2 weeks in Palau

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farsidefan1

Contributor
Rest in Peace
Messages
1,293
Reaction score
167
Location
Salt Lake Valley, Utah USA
# of dives
200 - 499
I just got back from 2 weeks in Palau. First week on the Aggressor and second week with Sam's Tours. Wow, both operations are first class. I gained 5 lbs:popcorn:probably on the Aggressor oh well, back to nutrisystems:idk:. This was my first trip to Palau and I must say it is the best place I have ever been for big stuff. I met diverken from scubaboard on the aggressor and Scott (travlinsj) at Sams. Both were great to dive and hang out with. I dove blue corner 4 times. Twice there was so little current we didn't even have to hook in. I listed the following fish on one blue corner dive. White tip sharks, gray reef sharks (tons of both) 2 eagle rays (They hung around both weeks), coronet fish, leaf fish, schools of snapper, unicorn fish, surgeon fish, butterfly fish, school of barracuda, school of napolean wrasse, with one big one especially friendly to divers, bluefin trevally, various jacks, tons of moorish idols. And to steal a line from an old movie, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. On a dive at German channel We had a big bait ball in front of us then the trevally moved in and started cutting them up. This brought in the sharks, both white tips and gray reefs. They were fighting for the scraps, at the same time we (Scott was with me on this dive) there was a large school of barracudabeside us then a manta showed up above the cleaning station (probably could not get to the cleaning station due to about 40 divers that decended in a cloud and ignored the instructions to stay at least 15 feet back from the station. we checked both cleaning stations in the shallower sites and both had the same infestation.
The current was running strong at Peleliu corner resulting in a virtual parade of big stuff, sharks, spanish mackeral, dogtooth tuna. When we unhooked it was a hilarious ride on the current, My favorite dive site was the Ulong chanel (4 dives). It is another hook in dive and when we unhooked we just got blown down the channel just a kick needed now and then to miss coral head. Part way down there is a huge lettuce coral formation that looks like a fish condo. Seemed like there were fish in every opening.
One of my goals was to see a mandarin fish. Bingo, just outside of chandelier cavern there were several in the coral heads. All in all a fabulous trip, I will be returning next year with my wife. She was in Japan visiting daughter and new grand daughter. She sent me off to Palau to "research" the land and boat based operations to see what we should do next year, sigh, I took one for the team:wink:. oh the pain. I will try to add photos next, but if I don't get it done right away Scott will be back in 2 weeks and he has GREAT pictures - and he knows how to add them to posts.
I stayed at the sea passion while diving with Sam's. The room was plenty large the air conditioning was as powerfull as I could ask for, the room was modern, spotless and came with breakfast every morning. The shower was huge, I had an ocean view room - just excellent accomodations. Much better than I expected in Palau. For 5 bucks I had internet all week.
 
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Sounds like it was truly hard to "take one for the team"! Having done a week each on land and on liveaboard, which would you choose for one week in the future?

(I did a week on the Ocean Hunter I and loved it!)
 
Love the report and video....I will be going April 16-23, can hardly wait!!!!
 
The magnificent Ulong Channel for me: the combination big schooling fish/shark action; abundant colorful & large hard coral head formations; and the most fun drift diving ride "flying" on through the channel itself. . .!

Absolutely the best most prolific single tank recreational series of dives to see marine life I've ever done!:D
 
Thanks for the review, Farside. Just yesterday my fiancee suggested I take some time off and go back to Palau. She is apparently living in that utopia we inhabited a few years ago, when we actually took the vacation time we accrued. Nevertheless, I had to concede it was a good idea and was mulling it over until I saw this phrase:
about 40 divers that descended in a cloud
Really? Forty divers? Was it a Thunderball set? I haven't seen 40 divers underwater in my last 3 trips combined. Forty on one dive...ouch!:shakehead:

But I guess if two liveaboards unload on the same site, that's what you get. When I was there the boats seemed to stagger their visits, so we would see divers arriving as we exited the water.
 
The cloud of divers were apparently not from another liveaboard but from some dive operations that cater to orientals. Must have sent 3 or 4 boats down at the same time. We were alone then it literally blotted out the sun. No room for me to complain though, they were probably unhappy that we were already there crowding their waters too. Never saw so many white fins though.
 
I used to think that by going the liveaboard option in Palau, you can avoid the land-ops cattle boats coming out of Koror and be the first group of divers out at Blue Corner @8am before the masses arrive an hour later. That was twelve years ago. . .:depressed:
 
WE never saw those herds of divers except at German Channel, but that was because mantas were there. All the dive ops radioed to other dive ops "mantas, mantas" and so all the boats showed up. We did German Channel twice, both times this happened but we were first there the second day, so we didn't have to contend with crowds long. What annoyed me the most about those other guys is that they had the divers holding onto or standing ON the coralheads to watch the mantas. They never stayed down long, none seemed to be very good divers...

they really didn't affect my enjoyment of the dives there, that huge baitball of fish, the mantas, the sharks, all the other fish.... one of my Top 10 dives ever in my life.
[vimeo]1144247[/vimeo]
sorry for the poor quality of the video, but I was using my old camcorder which was not HD. The water was full of plankton so my camcorder was having trouble focusing, too.

robin:D
 
The only place this occured was in German Channel, but it happened on 2 different occasions. Mantas were found either above the cleaning stations or at the deeper cleaning station where the crowds didn't wander. I don't think the mantas could possibly gotten through the mass of humanity to get to the other cleaning stations. Blue corner was not a problem at all. Especially from the Aggressor. We were there at 7:30 am.

As to which I will do in the future the following thoughts come to mind. My wife will come with me. She normally is not enthusiastic about liveaboard due to sea sickness issues. However the Aggressor found very calm waters to park every day and there was no really rough water all week, even when traveling. And there is not that much distance between sites (unlike ospray reef or between ribbon reefs down under. That is where my wife determined she was not a fan of liveaboards). Pictures I took have convinced her that conditions in Palau are much more conducive to a comfortable experience. If you are a dive 4 or 5 times a day person you simply have to go on a liveaboard. Now the second week a large storm moved in and lasted for 4 solid days. The shore based companies stayed inside the reef. I would like to know how rough conditions were on the Aggressor. Now one other factor in my decision for next year is that my wife is good for 2 or max 3 dives a day. On the liveaboard you are paying about double the cost of my 3 dive a day package from Sam's and the Sea Passion (which included breakfast - omlets to order, ham bacon sausage, vegetable stir fry, waffles juices etc. really a solid excellent breakfast in my opinon) so on the Aggessor you get the chance of 2 more dives a day (although Sam's does allow shore diving which is pretty good at no additional cost) and another meal - dinner, because sams does provide a choice of lunch for days you are diving with them so between the Sea Passion and Sams you have breakfast and lunch.

On a purely bang for the buck I think you have to look at Sam's or Perhaps Fish and fins of which I have heard good things but Have not experienced. I mean double the price for daily dinner and 2 more dives? The 2 dives would be worth it unless you have already done 3 dives and are ready for a bit of rest. The long boat rides out from Sam's (45 min to an hour)simply did not bother me at all - which surprised me. It is beautiful and the captains take different routes all the time. Oh, on final factor in favor of the liveaboard is that on the first dive of the day (7;30 AM) there were not GENERALLY many other boats on site. Generally is in caps because a couple of times other boats were there and I wondered how the heck early must they have left to beat us to the site.

Anyway, 2 quite different appoaches which should help you decide which one fits you. Good luck and have a ball.
 
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