We waited for the dive boat this morning but they didn't come. It turned out that our cancel message was delivered for yesterday but the reschedule message didn't make it. So we rescheduled again. We're looking forward to getting one more dive in before we leave.

For those not in the know, Chuuk Lagoon (Truk Lagoon as it was known during WWII) has possibly the highest concentration of ship wrecks of any place in the world. It was the Japanese equivalent of Pearl Harbor during WWII. The US decided not to try to take Truk because it was heavily fortified. Instead the US enacted operation Hailstone which involved a huge carrier assault by air over two days. Several times the number of explosives dropped on Pearl were dropped here and over 220,000 tons of ship sank to the bottom over the two days. All the wrecks are Japanese and there are over 100 ships planes and other craft to explore.

One thing I'm not too happy about is the Chuukese reluctance to return the remains of the dead to Japan. The Chuukese claim the Japanese tourists are important to the economy and if the remains are allowed to return to Japan many who come to honor the dead will not return to Chuuk. This is a pretty callous attitude if you ask me.

We spent the day getting the boat ready and then met everyone over at the Sunset Bar at the Blue Lagoon Resort. We are all looking forward to visiting the Philippines. As luck would have it there were two Philippino guys at the bar. It was great talking to them about the places we were hoping to visit. They gave our route through Lette and the central islands on to Palawan and down to Borneo the thumbs up for great scenery and good safety.

They also told us about beer and food. Particularly beer. The beer is reported to be 15 US cents a can. I had a Philippino beer at the Sunset Bar as we chatted. As I drank the second one I noticed it was 6% alcohol (not by reading the can). Six percent beer for 15 cents. Hmmm, that could be dangerous.