Kevin, Cherie and seven of our Dive 2000 club members just returned from the first of our winter tropical dive holidays. The destination, Truk Lagoon in Micronesia, delivered a fantastic experience with our divers exploring the sunken fleet of Japanese WW11 shipwrecks in the calm, shallow waters of the lagoon.
Its just over 17 years since Kevin last took Dive 2000 groups to Truk and he was delighted to find that there is even more coral, fish, rays and sharks than ever before, the wreck dive sites have actually improved. This is due to the passage of time, protection from fishing and divers exercising good buoyancy control.
Many divers have the impression that wrecks are just rusty metal, tropical wrecks like these often feature more species of corals, fish and marine life than many reefs. The size of the ships also provides multi level depth options with choices of dives to suit everyone.
It was also an exciting option to explore into the holds and encounter the artifacts of WW11. These included aircraft, guns, munitions, supplies, an undersea museum of life aboard a ship of war.
The live aboard for the trip, MV Odyssey, was described as five star, however the entire group agreed 10 star would be closer to the mark. For some of our group this trip was a great stepping-stone to the warships we will be diving at Bikini Atoll on our trip in August 2008. These will include an Aircraft Carrier, battleship, submarines and destroyers. Once again all covered in coral, fish and marine life in a calm lagoon. For others it was their first taste of world class shipwreck diving and they are now converts. For a few it was a great way to also acquire their PADI Wreck, Deep and Enriched Air qualifications, all achieved with genuine Wreck, Deep and Enriched air dives.
To see the full picture story of Truk and images from our forthcoming trip to Borneo in July/August, come to our next presentation night on Wednesday 22nd of August.
More more photos from Kevin see http://www.dive2000.com/blog/KevinsComments/KevsPhotos
