Dive Review of
SS THORFINN in
Micronesia

 Fiji, Barrier Reef, Cocos, Solomons, Florida, New Zealand 

Dive Conditions

Noimits  

[None]  

Overall Rating

[None]My dive trip on the SS  “Thorfinn”.

By. Ronald W. Dion
Rondion1@juno.com



I find myself  “crunching down” and just doing the job at hand to make a
full report on our trip aboard the “Thorfinn” , a live aboard dive boat in
the country of Chuuk “Truk” Micronesia.  My wife and I are in our 60’s and
scuba dive off live aboard boats up to 8 times a year. I have wanted to
dive the WWII wrecks of Truk for a long time. The idea of a big (170 ft)
steam powered live aboard sounded great.

It is a long and difficult trip to Truk , but we held up well to spend two
nights at the Blue Lagoon resort before boarding the “Thorfinn” , a 50 year
old steam boat.  We observed that Truk is a very poor, dirty, backward
country. Our first hint that things might not going smooth came when we
were awakened by the crew from the “Thorfinn” wondering why we were not
ready to board.  They had sail dates all mixed up as revealed by our paper
work, so we became the only guests on the boat.  Captain Lance was quite
nice as he showed us some “Thorfinn” features.

He informed us that the water maker was not working properly and we would
have to live with bad tap water that was very salty.  He insisted that the
water was fine to drink, it just tasted bad and that parts should be in a
few days. We later learned that boat has had bad water for a long time. 
The water was used in tea and coffee and food and it all tasted so.

Drinking bottled water in the lounge was a surprise as the bottle had been
filled from the tap and was just as bad. The water made me ill on the third
day.  Consider that the entire country and all the boats dump their waste
into the lagoon.  The safety of the water was much in doubt, in spite of
Captain Higgs assurances. At last some bottled water was brought aboard,
and diet coke was brought aboard all was kept locked up and given out a
bottle at a time.

Our cabin was large and well laid out but the air conditioner never was
cool enough.  The captain, by now a bit cranky, said the European guests
liked the cabins warm and never explained why we Americans had to suffer.

One of the selling features of the boat is a huge plasma TV in the lounge
for movies and dive pictures.  This, of course, was broken the entire trip.
 The hot tub worked but was filled with raw sea water.  Incredibly, there
is no dive deck on this boat. One has to put on equipment and wet suits in
the skiffs where all the gear is never dry as the crew puts it into small
under seat lockers that have bilge water running through them. Getting into
the skiff is never easy but worse in rough weather, climbing down a narrow
ladder on the side of the boat. Then we suited up as the boat bounced
around.

We were on the boat 7 days (we paid for 12 but just had enough after 7. 
During the 7 days the boat moved once to get fuel.  It takes 2 hours to get
up steam.  The docking at the fuel dock was a carnival with lines breaking,
the captain yelling at the crew and the boat crashing into the dock,
leaving a 25 foot black mark on the boat.  After fueling the boat was moved
a few miles, anchored and stayed for 7 days.  No steam till the last day.

The 70 year old captain lives on this boat with his 24 year old native
wife and their 2 young kids 2 and 4.  The rest of the crew of 22 seem to be
related to the wife and most are not trained.  Two were fired for stealing
on the 3rd day.  The kids are all over the place and never wear life
jackets. The 4 year old climbs all over the skiff and goes to dive sites in
rough weather without a life jacket.  

Then there is the food.  As bad as it can get.  We are vegetarians and
were told when we booked that we would have all the food we needed.  In
fact vegetables were not to be had.  Grease was the byword no buffet style
small portions with the captain sitting there just waiting for someone to
complain.  We were made fun of by this jerk who by now had the “Bligh
Syndrome”. 

Now we should talk about the diving.  Chuuk  “Truk” has the world’s best
wreck diving, no doubt.  Diving from the “Thorfinn” is strange to say the
least.  Our first dive briefing was by the captain as there was no dive
director, just him.  We were told that there was nitrox available, but, the
first dive would be as deep as 160 feet, well below nitrox limits ( for us
105 Ft).  Captain Higgs said that these were not decompression dives but we
should follow his safety stop rules.  There were many dives thereafter well
below Padi recreational limits, over the next six days.  Many of these
dives were, of course, decompression dives.

 I refused to dive that deep as I am 67 and want Nitrox for repetitive
diving.  One day they were out of nitrox and at times they used tanks for
nitrox where the nitrox label was worn off.  The tanks in general were in
scuffed shape, looking very old. The nitrox did test well, however.

In general, the entire “Thorfinn” experience was just awful. It was so bad
that it sounds like fiction but this essay is the truth.

Ronald W. Dion
San Francisco, California
March  2007



 

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