Returned to Koror

As always, there comes a time on a dive trip that we all dislike.  Rinsing, drying and packing our gear for the return home.  Mind you, the crew did the rinsing.  And a tremendous job at that.  They opened everything up, rinsed it clean inside and out, and hung it to dry. All that was left for us to do was to pack it in our bags for our departure later this morning.

We were up shortly after five, and got to see our last sunrise in Palau from the Ocean Hunter III.  Captain Ken had returned, and Captain Troy was back at the Ocean Hunter I.  Ken’s daughter graduated from high school last night.  From the look on his face, Ken appeared shell shocked.  Turns out the celebration dinner involved an extra seven for whom he had not budgeted.  His daughter will start at the community college in Palau, and is looking to transfer over after two years to Hawaii.  I promised a friendly family for her when and if she arrives.  We settled our tab at Fish n Fins, and proceeded to our “discount motel.”  Believe it or not, it is indeed quiet (mostly), clean, and the air definitely works in the rooms.  And for a bargain basement price.  Although not my first choice of places to stay, it is on the list for possible residency on our next trip, which Wayne is already planning for post-bar exam.  I may be a nervous wreck by then.

We waited at the DW, and I wasn’t able to log into the internet, so we went over to Rock Island Cafe.  Most unfortunately, their formerly promiscuous router was now safely guarded and the SSID fairly well hidden.  And it was once again password enabled.  Since there was no internet, and we weren’t hungry, we headed back to the DW to wait for our room, or for hunger to strike, whichever came first.  As life would have it, hunger came first, and we went across to the Rock Island Cafe for lunch.  It used to be a haven for ex-pats, but it has gained significant popularity with the local populace.  We had small pupus, the sashimi was particularly nice, and then settled for a decent lunch.  I felt sort of guilty in that I didn’t believe that I had earned my lunch since we hadn’t already completed two dives!  But we were both still hungry.  

After lunch, it was still far too hot to walk down main street Koror to go to the drugstore for more ibuprofin and benedryl, so we went up to the room, logged in, checked up on email, etc.  I tried to check on my grades, but they had not yet been posted.  Who knows how long that will take, and why should I worry myself about them anyway until I have returned to Hawaii?

I did reach out back to the CASA program, and to one mental health professional invovled in my case.  There is not much I can do to answer questions before our return next week, but I will certainly try.

The exhaustion of the week finally hit us both in mid afternoon, coincidentally when the sun was at its strongest.  We took a half an hour nap, and awoke to a note from Jodi and Matt on the door - they went to the Coffee Beanery to get some beverages and free internet.  We may try that tomorrow.

We left the hotel later, about an hour before dinner, and went up to the WCTC shopping center where we hit the pharmacy (benedryl, ibuprofin, ankle brace), and then Ben Franklin (I got a case for my new sunglasses, which came courtesy of Jodi).  And then it was down and off to dinner at the Taj, where we had reservations for seven.  Wayne, Matt, Jodi, Carl, Don, Valerie and I were seated at a round table, and we dissected the menu.  Robert Scaria, the owner, informed me of some shortages on the menu.  Apparently, there had been a large contingent of Chinese on island previously, and they had scarfed down all the lobsters (luckily not on my ordering list).  They had also drunk all of the Kingfisher beer!  It seems every time we come to Palau, the Kingfisher (Indian brew) is gone.  Oh well, Red Rooster on tap it was.  I ordered the half portion of leg of lamb, Wayne the eggplant, Matt and Jodi the tandoori mixed grill, Carl some shish kebabs, and Don and Valerie split the mangrove chilli (sic) crab.  We could have fed a small country in Africa (or all of India) with the amount of food that came out to the table.  The half portion of lamb was something of the size King Henry VIII would have eaten.  I should have taken a picture of that table, but I think I was in shock.  The conversation was animated and engaging, and I won’t go down the rabbit hole, but the majority of us at the table wondered how Don was able to keep Valerie so sheltered for the majority of her adult life…speaking of certain kinds of hammocks...

