pakman
Contributor
A late trip report.
Despite having worked/lived in Asia for many years, I had always kicked myself for never having dived Palau. Well last Feb, 16th-23rd to be exact, I finally had the pleasure to make it to the famous waters of Palau. Along with a couple of Hong Kong-based SB members, Larry (thepurplehammerhead) and Tim (wolverine), I booked myself on the Pacific Explorer for a one week liveaboard trip. Originally I wanted to go with the Palau Aggressor but that was fully booked for the Chinese New Year week. Same with the Big Blue Explorer. We flew in from Hong Kong via Manila and arrived in the wee hours of the morning in Koror. The Expedition Fleet had a bus waiting for us and took us to a local hotel for the night. Unfortunately a couple from Hong Kong, who happened to be on the same exact flights as we were, found out that Continental Micronesia had lost their luggage (more on this saga later!). We thanked our lucky stars that our camera gear which had been checked in made it safely...!!
The next morning, we were moved by tender to the Pacific Explorer which was moored just south of German Channel. The Big Blue Explorer would join us later. And further south, you could see the Aggressor. As we headed out, we were shortly joined by a flotilla of day boats heading out to the dives sites.
Pacific Explorer is the smaller sister ship of the Big Blue Explorer and is operated by the same owner, The Expedition Fleet. I believe it's a converted former Japanese fire boat.
http://www.expeditionfleet.com/explorers/pacific%20explorer.htm
The Pacific Explorer has 4 guest cabins and can comfortably accommodate 8 guest (12 max). Rooms were comfortable and the private showers/ heads were pretty roomy. The guests cabins are located on the 2nd deck. At the rear of the 2nd deck was a covered open space where we spent most of our down time. There was also a workbench setup for cameras there. There is an open upper deck with lounge chairs but as it was not covered, we found it too hot to spend too much time up there.
On the main deck, you had the dining/ entertainment area. And at the rear, you had the diving equipment area. We were fortunate that they brought along the large tender, The Sunfish, which had twin 200hp outboards. They kept our tanks/ BCD's/ fins on the Sunfish making the dive deck on the Pacific Explorer fairly clutter free for donning wetsuits etc. There were three outdoor showers on the swim platform and there were always fresh towels waiting for us after the dives.
The food onboard was excellent and plentiful. A nice mix of Asian and Western dishes. I was even amused when they served a Korean style BBQ beef dish along with kimchi
... Coffee, juice, toast, & cold cereal were available for the early breakfast before the first dive of the day. The main breakfast was a feast in itself. From pancakes, various sausages including my favorite filipino breakfast of tocina, eggs, andgarlic rice!, and even Chinese style congee. Soft drinks and drinking water were free. Beers (Bud, San Miguel!, and Asahi) were available but we ended up running out towards the end of the trip. Luckily we did bring some bottles of rum... 
In total there eight of us on that week's trip. The 3 SB'ers + a friend, the couple from HK, and a couple from Colorado who were wrapping up a long trip thru Ponpei, Yap, and Palau.
Our DM's for the trip were Richard and Sean and did an excellent job making our trip so enjoyable. I've never come across two DM's who enjoyed their jobs as much as these two. The two made a good complementing team . Richard, "Junior", the seasoned Palau DM from England, was the jovial one and a bundle of energy u/w zipping all over the reef finding subjects for our cameras and Sean was the more down to earth North Carolinian covering the rear. While covering all the safety aspects of diving in Palau, they were never overbearing and in fact left us to dive relatively free.
The benefits of diving Palau on liveaboard were pretty obvious. Travel times to the major dive sites were brief and allowed for flexibility in our dive schedule. On the first day, our checkout dive was in the Coral Gardens (I have to apologize that I don't keep a detailed dive log so my memory is a bit rusty). On that first day, we also did Turtle Wall and Barnum's Dropoff. The latter became one of our favorite nite dives.
