Odyssey Adventures Truk Lagoon

The Odyssey can accommodate 18 guests (9 cabins). Our cabin was spacious with a king bed and private bathroom with shower. There was plenty of space under the bed for stowing bags. The cabin was comfortable and had its own a/c unit with controls.The dive deck includes storage bins for each diver for your fins and other divegear. There are hangers for wetsuits to dry. A large camera table is outside, and there are two rinse tanks just for cameras - separate from the rinse tanks for wetsuits. Inside (same level as the dive deck) is an area for charging batteries.Diving is done via giant stride off the swim step. There is a hangbar at 15feet to end your dive, and return is via either the ladder or there is an elevator that you can stand on and be raised up (SO NICE!).The food was delicious. Full breakfast in the morning, snack after the first dive, full lunch, snack after the first afternoon dive, dinner. All drinks were included, even wine, beer, and alcohol.The crew is great. Good service, good dive guides. You were allowed to dive your own profile, but the dive guides were very happy to show you inside engine rooms, hulls, etc. Usually there were only 2-4 people per guide.Dive briefings were interesting. They gave a short history of the particular wreck, and described the features of each wreck. Things to be noted at each wreck were identified (including if there would be better items at another site), so you could better plan what you especially wanted to see on each dive. Photo opportunities include both wide angle and macro - there is lots of coral and fish life on the wrecks, besides artifacts and the wrecks themselves.

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.

Food was great. Different every night.Rooms all air conditioned with clean well functioning bathroomsBest part..You have a lot of freedom. After the morning briefing, you were free to dive anytime you wanted. You could go guided , buddied or solo (not encouraged).Viz in truk lagoon, not great, but you are there for the wrecks. Don't expect schools of colorful fish, just fantastic wrecks.The dive platform was exceedingly well organized and convenient. No need to transfer to zodiacs. Just don your tank and you're diving.Instruction were given as to where to penetrated and where not to penetrated the wreck, depending on your experience and daring do.The boat generally stayed on one wreck per day with detailed dive briefings in the morning.occasionally we would move to another wreck at mid day if it was close.Although I have not been on any other liveaboards, this was a great trip which I would repeat.