vimaldude
Contributor
We (me and my son) just returned from a wonderful trip to Palau on Palau Aggressor II.
Here is a report and some pictures.
We took Asiana Airlines from SFO with a long layover in Seoul and arrived at 3:00 am in Palau. Boarded the boat at 4:30 that evening. The boat is in very good condition. The rooms were very clean and everything worked. From the first dinner to the last, the food was good and plentiful. The crew worked very hard to make everyone comfortable and keep things running smooth.
DIVING CONDITIONS:
Since this was the 'rainy' season, we expected some rains but overall the weather was very pleasant. We did get rained on 2 of our dives but was no big deal. The wind was up for a few days and that made the sea conditions a bit rough but didn't seem to affect the visibility. Unfortunately, we couldn't do Peleliu dives because of rough condition there.
DIVING:
Overall, we did 3 dives at Blue corner and 2 dives each at German Channel and Ulong Channel. The blue corner dives we done at 6:30 am and so we had the whole corner to ourselves. The Blue Conrner lived up to its reputation. The current was slack on the first dive but picked up a bit on the next 2 dives (you want current on blue corner dives because it brings the big animals). We got to see number of sharks, tunas, bumphead parrotfish, jacks, barracudas and the friendly resident Napoleon Wrasse.
The Ulong channel was my next favorite site. Again, lots of action at the mouth of the channel where you hook up. After unhooking, you get a nice drift dive right down the channel. The channel is full of hard and soft corals. The highlight were the lettuce head corals and the 2 giant clams at the end of the dive. We got lucky on the second dive during our safety stop when a white tip decided to hang around and swim circles around us.
The German Channel was disappointing. The visibility was low and the mantas were absent. We spent quite a bit of time waiting at the cleaning station but only 1 manta showed up towards the end of the dive (when we were low on air!). The rest of the channel didn't impress me much (again due to poor visibility)
The other notable dives were at New Drop-off (hook in dive), Sias Tunnel, Blue holes and Chandelier Caves.
THe 2 wreck dives on the Helmet Wreck and Iro Maru were nice but the visibility was not great. The ships are in bad condition and deteriorating fast.
The rest of the dives were mostly at different walls. While they were good, I didn't find them any special.
They did 3 night dives at different coral gardens.
In total, they offer 25 dives in a week. Out of 17 people on the boat, only 3 persons did all 25 dives (I was not one of them!)
DIVE GUIDES:
On most dives, they had 3 guides in water between 17 divers. At least one of the guides also carried camera and was shooting video or taking photos. The dives were more "supervised" than "guided" (I.e. the guides didn't point out critters all the time but just kind of went along the route). They also didn't 'herd' the divers but let each buddy team do their own thing. There were dives where we all ended up scattered over a large area but the skiff driver are very good at spotting people in water (SMB is a must here). They also gave each of us free use of Nautilus Lifeline (though no one needed to use it !)
OVERALL:
Palau has become one of my favorite trips. The corals and sea life are in great shape (I.e very healthy) due to protection and fishing restrictions. In my opinion, live-aboard is the way to dive in Palau. You can dive more and start early when the day boats are still on their way. Also, you can dry up and have hot drink/food in between dives. On the day boats, there is no place to get dry and you will spend most of the day in wet clothes.
The diving is done from a skiff and most dive sites are less than 10 minutes away.
We had a very experienced group of divers (the least experienced diver had more than 100 dives).
In my opinion, the diving in Palau is not for beginners. More than number of dives, you need to have following skills:
1. Must carry an SMB and learn how to use it. On a number of dives, we deployed the SMB while at safety stop because of currents.
2. Negative Entry: On 2 occasions, we had surface currents and required us to do negative entry (We liked that so much that we ended up doing it for all our dives)
3. Currents: In Palau, any dive site can have currents at any time. While most dives will be just drifting along with the current, there were times when we had to swim against mild current for short distances. You need to be in good physical condition to do that.
4. Caves and Cavens: The Blue Hole, Sias Tunnel and Chandelier Caves are awesome dives but they are dark and deep (Blue hole and Sias Tunnel).