At the end of the meal, Robert sent over after dinner drinks that seemed to be a mixture of amaretto and sour mash.  Tasty, cold, and easy to go down.  From there, we bade our farewells amongst one another, with email addresses exchanged.  Then it was waddle time back to the DW, and time to get ready for bed.  Tomorrow we are on our own schedule, and I am planning for it to be a slow day.

Look up, look down, look around and remember your fins

Wayne was up and out of bed at 4:30 am.  When I joined him at 5:45, and Matt shortly after, he greeted us with a perky, “Happy morning!”  Matt countered, “Sad morning.”  I kind of have to agree.  Today is our last day on the Ocean Hunter.  Wayne is looking forward to booking the next trip, the dates of which are tentative.  But I’m pretty sure we are coming back.  Tova is brilliant.  I just didn’t realize how so until about 2 days into this trip.  Last year we told her we would be coming back, and bringing two friends, so that we could get a guaranteed three dives a day (you have to have four for the shop to arrange a third dive).  She then suggested returning on Friday when the two live aboard dive ships returned.  We were so impressed that I emailed Jodi and Matt right away.  And happily, they agreed, and we set out on this adventure.

Today holds four dives for us rather than the typical three.  I believe this is because Jellyfish Lake would have been this morning, but Captain Ken’s daughter is graduating, and he needed to be in town as of last night.  The good thing is Ken has confirmed our reservations (with Matt, Jodi, Don and Valerie) for the Taj tomorrow night.  Woo hoo!  

First dive this morning was the Chuyo Maru.  It was a civilian ship conscripted during WW II by the Japanese Navy, used as a supply ship, bombed during Operation Desecrate One during March 30-31, 1944.  There are two anchors lying on the port side of the deck, one of which belonged to the Chuyo, the second belongs to a fishing boat that accidentally anchored onto the Chuyo’s anchor.  Because of the age of the ship, the silt conditions, and the existence of ammunition on the wreck, penetration is considered to be dangerous.  Guess what Wayne did…

We rolled off the sides of our skiff, with a momentary stop to get Wayne’s fins, and then proceeded to the front  of the skiff to descend down the line.  From there we went to the stern, looking at various wildlife and wreckage.  On our return towards the bow, Wayne decided to penetrate the engine room and the kitchen, joining me back forward.  It was about a 3-5 minute swim down to the bow, where we were greeted by a barramundi and two batfish.  Then it was back to check out the masts, observing a crab inside an anemone, and a cascade of translucent smaller fish.  As we moved towards the ascending mast, we passed by cleaner shrimp and a tomato anemone fish.  Nice dive.  My right ear was a little achey at the end of the dive, so I used some outer ear 

Our second dive was at the Iro Maru, probably the most popular wreck in Palau.  The Iro was a fueler/supplier.  On her way from the Philipines to Palau, she was torpedoed by the US submarine Tunny on March 22, 1944, and she continued on to Palau for repairs.  During Desecrate One, she was attacked by air on March 30th, causing a massive explosion in the engine room.  We descended to probably the best conditions we have ever seen on the Iro.  You could see quite a bit in front of you, and the masts are just as impressive as I remember them being the first time I was on the wreck.  The school of jacks at the bow is missing, but we had a school of squid, a juvenile batfish, and a GINORMOUS octopus that flashed multiple patterns and colors as we watched.  Got a picture of Matt at the gun turret, and we headed back.  That was the closest to NDL we got during this trip.  At the safety stop I could hear multiple dive computer alarms going off.  Happily, my ear felt much better, and no treatment necessary post dive, but I did do it again after lunch.

Lunch was a taco bar replete with soft tortillas, hard shells, spicy and mild salsa, rice, ground beef, guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, and the decidedly non Mexican adobo chicken.  Quite tasty, putting Waipahu adobo to shame.  Never thought I would see that day!  We also spent time talking about Saturday activities after getting off the ship, and my mind just went to finding wifi, uploading the fixed up blog, maybe hitting the national museum when the sun is less bright.  Our flight is at 12:20 Sunday morning, so we want the bags downstairs and packed at the DW well before hitting the pillow for a few z’s.

