Photos from Palau

[pakman]

Just got back from a 1 week liveaboard trip on the Pacific Explorer, sister ship to the Big Blue Explorer. Diving in Palau met all my expectations and more! Got lots of photos to process. In the meantime, here are a couple... I'll post more as the week goes along. Surprisingly, we found some great macro subjects in the Palau, on top of the pelagics...

squat lobsters...

juvenile napoleon wrasse begging for a boiled egg (even though I didn't have one).

 

[Diver Dennis]

Very nice Pak. How was the boat?

 

[pakman]

The Pacific Explorer (PE) wasn't bad... We ended up with a rather large but fast tender w/ twin 200hp outboards (the Sunfish) that made things easy. Our BCD's and fins would stay on the tender and so there was ample room on the rear dive deck of the PE. The open common deck area above was a bit cramped. They have a large topdeck on the roof, but as there is no awning, it was too hot to spend too much time there. Rooms were decent size and the bathrooms were surprisingly large. Pacific Explorer only accomodates 8 divers (possibly 10-11 max) vs 30+ on the larger Big Blue Explorer. As they are both run by Expedition Fleet, they coordinated with each other to avoid hitting the same dive sites at the same time. The smaller group also allowed us to have a pretty flexible dive schedule. the DM's, Richard and Sean were a great team. Food was excellent and plentiful.

I think they mentioned they might move the PE down to the Philippines and move up Echo Explorer or one of the bigger boats to Palau to join the BBE.

 

[Jamdiver]

Wonderful shots Pak .

More, more!!

 

[kapula]

Excellent pics! Hope those aren't the only ones.. please keep em coming!

 

[Jcsgt]

Outstanding shots, Pak, please keep 'em coming!

 

[Ed_Dman]

Awesome shots, Pak! I know you've got more, pour them out.

Ed.

 

[pakman]

thanks guys, will post some more after work... I better work fast, Tim (wolverine) and Larry (thepurplehammerhead), who joined me on the trip, will probably be posting their pics soon and stealing the thunder...

But to be honest, my keeper rate on this trip was abmismal. Not sure what it was... I think part of it is was that there is SOO MUCH to shoot on each dive that I was getting easily distracted. Sensory overload!! Focus on a grey reef shark swimming by, just finish metering and about to pull the trugger when I see a beautiful school of chevron barracuda to the left... and to the right, a napoleon wrasse leading it's posse of white tip reef sharks; look up and there's a graceful eagle ray passing by and so on and so on... And the maddening decision on which lens to bring down on each dive!!! (oooh I miss the days of my point n shoot with add-on macro/ WA lenses you could switch during a dive!!!)

 

[pakman]

OK, one more of the napoleon wrasse. this time trying to roll over for snacks...

love this new Tokina fisheye lens... amazing how close you can get to the subject...

Eagle Ray doing circles around us at Blue Corner

The One that Got Away...

and more small stuff...

 

[pakman]

Blue Hole

Jacks pairing up

Jellyfish Lake