Day 2: what we've all been waiting for. Blue Corner. There was a good current running. Nothing too unmanageable but reef hooks made life easier. And the show was on that morning! Greys, reef sharks, jacks, barracudas, napoleon wrasse etc. The procession in front of us were amazing and we had front row seats. Unfortunately, the visability wasn't great as area was getting an unusually cold thermal layer passing by.
Hooked in on Blue Corner
We also did Dexter's Wall, Turtle's Cove, German Channel, and Barnum's Wall. At German Channel, we got a fleeting glimpse of a manta at the cleaning station. But it seems that while were sitting around at the cleaning station, there were supposedly two mantas near the surface...
Day 3: At some time in the night, we motored down to Peliliu. Unfortunately, the Express wasn't running that day, but still made for 3 enjoyable dives on Yellow Wall, The Cut, Coral Garden and the Express. A couple of us even tried snorkeling in the open blue to see if we could attract silky sharks... :eyebrows:
Meanwhile the Pacific Explorer moved back to German Channel and we did a night dive on German Channel.
Day 4: Virgin Blue Hole, Blue Hole, New Dropoff, and Blue Corner again. Virgin Blue Hole and Blue Hole were made for some very nice swimthru's. Blue Corner wasn't running but the place is still amazing without the currents. We meandered around he plateau and were giving a beautiful show from a lone eagle ray that kept circling us.
I also had a nice photo opportunity with a juvenile napoleon wrasse which came up to my camera and started rolling on its side, almost begging like a dog for treat (I guess they've gotten accustom to being fed boiled eggs...). There were also interesting small stuff to be found on the Blue Corner Plateau such as leafy fish, etc.
Day 5: We did Blue Corner, German Channel, Jellyfish Lake, and Siaes Corner. This time at German Channel, we got a great show all to ourselves from a black manta at the cleaning station. Just as the manta was leaving and were finishing up our dive, a handful of boats were dropping their divers in by the numbers. Jellyfish lake is just amazing. If you have a chance on your trip, don't miss out.
Day 6: Our last day of diving, we did Ulong Channel, the Iro Wreck, Chandelier Cave and Mandarin Fish lake. Ulong Channel was one of my favorites. Although we kick ourselves taking so long to go through the channel (but there was so much to see!) that we missed two grey reefs herding a baitball of mackeral. Luckily, Richard got that on video.
On the last morning, we were moved to land and we spent time walking around downtown Koror (not much to see...) and then spent a couple relaxing hours at the PPR pool before our flight back to Manila.
Overall, it was a great trip and the diving in Palau far exceeded my expectations. I've been griping over the years about the lack of sharks and other pelagics in Asia. Good to see that Palau has been able to keep the commercial and illegal fishing at bay that is decimating the rest of Asia's reefs. I'm looking forward to a return trip.
I'm not sure how much longer the Pacific Explorer is going to stationed in Palau. There was some talks of moving it down somewhere else and bringing up the larger Echo Explorer (same size as the BBE).
Post trip note: I mentioned earlier about the couple who's luggage unfortunately got lost by Continental. Given that it was a simple transit in Manila from Hong Kong with plenty of time between flights, I'm still amazed that they could screw that up, but it was the start of the Chinese New Year holiday here in Asia (one of the busiest times for airlines in the region). Luckily, they were able to muster up enough rental gear from the Big Blue Explorer and their video camera was hand carried. Even on the day we were flying back to i don't think they got a definitive answer on where the luggage was. In fact, it ended up that Continental sent their luggage to Palau that night when they were leaving!! Later the following week, I ran into the couple at our local LDS and they were STILL WAITING for their luggage.
I've already posted some of my pics from the trip over in the photo thread. Tim and Larry have also posted theirs as well.
Now the downside of diving Palau... I've lost interest/ enthusiasm in diving some of the local Asian dive sites!! It's raised the bar so high (in terms of my expectations) that now I find I'll have to go to the Cocos, Galapagos, Fiji, Fakarava, PNG, etc to fill my diving needs! Well I guess I could always go back to Palau in the meantime...
