Dan
Contributor
Summary
This is a 7-day (24-31 December, 2017) liveaboard trip around southern Palau with Palau Aggressor II. The itinerary, as shown in Table 1, includes 25 dives on 22 dive sites. Figure 1 shows the dive sites we visited (marked by red dots). We did 2 dives on the popular German Channel (manta cleaning station), Blue Corner (pelagic congregation site) and Turtle Cove. The most impressive dive to me was seeing red snapper spawning in Shark City on the last day of diving. In all 9 liveaboards trips I have been in, this liveaboard trip is right at the top 2 best liveaboard trips I have done in my 13 years of diving.
Table 1
Figure 1
Background
A quick browse of Palau geographic location, I learnt that it is about 500 miles north of Raja Ampat, where I spent 2 weeks of diving in November, a month before this trip to Palau. Figure 2, courtesy of Google Earth, shows where Palau is located in Western Pacific, about 7.3° N and 134.5°E or 7.8° N and 4.5°E of Raja Ampat. I expected the water temperature of Palau would be about the same as Raja Ampat, about 82-84 °F (28-29 °C). So, I brought a 3mm full and 2mm shorty wetsuits. The water temperature turned out to be as expected and I ended up wearing the 2mm shorty wetsuit in the second half of the trip.
Figure 2
The Liveaboard
Palau Aggressor II is a double-hulled, 106-foot long yacht with 9 staterooms for up to 18 divers. It runs by 6 crews (captain, engineer, chef, stewardess, skiff pilot, and divemaster) whom most of them also did their share of dive guiding. On this trip, we have 15 divers, so we have a bit of elbow room in the skiff.
The boat layout is very functional for divers. The staterooms, dive gear and skiff docking stations are on lower deck. Galley, dinning, and entertainment areas are on the upper deck. The roof of the upper deck is a sundeck with open air sitting area and hummocks for people to relax in between diving.
Eight staterooms are identical with queen bed (lower) and single bed (upper) bunk-style, private head and shower, plenty of closet space for 2 divers and wide port-hole window. Additional 9th stateroom has single bed on the lower bunk with the rest pretty much the same as the other cabins and window on the door facing the diver facility. The stewardess did a great job of keeping our cabin cleaned and orderly.
Diving facility where dive gear, camera, battery charging and dive briefing stations are located in the lower deck, behind the staterooms. The skiff sits on the lower deck on a cradle, which is connected to hydraulic-powered rail, capable of lifting the full-load skiff off the water and sliding the skiff up to the same level as the lower deck, so to get on /off the skiff is a matter of walking to the stern of the boat and stepping over the port gate of the skiff, no stair. More detail info about the yacht can be found here: Liveaboard Scuba Dive Yachts Vacations & Trips | Aggressor Fleet
Setting up your dive rig and handling it was a breeze. Once you kit up your BCD and reg on an tank on your assigned station in the diving facility, the crew would take your gear to the skiff and place it to another assigned station on the skiff (mine was station #9). It stayed there for the whole trip. The crew would refill the air or nitrox directly on to your tank after each dives right on the spot where your tank is stationed on the skiff. There are shelves, next to the tank station to store your mask, fins, etc. When you are ready to go diving, you just don your wetsuit, listen to the dive briefing and walk to the skiff as everything else already set up and ready to go on the skiff. No need to haul your gear in / out the skiff before and after each dives. Even your camera rig will be brought to the skiff once it is ready to go.
For water entry, the divers were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 would sit on the port and starboard sides of the skiff and back roll together off the skiff with the lead guide. Once group 1 divers were away from the skiff side & descent, group 2 divers would do the same as group 1 and enter the water together with the tail guide. Group 1 and 2 then gathered at the bottom and finned to the dive sites.
The meal (breakfast, lunch & dinner) were buffet type in most of the days. Full course of dinners were served during special day (e.g., Welcome dinner and Christmas Day). The food were excellent. Special dietary meal were served to those who needed. Example of the Galley menu can be found here: Liveaboard Scuba Dive Yachts Vacations & Trips | Aggressor Fleet
The diving
We did 4 dives on the 1st day, 5 dives on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th day, 4 dives on the 5th day and 2 dives on the 6th (last) day, a total of 25 dives in 6 days. The divemaster would ring a bell 15 minutes before the scheduled dive, for donning the wetsuit and dive briefing before getting on the skiff. Typical a full 5-dives / day schedule is as follows:
05:30 – wake up
06:00 – breakfast
07:00 – dive 1
10:00 – dive 2
12:00 – lunch
13:30 – dive 3
16:30 – dive 4
18:30 – dinner
19:30 – dive 5
After each dive, when we were back on the skiff, we would get hot handkerchief to warm up & clean our face, a bottle of water, some fruits bits (pineapple, watermelon, orange, cantaloupe, honey dew, etc.) for hydration. When we were back on the liveaboard, the stewardess would welcome us with another glass of juice, hot cocoa, tea, Coca-Cola or Sprite and beach towel. Some of the fortunate few got neck massage too.
Day 1
The first day of diving was fantastic. Dive 1 in German Channel (manta cleaning station) was epic, where we saw 4 mantas, several reef sharks, schooling barracuda, and stingray blowing off sands in search of food.
In the rest of 3 dives on the first day (in Turtle Cove, Canyons and Fernwall) we saw nudibranchs, giant clams, white-tip sharks, nurse shark, sweetlips, turtles, batfish, schooling parrotfish, grouper, anemonefish, barramundi, bigeye, yellow-mask anglefish
After Christmas dinner, we had a dive hook briefing for 2nd day of diving in Peleliu Corner that is known for the hook-in dive to watch pelagic (schooling jackfish, barracuda, etc.) cruising in swift current.
