Chuuk (Truk Lagoon)

Brian and I just returned from a quick diving trip to Chuuk. During WWII, Chuuk was a large naval base used by the Japanese. On February 17 and 18, 1944, the US Navy began "Operation Hailstone" over Chuuk, and this operation sunk over 60 Japanese ships in the shallow Truk lagoon. Most of the ships are large cargo ships and many of them are still very intact, just as they were when they sunk in 1944. Brian and I dove in and around 7 ships and one Japanese Bomber plane. Diving through the boats still filled with cargo, we saw telephones, gas masks, sake bottles, cases of sake, bombs, tons of rifle rounds, a bike, toilets, teapots, dishes, a truck, spare plane propellers, a zero, and other stuff. It was kind of eerie to know that so many people had gone down with these ships. According to our South Pacific guidebook, this battle represents the largest Naval loss in history.

The coral growth on the wrecks attracts schools of fish. There were magnificent soft corals that I had never seen before all over the boats. We saw several sharks, tons of tuna, and an eagle ray.

While diving through the cargo holds of the Fujikawa Maru, my dive watch notified me that I needed to get a little bit shallower or my body would absorb too much nitrogen. I began to go up a level on the boat (the beams that separated the different floors of cargo areas were still intact but the floor was actually gone). I rose to the next floor of the boat while Brian and the divemaster stayed in the lower hold. When I popped up at the next floor, a small (5 foot) reef shark and I were in a room together. We've seen many sharks and I've never worried about them, but I have also never been alone in a confined space with one. I thought to myself, "I can either go back down with the dive guide and Brian where I may die from nitrogen absorption or I can stay in the room with the shark." I decided to stay with the shark, and I tried to flatten myself up against the wall while the shark started darting around looking for an exit. He finally found a way out (up) and left me in the room alone to calm down!

a toilet from the plane below

'Bomber Betty'

me and one of the bomber's prop engines

Bomber Betty

a telephone from the Heian Maru

dishes, sake bottles and other treasures from another ship wreck

a bomb!

a gas mask from the Fujikawa Maru

me swimming through a cargo hold

looking out from one of the cargo holds

me at a pit stop between dives

Brian was ready to adopt this cat at the scuba resort...

"Jersey" our boat driver, Estos our divemaster, me, and Brian

me at Jeep Island another break between dives

me at Jeep Island, again between dives