Since 1983, I have traveled to Truk Lagoon six times diving with Blue Lagoon, the Aggressor, and the Odyssey. I have been trying unsuccessfully for several years to dive with helium. I thought my hopes had been answered in 2001 when the Blue Lagoon had a TDI instructor setting up a technical facility. Unfortunately, this facility folded before I could use helium. Deep wrecks on the Aggressor did not appeal to me because of the requirement to dive independent yoke-style doubles using air. Changing back and forth while fighting narcosis at 200 feet and trying to video was too much. The greater risk of an O-ring leak from yoke valves also bothered me. In 2001 I dove with the Odyssey. They had DIN valves, isolator doubles, and 30 cubic foot pony bottles. The Odyssey would prepare the nitrox mix we wanted for the dives and allowed us to put our own DIN single valves on the pony and stage bottles. The only negative was again diving air.
I have been several times on the San Francisco and Aikkoku Maru using air, twice on single tanks in the old days. The last time with doubles, I crawled through both wrecks and have some great video from the holds and engine rooms. I had to watch my video to remind me of everything I had actually seen on the dive. My November 2003 trip was different. The Truk Stop Hotel is the major importer of gas for the island of Weno (formerly Moen) and willing to supply helium at $3 a cubic foot and oxygen at $1.25 a cubic foot. Pretty expensive stuff, but everyone agreed the gas was worth the additional cost. All the initial arrangements were made through Ernie Arellano of Scuba Travel Ventures. Follow-up e-mails with the hotel and dive shop assured us everything was going as scheduled. Since the shop did not have enough doubles to take care of the entire group (seven divers); we brought our own manifolds, bands, and single DIN valves for our decompression tanks. A picture of all of the equipment needed for ths trip is at the top of this e-mail and will be on my web site (www.duggandivin g.com) in January.
One of our divers came over from Hawaii on the milk run through all the islands. Her gear arrived two days late. Being the typical pack rat tech divers, we had more than enough gear to fit her for diving, the only casualty being my 1.5-mm wetsuit I loaned her that is now stretched out in places I’m not. The dive shop had a booster and one K-14 compressor available. We wanted to fill a lot of tanks as fast as possible to the same mix, so we brought over a blending system (Nitrox stick, hoses, regulators, etc). Several whips for both oxygen and helium traveled with us to Truk to put helium in the tanks and top it off with the appropriate blend of nitrox. Our main mix was 18/30/52 for the morning dive and 27/17/56 for the afternoon dive. We made a few night dives on 32 to 36 percent nitrox.
A variety of software was used: Hydrospace's, Abysmal’s, Voyager and GUE’s decoplanner. We primarily used RGBM but cross-referenced all of them for the most conservative. Although Truk now has a good chamber, none of us was anxious to visit it as a customer. Several of us also used the Explorer trimix computer made by Hydrospace with dismal results. We had a 50% failure rate on the computers. A call to Hydrospace upon my return revealed they had received some bad capacitors. These computer failures did not affect the dives a great deal as we were mainly using them as a backup. It was irritating to haul such an expensive piece of “ballast” halfway around the world and back without being able to use the computers. Earlier use of these computers at Rock Lake, New Mexico, had revealed no problem. We all had additional computers, digital bottom timers and watches so we pressed on.
How great it was to crawl through the San Francisco Maru, Aikkou Maru, Fujisan Maru and Oite destroyer and remember every detail. We even found some intact skeletons and china caches not described in any book. Some of the measurements were slightly different than wreck descriptions indicate. Everyone agreed the helium was well worth the cost. A rebreather would save a lot of money on helium, and that is what I plan to dive on my next trip.
I have had several technical divers e-mail me you could always get helium on Truk. They even quoted prices from the Aggressor and Blue Lagoon. I doubt if any of them have ever been to Truk. The Blue Lagoon never offered it. I do several Aggressor trips with groups every year. I have tried to get helium with no result. If the Aggressor supplied helium, I would have taken my own bands and manifolds and dove with them. The Odyssey showed no interest in offering helium. With the expense, time required in blending, having to haul numerous large tanks, I understand the live aboard's point. Since I can only really do two deep helium dives a day, there is no need for a live aboard when the wrecks are all so close to land based operations.
The crew at the Truk Stop dive shop did whatever was required to meet our needs. The stick we installed is still at Truk Stop for everyone to use. The hotel is not fancy, but more than adequate with comfortable beds and large bathrooms. The meals were good and reasonably priced. Fresh sushi was also available every day except the one day after the typhoon hit. Yes, even late in November a typhoon can happen. We lost our last day of diving, but the water was calmed down enough for the new group that arrived to dive the day we left. I guess that is the nice part about a lagoon.
Of course, I will go back again!!! Next time I intend to list the exact wrecks we want to dive and have them located and moored ahead of time. We spent several hours one day trying to locate the Katsuragisan Maru. Prior location should alleviate any wasted time. I also plan to purchase one of Peter Ready’s Prizm Topaz’s. The savings on helium will pay for a good chunk of the cost of this equipment, makes me wish I hadn’t gotten rid of my BMR.
If you want to arrange a trip contact Scuba Travel Ventures and the Truk Stop Hotel. If you are adventurous, they are looking for a te chnical instructor to move there and run the technical diving operation.


John Duggan