things remaining such as telegraphs from the wheelhouse, kitchens, baths and a few fish. I did spot one turtle and we had a small pod of Dolphins watch us while about 8 divers were decompressing are the San Fransisco Maru. Great feeling that was. If any of you have dived the WWII SS Thistlegorm (British with tanks ammunition, guns etc) in The Red Sea. Imagine she is more intact with long reaching vertical masts, smothered in very thick soft and hard coral, with a few bones and tea cups displayed. Oh and maybe a few hundred bottles of Dark Sailors Rum you have the image of the Truk wrecks.

       San Fransisco Maru and Kawasaki tank, R2D2 from Fujikawa Maru, Sake bottles, Japanese skull in mast, encrusted gun.

After getting off the Odyssey we had 2 nights in The Blue Lagoon Resort and yes did some more diving and did the stern section of the San Fransisco Maru, which we were not allowed to do from the Odyssey.

We flew to Palau via Guam for 8 days relaxing and diving. The Palau Pacific Resort (PPR) was a lovely hotel on the beach with a pool. Highly recommended. Palau is independent, has its own language and is called a Republic of Palau and the new Compact of Free Association was approved in 1994. Palau has 70 mushroom-shaped limestone Rock Islands. Everything we did so far costs allot of money. Each day of diving in Truk was about $100 and the same was in Palau and a bit more. But it was a holiday of a lifetime. Palau is commonly called the rock Islands due to the 70 or more green lush mushroom-shaped limestone shape islands that scatter this area. The scenery is breathtaking. So we booked 5 dives diving with Neco Marine at $110 per day which included lunch, ouch!. They have a massive Dive Store which resembles a typical American Dive Store in Florida, lively training pool, private jetty, 10 or more bats and a bar next door. What more could you ask for. One of the owners was driving a Jaguar so good place to set up a centre I think. The difference between Truk and Palau is there are allot more fish in Palau. This is because the fishermen use dinermighting and thus destroy reefs. We did not have the best weather in Palau as it rained a far bit and was quite windy coming from the wrong direction.

Anyway the dives were spectacular. Most the dives were wall dives and we encountered every time grey reef and white-tip sharks galore. Just like the Maldives I thought, fab. I used the video for this too so have allot of sharks to view. We dived the famous Jellyfish lake. This is an inland lake that hosts thousands of non-stinging jellyfish. The water is salty but not as much as the sea and is also fed by freshwater through the cracks in the rocks. These jellyfish have no natural predators so are the predators. This was great holding your breath and free-diving through these jellyfish. I was quite nervy to start with just adorned in my bikini and expecting an almighty sting each time I touched one. But nothing happened much to my relief.

Non stinging Jellyfish in Jellyfish Lake

We also went to The Milky Way. This is an area where the sandstone is washed down a cluster of rock Islands which concentrates to make a thick chalk clay layer under the water at around 6ft down. The idea is you swim down and get your chalk and rub it all over your body, allow the sun to dry it and then jump in for a dip to wash it off. Great for the skin and apparently has re-juvenating qualities. Roger came out middle aged and I was a foetus, well not quite. It costs a fortune for this stuff in beauty Salons.

Serena, Caroline and Roger

Another dive site was Blue Holes and we Managed to creep into a cave for a short period until a bunch of divers without torches followed. Damn it!. This was the Blue Holes site where several vertical columns have been formed down into the coral. This one we dived had a cave entrance with a line along a 100m passage. Apparently turtle skeletons are found near the back. I believe they have got disorientated and ran out of air then died. We did not get the full feel of Palau and its dives due to the weather so do not feel as satisfied as the Truk experience. Have to go again.! Something I did learn is Japanese are not the worst divers, Taiwanese are, so look our chaps !!. Made friends with the guides Marcel (from Holland) and Selina (UK). Selina wants to strike a deal to promote Palau through UK based schools/centres etc. As only 180 people from the UK go to Palau each year. So we feel even more privileged to have gone there. The food in Palau was fabulous. Every night we hit a different restaurant. From Thai, Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Palau, and maybe something else I can't recall. So we definitely had our fix for Sashimi and raw Tuna/fish. We visited the Jail where the inmates carve beautiful storyboards to sell as souvenirs. They are based around old stories. Mine was based around the discovery of the egg laying cycle of the turtle.

  
Arial shot, Rock Island Archway.

Our return journey was with one less flight to be now welcomed with the threat of a harsh winter. I have already dived since being back in Stoney Cove Quarry, Leicestershire. Water was 10c which was 10c warmer than the air temp. I have completed another 2 Tech Instructor Courses through PSAI. I have just now thawed.

Would we go again if money wasn't an issue ?, yes. But before then I want to go to Bikini to dive the deep battleships that were sunk during the American Nuclear testing. Don't worry there is no radiation now it is deep below the surface. And the Galapagos in 2007 for my 40th. Love to meet you all there.

A message to all who came on the C-Life Truk Expedition Nov 05 and to our new friends made on the journey, thanks for an amazing holiday, without you guys it would have been allot less fun.