Photos and videos to follow..
Here is a report and some pictures.
We took Asiana Airlines from SFO with a long layover in Seoul and arrived at 3:00 am in Palau. Boarded the boat at 4:30 that evening. The boat is in very good condition. The rooms were very clean and everything worked. From the first dinner to the last, the food was good and plentiful. The crew worked very hard to make everyone comfortable and keep things running smooth.
DIVING CONDITIONS:
Since this was the 'rainy' season, we expected some rains but overall the weather was very pleasant. We did get rained on 2 of our dives but was no big deal. The wind was up for a few days and that made the sea conditions a bit rough but didn't seem to affect the visibility. Unfortunately, we couldn't do Peleliu dives because of rough condition there.
DIVING:
Overall, we did 3 dives at Blue corner and 2 dives each at German Channel and Ulong Channel. The blue corner dives we done at 6:30 am and so we had the whole corner to ourselves. The Blue Conrner lived up to its reputation. The current was slack on the first dive but picked up a bit on the next 2 dives (you want current on blue corner dives because it brings the big animals). We got to see number of sharks, tunas, bumphead parrotfish, jacks, barracudas and the friendly resident Napoleon Wrasse.
The Ulong channel was my next favorite site. Again, lots of action at the mouth of the channel where you hook up. After unhooking, you get a nice drift dive right down the channel. The channel is full of hard and soft corals. The highlight were the lettuce head corals and the 2 giant clams at the end of the dive. We got lucky on the second dive during our safety stop when a white tip decided to hang around and swim circles around us.
The German Channel was disappointing. The visibility was low and the mantas were absent. We spent quite a bit of time waiting at the cleaning station but only 1 manta showed up towards the end of the dive (when we were low on air!). The rest of the channel didn't impress me much (again due to poor visibility)
The other notable dives were at New Drop-off (hook in dive), Sias Tunnel, Blue holes and Chandelier Caves.
THe 2 wreck dives on the Helmet Wreck and Iro Maru were nice but the visibility was not great. The ships are in bad condition and deteriorating fast.
The rest of the dives were mostly at different walls. While they were good, I didn't find them any special.
They did 3 night dives at different coral gardens.
In total, they offer 25 dives in a week. Out of 17 people on the boat, only 3 persons did all 25 dives (I was not one of them!)
DIVE GUIDES:
On most dives, they had 3 guides in water between 17 divers. At least one of the guides also carried camera and was shooting video or taking photos. The dives were more "supervised" than "guided" (I.e. the guides didn't point out critters all the time but just kind of went along the route). They also didn't 'herd' the divers but let each buddy team do their own thing. There were dives where we all ended up scattered over a large area but the skiff driver are very good at spotting people in water (SMB is a must here). They also gave each of us free use of Nautilus Lifeline (though no one needed to use it !)
OVERALL:
Palau has become one of my favorite trips. The corals and sea life are in great shape (I.e very healthy) due to protection and fishing restrictions. In my opinion, live-aboard is the way to dive in Palau. You can dive more and start early when the day boats are still on their way. Also, you can dry up and have hot drink/food in between dives. On the day boats, there is no place to get dry and you will spend most of the day in wet clothes.
The diving is done from a skiff and most dive sites are less than 10 minutes away.
We had a very experienced group of divers (the least experienced diver had more than 100 dives).
In my opinion, the diving in Palau is not for beginners. More than number of dives, you need to have following skills:
1. Must carry an SMB and learn how to use it. On a number of dives, we deployed the SMB while at safety stop because of currents.
2. Negative Entry: On 2 occasions, we had surface currents and required us to do negative entry (We liked that so much that we ended up doing it for all our dives)
3. Currents: In Palau, any dive site can have currents at any time. While most dives will be just drifting along with the current, there were times when we had to swim against mild current for short distances. You need to be in good physical condition to do that.
4. Caves and Cavens: The Blue Hole, Sias Tunnel and Chandelier Caves are awesome dives but they are dark and deep (Blue hole and Sias Tunnel).
Photos and videos to follow..
