Trip Report Palau Wrecks with The Dirty Dozen on the Palau Siren (Aug 2022)

[beldridg]

I just returned from a two week trip to Palau to focus on diving the wrecks with Aron Arngrimsson and The Dirty Dozen on board the Palau Siren. Most of us were on rebreathers and had extended run-times. It was quite an epic week. I've included a link below with all the details of the trip (flights, hotel, live-aboard, dive operations, etc.).

We even (gasp) dove a few reefs and had the opportunity to witness an amazing snapper spawning event.

Trip Report : Palau Wrecks with The Dirty Dozen Expeditions (Aug 2022)

Intro I had already booked and paid for my March 2022 to trip to Palau when Aron Arngrimsson from The Dirty Dozen Expeditions reached out to me and said that they were organizing an inaugural exped…

wreckedinmyrevo.com

I will be following up with some detailed posts about a few of the wrecks and dives. I also met a number of people in Palau who are looking for new wrecks so I might try to get back out there for a week sometime in the next 12 months.

Below is a photo of the top of the Pump Room on the Amigisan.

Regards,

- brett

 

[peeweediver]

Thanks for the report. Headed there in December for a plain old dive trip. Yours sounded quite fun.

Rob

 

[beldridg]

Thanks for the report. Headed there in December for a plain old dive trip. Yours sounded quite fun.

Rob

You might want to also read my trip report from March 2022 in Palau. On that trip, I was diving single-tank, AL80 on a "plain old dive trip" so it might be more applicable:

Trip Report : Palau Wrecks, Caves & Reefs

Intro It has been a little over two years since my last big, international dive trip (Grand Cayman for a KISS Crossover Course and some deep wall diving in Feb 2020). I had originally planned to di…

wreckedinmyrevo.com

I'm sure you will have a great time. The reefs in Palau are pristine. I you can, I recommend trying to time your trip around a spawning event.

- brett

 

[peeweediver]

You might want to also read my trip report from March 2022 in Palau. On that trip, I was diving single-tank, AL80 on a "plain old dive trip" so it might be more applicable:

Trip Report : Palau Wrecks, Caves & Reefs

Intro It has been a little over two years since my last big, international dive trip (Grand Cayman for a KISS Crossover Course and some deep wall diving in Feb 2020). I had originally planned to di…

wreckedinmyrevo.com

I'm sure you will have a great time. The reefs in Palau are pristine. I you can, I recommend trying to time your trip around a spawning event.

- brett

I did read that, Brett. It was a fun read and helpful. We are going with our local dive shop so the dates were picked by them. Hopefully, some spawning will happen when we're there. So far, United has changed our itinerary twice in just a couple months. Who knows what will happen next???

Rob

 

[beldridg]

I just posted an article about one of the wrecks, the Amatsu Maru. She was sank during Operation Desecrate 1 and was salvaged but a lot still remains. She is a very large, long oil tanker.

Amatsu Maru (Palau — 130 fsw)

The Amatsu is the longest wreck in Micronesia (502 feet) which is saying a lot given all the cargo ships and oil tankers that sank in that area during WW II. Ship type similar to the Amatsu Maru Sh…

wreckedinmyrevo.com

Regards,

- brett

 

[beldridg]

I got a chance to finish my post about the Showa Maru No 5 which was located in 2015 and has seen very few divers. She is an ex-whaler that was converted into an anti-submarine ship. She was leading a convoy of ships out of the harbor during Operation Desecrate 1 when she was bombed while in the west passage -- thereby blocking all of the other ships in the convoy.

Full story and pictures are at the post below:

Showa Maru No 5 (Palau — 155 fsw)

One of the benefits of going on a wreck expedition with Aron and The Dirty Dozen is that you sometimes get to dive wrecks that are either not well known or not dived very often — or both. Suc…

wreckedinmyrevo.com

Picture of divers off the gun at the bow (note the light shining through the cool coral formations on the gun):

Regards,

- brett

 

[parzdiver]

Great blog posts and good information about traveling to Palau. Look forward to seeing more pics.

 

[beldridg]

Great blog posts and good information about traveling to Palau. Look forward to seeing more pics.

Thanks for the feedback! I've still got one or two most posts on Palau to go. The next one will be on the Red Snapper Spawning event that we were fortunate to witness.

- brett

 

[beldridg]

Here is the post on the snapper spawning. Really great dive.

Snapper Spawning (Palau — 95 fsw)

As they say, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” We had reserved a 2-3 day window to dive the USS Perry which is the pinnacle of wreck diving in Palau. Unfortunately, the wind …

wreckedinmyrevo.com

- brett