Fly off into the sunset

“We’re going to pack our dive gear, fly off into the Pacific, and see where we end up.”

- Carl, telling his boss why he was going to be gone in December

Foreigners come to Chuuk for exactly one reason: diving. Truk Lagoon, the major feature of Chuuk state, is a giant, ancient volcanic caldera. Think Crater Lake, but in the middle of the ocean, with seawater filling the crater and almost covering the volcano. Centuries of erosion have worn away the rim to leave patches of sand, so the outline of Truk Lagoon is a series of low-lying uninhabited islands. The interior contains several steep-sided islands – the remnants of past eruptions – which are covered in greenery and for the most part inhabited. We’re staying on the largest island in the lagoon, called Weno.

Truk Lagoon was used as a Japanese base during WWII. Entire fleets sat at anchor in the lagoon – aircraft carriers, supply ships, and tankers, along with the numerous merchant ships and passenger liners refitted by the Japanese for the war effort. The base was a well-kept secret until February 1944, when the U.S. flew a reconnaissance mission over the lagoon and discovered the daunting number of Japanese vessels stationed there. Unfortunately, the American aircraft were detected, giving the Japanese time to remove some of their ships from the lagoon. But on February 17 and 18, 1944, American bombers filled the sky and sank every remaining Japanese ship. It was called Operation Hailstone.

There are over 50 wrecks in Truk Lagoon, most of them Japanese ships, but there are also a few Japanese and American aircraft that were shot down during Operation Hailstone. Lucky for us, most of the wreckage landed on the seafloor at depths accessible by SCUBA, and the protected waters of the lagoon have kept them largely intact for decades. Truk is the shipwreck diver’s paradise.

Carl and I both adore shipwreck diving, so Truk was the natural place for us to escape to together. He gets into the history and loves searching the wrecks for artifacts, while I am fascinated by the biological colonization. It’s going to be a great trip.

Source: MacDonald R. 2014. Dive Truk Lagoon: the Japanese WWII Pacific shipwrecks. Whittles Publishing: Caithness, Scotland. 265 pp.