Palau

Palau
March 9 - April 10, 2011

View from a Rock Island Beach

I can't believe we've been in Palau for a month already.  Time flies.  I know many people say that time seems to go by quicker every year, and I definitely agree, and would also add that the effect is magnified while cruising.  I guess it's something about going different places and meeting lots of new people, but I am continually amazed each time I stop to figure out how long we've been in any given port. 

We first arrived in Palau on a Saturday afternoon and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly we got cleared into the country.  We had heard (correctly!) that it was a quite a bit more expensive to check in here on the weekend, and so I somehow imagined that all the officials were going to have to be called in from home (and hence the extra overtime charges), but they all showed up promptly and we got checked in in plenty of time for us to move the boat around and pick up a free mooring at the Royal Belau Yacht Club.  The Yacht Club is part of Sam's Tours, which is one of the most popular scuba diving operations in Palau (which is saying a lot - this place has WAY more tourists than anyplace we've been since Fiji).  We'd read about Sam's in advance so we knew to expect the floating docks filled with dive boats, and the free mooring balls and showers they make available to cruisers, but we were pleasantly surprised by the hustle and bustle (we arrived about the time all the dive boats were returning for the day), the very relaxed and breezy outdoor bar and restaurant and the big smiles and welcomes from the staff. Sam's definitely is our kind of yacht club!  We quickly ordered a few beers and an appetizer or two and found out where the showers were and enjoyed it all immensely.

Then we asked how to call a cab, because we had our hearts set on going into town to a place called Taj for dinner.  All our guide books and Martin (the lovely German we dove with in Pohnpei who has been to Palau many times) had raved about the Indian food at Taj, and since we all love Indian food we were very excited to go there.  We were not disappointed!  The food was truly delicious.  The Tandoori Chicken appetizer was so moist and flavorful, the breads were perfect, and the entrees (we ordered four for only three of us!) were all uniquely wonderful and layered with flavors ranging from subtle to supremely hot - just how we like it.  We also met and chatted with Robert, the extremely personable and gracious owner, who has been there each time we've gone and always makes you feel right at home.  Then we left and I tried not to moan too loudly in the taxi and managed to roll myself down the dock, into the dinghy and into my bunk for a good night's sleep.

The next day Fred packed and prepared for his trip back to the States to take care of some business, do some skiing, and visit with friends.  We had intended to get to Palau earlier, so he could do some diving before he left, but the weather gods had other plans and they delayed our departure from Yap so he ended up flying out right after we got here.

A few days after Fred left, Jeff and I discovered the down side of staying on a free mooring ball, which is that when a Tsunami warning is issued you get asked to leave - and to leave quickly.  We were hanging out on the boat one evening at about 5 PM, relaxing and watching a movie on the laptop when we heard a knock on the hull and popped up to find Sam and Gary alongside in a dinghy telling us about the big earthquake in Japan and saying a Tsunami Warning had been issued for Palau for 7:30 PM and that they needed us to get off the mooring we were on right away because it was for one of the big boats that needed to be moved off the floating dock, and these guys had many other boats they needed to move too, so they needed us off quick.  Needless to say, this was a bit of a shock.  It normally takes us about an hour to get everything in the boat stowed away and transition from life at anchor/mooring to sailing.  Luckily for us, not everything had to be done before we got off this mooring ball, since we be inside a nice flat lagoon for at least an hour before getting out of the reef, but we had to quickly figure out which jobs HAD to be done before we left the mooring and which jobs could wait.  Then, suddenly the guys were there already, and although I hadn't actually timed it, I would have sworn it was only ten minutes later, not fifteen, but we did a fast last minute check that there were no lines in the water that could wrap around the prop, and away we went.  The big boat was coming up behind us already, so as soon as I saw the two dinghys at our bow move to either side I went ahead to get out of it's way as soon as possible.  What I couldn't see was that one dinghy was actually being towed by the other, so my trying to go between them didn't work out too well, but I quickly realized my mistake and reversed enough to let the guy (who was rushing us off so he could help the big boat pick up the mooring after we got off) pull both dinghys over to one side of our boat, and off we went.

