Travelnsj
Contributor
I’ve been coming to Palau yearly since 2000 except for 2008 in which I went to Layang Layang (big mistake), and Palau has not disappointed me yet! Getting there now on that Continental 737 from LA to Hawaii is a bit uncomfortable, 6+ hours going and 5+ hours coming back. When I started going to Palau it was 777’s then 767’s, last year a 757, but a 737 to Hawaii? Yikes!
This was another great trip. I had a friend from Denver, Mary who joined me this year for a week (her boyfriend works too much). She is a Liveaboard person and I think she is convinced land can be as good! She did enjoy her feet on Terra Firma and going out for dinner in the evenings. We were not usually on the same dive boat and together we made some great friends that joined us for dinner generally every night. I met up again with the Bentprop.org group who do one of the most honorable jobs volunteering their time in their continuing the search for WWII missing in action.
Weather was near perfect, windy a few days which made water a bit rough otherwise it was flat and did not rain once during the day. Water was a degree or two cooler than I am used to. It was between 80 to 82 degrees with thermoclines which I have rarely experienced in the past. I am used to 82 to 83 degrees. Being I dive in a 1mm short suit I got chilled a bit on a few dives. They are calling it an El Nino year….and I thought the water was to get warmer?...Hmmm.
Again this year I stayed again at the West Plaza Malakal which is a basic Motel 8. I dove with Sams and they were busy, in all my years diving mostly with Sams I have not seen this many people. They had to bring in extra boats, dive guides and tanks. I dove with Shirley, Daniel, Jim, JC and Dexter. Sams has probably assembled the best group of dive guides in Palau, I just hope they will all be there next year. I was lucky enough to dive with Dexter for a couple of days (he one of the most experienced in Palau) being an instructor he did not have any students and he was able to get out to guide some dives. This year at Sams was a pretty much no hassle three tank dive days. If you requested it you generally got it. One of the problems is finding 4 or 5 people who want to do a third dive when you are out on the outer reefs (but I’m a good salesman…LOL). Plus you can always grab a tank and do their wall for a Mandarin fish dive which was one of the best I have done plus I saw Eagle Rays, giant Clams, Turtles etc. Also this year they really have upgraded their lunches with Bento boxes and a large menu to choose from, really some tasty lunches.
Everyone was very happy about all the dive shops were involved in was the defeat of the bill 8-44 which would have opened up Palauan waters for commercial fishing including Sharks! There is a continuing effort of all the dive shops to push for stronger action and patrols of the Palauan waters to catch the long-liners from Taiwan that get into the outer parts of Palau. I was watching Australian TV in which they were interviewing Dermot (from Sams), dive guides and the President of Palau Johnson Toribiong regarding the protection of the waters. He said they did not have the money to fuel the Patrol boat to Patrol the waters. Being tourism is their number 1 source of income…I’d find the money!
On February 28th around 8am, Mary and I arrived at Sams and they were into a lockdown mode meaning we were strongly requested not to leave under any circumstances due to the possibility of a Tsunami from the Chilean earthquake. Sams sandbagged entrances from the docks, boats emptied, Vans waiting to take us out to higher ground if they were notified that the buoys out in the Pacific detected the wave was headed our way. We finally got the all clear around 11am and it was only a two tank dive day. But with all precautions that were made was impressive and not a bother that we missed a dive…Safer than sorry as they say.
Diving: 11 days 31 dives. Again this year I saw very large schools of Scad which is a small mackerel like bait fish. They were at both the German Channel and Ulong. It is very interesting seeing these large schools being herded by Sharks, giant Trevally’s, Wrasses etc. and even more interesting was when the Pelagics went for a bite! Quite exciting to see the frenzy of fish trying not to be eaten. The German Channel and Ulong were the exciting dive sites this year. Saw Sharks on every dive, did four dives in the German Channel always saw 3 to 7 Mantas even the rare Black Manta for Palau. Even on a couple of other sites Mantas were around (last year I saw none), also Wrasse, Turtles, large schools of Pyramid butterfly fish, Moorish Idols, Fusiliers, a couple of times saw a school of Bumphead parrot fish 30+ etc etc, plus some nudis and flatworms. At the New Dropoff on one dive I saw around 17 schooling Grey reef sharks. The Blue corner again this year was a bit disappointing, not much happening, some good reef hookups but not a lot of action. There was a group from Sams that was at the Blue corner that had around 30 Mantas fly over them (on a day I was up at Ulong). I did see my first Cuttlefish and a purple Leaf fish in Palau.
One dive I did was at Shark City that is known for the schooling Black Tip Sharks. This dive is about 35 feet and it also attracts snorkel boats. There were about 4 snorkel boats above me and I was laying down in the sand watching about 8 blacktips swimming around when someone from above chummed the water. All of a sudden around 30 frenzied blacktips were all around me. Needless to say if I could have found the person responsible for that I would have thrown them in the water and turned them into the police as Palau has very strict laws on chumming the water. Not fun to be in the middle of a shark feed.
