cozcharlie
Contributor
I returned to Palau and Yap recently. You can see my previous posts from 2022 (Palau) and 2023 (Yap) for more background.
I knew I was going in Typhoon season , but given it is also hurricane season in Cozumel I thought I could handle the risk of a storm actually hitting while I was there. What I didn’t count on was the sub-optimal diving resulting from unusual wind directions caused by multiple storms passing through the general area. While I did get some diving in at the premier sites, in both Palau and Yap I did about half my diving at second tier sites since the waves weren’t cooperating at the premier sites a good chunk of the time. The second tier sites still weren’t bad, but a notch or two below the best ones . The good thing is for both places when the diving was good it was quite good. One morning in Palau we had sharks galore at Blue Corner after German Channel with mantas and more. In Yap we had 4 Mantas at one cleaning station on the first dive of the first day , with a continuous presence for 30 plus minutes .
In Palau I stayed a few days a Palau Central Hotel again . The hotel renovated a few years ago and is still in good condition. it was a little lightly staffed so shuttle service during day wasn’t available much. This wasn’t a big problem since both Sams Tours and the restaurant Elilai both picked me up when needed. I did two days of diving with Sam’s Tours. They knew the weather forecast called for the weather to get worse before it got better so the first day they tried to get us to German Channel since that was some customers best shot. We basically too the boat all the way south , took one look at the conditions and went all the way back to do our first dive near where we started.
After a couple of days land diving , I boarded the Palau Aggresor II for a week. I have been on this boat numerous times. The boat is a little older but the crew has kept it in good condition. The captain on this cruise was actually the son of a prior captain (and divemaster before that ). I was actually dove with the father on that boat in 2001 when he was as divemaster. That provides ia tremendous amount of institutional knowledge of the reefs and the diving. While the weather didn’t cooperate, our best day was a day when we made it out to German Channel/Blue Corner when the other liveaboards and dive operations didn’t . While conditions were definitely sporty , it was good diving with people who had a great deal of experience with those reefs and varying conditions .
My Palau photos can be found here :
[Palau 2024 - CozCharlie]
After finishing the seven night trip in Palau I headed to Yap via Guam (36 hour layover ). I stayed at Manta Ray Bay Resort again. The service from both the hotel and the affiliated dive shop (Yap Divers ) was great again. They have been in business for almost four decades now and know what they are doing . They don’t get the tourist flow they did when it was a no-layover add-on to Palau, but it is well built hotel and well run dive shop . I ate either at the hotel or at the Oceania restaurant a few blocks away. Both offer a variety of good food.
My Yap photos are here
[Yap 2024 - CozCharlie]
If anyone has any questions, feel free to with post or PM me .
I knew I was going in Typhoon season , but given it is also hurricane season in Cozumel I thought I could handle the risk of a storm actually hitting while I was there. What I didn’t count on was the sub-optimal diving resulting from unusual wind directions caused by multiple storms passing through the general area. While I did get some diving in at the premier sites, in both Palau and Yap I did about half my diving at second tier sites since the waves weren’t cooperating at the premier sites a good chunk of the time. The second tier sites still weren’t bad, but a notch or two below the best ones . The good thing is for both places when the diving was good it was quite good. One morning in Palau we had sharks galore at Blue Corner after German Channel with mantas and more. In Yap we had 4 Mantas at one cleaning station on the first dive of the first day , with a continuous presence for 30 plus minutes .
In Palau I stayed a few days a Palau Central Hotel again . The hotel renovated a few years ago and is still in good condition. it was a little lightly staffed so shuttle service during day wasn’t available much. This wasn’t a big problem since both Sams Tours and the restaurant Elilai both picked me up when needed. I did two days of diving with Sam’s Tours. They knew the weather forecast called for the weather to get worse before it got better so the first day they tried to get us to German Channel since that was some customers best shot. We basically too the boat all the way south , took one look at the conditions and went all the way back to do our first dive near where we started.
After a couple of days land diving , I boarded the Palau Aggresor II for a week. I have been on this boat numerous times. The boat is a little older but the crew has kept it in good condition. The captain on this cruise was actually the son of a prior captain (and divemaster before that ). I was actually dove with the father on that boat in 2001 when he was as divemaster. That provides ia tremendous amount of institutional knowledge of the reefs and the diving. While the weather didn’t cooperate, our best day was a day when we made it out to German Channel/Blue Corner when the other liveaboards and dive operations didn’t . While conditions were definitely sporty , it was good diving with people who had a great deal of experience with those reefs and varying conditions .
My Palau photos can be found here :
[Palau 2024 - CozCharlie]
After finishing the seven night trip in Palau I headed to Yap via Guam (36 hour layover ). I stayed at Manta Ray Bay Resort again. The service from both the hotel and the affiliated dive shop (Yap Divers ) was great again. They have been in business for almost four decades now and know what they are doing . They don’t get the tourist flow they did when it was a no-layover add-on to Palau, but it is well built hotel and well run dive shop . I ate either at the hotel or at the Oceania restaurant a few blocks away. Both offer a variety of good food.
My Yap photos are here
[Yap 2024 - CozCharlie]
If anyone has any questions, feel free to with post or PM me .
