Dive Review of Truk Odyssey in
Micronesia/Chuuk Lagoon

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Truk Odyssey, Oct, 2008, by Bill and Cindy Barrow, PA, USA ( 1 report). Report 4510.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Chuuk Lagoon Truk Odyssey Oct. 19-26, 2008 A trip to the famous Truk Lagoon for the best wreck diving in the world is every diver’s dream. Thanks to a very good friend my dreams were fulfilled. Getting to the country of Chuuk, more definitively, Weno will test your endurance. I have been on many overseas trips before and flying 30 or more hours to have fun was no fun for Cindy or me, my dive buddy and wife. The Truk Odyssey is a former Cruise ship, refitted for diving. It can handle 16 divers with a crew of 8. Five of the eight crew members were local Chuukese. Three were divers and two were cooks. JJ our captain was assisted by Todd (assistant captain) and Kim (instructor). The room we were assigned was bigger than many of the Holiday Inn Express rooms I frequently stay in. All rooms have toilet and showers and plenty of storage room including a closet for hanging stuff. Each had separate air conditioner control (don’t mess with because it is controlled by the ship’s computers). The rooms were cool but noisy. My air conditioner sounded like someone was bowling at times in the ductwork. It did not matter. There were too many pluses to outweigh this minor annoyance. The dive deck was LARGE and easily allowed 16 divers and staff to don gear. Most of the diving was from a well-designed dive platform on the fantail of the ship. Equipment rinse tanks for dive gear and separate tanks for cameras (and we all had some kind of camera). A triple layered camera table with compressed air had ample room for everybody’s cameras. But for all these nice amenities, the best was the available of NITROX, Double DIN valve tanks AL 80’s, AL30 stage bottles. AL 80’s and steel 105 singles were also available all at no extra charge. We had to reserve these ahead of time. A 29% mix was standard but if you want a richer mix, it would set you back $2 per cubic foot. JJ the captain finally rounded us all up very late on Sunday for our briefing. It was short and simple. Dive safely and dive within your limits of training. The rest of the briefing was about the operation of the boat and when we will eat. Breakfast (continental) was served everyday starting at 6:00 AM with a made to order cooked breakfast starting at 6:30 AM. Snacks and/or food were served after every dive. Generally, the food was plentiful and tasteful, but not much variety. All meals were served Buffet style in the enormous dinning room. But on the other had, alcohol was 100% free from the well stocked bar. It goes without saying that this was reserved for AFTER your last dive of the day or if you enjoy, that was your last dive of the day. The diving briefings by JJ were the best I have ever witness. Obviously this man has dived the wrecks and knows every intimate detail about them. He graphically and audibly prepared us for each dive like a professor. He gave detail that can only be presented by his extensive experiences on these wrecks. When you left one of his briefings, you really had the mental movie about this wreck. Dive planning was left up to each diver. Buddy diving was encouraged but not required. A sample of dive planning most of us under took was to plan for the first and maybe second dive with decompression obligations. Then after that we dove our computers. And be sure you have at least two computers. I did have two and one of mine failed on the third day. Dive times were when you wanted to dive but be back on the boat before a certain time. Most of use did four dives per day with several doing five per day. But, with all the long deco times, four dives a day suited me just fine. We had a night dive every day for five days and the last day we did an additional three dives before heading back to Weno. Dive conditions were excellent throughout the week. All of us were North East Coast divers and cold water and bad visibility was our common bond. On our first dive we were close to an island and run off from the rain the night before reduced visibility to maybe 30-40 feet. This posed no problem to any of us. As the week progressed we experience visibility fro 30 feet to almost 100 feet. I am not going to bore my readers with all the fabulous things that were experienced while diving. This is diving that must be experienced. The local Odyssey members were absolute the best in giving us guided tours through the entire ship including many deep into the interior to see the engine rooms. Artifacts left over from the war were sobering and exciting to see. At the end of the dive week, Saturday we sailed back to Weno. Dinner was not supposed to be served Saturday evening, but we all complained of the sparse menus ashore and JJ allowed us to stay on board and eat leftovers. Believe me this was the better choice. We departed the Odyssey on Sunday at 8:00AM. All except Cindy and I would be flying out at 2:30AM Monday morning so a day room at the Blue Lagoon was arranged. Cindy and I were flying back to Honolulu for another four days in Hawaii, so we were not schedule to leave until 10:30 AM on Monday. Sunday evening, we arranged a ride to the Truk Stop Hotel and had a decent meal there. Next time we may try eating there for every meal instead of the Blue Lagoon. And, there will be a next time.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Live aboards, Turks and Caicos, Bleize, Hawaii, Tobago, Land diving North Carolina, California and all of Florida
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	84-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No restrictions. Dive within your limits of training
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Triple layered camera table with low pressure compressed air. Battery charging rack available. Large rinse tanks dedicated for Cameras.

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Dive Review of Truk Odyssey in Micronesia/Chuuk Lagoon

Truk Odyssey, Oct, 2008,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Truk Odyssey in
Micronesia/Chuuk Lagoon