Palau - Chapter Two

The anchorage in Palau

It's hard for me to believe, but we've been in Palau for another entire month since I wrote the last blog update.  It's not often that we are in any one place for so long, and I often get tired of being in "town" for long stretches of time, but the set-up here for liveaboards is so nice, and we've met such a great group of people, that I have really enjoyed our stay.

Fred after a day of diving.  You can see a few of the many Sam's Tours boats at the dock and masts from the sailboats in the anchorage in the distance.

 Fred returned to the boat shortly after I posted the last blog entry and we did another round of awesome scuba diving when he got back.  Coincidentally, some friends from Sun valley, Tuck Hall and Dave Stone, arrived at that time also.

Tuck Hall taking an underwater photo

They had planned a dive trip here completely independently of us, and luckily it worked out that we were all here in Palau at the same time. We had a great time hanging out with them.  Most days while they were here we dove together, then had some drinks at the Bottom Time Bar and then separated for showers and met up again later for dinner.  I dove three days with them and Jeff and Fred did a few more, one of which was diving some of the wrecks in the lagoon and another was a day on the outer reef at Peleliu - home to one of the bloodiest battles in the South Pacific during WWII.

Dave Stone diving on the Jake Plane

This nudibranch is about three inches long

The very first day we dove with them was a really exceptional day of diving.  We went to Blue Corner and this may have been our best Blue Corner dive ever.  On the flats we saw two lionfish, a very colorful nudibranch, and a large moray eel which was all the way out of it's hole, as well as the usual triggerfish, big napoleon wrasses, reef sharks sleeping in the sand, and a big school of yellowfin barracuda.  Next we swam over to the edge of the reef and although there didn't seem to be a lot of current, there were quite a few sharks and some giant trevally, blue trevally and mackerels all swimming around.  We got hooked onto the reef and were relaxing and watching the show go by and suddenly there was some sort of frenzy going on below us, and sharks and big napoleon wrasses were all attacking this one particular spot on the reef where apparently an injured fish had hidden himself in a hole.  I was surprised to see larger fish attacking the hole among the many sharks. 

This Napolean Wrasse is about three feet long - photo by Tuck Hall

Moray eel - photo by Tuck Hall

Also while Tuck and Dave were here, Fred, Jeff and I all did our 100th dive.  Again, coincidentally, Fred and Jeff's 100th dive was the same dive.  Fred was certified before we started this trip, but Jeff happened to do exactly the number of dives he needed to catch up while Fred was back in the States.  Apparently, there is a tradition of diving your 100th dive naked, but both guys decided to pass on that option and went clad in their normal dive attire.  This dive was a very nice trip down one of the Blue Holes which are like big vertical chimneys in the reef that you drop down through into an underwater cave.  You check out the cave and then exit out of the cave's mouth which puts you on the outside edge of the reef near Blue Corner.  Then you drift along this reef until you get to Blue Corner.  This particular visit to Blue Corner wasn't as action packed as the day before, and there was absolutely nothing going on at the place where the shark frenzy had occurred the day before, but there was still plenty to see on the flats.

Fred and Jeff on their 100th dive!

 I had gotten behind on my record keeping in my dive book and didn't even realize I was doing my 100th dive when I did it, so I was spared the "to dress or not to dress" decision process.  I was quite pleased when I realized later that my 100th dive was among my favorite of the dives I did here in Palau.  The dive was in Ulong Channel, which we've done multiple times and which I always enjoy because of the truly magnificent coral there, but the trip we did that day was very different from our previous trips there.  That day, which was near the full moon, the current was flowing very strongly into the channel and once we entered the channel we were swept along faster and faster as the channel got narrower and shallower.  Most of the drift dives we've done previously were either along an outer reef where you have coral on one side only, or through large passes in the reef where you can't even see the other side, and we've always had plenty of water beneath us.  Ulong channel is different in that it is much skinnier, especially on the inside end, so you had to steer yourself along as the current swept you through the skinny parts.  It was rather exhilarating and is a dive I won't forget any time soon.

Angie - not actually my 100th dive - but it does show my favorite new toy - the underwater camera!  Photo by Tuck Hall

After Tuck and Dave left, Fred dove a few more days and since then our days have mostly been either project or shopping days.  On project days we do some sort of boat project, the biggest of which has been to repair our large dinghy.  This is our third attempt at repairing this dinghy, but this time we've used a different adhesive (the epoxy from Zodiac that we used previously will apparently NOT set up correctly in a humid environment - a fact that the Zodiac people somehow never thought to mention) and we added some reinforcing brackets, so we are hoping for significantly different results this time.  Fred decided on this approach after getting advice from many of the other cruisers here, and some very kind Air Force personnel (who we met while diving with Sam's and who are stationed here in Palau doing civic works projects).  The folks at Sam's Tours were also nice enough to let us use one of their workshops without which we would never have been able to do the repair since it rains here just about every day, so getting the dinghy dry outdoors would have been impossible.  We just got the dinghy back in the water yesterday, and so far the repair looks good.  We're hoping for the best since this dinghy is the one we use when we go diving by ourselves, and we think there may be opportunities to do that in the Philippines, which is where we plan to head next. 

