Had an excellent night's sleep, but was still tired - seven hours just wasn't enough to get caught up. Our first dive was a half an hour's ride out to Uman Island. The Rio de Janeiro Maru was a Japanese sub tender sunk (like most of the wrecks in Chuuk lagoon) in Operation Hailstorm. She rests on her starboard side in 121 feet of water. I found the sideways orientation a little distracting and in general didn't find the wreck as engaging as yesterday's upright wrecks. Also the interior wasn't as accessible, and the coral growth wasn't nearly as lush. It was still fun though, and the highlights were a hold full of bottles (including many still in cases), and some giant (thirty foot long) gun barrels for field guns.
We went to Jeep Island for lunch. This is a private island owned by our resort - it's about fifty feet across and has sixteen coconut palms and a small hut - very basic but it would still be fun to hire it for a few days of relaxing! After lunch we hung out for an hour or so then jumped back in the boat to head back towards Weno. The second wreck was the Gosei Maru a freighter now resting on its port side - which again I found distracting. There was a hold full of munitions (torpedoes and depth charges were recognizable), but the highlight was the maze of interconnected passages - lit by light filtered through many holes in many different levels creating a 3-D pattern of cathedral light in the water.
After we rinsed our gear we hung out for awhile, then went by the dive shop to try to arrange another dive on the Fujikawa Maru for tomorrow. For dinner we walked the few hundred yards to a nearby Japanese restaurant the had been recommended by several people. The walk was a little interesting (Chuuk is not often described as safe) and a little further than we expected. The restaurant itself was Ok - I wasn't that impressed. The best part was that the owner gave us a ride back to the hotel rather than letting us walk. Back in the hotel we got some ice and sat on our porch and drank the half bottle of Bailey's that I'd brought from Pohnpei.
