Palau Aggressor II trip report (long)

Thanks to all the earlier posts to my questions pre trip.
This was the best trip ever!!
We left Seattle Sat am and got into Palau around 8:30pm Sunday. We were promptly greeted by the Aggressor II staff.
After getting to the boat there was a very complete briefing about the facility.
One of the things I loved most was the safety consciousness of the crew; if anyone didn't have a dive alert, safety sausage they were given one to use for the week...one of each buddy pair had a GPS beacon attached to their BCD. We were also assigned reef hooks and knives if we didn't have them.

By the first am the crew of 7 knew all of the guests names.
Everyone was diving nitrox so that meant 4-5 6o minute dives daily!
Day 1 included 2 dives at German Channel/Turtle Cove, Ngedebus Corner, Big Drop Off.
Highlights included seeing my first cuddlefish (laying eggs!) Lion fish many different types of Nudibrach. There were unbelievable numbers of fish and the color of the corals was spectacular!

Scotty kept ample and delicious food coming..
A typical day would start with continental breakfast at 6:30am with the first dive at 7:00.
Then back to the boat for second breakfast; eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, cereal, pancakes.
Off to dive # 2 at 10:00. There were always great and very specific dive briefings with pictures.
Now time for lunch which might include choices of clam chowder, cesear salad, ham and cheese sandwhiches, jambalaya....
Dive #3 would start around 2:00pm
Lita, our lovely steward would meet us coming off the skiff and treat us to fresh cookies or brownies.
Dive # 4 would start around 4:30.
Back now for dinner which might include prime rib, chicken oscar, ahi and a fabulous dessert.
Dive # 5 would usually be around 7:30.
The motto onboard was ""Eat, Sleep, Dive". The crew certainly lived up to this.
My first "reef hook in" was the 7:00am dive on day # 2 at the Blue Corner. The crew was fabulous in their briefing and were right on hand to make sure everyone got hooked in without problems. What a trip to fly above a point and watch the sharks (white tip, black tip, grey) and baracuda come in! This was a great dive! We also did New drop Off, Fern's Wall, BlueCorner and a repeat dive in the late afternoon at Blue Corner again.

On the morning of my 50th birthday we were off to Peleleu Express. Wow, wow, wow! We started the dive in the North Pacific Ocean and ened up in the Philipine Sea. The visibility was astounding. This is definitely up their as one of the top dives of all time! The current wasn't too strong that am-Capt Mike said that he had done the same drift we had done in 7 minutes (it took us a 40 minute drift).
Also an astounding dive that day was Barracks Point. The viz there must have been 150 ft! And I saw my first Giant Clam. The corals were gorgeous.

Thanks to Captain Mike, second Captain Dan, Amanda, Hector, Ike, Scotty and Lita for making this a terrific trip.

All in all this was probably my favorite dive trip ever! I would go back to Palau and especially to The Palau Aggressor II-in a heartbeat and I encourage everyone to go!

Great report, it is high on the list....now if the economy would get a bit better.

We did the PAII last Christmas - Scotty was the cook then too. Food was incredible, and they have draft beer.

As long as we made the long trip, we stayed another week and went on the truk odysseyWelcome Aboard the Truk Odyssey - Wreck diving in Truk Lagoon Micronesia .

They should somehow market these trips together. Its incredible diving off both boats, though the Odyssey is a little more tech-ish.

Lucy's Diver:

We did the PAII last Christmas - Scotty was the cook then too. Food was incredible, and they have draft beer.

As long as we made the long trip, we stayed another week and went on the truk odysseyWelcome Aboard the Truk Odyssey - Wreck diving in Truk Lagoon Micronesia .

They should somehow market these trips together. Its incredible diving off both boats, though the Odyssey is a little more tech-ish.

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If you had to pick one of the two trips which one would it be?

Really depends on what you want to see. The trips are really quite different. Truk Lagoon is wrecks while Palau is reefs. Do you want to see artifacts deep down in the engine room or cool sea fans down on the reef? History or hooking?

On our most recent trip (Early June 09) to Truk we saw a lot less sea life than before. For instance, on our previous trip we saw a lot more rays and bat fish. This trip none. However, I did see a white spotted puffer fish which was new for me. In Palau you go for the fish action, hook in on Blue Corner or if lucky and hit the tides right Ulong Channel and watch the show. We saw more than 30 sharks on one dive.

That said Palau does have a number of divable wrecks that tend to be siltier than those in Truk. Also a 1/2 day tour of Peleliu Island is worth while as it was the scene of some of more intense fighting during WWII.

tropicalfan....Great report!....Been to Palau 9 times and going again in March.

vanduse1...I have been to Truk and Palau land based only. My feeling about Truk is if you are not 100% into wrecks....why brother. Palau does have wrecks you can dive plus everything else.

Thanks for the quick responses... It sounds like Palau may be a better bet for a bit more diversity but they are both great trips. I really like seeing the animal life so I may need to lean towards Palau for the first trip.

Thnx for the report.

This is long?!

Such a shame that airfare is such a killer to get there.

Vanduse1: if you're saying this will be first dive or liveaboard trip, then you'll be ruined for anywhere else. Many places will quickly be ho-hum after this trip. "Where's all the sharks, fish and color and picture perfect location?!" I did a similar thing.

Shasta_man:

This is long?!

Such a shame that airfare is such a killer to get there.

Vanduse1: if you're saying this will be first dive or liveaboard trip, then you'll be ruined for anywhere else. Many places will quickly be ho-hum after this trip. "Where's all the sharks, fish and color and picture perfect location?!" I did a similar thing.

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This will NOT be my first scuba trip but will be my first Liveaboard. All of my trips have been to places like Cozumel and other caribbean islands. Nothing outside of North America. I have a trip scheduled to Okinawa later this year(Not a Scuba only trip but should still get a bunch in).