Truk Lagoon

Micronesia

Located: 

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is a grouping of 607 small islands in the Western Pacific about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii, lying just above the Equator. Generally speaking, FSM comprises what is known as the Eastern and Western Caroline Islands. While the country's total land area amounts to only 270.8 square miles, it occupies more than one million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, and ranges 1,700 miles from East (Kosrae) to West (Yap). Each of the four States centers around one or more "high islands," and all but Kosrae include numerous atolls

Chuuk:

The many islands within this huge atoll are crowned with natural beauty. The outer barrier reef is punctuated with idyllic sand spits dotted with coconut palms. The high islands in the central lagoon rise into the blue island skies.

Lush vegetation and simple living punctuate the lives of the lagoon. Fishing, weaving and tending garden supplant the subsistence lives that many sustain on their individual islands. It is not unusual to see women waist deep in the mangroves hunting for a special delicacy or men walking the reefs by torchlight at night looking for baby octopus. Boat makers create vessels high in the hills of the inner islands and take them down to sea when finished. Open hearth fires are still used to cook the daily meals. Life here is close to nature and lived in conjunction with the land and the sea. Local carvers are also famous for using beautiful local woods to carve warrior masks and busts. And the Chuukese love stick is part of a legendary practice of courtship unique to this island group.

Chuuk, with its vast, shallow, beautiful lagoon is a Mecca for wreck divers. A major shipwreck site from WWII, Truk Lagoon is unquestionably the world's best shipwreck diving destination. Here, more than 50 hulks have been transformed into shipreefs, holding the very best of the undersea world and maritime history at one site. Hard and soft corals in a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes attract divers worldwide for both daytime and night diving. The vast selection of artifacts still found on the wrecks after five decades are testament to the unique history of the Micronesian Islands. The historical aspect of Truk Lagoon is not totally hidden by the jungles. Japanese lighthouses, perched high atop the lagoon's finest overlooks, can be reached by hiking or driving. Old runways, command centers, gun emplacements, cave networks, hospitals and libraries can be found with the help of a knowledgeable guide.

Food: 
At the Blue Lagoon Resort the food was OK.  There best was the Pepper Steak and that was good.  Especially after a few little red wines... Banana Pancakes, fresh fruit and coffee  in the morning seemed to work just fine.

Information:
The Blue Lagoon Resort looked to be the best place that I could see.  It's a compound on the point and away from the Town?  which is an apx 7 minute drive, but not much there.  You can shop at THE  Market, almost like a US Market for Canned goods and the Divers Nutruous Supplement of Cookies and Candies... Not much down the main street of town, nothing worth going to.   There's a Cannon in the Wall (much like Guns of Navarone on a small scale of course) but that's about all I could see of the island.  Seeing the Government Official Offices can put "Government" in proper perspective, but hardly worth venturing out to see...

Comments:
Good place to stay while diving.  And that's about all to do.  Eat - Dive - Sleep and of course Watch Cable TV... heheh... it is/was an inside joke, but had fun with some others on the CNN Cable TV in the infamous Room 201......

View from Balcony of Unit towards the Main Resort area.
Very Lush and Green, but watch out for the falling coconuts.

The Dive Shop, note the Old Guns in front that are scattered throughout the islands. Don't need to spend much time at the shop as the boats pick you up at the docks.

Here's the morning line up... just grab your group's  boat and jump in.
Your gear is already in the boat, the guides have your BC on the tanks and ready.
Bring a gear bag to keep it all together...

Heheheh... all you have to do is SHOW UP  !!!!

Don't forget your cameras and dry bag, sunscreen, water etc....

... just as easy as that....

... and then it's just jumping, or should I say Rolling off the boats

and start looking around to see what the heck it's all about...

(Now, comes the bad news, my camera lens jammed after the 2nd day so I'm real limited on underwater shots... apologies, but you're probably not as upset as I was - am....)

... Sort of look like a cartoon drawing, but they're about the size of a medicine ball..
Giant Clams..

Ohhh.....

you wanted "Ship Stuff..."

heheh well,

as I mentioned, a little short on that, but here's what I've got....

Since the majority of the ships sunk were Supply ships, various ones had various things in them... most, though seemed to have an abundant supply of Sake'.... small wonder in that situation.  I enjoyed  beer when I was doing my thing...

These had cases and crates of ammunition Cartridge shells

Lantern and Artillery shell case

  It was amazing that the corals near the surface were as brilliant as they were... on one ship the masthead began at about 15' of water and was so covered with coral and life that I could have spent the whole dive shooting film....

...of course as you do deeper the light doesn't penetrate  and doesn't help the food chain do it's thing...   The bottom apx 200' is just level and sandy throughout the lagoon. not much down there unless there's a ship or two...

and some fish just sit there and dare you to come closer..

