Truk Lagoon (8 Days / 7 Nights - 28 Dives)

Trip highlights: great macro life/ marine diversity

Diving environment: advanced divers, off the beaten track, wreck diving

Dive sites and activities: Fujikawa Maru, Momokawa Maru, Shinkoku Maru, Aikoku Maru, San Francisco Maru, Betty Bomber, Fumitzuki Destroyer, Yamagiri Maru, Nippo Maru, Heian Maru, Sankisan Maru, Hoki Maru, Unkai Maru, Rio de Janiero Maru, Hanakawa Maru, Pizion Reef

Day 1
You step aboard the Odyssey liveaboard in the late afternoon, bags carried up the gangway by crew who know this lagoon better than most. Cabins are cool and compact - exactly what you need. There is time to unpack, to stand on the dive deck and watch the local outriggers putter past, before the cruise director calls everyone together. Orientation covers the boat, the safety protocols, and the shape of the week ahead. Dinner is served as the sun drops behind the palms, and the Odyssey remains dockside overnight, giving you a full night's sleep before she slips her lines at first light.

Days 2-7
You wake to the thrum of engines and the smell of coffee. Outside the portlight, the lagoon is a sheet of silver. By the time you've geared up, the first mooring line is already splashing. Over the next 6 days, you will dive some of the most significant wrecks of Operation Hailstone - more than 60vessels and aircraft lie in these waters, and the Odyssey liveaboard is here to show you the best of them.
The Fujikawa Maru is often the one divers talk about afterwards. Not simply because of the Zero fighter sections in its holds, wings folded and fuselages resting among crates, but because of the soft corals that drape every surface. It is a garden built on steel. The Shinkoku Maru offers something different: a hospital ship turned armed fleet tanker, its engine room an eerie cathedral of dials and gauges, while outside, clouds of glassfish move as one. On the San Francisco Maru, depth separates the recreational from the technical. For those qualified, the sight of tanks and mines still lashed to the deck at 50 metres is a moment that stays with you. The Aikoku Maru is a sobering dive. Her bow was blown apart by a bomb hit, and the scattered cargo includes the personal effects of the crew who went down with her.
Not every dive is about penetration or depth. The Betty Bomber sits upright in 60feet, its twin engines now home to lionfish and leaf fish. The Fumitzuki Destroyer rises from the sand with guns intact, a torpedo launcher still trained on some long-vanished target. Momokawa Maru holds aircraft parts and truck frames in its shadowy holds. Yamagiri Maru is known for the 18-inch artillery shells on deck, shells made for the battleship Musashi, never delivered. Nippo Maru carries a 2-man tank and field guns, its wheelhouse photogenic and accessible. Heian Maru, the submarine tender, is massive; you can swim through its passageways past torpedoes and periscope spares, the light filtering through cargo hatches overhead.
The shallower wrecks have their own appeal. Sankisan Maru wears soft corals on its mast like a banner. Hoki Maru holds trucks and a bulldozer in its holds, the bow torn open by the explosion that sank it. Unkai Maru has a photogenic bow gun and good coral growth on its masts. Rio de Janeiro Maru impresses with its sheer scale and enormous propellers. Hanakawa Maru is draped in both soft and hard corals, a reef in its own right. And then there is Pizion Reef, a wall drop-off where grey reef sharks sometimes cruise the deep water, and coral heads rise from the shallows like submerged hills.
The guides know each wreck intimately; their briefings are detailed, safety-conscious, and full of small details - the location of a particular porthole, the best way to enter the engine room, the story of how a certain artefact came to rest where it lies.

Day 8
You wake knowing there will be no dive today. Breakfast is a slow, communal affair. Gear is packed, cameras stowed, contact details exchanged. The transfer meets you at the dock, and as the Odyssey liveaboard recedes in the distance, you realise you are already mentally rearranging your schedule to come back. There are wrecks you missed, holds you didn't explore, details you want to see again. The lagoon will wait.