Ken Kurtis
Contributor
I just flew in from Palau and boy are my arms tired . . .
PALAU MINI-REPORT - That's the old vaudeville line, anyhow. My arms are fine but the rest of me is pretty tired. 24 hours of travel door-to-door on four different flights and over eight time zones will do that to you. But that's also the sacrifice we divers make to go to the more exotic and distant places in the world. And I think it's a price we gladly pay. The short version of this (I'll be working on the trip report and pix throughout the week - hopefully have it all done by the weekend) is that, following our wonderful week in Yap which we extolled about last week, we had another great week on the Palau Aggressor II. Probably the signature dive of Palau is Blue Corner which we hit three times and it produced three very different dives. The first one was OK, but so-so if you've been there before. But the third dive (at 7AM Friday morning) was simply epic. It was everything you hope Blue Corner has to offer which was current (so we're hooked in), plenty of sharks cruising just off the wall, a huge school of Black Snappers, a huge school of Bigeye Jacks, a huge school of Chevron Barracuda, a huge school of Bigeye/Sennet Barracuda, a gazillion Red-Toothed Triggerfish, and thousands and thousands of more fish, all jockeying for position and moving to and fro throughout the water column. Add good vis and the fact we had the hook-in area on the 60-foot plateau all to ourselves and it simply made for a magical hour underwater. We got in some great dives at Peleliu (Barracks Point and Orange Beach have to be two of the prettiest soft coral dives in the world) and had lots of other good ones throughout our week. We ended up at Jellyfish Lake which I found this year to be a bit anti-climatic because I felt that there were far fewer jellies than in the past, let alone the clouds of them we've usually seen. (But others in my group said it was much better all the way at the back wall and I didn't go that far.) But it was a really nice week, the diving was very good, the Aggressor folks were also quite accommodating, and a good time was had by all. Plus we made new friends from Spain, Japan, England, and even Iowa.
SOME PHOTOS - I shot about 3500 pix over the two weeks (fortunately, all cameras stayed dry this year) and certainly won't subject you to each and every one of them but thought you might like a short taste of Yap and a taste of Palau. 10 shots from each plus a shot of the Mnuw at Manta Ray Bay at sunrise and the PA2 on the mooring in Peleliu Harbor, one of the most tranquil places I've ever been which is really amazing giving the carnage that occurred there during World War 2. Here's a link to the pix on my SmugMug site where you can either view them as a collage, individually, or a slide show: A TASTE OF YAP & PALAU (2016) - kenkurtis .
COLLECT YOUR MILES - This is the type of trip that really underscores the value of making sure you're a member of an airline's loyalty program. You should collect every mile you can to get any sort of "status" with that airline. I'm fortunate enough to be United Premier Silver (their lowest level - requires flying 25,000 miles and spending $3,000 on airfare each year) but it gets me Group 2 boarding (handy for making sure you get overhead space for rollerboards which in my case carry most of my photo gear) and more importantly, allows me to upgrade at no cost from Economy to Economy Plus (without status, the upgrade could run anywhere from $30-150 per leg). Economy Plus not only gives me about 5" more legroom, but which is usually a little less crowded than Economy. On this trip, while Economy was pretty packed on most of our legs, Economy Plus meant I had an empty seat next to me all the way going top Yap, and was able to have three empty seats next to me for Guam-to-Honolulu which meant I could actually lie down and try to sleep. Plus I got a free upgrade to First Class on three of the eight legs we flew. I also have a Chase United Club credit card which means, when I charge the airfare to that, I get the second checked bag for free and on this trip, that saved $210 ($70 for the second bag for three hops: LAX-YAP, YAP-ROR, and ROR-LAX). Other airlines have the same types of offers. The point is, especially in this day and age of consolidated air travel, take advantage of anything you can.
BENEFITS OF NITROX - Bet you never thought you'd see those words coming from me. But I always said the main benefit of nitrox is as a bottom-time-extending gas. And Vick Thomas and Elisabeth Sykes certainly experienced that on this trip as they dove air in Yap but took a nitrox class in Palau and dive nitrox the entire second week. To put it simply (and I'll discuss this more fully in the trip report), they were amazed at how much more bottom time they got per dive in Palau than in Yap, and how much longer they could stay at depth whereas in Yap, they had to ascend to a much shallower much earlier than anyone else to avoid deco while on air.