Let me explain that the moorings for Sam's are in a small area, protected by an inner reef with a skinny pass entrance, all of which is inside the much bigger, much deeper Malakal harbor area which is protected by islands and is inside the still bigger outer lagoon which is protected by the outer reef.  We got ourselves through the pass in the internal reef and then slowed down to a crawl and put the autopilot on and finished getting the boat ready for sea as we puttered along inside the big harbor.  We'd been told that some of the other sailboats were going to motor around inside this big harbor until they thought the tsunami danger had passed, and then they planned to return to the their moorings. Another sailboat, which also needed to leave it's mooring completely had decided to anchor inside the little bay near Sam's.  We discussed both of these options, but decided that we just didn't have enough local knowledge to be cruising around in the big harbor after dark, and we didn't want to be anchored in the little harbor if the tsunami actually hit, so we quickly prepared for an unexpected night at sea and headed out the outer pass to the deep, deep sea - which really is the safest place for a boat if a tsunami is coming.  The tsunami effects are only felt where the water shallows up, in the middle of the ocean they say you don't even notice it as it goes by. Luckily for us, all these Pacific atolls are surrounded by very deep water right up to the outer reefs, so it was no problem to get out into really deep water quickly.  Unluckily for us, and unbeknownst to us in our protected anchorage, the wind was blowing 20 knots outside the harbor and the seas were big.  We hadn't had dinner before we left the anchorage, and we had to rush to get out of the pass before dark, and as soon as we were out we were in some big big waves which combined with an empty stomach made me nauseous immediately and I remained that way for the rest of the night which we spent slowly sailing back and forth keeping an eye on the very large ship which was a few miles away and had also evacuated the anchorage and was circling around in our vicinity.

The Jack Loomis - our neighbor at sea

 

 

 

 

When the sun came up we headed back in after a chat on the VHF radio with the big ship next to us.  I was hoping they could tell us that the Tsunami warning had been lifted, and whether Palau had sustained any damage, but they only said that the warning was only for the previous evening (which I knew, but I was worrying about aftershocks in Japan that might have generated additional warnings).  They also said that they didn't think Koror, the main town in Palau, would have been damaged because of it's location.  I had assumed that they would have had access to reports of actual conditions ashore, but this didn't seem to be the case.  We motored back into the pass and were very relieved to see that everything on shore looked normal.  We really didn't know what to expect, and while we were hoping for the best, it was easy to imagine the worst while we were sailing around in the dark all night.  We were also pleasantly surprised to see that the boat which had been put onto our mooring the night before was pulling back over to the dock as we came in, so we picked up our old mooring and re-inflated the dinghy and headed into shore as quick as we could to order up a huge gigantic breakfast, after which we had a big nap.

Coincidentally, a few days later we were invited on a tour of the big boat that was our ocean neighbor the night of the tsunami scare.  Turns out it was a US Naval vessel called the Jack Loomis.  I was interested to see the boat itself, because they'd been our neighbors, but then I found out that the boat's mission is to transport all the equipment needed by Marines to launch an invasion somewhere.   This made me even more curious, especially since I had recently finished a book about the WWII action in the Pacific islands, so I had read about one island assault after another.  So, on the day of the tour we got on the launch (one of the Sam's Tour boats) and headed out to see the Jack Loomis.  We pulled up to the back and had to climb up a big ladder to an outer platform, which was a bit like a big fire escape on an apartment building.  We went in and signed the security list while gawking at the three huge tanks that were already in sight. 

Tanks

 Then we saw the huge engine room (the engine itself is as big as a room!) and the control room and some other cool stuff before being led into the main hold to see the assault equipment.  We had been told to be prepared to be amazed, but I was still taken by surprise.  There were tanks of every size, and bulldozers and jeeps, and canons on wheels, and armored cars... and there were a LOT of them. 

I kinda like this one...

maybe they won't miss it - they've got a lot of them!

I went up to our very nice tour guide, Carey, and said, you were right this is amazing, and he said just wait, you haven't seen anything yet, this is just one level - there are five more!   There were fire trucks, and ambulance jeeps, and more tanks in different sizes, and an entire level of jeeps, and huge generators on wheels, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot more stuff.  It was really amazing.  By the time we got to the last level I wished everyone else would quit taking pictures so we could finish because my legs were tired and that was before we climbed back up the five levels of stairs to see the bridge and the helicopter deck and look out over the bow where the GIGANTIC anchor chain could be seen.  Wow.  The entire tour was really cool.

