We got to Sam’s this morning earlier than the appointed time to begin our check in process so we could go out and dive.  What we found when we got there was nothing less than chaos.  It seems like there is an entirely new front desk staff when you check in.  We recognized no one, and no one recognized us.  No one on the staff even realized that Wayne has been coming here for 12 years and I have for 10.  We were treated like brand new divers who had never been to Palau before, much less Sam’s.  In the same year.  The worst part of check in was trying to show them the accounting error in their billing - they billed us for two more days of diving than was physically possible, something I thought I had ironed out in June this year.

When they finally got that right, they then started to still try to bill us for the same extra two days.  And looked completely baffled when I said it was $740 too much.  So there was the call to billing, and finally getting it right, and then showing us that we would have $740 deducted from the bill as the appropriate amount.  Grr.. Then we were told no DIN tanks.  Double grrr.  But as we were leaving, Joedyn and another member of the staff changed out our tanks for DIN tanks.  They were pretty banged up, but functional.

Off we went.  We were on the same boat as Joedyn, but we had Neil as our divemaster.  Despite his reservation in not knowing us as divers, we still had a pleasant time.

We first tried for German Channel, but there had to be at least 15 boats there.  So on we went to Turtle Cove, which was murky, but pleasant, and provided visibility of some turtles.

There was a huge crowd surrounding Blue Corner, so we wound up doing Dexter’s wall.  The dive was awesome, we wound up drifting to Blue Corner, where we saw the “big show” - Napoleons, Jacks and Sharks elbowing for who would hunt.   

From there, we did Blue Corner, which wound up being a lot of work, with very little big show.  The Napoleons were extremely friendly today!  And, the last two words of every dive here is “in Palau,” so it is typically worth it!   

We headed home in the rain, and I got to pull out my new Surf Fur coat (no, not real fur) and ward of the cold and wet of the ride.

Fawn made us dinner reservations for tomorrow (Christmas Eve) at Kramer’s, and we wound up walking to the Taj for dinner.  We made reservations there for dinner on Christmas night, and headed home in the rain.