Our on-shore home in Palau

Most of our days in Palau start with breakfast and coffee on the boat, after which we clean up, and by that time it's usually already ferociously hot. (When I read that the average temp here was 82 I mistakenly thought it meant that the average HIGH temp was 82 - but no - it meant average.)  After breakfast we gather our shower bags and the trash and our big water bottle and load it all into the dinghy and head ashore.  We tie up at the Sam's Tours dinghy dock where we are able to dump our trash and fill our water bottle with filtered drinking water, all for free.  Then we usually head into the air-conditioned computer room for some internet time, which isn't exactly free, but I think we'd be happy to pay just for the air-conditioning, so it seems like a pretty good deal.  Next we take a very hot and sweaty 30-40 minute walk into town after which we reward ourselves with lunch in an air-conditioned restaurant.  Emaimelei is one of our favorite lunch spots.  This is a locals favorite where they serve enormous portions of delicious Filipino and Asian dishes for a very reasonable price. After lunch we do any other town errands we have and then head for the two large grocery stores, which are conveniently located directly across the street from one another.  They are both well stocked, but with slightly different items.  We usually hit both and then call Johnson, our favorite Palauan taxi driver, for a ride home.  Johnson always has a good story for us about Palau goings-on, and his car has great air-conditioning (are you picking up on the theme here?)  Back at Sam's we load all our shopping bags into the dinghy and take them out to the boat, which is now sweltering hot, so we put everything away as fast as we can, and then we head back to Sam's for my favorite time of day - the cocktail/shower hour. 

Inside Sam's (also known as the Yacht Club and the Bottom Time Bar)

One of the very best things about Sam's is that there is almost always an interesting crowd at the bar in the late afternoon and early evening.  It's a great spot on the water, shaded, and with a nice breeze blowing through.  All the dive boats are returning then too, and we've become friendly with quite a few of the dive guides, so we get to chat with them, and whichever dive guests we also know, and there's usually a good collection of other cruisers at the bar also.  Among the other sailors there's a great mix of people - some of whom have been here for years and some, like us, who are just passing through.  So we often spend a very pleasurable hour or two swapping jokes and lies with whoever is around, and wandering off at some point to make use of Sam's lovely (and free!) showers.  Having this great social scene right in our backyard has made our long stay here very enjoyable.  We're going to miss the Sam's gang for sure!

Cecille and Fey - two of the wonderful ladies at Sam's

Milo, Michelle and Minda always take great care of us!

For dinner, we usually head back to the boat unless it's been a tiring project or diving day, in which case we often eat at Sam's (they have great salads, amazingly fresh fish, and, in my opinion, the island's best cheeseburger) or sometimes we'll get a gang together and head down the road to Kramer's where Renee, Jane and Patrick make great food and where many of the island's expats gather for evening socializing. 

Fun highlights during our stay here have included Sam's birthday party, where the musical entertainment was provided by some local bands along with a group of Sam's regulars, including dive guides and sailors, who put on a really good show after practicing only one week.  We also very much enjoyed the Cinco de Mayo party hosted by the Royal Belau Yacht Club at Sam's.  This yearly event includes lots of tequila drinking (of course!) along with a Mexican food cooking competition.  The idea is that the contestants all bring a Mexican dish and everyone who attends gets to try them all and judge them anonymously. Jeff entered, and won first prize, with his awesome pork green chili, which was definitely delicious enough to have won on it's own, but Fred was taking no chances, so he ran an amazing PR campaign, just to seal the deal.  If anyone is considering running for office, I sincerely recommend Fred as your campaign manager.  Fred's blend of aboveboard charm and willingness to make shady deals under the table can really get the job done!  I was way too busy enjoying the scrumptious feast of Mexican food to be any help during the competition, but I earned my keep earlier in the day by being the number one pot scrubber.  The first place prize was a gift certificate for $100 to Elilai, a posh restaurant that we haven't tried yet.  We're going tonight and very much looking forward to it.

We're also getting the boat ready for our next hop to the Philippines. We may have a bit of a wait for the right weather window, but we're asking lots of questions of the Filipinos we've met here and the sailors who've been there already, and reading our guide and dive books about there, and getting pretty excited to see the place.   We think we'll be heading out some time later this week.