Despite having worked/lived in Asia for many years, I had always kicked myself for never having dived Palau. Well last Feb, 16th-23rd to be exact, I finally had the pleasure to make it to the famous waters of Palau. Along with a couple of Hong Kong-based SB members, Larry (thepurplehammerhead) and Tim (wolverine), I booked myself on the Pacific Explorer for a one week liveaboard trip. Originally I wanted to go with the Palau Aggressor but that was fully booked for the Chinese New Year week. Same with the Big Blue Explorer. We flew in from Hong Kong via Manila and arrived in the wee hours of the morning in Koror. The Expedition Fleet had a bus waiting for us and took us to a local hotel for the night. Unfortunately a couple from Hong Kong, who happened to be on the same exact flights as we were, found out that Continental Micronesia had lost their luggage (more on this saga later!). We thanked our lucky stars that our camera gear which had been checked in made it safely...!!
The next morning, we were moved by tender to the Pacific Explorer which was moored just south of German Channel. The Big Blue Explorer would join us later. And further south, you could see the Aggressor. As we headed out, we were shortly joined by a flotilla of day boats heading out to the dives sites.
Pacific Explorer is the smaller sister ship of the Big Blue Explorer and is operated by the same owner, The Expedition Fleet. I believe it's a converted former Japanese fire boat.
http://www.expeditionfleet.com/explorers/pacific%20explorer.htm
The Pacific Explorer has 4 guest cabins and can comfortably accommodate 8 guest (12 max). Rooms were comfortable and the private showers/ heads were pretty roomy. The guests cabins are located on the 2nd deck. At the rear of the 2nd deck was a covered open space where we spent most of our down time. There was also a workbench setup for cameras there. There is an open upper deck with lounge chairs but as it was not covered, we found it too hot to spend too much time up there.
On the main deck, you had the dining/ entertainment area. And at the rear, you had the diving equipment area. We were fortunate that they brought along the large tender, The Sunfish, which had twin 200hp outboards. They kept our tanks/ BCD's/ fins on the Sunfish making the dive deck on the Pacific Explorer fairly clutter free for donning wetsuits etc. There were three outdoor showers on the swim platform and there were always fresh towels waiting for us after the dives.
The food onboard was excellent and plentiful. A nice mix of Asian and Western dishes. I was even amused when they served a Korean style BBQ beef dish along with kimchi
... Coffee, juice, toast, & cold cereal were available for the early breakfast before the first dive of the day. The main breakfast was a feast in itself. From pancakes, various sausages including my favorite filipino breakfast of tocina, eggs, andgarlic rice!, and even Chinese style congee. Soft drinks and drinking water were free. Beers (Bud, San Miguel!, and Asahi) were available but we ended up running out towards the end of the trip. Luckily we did bring some bottles of rum... In total there eight of us on that week's trip. The 3 SB'ers + a friend, the couple from HK, and a couple from Colorado who were wrapping up a long trip thru Ponpei, Yap, and Palau.
Our DM's for the trip were Richard and Sean and did an excellent job making our trip so enjoyable. I've never come across two DM's who enjoyed their jobs as much as these two. The two made a good complementing team . Richard, "Junior", the seasoned Palau DM from England, was the jovial one and a bundle of energy u/w zipping all over the reef finding subjects for our cameras and Sean was the more down to earth North Carolinian covering the rear. While covering all the safety aspects of diving in Palau, they were never overbearing and in fact left us to dive relatively free.
The benefits of diving Palau on liveaboard were pretty obvious. Travel times to the major dive sites were brief and allowed for flexibility in our dive schedule. On the first day, our checkout dive was in the Coral Gardens (I have to apologize that I don't keep a detailed dive log so my memory is a bit rusty). On that first day, we also did Turtle Wall and Barnum's Dropoff. The latter became one of our favorite nite dives.