Canon

We've also been doing lots of scuba diving while we've been here. We've done it all with Sam's Tours, rather than doing in from our own dinghy, because the best dive sites are quite far away from the main anchorage, and the currents can be quite strong, so it's good to go with folks with local knowledge.  The diving in Palau is amazing, and you don't have to take my word for it, take a look at any top ten list of diving places in any of the travel magazines and you'll find Palau listed somewhere near the top.  Deservedly so.  What I knew about Palau diving before getting here was that I would see lots of sharks and turtles and big pelagic fish like tuna, trevally and snappers along with big schools of smaller fish. 

Shark and a big school of fish

What I didn't know about Palau is that there would be groupers the size of small love seats and that the coral here is also fantastic.  The coral alone on most Palau dives is as good as or better than the best coral dive in lots of places AND if the currents are right you also see crazy amounts of fish and sharks as well.  Most places it's either one or the other, and usually neither is as good as both often are on a dive here in Palau. 

The coral is amazing!

Our very first day of diving here we were lucky enough to go to the deservedly famous Blue Corner and we caught it on a very good day indeed.  We saw huge schools of medium size fish and we saw reef sharks and gray sharks and really big Napolean Wrasses.  We saw the two biggest groupers I've ever seen under an equally huge table coral.  We saw a turtle, a lion fish, and a really cute little eagle ray. We saw a big school of medium sized barracuda, some clown trigger fish, lots of titan trigger fish and bumphead parrrotfish and a really lovely bit of cabbage coral with some gorgeous yellow fish schooling above it. 

I wonder what this school of fish is studying?

This was all in ONE dive.  It really was almost too much.  I'd see something cool and try to point it out to Jeff only to discover that he was simultaneously trying to point out something else cool to me.  And so was the dive guide and the other people we were diving with.  And everybody was pointing at something different!  It was crazy.  My neck hurt afterwards from trying to look everywhere at once.  I was an instant fan. 

Eagle Rays at Blue Corner

Another day we went to Ulong channel.  We did three dives in this area and I really, really mean it when I say that the coral there was breathtaking.  It was like a huge coral garden with an amazing variety of gigantic and very healthy corals.  Then we went to Siaes corner and saw amazing shark and fish action along with more beautiful coral.  This was definitely one of my favorite days of diving ever!  We've done lots of other dives here in Palau also.  I think seven days of diving so far, and not all the dives are quite as good as the two I've described, but none of them were bad.  Even the worst was better than the best day of diving I've had in many other places, but when the diving is good in Palau, it is off the charts unbelievably good!

Did I mention that the coral is nice?

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to capture this big picture amazing-ness with an underwater camera.  Even when the underwater visibility is great, things more than 10 feet away just don't show up in pictures very well (something about refraction I think), but I'll post as many close ups of cool stuff as I can (based on the internet speed at the time of posting - it varies quite a bit here).

Eel

Oh, I almost forgot to tell about the day we saw the octopus.  It was our third dive of the day, and somehow I just wasn't expecting a lot from this particular dive.  I don't know if it was the dive briefing or if I am just getting ridiculously spoiled by Palau diving in general (yes, it's probably that), but I just wasn't expecting much.  The coral was nice and we saw three of the four different colors of scorpion leaf fish that we had been told we might see (these are pretty cool, very strange looking and very easy to miss) but somehow it all seemed a bit ho-hum.  Right up until we saw the octopus.  It wasn't like a man eating octopus in a scary movie, it was a little guy about two feet long total, but he just did not seem to be scared of us.  The very few other times we've seen octopus they usually hide in a hole very quickly, but not this guy.  He seemed to be eating something and there was a fish who was very interested in whatever he had and seemed to be sometimes attacking him.  The octopus kept moving about and each time he moved he changed his color and texture to match whatever surface he was on.  He could go from light and smooth to spotted and bumpy in a second.  Even though I knew right where to look it was hard to see him when he was still.  Then he'd move again and change color and texture again.  He swam away from the bottom a couple times, which I'd never seen one do before.  We got to watch him for about 10 minutes while he snacked away and the fish kept pecking at him.  So much for a ho-hum dive.

Octopus

All you fans of Survivor might also be interested to know that we have snorkeled in Jellyfish Lake and we've had lunch on one of the beaches used in the Palau show.  It now has picnic tables and lots of rats, but still - I was on another Survivor beach! (We were on one in the Marquesas also.)  For those of you who don't watch Survivor, let me explain that Jellyfish lake is a marine lake which was once a part of the ocean, but has now been closed off.  The jellyfish who live there don't have many predators so they have lost their stingers and multiplied wildly.  When you swim there you can swim right into their midst and be surrounded by hundreds of these pretty jellyfish and not be stung.