Dive three, post lunch, was the Jake Seaplane, which is believed to have crashed during takeoff or landing after the engine stopped, as its propellers are straight.  The tail section and a pontoon lie to the north of the main body of the airplane, which is filled with many of the original equipment.  We arrived after another private boat was on site, and we waited a few minutes before descending.  The tide was high, and the visibility excellent.  It was easy to see the seaplane, and the separated pieces.  We had to wait a while for people to clear out before getting a good picture of the seaplane.  Then it was time to tool around the shelf.  There was an octopus who appeared to be in a food coma (2 empty crab shells in front of it), a cuttlefish, and a variety of fish nestled in staghorn coral.  Near the end of the ride, I hitched a ride on my bunny around the seaplane.  Nice ending to the dive, most certainly.  When we got back to the ship, we were greeted by soursop smoothies.  I think today is a red letter day for Wayne!

The fourth and final dive of the day was Chandelier Cave.  The cave is made up of five separate chambers, all of which are connected to one another and can be entered.  Four of the caverns have air pockets, and the fifth is completely above water. At the end of the dive, dive guides motion for you to turn off your light, and you exit the cave following ambient light coming in from the entrance.  I will not lie to you and tell you that Wayne and I went in.  I have been in there several times before with him, and each time after the first time I have suffered some sort of barotrauma.  This time, we stayed outside the cave and looked for mandarinfish.  I saw one immediately upon descent, and then another about 10 minutes in.  Then we spent another 40 minutes looking along the wall, but saw nothing more.  There just wasn’t enough rubble.  At about the 50 minute mark, we were back at the opening to the cave, and we went out in the rubble.  The little buggers were everywhere, just not staying in place long enough for a photograph.  We hit almost 1 1/2 hours before getting out and heading back for our final dinner.

We got off the boat, and the staff pulled our gear off, and cleaned it super thoroughly.  I don’t think that even Wayne and I do quite so good a job at rinsing.  I was duly impressed.  This staff has been so professional and thorough, I don’t think that I have ever met a dive boat staff that compares.  My hat off to them.

After we both did our five minute rinses on both ears, we headed down to dinner.  Oh dear, how yummy!  Tuna and mackerel sashimi, vegetable soup (Wayne enjoyed this), pumpkin curry, salad, beef short ribs, bow tie pasta, and okra.  With the exception of the beef short ribs, Wayne was in diver heaven.  He even ate two chocolate souflee with vanilla ice cream (I could only eat a few bites of mine).

Tomorrow is a sad day, breakfast at seven, off the boat at 8:30, settle the bill afterwards.  And then on to our second phase, a few days in Yap.  I will be counting the days until I can come back.

Ulong Channel awaits

To our surprise, this morning was designated for Jellyfish Lake.  We actually thought that would happen tomorrow.  What that meant was while the rest of the group went to Jellyfish, the four of us stayed on board the ship.  Matt and I worked on dive logs, and Wayne and Jodi went kayaking.  I also managed to go through all of the blogs and correct the dates, order of publication, and order of photos. All that is left in the blog section is to update the blog associated with our most recent Kona Aggressor trip.  I’m about four days into the seven day trip.  We shall see how that goes!  The ship actually began moving to our current mooring site at about six am, give or take a few minutes.  The ride was pleasant, and uneventful.

The Jellyfish group returned after 9 am, and breakfast commenced.  We had a slightly later start for dive one than usual, but not too bad.  We started off to my favorite location, Ulong Channel, but the mooring balls were pretty much tied up with over ten boats.  Off we went to Siaes Tunnel, another favorite location.  Upon our entry into the tunnel, I looked down, and the schooling jack population seems to have increased significantly.  We exited to the right and went down a wee bit, but the current shifted, and we turned around.

I have discovered I prefer being in the back of the dive formation.  I am much more subject to collisions when in the front.  It’s true that I am a fairly large target for hitting.  It’s just not that much fun!

The reef was bright, colorful, and full of life.  Visibility was a bit short today, but it was bright, and the water blue and lovely.  I always enjoy this site.