Day 2: what we've all been waiting for. Blue Corner. There was a good current running. Nothing too unmanageable but reef hooks made life easier. And the show was on that morning! Greys, reef sharks, jacks, barracudas, napoleon wrasse etc. The procession in front of us were amazing and we had front row seats
. Unfortunately, the visability wasn't great as area was getting an unusually cold thermal layer passing by.Hooked in on Blue Corner
We also did Dexter's Wall, Turtle's Cove, German Channel, and Barnum's Wall. At German Channel, we got a fleeting glimpse of a manta at the cleaning station. But it seems that while were sitting around at the cleaning station, there were supposedly two mantas near the surface...
Day 3: At some time in the night, we motored down to Peliliu. Unfortunately, the Express wasn't running that day, but still made for 3 enjoyable dives on Yellow Wall, The Cut, Coral Garden and the Express. A couple of us even tried snorkeling in the open blue to see if we could attract silky sharks... :eyebrows:
Meanwhile the Pacific Explorer moved back to German Channel and we did a night dive on German Channel.
Day 4: Virgin Blue Hole, Blue Hole, New Dropoff, and Blue Corner again. Virgin Blue Hole and Blue Hole were made for some very nice swimthru's. Blue Corner wasn't running but the place is still amazing without the currents. We meandered around he plateau and were giving a beautiful show from a lone eagle ray that kept circling us.
I also had a nice photo opportunity with a juvenile napoleon wrasse which came up to my camera and started rolling on its side, almost begging like a dog for treat (I guess they've gotten accustom to being fed boiled eggs...). There were also interesting small stuff to be found on the Blue Corner Plateau such as leafy fish, etc.
Day 5: We did Blue Corner, German Channel, Jellyfish Lake, and Siaes Corner. This time at German Channel, we got a great show all to ourselves from a black manta at the cleaning station. Just as the manta was leaving and were finishing up our dive, a handful of boats were dropping their divers in by the numbers. Jellyfish lake is just amazing. If you have a chance on your trip, don't miss out.
Day 6: Our last day of diving, we did Ulong Channel, the Iro Wreck, Chandelier Cave and Mandarin Fish lake. Ulong Channel was one of my favorites. Although we kick ourselves taking so long to go through the channel (but there was so much to see!) that we missed two grey reefs herding a baitball of mackeral. Luckily, Richard got that on video.
On the last morning, we were moved to land and we spent time walking around downtown Koror (not much to see...) and then spent a couple relaxing hours at the PPR pool before our flight back to Manila.
Overall, it was a great trip and the diving in Palau far exceeded my expectations. I've been griping over the years about the lack of sharks and other pelagics in Asia. Good to see that Palau has been able to keep the commercial and illegal fishing at bay that is decimating the rest of Asia's reefs. I'm looking forward to a return trip.
I'm not sure how much longer the Pacific Explorer is going to stationed in Palau. There was some talks of moving it down somewhere else and bringing up the larger Echo Explorer (same size as the BBE).
Post trip note: I mentioned earlier about the couple who's luggage unfortunately got lost by Continental. Given that it was a simple transit in Manila from Hong Kong with plenty of time between flights, I'm still amazed that they could screw that up, but it was the start of the Chinese New Year holiday here in Asia (one of the busiest times for airlines in the region). Luckily, they were able to muster up enough rental gear from the Big Blue Explorer and their video camera was hand carried. Even on the day we were flying back to i don't think they got a definitive answer on where the luggage was. In fact, it ended up that Continental sent their luggage to Palau that night when they were leaving!! Later the following week, I ran into the couple at our local LDS and they were STILL WAITING for their luggage.
I've already posted some of my pics from the trip over in the photo thread. Tim and Larry have also posted theirs as well.
Now the downside of diving Palau... I've lost interest/ enthusiasm in diving some of the local Asian dive sites!! It's raised the bar so high (in terms of my expectations) that now I find I'll have to go to the Cocos, Galapagos, Fiji, Fakarava, PNG, etc to fill my diving needs! Well I guess I could always go back to Palau in the meantime...