Jellyfish Lake

We also recently took the sailboat out and anchored in the Rock Islands for a few days.  This trip was delayed a bit because the starter on the boat's diesel engine decided it was a good time to have a melt down right before we wanted to leave.  Thank goodness this happened while we were near town though, and not after we got out there!  It wasn't too tough a fix after we figured out from the engine diagrams which part it was that was that the smoke was coming from, then turned to our favorite repair expert Nigel Calder (almost every cruising boat I've been on has a copy of his repair book onboard) for tips on how to remove it.  Jeff was able to get it out after just a very little bit of knuckle banging and cursing with only a few retrievals by me (with the little hands) of the wrench that fell into the bilge.  Sam was nice enough to have one of his mechanics drive us to the shop where they get their cars repaired and those guys were able to rewire it and replace something inside, and then we managed to get it back on without losing any of the nuts and bolts into a space too small for anyone to reach - this is always a hazard during any boat repair (that or important pieces fall overboard if you are working up top). 

The Rock Islands are a crazy maze of tall, mushroom shaped islands located a bit south of Koror.  There are many different anchorages there.  I picked one out based on it being close to some good snorkeling at a place called Cemetery Reef, and relatively easy to get the boat into and out of (many of the other anchorages have 2 meter deep reefs across the entrance at low tide, and our keel is 2.5 meters deep, so we'd need to time the tides to get into and out, which I think just adds unnecessary anxiety - I'm going away from town to relax!) 

Our lovely Rock Island anchorage

The anchorage itself turned out to be lovely, but we went past Cemetery Reef on the way to it and I was surprised to see that it was surrounded by buoys, like a swim area in a lake, and that there were a couple tour boats tied onto some of them.  In hindsight I realized I shouldn't have been surprised.  It's just that since we left Fiji we've been visiting places with very few tourists, but Palau has a LOT of them and I forgot to take that into account.  In other countries, as soon as we get away from town the only boats we see are fishermen or very occasionally another cruising sail boat.  I forgot that Palau has a lot of visitors and that not all of them scuba dive and those who don't often go on these snorkel tours.  So, after thinking all this through, I thought I had made the appropriate adjustments to my expectations of Cemetery Reef, and decided that I still wanted to go see it even though we wouldn't have the place all to ourselves.  Turns out I didn't adjust my expectations quite enough. 

Jeff driving to the snorkeling

The next day when we dinghyed around the corner to the reef there were a couple tour boats there already, which we had expected, but were hoping we might be pleasantly surprised.  We decided to get in anyway and take a look - we'd just try to stay away from the other people.  But while we were there boat after boat after boat pulled up.  We snorkeled one side of the reef, which is really quite lovely, and decided to head back to the dinghy, where we continued to watch boats pull up.  Eventually there were ten tour boats there. They each had at least 15 passengers, some more like 20, all snorkeling in an area about the size of a football field.  But the most amazing thing is that almost everyone had on a life jacket.  Some even had kick boards.  The kick board people tended to form big flotillas and move slowly around the reef together.  This seemed very bizarre to me. 

Snorkelers with life jackets

When we returned to Sam's and I was telling this tale to another cruiser, he nicely pointed out that at least they were having fun.  I guess that's true, and I've got no problem with that, but I wish so many of them hadn't been standing on top of the beautiful coral they were there to see.  Unfortunately this problem isn't limited to the snorkelers.  Many of the scuba divers here also seem not to be aware or not to care that touching the coral kills it.  As I mentioned before there are lots of strong currents here and unfortunately lots of divers just grab onto coral to stop themselves so they can watch the action go by.  They recently held a meeting, while we've been here, about maybe closing Blue Corner temporarily to let the coral heal itself some.  Divers at this location are meant to use reef hooks to anchor themselves when the current is strong (and some people think this is a problem in itself), but in the very few dives we've done here ourselves we've seen lots of divers hugging coral or standing on coral or grabbing onto it to steady themselves while they take pictures of the coral. It's a shame, and I hope the people here figure out some way to stop the damage this causes.  I do know they are trying.

The rest of our Rock Island adventure was every bit as relaxing as we'd hoped it would be.  We had tucked ourselves into a beautiful little anchorage and we rarely saw another boat while we there.  We listened to the birds and admired the lovely islands and really enjoyed our four night stay.

Fred will return to Palau in a few days and we're waiting on some additional information from our weather guru Susan before deciding where the next leg of the journey will take us.