Sinking down in the hazy blue of midwater space, all you can see are your fellow divers and a rope pointing the way, disappearing into the abyss. The deeper you go, the darker it gets. Suddenly your heart leaps as through the haze a dark shape appears. A massive shape. The shape of a ship that has lain largely undisturbed for 67 years. What was once a cog in the Imperial Japanese war machine, is now a fabulous coral garden and wreck diving heaven.
The war moved on and Truk was forgotten for thirty years. Life for the locals continued sleepily with little excitement bar its name being changed back to the original, Chuuk. Then in the mid 70s, Kimiuo Aisek, who, as a 17 year-old, eye-witnessed the terrifying events, returned to the lagoon to find the shipwrecks and, in the process founded Chuuk's dive industry.
His insistence that the wrecks must be left untouched, has created a unique undersea museum out of the rotting hulks. Apart from the coral and a thick layer of silt, you could imagine that they were sunk yesterday. The ghost ships galleys have bottles, pots and pans strewn around them, the dining room has a china dinner service scattered on the floor and the surgery has medicine bottles still full of their elixir. The holds still contain their cargo; gas masks, boots, live munitions, vehicles and even complete aircraft.
Keith quickly got a taste for diving in Chuuk. On his first day he swam through the bridge of the Kensho Maru (a cargo ship), saw one of the biggest groupers he's ever encountered (it lives on the wreck), snorkelled around a Mitsubishi Zero fighter plane, then dived on Betty! She's a nearly-intact Mitsubishi naval bomber whose fuselage is now a safe haven to thousands of juvenile fish. And all of this was in incredibly clear water with a fantastic variety of colourful soft and hard corals that had made their home growing all over the man-made reefs.
That was wonderful, but the rest of Keith's dives in Chuuk Lagoon moved the experience to a different level. Literally. The first day's dives were in relatively shallow water but some of the more spectacular wrecks are in deep water. Fortunately Keith had just completed a specialist Deep Diver course in Yap, so when the divemaster explained they would be diving down to around 40 metres, he wasn't too concerned. However, the problem at that depth is that nitrogen (which causes 'the bends') gets absorbed more quickly by the body. That means you either can't stay at that depth for long, or you have to spend more than the standard three minutes at the 5-metre safety stop on the way back up, to allow the absorbed nitrogen to seep out painlessly.
For the deep dives, Keith ditched the four mad Italians he'd had to listen to (non-stop) on the first day, and joined Ken, a young Englishman who had already spent 11 days diving the wrecks. Ken willingly agreed to go back to a couple of his favourites for Keith's benefit, making sure he saw some of the best features, like the tank on the deck of the Nippo Maru, the truck hanging half off the side, and the Zero fighter planes in the hold of the Fujikawa Maru.
Together they explored the ships' engine rooms and living quarters which are very cramped and, apart from the odd blast hole, have no natural light penetration. Torches are essential, as is good diving technique so you don't kick up the silt which could easily drop visibility to zero. Keith admits that his heart fluttered a few times as they swam from one deep, dark, claustrophobic room, down a narrow rotting stairwell to another and then another. Occasional shards of metal, or just the tight space, would try to pull out his mouthpiece or snag some part of his scuba equipment. It was like the ship wanted to add to its collection of lost souls, but it all added to the experience and thrill of exploration. The only downside was that on each dive he had to hang about in mid water for 10 to 20 minutes, to let the nitrogen leave his body, before it was safe to return to the surface.
Back on dry land, Keith extolled it as some of the best diving he had ever done. The resort website summed it up nicely; "Truk Lagoon is a one-of-a-kind experience -- there is no other place like it in the world."
In February 1944, at the height of the war in the Pacific, the Japanese Imperial Navy's Combined Fleet, in their secret base in Truk Lagoon, suffered a surprise and devastating attack from US forces. In the space of two days, "Operation Hailstorm" sunk sixty Japanese ships and destroyed hundreds of planes on the island's airbases.
His insistence that the wrecks must be left untouched, has created a unique undersea museum out of the rotting hulks. Apart from the coral and a thick layer of silt, you could imagine that they were sunk yesterday. The ghost ships galleys have bottles, pots and pans strewn around them, the dining room has a china dinner service scattered on the floor and the surgery has medicine bottles still full of their elixir. The holds still contain their cargo; gas masks, boots, live munitions, vehicles and even complete aircraft.
That was wonderful, but the rest of Keith's dives in Chuuk Lagoon moved the experience to a different level. Literally. The first day's dives were in relatively shallow water but some of the more spectacular wrecks are in deep water. Fortunately Keith had just completed a specialist Deep Diver course in Yap, so when the divemaster explained they would be diving down to around 40 metres, he wasn't too concerned. However, the problem at that depth is that nitrogen (which causes 'the bends') gets absorbed more quickly by the body. That means you either can't stay at that depth for long, or you have to spend more than the standard three minutes at the 5-metre safety stop on the way back up, to allow the absorbed nitrogen to seep out painlessly.
For the deep dives, Keith ditched the four mad Italians he'd had to listen to (non-stop) on the first day, and joined Ken, a young Englishman who had already spent 11 days diving the wrecks. Ken willingly agreed to go back to a couple of his favourites for Keith's benefit, making sure he saw some of the best features, like the tank on the deck of the Nippo Maru, the truck hanging half off the side, and the Zero fighter planes in the hold of the Fujikawa Maru.
Together they explored the ships' engine rooms and living quarters which are very cramped and, apart from the odd blast hole, have no natural light penetration. Torches are essential, as is good diving technique so you don't kick up the silt which could easily drop visibility to zero. Keith admits that his heart fluttered a few times as they swam from one deep, dark, claustrophobic room, down a narrow rotting stairwell to another and then another. Occasional shards of metal, or just the tight space, would try to pull out his mouthpiece or snag some part of his scuba equipment. It was like the ship wanted to add to its collection of lost souls, but it all added to the experience and thrill of exploration. The only downside was that on each dive he had to hang about in mid water for 10 to 20 minutes, to let the nitrogen leave his body, before it was safe to return to the surface.Back on dry land, Keith extolled it as some of the best diving he had ever done. The resort website summed it up nicely; "Truk Lagoon is a one-of-a-kind experience -- there is no other place like it in the world."
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