Just clown'n around -   Pun intended as this is a Clown fish ...

they just sit in the Tentacles of the Poisonous Amoebae...

After swimming around and enjoy the dive, it's time to eat and take the rest stops needed between dives.  Most dives end up with a dept of 100+ feet so the DeCompression Stops are mandatory and some seem to spend longer than others - as the "Ladies" of the group apparently hadn't learn to breath underwater as they appeared to be able to spend half the day just swimming around while the rest of us had to come up in about 20 - 30 minutes...

Back on the surface for Lunch, the choices (decided the day before) were to go back to the resort - all dive sites are about 20-30 minutes away - or order a sack lunch and eat on one of the islands.

The Starbucks..???

The MacDonalds...

Just grab a hut and enjoy the view.....

...and of course under the shade as you'll get blistered from the sun and reflection of the water...

And then off for a little stroll through the trees...

actually we are walking on the Runway that started at the waters edge and continued on down the path...

The Allies apparently thought it was an Aircraft Carrier (or thought it looked like one) as the whole island was about the size of a Big Air Craft Carrier... so you're seeing the runway now...

...guessing, but an old command center.  It was build fairly thick as you can see from the windows... not your ordinary "PreFab" mobile home trailer park of structures.

Bombed out...

 Fairly thick in construction

and then back to the Diner....

Lunch on a different day, so don't think we had 2 lunches... one before and one after the hike??..

Back to the boat....

...and back to diving.....

A gun turret and looks like a little picnic too.....

it's not all hardware on the bottom...

Some tubes... about 2-4 feet high...

Yessss.... hard to see, but it is a tank looking toward the rear with the tank tracks covered in stuff.

The Wheel house with a gas mask draped over the Throttle...
Okay, Gas Pedal... Whatever...!!!
The Ding-ding thing...

Ok, Ok... I'm not a ship man, so call it what you want... it makes the ship move... (heheh)

and sometimes you do come accross something that's just as lethal as all the guns and stuff... as in this Lion Fish... right up there with Sea Snakes... Poison is in the spines... apparently works so fast that you only have time to wet your lips and kiss your !@%#$@ good-by...

...and then another break from this dive

...to the booming metatroplis of "Jeep Town"... it Rocks!!!! 

It's so easy to DO the Whole town in one day or night - depending upon your hour of activity....

Kewl.....

This is Jeep Island... the R&R center for the whole lagoon...

You gotta luv this place....

That's it....

That's -  Jeep Island....

Looks like a prop out of a Gillian's Island or one of those jokes about a single guy being stranded on a shipwrecked island...
out in the middle of nowhere....

Some people just wander around and around and around... starting to make his own path...

And the other people just stare on in amazement...

"Say haven't we seen him before??"

"Ohhhh, it's just him again.... poor lost soul.. just doesn't realize he's going in circles...
but seems to be good spirits as he's always talking ..
to someone???? 'bout how Bernie on CNN should be keeping him up todate on the news....

(heheh..)
;-))

Some of us, were taking Video... heheh... of course at night it like working with the SUN... as it lights up the whole area.... we did have 3 working videos and it looked like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind... kinda   lit the whole place up...
Probably Fried a Few Fish with the lights...

Here's another tank, only covered... hard to tell unless it's pointed out...

Most of my stuff ended up on Video and will see if I can rescue some prints off that...

Yup... it's as big as it looks... (little dive lite in the top right corner)

'tis a shell for the Battle Ship Yamamoto.... I understand the biggest shells made... and, of course these are not props... but still active/inactive... you don't go up and bang it with a hammer... about 4 feet long and 18" shells? in diameter... (remember, I'm not Navy)

...and of course, always a show off who doesn't need tanks and all the extra gear...

(he's actually in shallow water, just broke the surface)

.

Pointy End  (bow??)                    

                   Roundy End  (stern???)

Although it was difficult at times to figure out where the "Pointy End" was, some just chose to ignore the whole thing and shoot above it..

That way no one would know which was the bow and which was the stern... the "Roundy End".

an old truck of some sort, with the rubber still hitting the pavement...
or deck in this case...

This was just hanging around and  in the way....

This is on the mid deck of the ship, as you can barely see the Yellow Fin is
heading into the hallway next to the stairs...
heheh Yeah, Yeah, Yeah... I know, I know.. What Stairs...?
It's probably just a big rock..

And some more tires... although it's been since early 1940's the rubber is still there, but does look like they must have been the orginal Firestone patent....

and time to come

....up again,

Again, some people don't need all the extra stuff.. or so they think....

and finally back to home....

Don't know why it was soooooo hard to get a pic of a simple grass shack...

Where things just "look" a little fuzzy
No Local beer that I could find...

....but you get the idea...

Hava a good one...

Till the next time....

It's still a lotta work for a beer,

(I don't care what they say.... ;-))  )

Till the next Time....

I gotta go work.....

End.....