To be continued to post 2.
This is a 7-day (24-31 December, 2017) liveaboard trip around southern Palau with Palau Aggressor II. The itinerary, as shown in Table 1, includes 25 dives on 22 dive sites. Figure 1 shows the dive sites we visited (marked by red dots). We did 2 dives on the popular German Channel (manta cleaning station), Blue Corner (pelagic congregation site) and Turtle Cove. The most impressive dive to me was seeing red snapper spawning in Shark City on the last day of diving. In all 9 liveaboards trips I have been in, this liveaboard trip is right at the top 2 best liveaboard trips I have done in my 13 years of diving.
Table 1
Figure 1
Background
A quick browse of Palau geographic location, I learnt that it is about 500 miles north of Raja Ampat, where I spent 2 weeks of diving in November, a month before this trip to Palau. Figure 2, courtesy of Google Earth, shows where Palau is located in Western Pacific, about 7.3° N and 134.5°E or 7.8° N and 4.5°E of Raja Ampat. I expected the water temperature of Palau would be about the same as Raja Ampat, about 82-84 °F (28-29 °C). So, I brought a 3mm full and 2mm shorty wetsuits. The water temperature turned out to be as expected and I ended up wearing the 2mm shorty wetsuit in the second half of the trip.
Figure 2
The Liveaboard
Palau Aggressor II is a double-hulled, 106-foot long yacht with 9 staterooms for up to 18 divers. It runs by 6 crews (captain, engineer, chef, stewardess, skiff pilot, and divemaster) whom most of them also did their share of dive guiding. On this trip, we have 15 divers, so we have a bit of elbow room in the skiff.
The boat layout is very functional for divers. The staterooms, dive gear and skiff docking stations are on lower deck. Galley, dinning, and entertainment areas are on the upper deck. The roof of the upper deck is a sundeck with open air sitting area and hummocks for people to relax in between diving.
Eight staterooms are identical with queen bed (lower) and single bed (upper) bunk-style, private head and shower, plenty of closet space for 2 divers and wide port-hole window. Additional 9th stateroom has single bed on the lower bunk with the rest pretty much the same as the other cabins and window on the door facing the diver facility. The stewardess did a great job of keeping our cabin cleaned and orderly.
Diving facility where dive gear, camera, battery charging and dive briefing stations are located in the lower deck, behind the staterooms. The skiff sits on the lower deck on a cradle, which is connected to hydraulic-powered rail, capable of lifting the full-load skiff off the water and sliding the skiff up to the same level as the lower deck, so to get on /off the skiff is a matter of walking to the stern of the boat and stepping over the port gate of the skiff, no stair. More detail info about the yacht can be found here: Liveaboard Scuba Dive Yachts Vacations & Trips | Aggressor Fleet
Setting up your dive rig and handling it was a breeze. Once you kit up your BCD and reg on an tank on your assigned station in the diving facility, the crew would take your gear to the skiff and place it to another assigned station on the skiff (mine was station #9). It stayed there for the whole trip. The crew would refill the air or nitrox directly on to your tank after each dives right on the spot where your tank is stationed on the skiff. There are shelves, next to the tank station to store your mask, fins, etc. When you are ready to go diving, you just don your wetsuit, listen to the dive briefing and walk to the skiff as everything else already set up and ready to go on the skiff. No need to haul your gear in / out the skiff before and after each dives. Even your camera rig will be brought to the skiff once it is ready to go.
For water entry, the divers were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 would sit on the port and starboard sides of the skiff and back roll together off the skiff with the lead guide. Once group 1 divers were away from the skiff side & descent, group 2 divers would do the same as group 1 and enter the water together with the tail guide. Group 1 and 2 then gathered at the bottom and finned to the dive sites.
The meal (breakfast, lunch & dinner) were buffet type in most of the days. Full course of dinners were served during special day (e.g., Welcome dinner and Christmas Day). The food were excellent. Special dietary meal were served to those who needed. Example of the Galley menu can be found here: Liveaboard Scuba Dive Yachts Vacations & Trips | Aggressor Fleet
The diving
We did 4 dives on the 1st day, 5 dives on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th day, 4 dives on the 5th day and 2 dives on the 6th (last) day, a total of 25 dives in 6 days. The divemaster would ring a bell 15 minutes before the scheduled dive, for donning the wetsuit and dive briefing before getting on the skiff. Typical a full 5-dives / day schedule is as follows:
05:30 – wake up
06:00 – breakfast
07:00 – dive 1
10:00 – dive 2
12:00 – lunch
13:30 – dive 3
16:30 – dive 4
18:30 – dinner
19:30 – dive 5
After each dive, when we were back on the skiff, we would get hot handkerchief to warm up & clean our face, a bottle of water, some fruits bits (pineapple, watermelon, orange, cantaloupe, honey dew, etc.) for hydration. When we were back on the liveaboard, the stewardess would welcome us with another glass of juice, hot cocoa, tea, Coca-Cola or Sprite and beach towel. Some of the fortunate few got neck massage too.
Day 1
The first day of diving was fantastic. Dive 1 in German Channel (manta cleaning station) was epic, where we saw 4 mantas, several reef sharks, schooling barracuda, and stingray blowing off sands in search of food.
In the rest of 3 dives on the first day (in Turtle Cove, Canyons and Fernwall) we saw nudibranchs, giant clams, white-tip sharks, nurse shark, sweetlips, turtles, batfish, schooling parrotfish, grouper, anemonefish, barramundi, bigeye, yellow-mask anglefish
After Christmas dinner, we had a dive hook briefing for 2nd day of diving in Peleliu Corner that is known for the hook-in dive to watch pelagic (schooling jackfish, barracuda, etc.) cruising in swift current.
To be continued to post 2.
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