Palau Liveaboard Or Peleliu Island

[champ]

My wife and I will be going to yap and palau this coming winter. I am trying to decide if we should spend a week on a liveaboard or stay on Peleliu island. I understand that it is a long boat ride from Koror to the good dive sites; however, I read that most of the dive sites are only a 10-15 minute boat ride from Peleliu.

For those of you have gone on a liveaboard in Palau, how long did it take to get to the dive sites on a tendor boat? Were there enough things to do to prevent you from getting cabin fever? What liveaboard do you recomend?

For those of you who have stayed on Peleliu island, how long did it take to get to the dive sites? Are there fun things to explore on the island? What places do you recomend to stay? - what was the cost? Who do you recomend to dive with? what were the costs? Can you do more than two dives a day? night dives?

[LUBOLD8431]

You might want to stay away from Peter Hughes.

I would go with the Aggressor.

Do a search and you will find a story about a fatality recently in Palau who was a diver on the Peter Hughes boat. Some interesting details in the account.

[h3o]

The boat rides through the rock island atolls are really nice... very scenic. You'll find to enjoy them almost as much as your dives. The water is super clear so you can see the corals below, the channels through the rock islands are maze-like and you almost feel like your going through a maze of rivers rather than an ocean. We also saw turtles peeping their heads up, dolphins, squids, and other neat stuff all from the boat. If I were you, I'd stay on land near a beach.

I will also be there in late December, early January. I will be camping out on one of the rock islands for most of the time. You can arrange with the dive shops to pick you and drop you off before/after dives. You can also rent kayaks so you can explore and not be stuck on just one of the rock islands. If you are planning to stay a long time, there are a lot of apartment rentals available for about $600-700/month.

[champ]

H3O,

If you rent kayaks and camp on the rock islands, Do you need to bring all of your camping equipment or can you rent that too. Also do you need to bring your own freeze dried food? What other options are there for food?

Thanks,

Champ

[Rickg]

h3o once bubbled...
The boat rides through the rock island atolls are really nice... very scenic. You'll find to enjoy them almost as much as your dives.

h3o is right that the boat rides can be enjoyable "most" of the time. They can be brutal kidney killerswhen the wind and seas don't cooperate and a 45 minute ride turns into an 1 1/2 hour trip.

We did the hotel/2-tank boat dive route when we went and definitely recommend the liveaboard route if you can afford it. I find 4-5 dives a day from a liveaboard to be much more enjoyable than hotel/2-tank boat dives and a much better value for your money.

Rickg

[h3o]

champ once bubbled...
H3O,

If you rent kayaks and camp on the rock islands, Do you need to bring all of your camping equipment or can you rent that too. Also do you need to bring your own freeze dried food? What other options are there for food?

Thanks,

Champ

You can also rent camping equipment, but I'm going to bring my own. The same place that rents kayaks, also rents camping equipment (Sam's). As for food, all you need is a few fishing poles and/or sling. I've fished in Palau before and never had a problem catching fish from the shore or boat. When we went on the boat, it was literally every 3 minutes we were catching something decent. We're also planning on using the kayaks to do some deeper bottom fishing. I am going to bring some back up can goods and/or dehydrated beef, fruit, etc. but I doubt we'll need them.

[Zeina]

WOW... you're going to love this place!!

Peleliu sounds great... but it's 2 dives per day.
We were on the Big Blue Explorer, an AWESOME boat: extremely comfortable and roomy, great food, individual bathroom and AC, huge dive deck and camera room, and exceptional dive masters (6 of them, for a maximum of 18 divers!! :wacko: ).

We did 4 to 5 dives a day on BBE, and all of them were unbelievable!! Only for that reason, I would not go land-based.
Chaseboat rides from BBE to the dive sites were about 5 to 10 minutes. The chaseboats (BBE has 2 of them) were also very roomy and comfy.

And trust me, with 5 dives a day, there is no time for you to get cabin fever (hardly found time to watch the video we were shooting!!). :D

My trip report, complete with pictures and video (see links at the end of the report) is here:
http://www.scubadiving.com/members/tripreports.php?s=2011

Let me know if you have additional questions

[mars2u]

Good news: Excellent report Zeina.

Bad news: I'm leaving for Palau on May16th and diving the BBE. (it's good news for me...bad for you since it looked like you had an excellent time).

I'll dive Oahu the following week and once I get back I'll have a trip report also.

After reading your report...I CAN'T wait.

Question's:
I'll be diving Nitrox onboard. How is the Nitrox blending set-up? Can you dive different EAN's or are they set-up for only 32 or 36?

thanks

[RSdiver]

The previous point by Zeina about the number of dives has already been well made, land based will be fewer.

Since you are taking your wife another important point might be the level of comfort.

I saw this trip report and photos on Rodales :
*Click here* to see a Rodale trip report on Peleliu divers (http://www.scubadiving.com/members/tripreports.php?s=1220)
and although it looks nice for guys used to roughing it, I know some ladies just require 4 star+ hotels/liveaboards.

[mars2u]

RSdiver once bubbled...
The previous point about the number of dives has already been well made, land based will be fewer.

Since you are taking your wife another important point might be the level of comfort.