We came back to cashew chicken, fish bread (sort of like beef wellington, but fish), calamari, and salad.  Lots and lots of water as well.  I have not been this well hydrated in a long time.  I think I didn’t take in as much water in during our Kona Aggressor trip, but I think that is because it was so cold!  

The dive schedule for the day has changed, probably due to population of dive sites, and the adjusted schedule is Ulong Channel, followed by Ulong Sandbar, and the Ulong Wall for our dinner dive.  This is looking to be a promising day.  :)  

Ulong Channel was a bit more mixed up than expected.  We entered near the mouth of the channel, close to where we typically hook up to watch the sharks swim by.  Unfortunately, there was no current, so we went up to the surface and were dropped off at what is normally our exit site.  We descended right above a grove of garden eels (I really don’t know what to call the whole shebang), to which I directed Valerie, who was quite excited.  We proceeded to swim down the channel, as there was no current whatsoever, moving along the direction towards the lettuce coral.  Along the way we ran into anemone fish, a turtle, and other favorite sea critters, to include to chevron barracuda overhead.  We made it to a second patch of garden eels, and photographed them, and then made it to the lettuce coral.  With no current, all the soldier fish were out and about, awaiting marching orders.  From there it was through a grotto of groupers and territorial titan triggerfish (who loved Valerie’s fins rather than mine or Matt’s), with swim bys from a shark who had lost her dorsal fin.  Poor baby.  Both Ken and Eddie say it is from rough sex.  I think the ladies get the poor end of that deal.  Lose a limb and have to birth a child.  Hmmm.

Dive three commenced after a decent break.  The Sandbar is a relatively easy dive, a gentle slope going down to the bottom of the sandbar.  I asked if the green and yellow leaf scorpionfish were still there, and to my surprise, they were.  With four others!  There are now three yellow, one green, one purple, and one pink leaf scorpionfish.  And four were out!  There was also a strange slug I have not seen before (will have to look that up), a school of jacks, bonito tuna, a juvenile barramundi, a huge school of bigeyes, and at the end, there was a blackside hawkfish just voguing for Wayne.  Every few seconds, the hawkfish would turn its head to look at Wayne, and since Wayne was still there, it would continue to pose.  The only bad part of the dive was the thermal cline through which we swam multiple times.  79 degrees.  Cold.

We left for the night dive at Ulong Wall at 7:15 pm.  It was a slow boat ride out as the tide was out, and the beacon from the sand bar was not working (too much bird poop, said Eddie).  We made it out, and agreed to a 45 minute dive.

Let me tell you that at this point in the trip I am tired.  I get to sleep about 30-60 minutes later than Wayne does, work the blog, get up realtively at the same time, and don’t take naps.  I’m tired.  SO I begged for a shorter dive.

Turns out I shouldn’t have.  This was, for me, by far, the best night dive of the trip.  The water was like warm bathwater, although a little bit salty.  We found a juvenile snapper in the middle of staghorn coral, multiple sets of anemone fish, cute dog faced pufferfish sleeping in the middle of tables of coral (so cute, can I take one home??), and a beautiful green giant clam.  I was almost sorry to get up at 45 minutes, but the emphasis is on almost.  I was having a little trouble equalizing my left ear at the start of the dive, so I need to tread cautiously.  By the time we made it back and I came down for dinner, I was exhausted.  I didn’t finish the blog or log my dives, but went upstairs at 9:45, and had lights out in about a half an hour, shortly after Wayne dropped his iPad for fifth time…So, as you may guess, this is being written the following morning.

On the downward slope

May 26, 2015

Yesterday was the precise middle of our liveaboard trip.  It’s a sad feeling knowing that there are only 13 dives left to the trip when you wake up.  And that number dwindles as each minute passes.  Add to that, Palau is in our top two dive locations in the world, and the only one that is still accessible to divers.

There was a lovely rainstorm last night that woke us up at about 3 am today.  It was slightly distressing to know that our swim suits would be wet again, but a fresh water rinse is always a good thing!  Even our BCs got the treatment.

