Palau charter suggestions

[Evolution2]

Anyone been, gone or done Palau dives? Planning a trip there June 2006 for 3 weeks. Got any do's and dont's to look for? We're taking our CCR's and shipping all the gear and looking to do some caves and maybe the Perry. Any advice appreciated!

Evol

 

[Mike Veitch]

I would contact Sam's Tours. www.samstours.com They have the only Tech outfit in Palau, a guy named Matthew Young is the operator, very experienced and very good.

They also have access to a small liveaboard sailboat if that is the way you want to go.

 

[Evolution2]

Thanks Mike, I'll try them to see what they have to offer. We were thinking of doing a live a board, briefly. Since it's our honeymoon, we were thinking a distant and not improved island with 3 trees sounded good. Just have to pack a toothbrush that way! I've been looking through piles of magazines, books and time share properties and just can't seem to get anything concrete from any operators. Is this too far off to be making these plans? Does Sam's do 96% or better CLEAN O2 fills? That's our biggest concern. Have you dove with them or just heard about them? We're going to DEMA and thought we'd get better answers face to face, but the "sell now, say anything" mentality there drives us nuts!

Thanks, Evol

 

[Mike Veitch]

Oh yes, dove with them many times, i lived there for 3 years....

As for how high he does his fills i am not sure. They have a membrane, helium, and pure O2 on island so shouldn't be a problem, but not sure of their policy on CCRs at all.

They can also drop you off on a beach with camping supplies if you want and pick you up the next day for diving. You are certainly not too far off to be making these plans as one year in advance is a regular for us out here.

June is a relatively slow month anyway so shouldn't be a problem booking. If you want to do a bare bones charter on a sailboat that is also an option, again it is through Sam's, you can charter the boat for just the two of you if you want. For some reason i can't think of the name at the moment, check in the Australia/Pacific Islands section, there are some threads on it there. It is also mentioned on the Sam's site.

PM me and i will send you Matt's personal email so you can talk to him directly. He may be at DEMA but not sure, Sam will be for sure

Best

 

[Evolution2]

Wow, you lived there for 3 years?! You could just become the greatest "unwilling" resource! I emailed Sam's through the link you provided (thank you!) and as yet haven't heard back. The bare boat thing sounds good, we are pretty flex in the details of the time there. I understand the currents are a concern. Every thing we've read references them. We have pretty serious currents here, are their's comparable or are they more like Florida where we dove in what we "locals" would call a mild drift? It was pretty funny actually hearing the cautions and do's and dont's before we jumped, and what we found was comical in reality. We had to fin to move!

Sounds like Sam's is a one stop shop. Since I'm very new on SB, not very computer literate, what's a "PM" and is it legal? I'm guessing it's something done in private ... oh, that's a "BM" ...

We are leaving for DEMA on saturday and returning the 10th. Gonna take a side trip for a couple days after the show. So any dive sites to recommend, boats to dive on or off, operators to avoid (the cattle boat type), etc before we go to DEMA would be appreciated immensely!

Evol

 

[Mike Veitch]

I should explain that the bare boat is not really a bare boat, you do have a captain, cook, and dive guide. Its just that you can charter it just for the two of you. The boat is called the Eclipse, i finally remembered. The currents can rip, i am from Vancouver, not too far from you and my shop from home came down to Palau when i was working there, needless to say at a dive in Peleliu they had the shock of a lifetime, current was screaming at about 7 knots and they didn't expect it to be that strong that is for sure. The tide exchanges are nothing like back at home but you can get some screaming ocean currents over the corners that stick out into the ocean.

A PM is a personal message, sorry for that, you can find that by clicking on my name. Most find it legal but you may get in trouble if you do it in public... The better thing actually would be to send me an email directly. mantavisions@mantaray.com

The only real cattle boats in Palau are some of the Japanese operators and Splash which is associated with the Palau Pacific Resort, i would stay away from them.

Sam's and Neco are much more personalized. If you will be there for 3 weeks i wouldn't worry about dive sites to hit, you will get em all

Mike

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

I'll let you know how the trip works out. If you want to book it with airfare I can recommend using worldofdiving.com They did a great job setting everything up for us. Cannot wait!!