Overall this was another great trip to Palau and with Sams, met some great people and some old friends. 2011 will be booked once the Airline seats become available!
This was another great trip. I had a friend from Denver, Mary who joined me this year for a week (her boyfriend works too much). She is a Liveaboard person and I think she is convinced land can be as good! She did enjoy her feet on Terra Firma and going out for dinner in the evenings. We were not usually on the same dive boat and together we made some great friends that joined us for dinner generally every night. I met up again with the Bentprop.org group who do one of the most honorable jobs volunteering their time in their continuing the search for WWII missing in action.
Weather was near perfect, windy a few days which made water a bit rough otherwise it was flat and did not rain once during the day. Water was a degree or two cooler than I am used to. It was between 80 to 82 degrees with thermoclines which I have rarely experienced in the past. I am used to 82 to 83 degrees. Being I dive in a 1mm short suit I got chilled a bit on a few dives. They are calling it an El Nino year….and I thought the water was to get warmer?...Hmmm.
Again this year I stayed again at the West Plaza Malakal which is a basic Motel 8. I dove with Sams and they were busy, in all my years diving mostly with Sams I have not seen this many people. They had to bring in extra boats, dive guides and tanks. I dove with Shirley, Daniel, Jim, JC and Dexter. Sams has probably assembled the best group of dive guides in Palau, I just hope they will all be there next year. I was lucky enough to dive with Dexter for a couple of days (he one of the most experienced in Palau) being an instructor he did not have any students and he was able to get out to guide some dives. This year at Sams was a pretty much no hassle three tank dive days. If you requested it you generally got it. One of the problems is finding 4 or 5 people who want to do a third dive when you are out on the outer reefs (but I’m a good salesman…LOL). Plus you can always grab a tank and do their wall for a Mandarin fish dive which was one of the best I have done plus I saw Eagle Rays, giant Clams, Turtles etc. Also this year they really have upgraded their lunches with Bento boxes and a large menu to choose from, really some tasty lunches.
Everyone was very happy about all the dive shops were involved in was the defeat of the bill 8-44 which would have opened up Palauan waters for commercial fishing including Sharks! There is a continuing effort of all the dive shops to push for stronger action and patrols of the Palauan waters to catch the long-liners from Taiwan that get into the outer parts of Palau. I was watching Australian TV in which they were interviewing Dermot (from Sams), dive guides and the President of Palau Johnson Toribiong regarding the protection of the waters. He said they did not have the money to fuel the Patrol boat to Patrol the waters. Being tourism is their number 1 source of income…I’d find the money!
On February 28th around 8am, Mary and I arrived at Sams and they were into a lockdown mode meaning we were strongly requested not to leave under any circumstances due to the possibility of a Tsunami from the Chilean earthquake. Sams sandbagged entrances from the docks, boats emptied, Vans waiting to take us out to higher ground if they were notified that the buoys out in the Pacific detected the wave was headed our way. We finally got the all clear around 11am and it was only a two tank dive day. But with all precautions that were made was impressive and not a bother that we missed a dive…Safer than sorry as they say.
Diving: 11 days 31 dives. Again this year I saw very large schools of Scad which is a small mackerel like bait fish. They were at both the German Channel and Ulong. It is very interesting seeing these large schools being herded by Sharks, giant Trevally’s, Wrasses etc. and even more interesting was when the Pelagics went for a bite! Quite exciting to see the frenzy of fish trying not to be eaten. The German Channel and Ulong were the exciting dive sites this year. Saw Sharks on every dive, did four dives in the German Channel always saw 3 to 7 Mantas even the rare Black Manta for Palau. Even on a couple of other sites Mantas were around (last year I saw none), also Wrasse, Turtles, large schools of Pyramid butterfly fish, Moorish Idols, Fusiliers, a couple of times saw a school of Bumphead parrot fish 30+ etc etc, plus some nudis and flatworms. At the New Dropoff on one dive I saw around 17 schooling Grey reef sharks. The Blue corner again this year was a bit disappointing, not much happening, some good reef hookups but not a lot of action. There was a group from Sams that was at the Blue corner that had around 30 Mantas fly over them (on a day I was up at Ulong). I did see my first Cuttlefish and a purple Leaf fish in Palau.
One dive I did was at Shark City that is known for the schooling Black Tip Sharks. This dive is about 35 feet and it also attracts snorkel boats. There were about 4 snorkel boats above me and I was laying down in the sand watching about 8 blacktips swimming around when someone from above chummed the water. All of a sudden around 30 frenzied blacktips were all around me. Needless to say if I could have found the person responsible for that I would have thrown them in the water and turned them into the police as Palau has very strict laws on chumming the water. Not fun to be in the middle of a shark feed.
Overall this was another great trip to Palau and with Sams, met some great people and some old friends. 2011 will be booked once the Airline seats become available!
