Soon to be three liveaboards in Truk Lagoon, which will you choose?

There are currently two liveaboards in Truk Lagoon: Odyssey, Thorfinn and in November the Siren fleet will the launching their newest luxury yacht into the Pacific.

My travels led me on three occasions to visit Truk aboard the Odyssey, a 40 meter long liveboard and the best I have ever travelled on.

Considering the size of the Odyssey she only takes 16 passengers per trip, who are accommodated in seven state double/ twin rooms and two single rooms. As you can imagine, the rooms are large, spacious and perfectly decorated with wood finish and framed paintings of marine life.

The private en suite bathroom always had hot water in the power shower, and included shower gel in case you had forgotten to bring your own.

I had three different rooms on my three trips and they were all of the same high quality.

The Odyssey moors right above the wrecks, without dropping an anchor so that it does not damage precious artefacts below. Following the very detailed briefings the pool is open for buddy pairs to dive as much they wanted to until the liveaboard was ready to move on to the next location. The diving is very flexible, just let the crew know that you are going in and to cross your name off the board on your return.

All entries are made from the dive deck apart from the San Francisco for which a tender is used.
The briefings were too detailed for some who were not hard core wreck divers and just wanted to look around the outside of the superstructure. For the rest of us, however, the briefings provided by the Captain or the guides allowed us the opportunity to explore and discover the fascinating remains of this air and sea battle from 1944.

The crew showed no gaps in their knowledge of the wrecks and the islands. I remember while under water I asked the guide ‘can you show me the beds in the Heian?’ and he took me right there through a maze of corridors deep inside the dark and spooky wreck.

This is one of the few liveaboards I have travelled on where I felt the crew really did care for the passengers. Everyone’s name was known by the end of the first night, and the crew took an interest in the travellers, such as what they like to eat or what they like to see while diving. And following a dive on the Shinkoku the night watchman would ask ‘did you see the operating table?’ because you had expressed an interest in seeing that earlier in the day.

There is much more in the way of marine life than some would expect. There were a few sharks, a turtle cruising by and schools of barracuda. On night dives the balled anemones are a highlight for photographers as are the shrimps and crabs which are visible in flash light beams.

It was recommended that we use 30 nitrox on all dives and 24 percent for the San Francisco. These Oxygen percentages had been carefully worked out to give divers their optimal dive times within safe parameters determined by the depths of the wrecks.

Food is so important for me on my trips. The Odyssey, as a start point, caters for the American guests, but if you want vegetarian food or would rather something off plan, the chef will do her best to meet your requirements. One of the great things on the last night is when they put up a board asking you how you like your steak cooked, so that you get it just right.

In November 2014 you will have three Truk liveaboard options, I hope I’ve given you an insight into the Odyssey.