Chuuk Lagoon was Japan's main base for the South Pacific theatre during WWII and was the main anchorage for the Japanese fleet.  In 1944, the US attacked, sinking 12 warships and 32 merchant ships in the relatively shallow water.  Some call this the Japanese 'Pearl Harbor'.

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After 75 years, the wrecks are now encrusted in reef building corals and so are fascinating from both a historical and a marine life perspective.  On the inside, the holds are still full of spare parts, the engine rooms are mostly intact and the remains of Japanese sailors can still be found.  On the outside, the propellers are covered in sponges, the guns are draped in soft corals and moray eels have made the masts their home.

 

This was a bucket list trip for us.  Chuuk is notoriously difficult to get to, so we were lucky that Air Nuigini was testing a route between Port Moresby and Chuuk.  We had a 3-month window of opportunity and managed to book over the Christmas break.

 

We spent 6 days on the Odyssey liveaboard, followed by 4 days at the Blue Lagoon Resort.  Over the 10 days, we did 30 dives on 20 different wrecks.  We mostly dived on 32% nitrox, with 80% for decompression.  On the San Francisco Maru, we used 24%.