Which post are you responding to RSdiver? If it's mine than you might have misunderstood my question. I'm inquiring about the Nitrox set-up on the BBE. Also, I'm not married and regardless, the level of comfort on the BBE is actually very good compared to say Blackbeards that's more like "roughing it" from what I've heard.

[Zeina]

mars2u once bubbled...
Question's:
I'll be diving Nitrox onboard. How is the Nitrox blending set-up? Can you dive different EAN's or are they set-up for only 32 or 36?

Tanks are already set up for 32 and 36... You get to analyze them, naturally.
We usually dove first 3 dives: 32%, last 2: 36%
Never got even close to decompression limit

Have a blast!! :)
And please say hi to Lynne, Terry, and the others for me

Z

[Zeina]

RSdiver once bubbled...
...and although it looks nice for guys used to roughing it, I know some ladies just require 4 star+ hotels/liveaboards.

It is a 5* liveaboard. And I am a "high maintenance" lady ;)
We were on the Galapagos Aggressor last November, and Big Blue Explorer offers ALL the comfort the Aggressor has, and more (larger dive deck, larger camera room).

BBE divemasters were actually better at showing stuff, dive briefings and general communication than the Galapagos Aggressor's.

I would (will, actually :D ) go diving on BBE again anytime.

My .02 cents

[frankzeg]

We spent nearly amonth in Palau in the time of year that is being discussed ( Dec/jan) and can give some advice. We stayed on the Aggressor for one of the weeks and it was by far the least enjoyable phase of the trip. Diving in Palau is highly tide dependent and nowadays can be very depressing if you visit places that were severely damaged by coral bleaching. The Aggressor crew in winter 2001/2002 were well meaning, hard working and pretty incompetent at being at the right place at the right time. Our diving experience with the guides from Neco Marine was superior in nearly every respect except for the rather tedious boat rides back and forth to Koror. Because everyone on the Aggressor has to dive at the same time (one skiff) this means that 16 people are going to be in the water simultaneously- creating a bubble curtain at places like Blue Corner that is detrimental to the diving. In general you want to be in places like German Channel or Siaes when tides make the current run (especially inbound)- then you will see the big beasts at the cleaner stations- they need the water flow to keep from sinking ( thinking mantas and sharkies here). They also love to ride the lift off the walls when current is really ripping inbound. Sort of like hang gliders along a cliff. The experience of being hooked off at the wall edge in high current watching the jacks and sharks "surf" the ridge lift is not to be missed.
It should be noted that much of the time on the liveaboard is spend simply anchored at German Channel- that is where the BBE hangs out. With multiple skiffs ( like BBE has) this can be a great place to use as a base. But in general it means that more distant sites will be less visited. In some ways the Siaes area is best visited using day boats from Koror. The same can be said for Peleliu- our Aggressor captain never even took us there.
The night diving from the Aggressor was also very limited which was a real shame- the night dives we did do were quite spectacular. I would push for more night dives if I were to do it again.
The December time frame is when trade winds begin to set in and there can be sustained winds of fairly strong force essentially for weeks. That is why the ride back to koror in the dive boat can be so bone-jarring. No kidding- bring a decent rain shell and something warm- you can get colder on the ride back than at any time diving. If you can ride in the rear of the boat.
We actually found that we could camp on Neco Island and use a cell phone to call Neco Marine to pick us up on their way out to the Ngemelis area ( Blue Corner, Big Drop, new Drop). We kayaked for 9 days around in the rock islands- worth doing if you have the time. The place is essentially a wilderness after 4:30 PM since there are no navaids out there and plenty of interesting shallow reefs, weird tidally affected surf breaks and other entertaining hazards which deter boat operators after dark. If you can get in touch with hanging out on your own island with just fruit bats and birds to keep you company ( a sort of Bill Gates/fantasy island experience) you can match the BBE at nearly zero $$ /night. And have a 15 minute boat ride to the Corner. Just watch for falling coconuts ( yep just like in Castaway)
An alternative is to stay at Carp Island- a resort that mostly caters to Japanese divers but which is right at the Blue Corner area- no nitrox there when we went there though. Rooms were basic and food as good as Koror. Cannot comment on the dive experience from there though.
The next time we go we intend to simply charter one of the day boats from Neco with four other friends- you can get the whole boat for a week with driver and DM for very reasonable $$ and have the ability to go places at your chosing ( considering tides etc).
Don't miss the jellyfish lake- swim out farther than it seems you need to go to find the heart of the swarm. Do not underestimate the snorkeling in Palau- the shallow spots are where the really big clams are. And there are beaches where the Bigeye trevally jacks hunt the bait fish right up to the beach.
By the way you can get darn near anything in Koror- there is an excellent infrastructure in place- the exception may be weird batteries for diving gear. They even have traffic jams on the one road come Christmas time.
Hope this helps a bit.
z

[RSdiver]

Zeina once bubbled...
Tanks are already set up for 32 and 36... You get to analyze them, naturally.
We usually dove first 3 dives: 32%, last 2: 36%


A membrane Nitrox system is what is typically installed on liveaboards and this results in nearly a uniform Nitrox EAN across most fills, but can be a rather expensive to install.

Since you are getting Nitrox fills of 32% to 36%, I'm wondering how they blend them? Are they topping off each tank?