PLAYING THE AIRFARE GAME - It pays to be aware of airfares and it pays to be able to book things last-minute. In the Sunday L.A Times Travel section (page L7), their deal of the week is a roundtrip airfare from LAX to Quito, Ecuador, for $320 (not a typo - $320) on AeroMexico and Copa. It has to be booked by April 3 (next Sunday) and is good for travel through June. If you ever had any interest in going to the Galapagos, you generally fly through Quito and the airfare (I just checked it on American) is around $2,000. But you could book this special fare and then separately book (on Copa) an airfare from Quito out to the Galapagos for another $450, so you're already $1,230 ahead of the game. Then check and see if any boats are offering last-minute deals and you might find that a trip that overall would normally cost you $8,000/diver could be as little as $5,000. Because of the last-minute nature, this is never something we can offer on a group basis, but for those with flexible schedules and the willingness to do a little research, the savings can be significant.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
PALAU MINI-REPORT - That's the old vaudeville line, anyhow. My arms are fine but the rest of me is pretty tired. 24 hours of travel door-to-door on four different flights and over eight time zones will do that to you. But that's also the sacrifice we divers make to go to the more exotic and distant places in the world. And I think it's a price we gladly pay. The short version of this (I'll be working on the trip report and pix throughout the week - hopefully have it all done by the weekend) is that, following our wonderful week in Yap which we extolled about last week, we had another great week on the Palau Aggressor II. Probably the signature dive of Palau is Blue Corner which we hit three times and it produced three very different dives. The first one was OK, but so-so if you've been there before. But the third dive (at 7AM Friday morning) was simply epic. It was everything you hope Blue Corner has to offer which was current (so we're hooked in), plenty of sharks cruising just off the wall, a huge school of Black Snappers, a huge school of Bigeye Jacks, a huge school of Chevron Barracuda, a huge school of Bigeye/Sennet Barracuda, a gazillion Red-Toothed Triggerfish, and thousands and thousands of more fish, all jockeying for position and moving to and fro throughout the water column. Add good vis and the fact we had the hook-in area on the 60-foot plateau all to ourselves and it simply made for a magical hour underwater. We got in some great dives at Peleliu (Barracks Point and Orange Beach have to be two of the prettiest soft coral dives in the world) and had lots of other good ones throughout our week. We ended up at Jellyfish Lake which I found this year to be a bit anti-climatic because I felt that there were far fewer jellies than in the past, let alone the clouds of them we've usually seen. (But others in my group said it was much better all the way at the back wall and I didn't go that far.) But it was a really nice week, the diving was very good, the Aggressor folks were also quite accommodating, and a good time was had by all. Plus we made new friends from Spain, Japan, England, and even Iowa.
SOME PHOTOS - I shot about 3500 pix over the two weeks (fortunately, all cameras stayed dry this year) and certainly won't subject you to each and every one of them but thought you might like a short taste of Yap and a taste of Palau. 10 shots from each plus a shot of the Mnuw at Manta Ray Bay at sunrise and the PA2 on the mooring in Peleliu Harbor, one of the most tranquil places I've ever been which is really amazing giving the carnage that occurred there during World War 2. Here's a link to the pix on my SmugMug site where you can either view them as a collage, individually, or a slide show: A TASTE OF YAP & PALAU (2016) - kenkurtis .
COLLECT YOUR MILES - This is the type of trip that really underscores the value of making sure you're a member of an airline's loyalty program. You should collect every mile you can to get any sort of "status" with that airline. I'm fortunate enough to be United Premier Silver (their lowest level - requires flying 25,000 miles and spending $3,000 on airfare each year) but it gets me Group 2 boarding (handy for making sure you get overhead space for rollerboards which in my case carry most of my photo gear) and more importantly, allows me to upgrade at no cost from Economy to Economy Plus (without status, the upgrade could run anywhere from $30-150 per leg). Economy Plus not only gives me about 5" more legroom, but which is usually a little less crowded than Economy. On this trip, while Economy was pretty packed on most of our legs, Economy Plus meant I had an empty seat next to me all the way going top Yap, and was able to have three empty seats next to me for Guam-to-Honolulu which meant I could actually lie down and try to sleep. Plus I got a free upgrade to First Class on three of the eight legs we flew. I also have a Chase United Club credit card which means, when I charge the airfare to that, I get the second checked bag for free and on this trip, that saved $210 ($70 for the second bag for three hops: LAX-YAP, YAP-ROR, and ROR-LAX). Other airlines have the same types of offers. The point is, especially in this day and age of consolidated air travel, take advantage of anything you can.
BENEFITS OF NITROX - Bet you never thought you'd see those words coming from me. But I always said the main benefit of nitrox is as a bottom-time-extending gas. And Vick Thomas and Elisabeth Sykes certainly experienced that on this trip as they dove air in Yap but took a nitrox class in Palau and dive nitrox the entire second week. To put it simply (and I'll discuss this more fully in the trip report), they were amazed at how much more bottom time they got per dive in Palau than in Yap, and how much longer they could stay at depth whereas in Yap, they had to ascend to a much shallower much earlier than anyone else to avoid deco while on air.
PLAYING THE AIRFARE GAME - It pays to be aware of airfares and it pays to be able to book things last-minute. In the Sunday L.A Times Travel section (page L7), their deal of the week is a roundtrip airfare from LAX to Quito, Ecuador, for $320 (not a typo - $320) on AeroMexico and Copa. It has to be booked by April 3 (next Sunday) and is good for travel through June. If you ever had any interest in going to the Galapagos, you generally fly through Quito and the airfare (I just checked it on American) is around $2,000. But you could book this special fare and then separately book (on Copa) an airfare from Quito out to the Galapagos for another $450, so you're already $1,230 ahead of the game. Then check and see if any boats are offering last-minute deals and you might find that a trip that overall would normally cost you $8,000/diver could be as little as $5,000. Because of the last-minute nature, this is never something we can offer on a group basis, but for those with flexible schedules and the willingness to do a little research, the savings can be significant.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
