We dove with the Truk Stop dive shop today. Our last two dive days were with Blue Lagoon and we like to try all of the shops when we visit a place if we can. The Truk Stop dive outfit is run by a friendly New Zealander named Kelvin and our boat driver was Newie a Chuukese from Dublon. Both are very experienced divers who know all of the wrecks in the lagoon. Kelvin was most recently in the Philippines and Newie used to work on the Aggressor live aboard before they moved to Sulawesi.

Eric from Whistler was diving today and so was Hideko. We did our first dive on the Nippo and our second dive on the Heian. Both were great. I think the Heian is a wreck you could spend more than one dive on easily.

The Truk Stop guys gave us a lot more in the way of a dive briefing that the Blue Lagoon folks. I think I would also have to give them the nod for general safety and respect for the wrecks.

You don't see as many eating size fish in the lagoon as you might expect. The human population has certainly put pressure on the lagoon. Some locals fish with explosives. This is illegal but both dive shops told us that it still goes on. In fact some of the locals loot the mines in the wrecks and use them to make fishing bombs. Of course this entails handing highly unstable, 60 year old munitions. As you might expect, the odd diver fails to return from time to time.

The shallower wrecks are getting pretty corroded and picked over these days. The Cousteau boys did a survey in 1969 and hauled off a few tons of goodies (now in a warehouse in France somewhere). Many of the locals have a bell or two hanging in their shop. That said, Chuuk is still the most awesome wreck dive destination I have been to or could possible imagine.

One needs to be very careful when penetrating this vessels today. More and more structural elements are weakened over time and you hear tales of collapses much more frequently. A regime of total buoyancy control and touching nothing should be self evident but seems rarely adhered to.

There are also some nasty chemicals still lying in wait in some of the wrecks. It is highly advisable to use a gentle frog kick, rather than a flutter, to ensure the silt stays on the bottom. Some smoky looking stuff was stirred up in front of me on the Heian and I didn't think anything of it. After swimming by, the back of my leg began to burn. I'm not sure what it was and it did no damage beyond giving me a little rash but it is the kind of thing you'd like to avoid.

We had a nice day out on the water and hope to get in at least one more set of dives before we take off. The guys dropped us off at our boat and after a quick rinse we headed to the Blue Lagoon for a nice lunch/dinner.