This morning’s pre-breakfast dive was at Blue Corner.  Once again, it was completely different than the other two.  We had a very short swim to the hook in site, but the current was yet again changing.  We didn’t see much pelagic life at the hook in today, but that’s ok.  We unhooked and then swam through the middle of the corner.  There were quite a few white tips, a decent number of eels, and schools upon schools of jacks, barracuda, and snappers.  One of our fellow divers chased an eel into another hole (actually several other holes), so I positioned myself at the rock which I figured would be the final destination and waited.  Sure enough, the eel went into the hole, and the chasing diver pulled into braking mode as he almost ran into me.  I watched him go chase a Napoleon wrasse, and then I peered into the crevice.  There was the eel, getting cleaned - by a pipefish!  Good things come to photographers who wait.

We also got to see a school of bumphead parrotfish (it looked like mom, dad and kids out for a breakfast trip) after we made it across the corner.  I peered out over the edge, and saw more sharks.  And the Napoleon followed us across.  It was time for our safety stop far too soon.  Ah well, farewell Blue Corner for this trip.

Breakfast was served and eaten with gusto, and then we got ready for dive number two, at Turtle Cove.  The entry into Turtle Cove is fun, you do a backwards roll in, swim over the reef, and enter through a hole at the top of the reef.  You descend down to about sixty feet, and there is an entry into the blue.  At the bottom of the entryway is a plaque.  When we were here with Don and Lori many, many years ago (ok, maybe 2008), we were out on the water when there was an incident on another dive boat.  A Korean father and son were diving, the father became non-responsive, and sank to the bottom of reef, which is quite a ways down.  There was a manhunt staged by local authorities, supported by the dive operations.  No one ever found the father, but his BCD (buoyancy compensator device, which holds the tanks and keeps a diver floating) was found closer to Peleliu.  There were big bites taken out of the BCD, and tiger sharks had been seen earlier in the area.  No one knows what happened, no one probably will, but his son put up the plaque in his father’s memory.

Anyway, our dive was not that dramatic.  After entering through the top of the reef, we came out and hung out near the back.  We saw another ghost pipefish, square spot anthias, purple queens, purple anthias, blue and yellow fusiliers, pyramid butterflyfish, two eels, and the obligatory turtle at the top of the reef.  Of course there was a lot more, but the colors are so vibrant, and the fish so prolific, that it’s hard to put it all on one page.  The dive itself was an extremely gentle drift dive, a rare occurrence, as there is usually no current at Turtle Cove.  At least not while we were there.  When we got on the boat, Ken was conducting repairs.  Apparently a nut/bolt set for the steering column has gone faulty, so we were on the surface for over a half an hour before taking off for the Ocean Hunter III.  A chance to dry off and relax while under a canopy.

Lunch was of an Italian theme.  There was salad nicoise, pasta and meat sauce, fish fingers (although not quite sure how that is Italian), focaccia bread, and fresh fruit.  Blessedly, there is always fresh fruit!

We had a decent break between dives, so I worked on cleaning up the blog, which will be completely republished after we return to Hawaii, and got quite far.  The photos are now in chronological order, and I have identified the missing albums and blog pages.  Hopefully, those still exist online, and I can at least copy paste the one missing trip.  It’s a lot of work to maintain this website, and when I switched over programs there were (and still are) a few glitches.  Nothing I can’t handle, though.

Dive number three was Barnum’s Wall, which is normally quite breathtaking - vibrant colors and tons of fish life.  Unfortunately, we did not get the tide right, so the view was not quite as breathtaking as normal.  Still, we saw batfish, blue and yellow fusilier, more purple anthias and queens, anemone fish, and stunning fan corals in the colorful coral formations.  This was another drift dive, and gentle again.  It is dificult to predict how the currents are going to be, and where they will take you.  At least as a lay person.  Luckily our guides know the ropes.

We had a moderately quick turn around to go out on dive four, and headed to Clarence Wall (which I last dove as Dexter’s wall, with Dexter leading).  The moment we descended, there were two turtles, one green sea, the other hawksbill, that were taking off in opposite directions.  I saw yet another two turtles before our guide pointed out the first one.  All in all, we saw so many turtles, that I believed that there was just one leap frogging around (while we were looking for the unfound frogfish).  Of course, at the end, the turtles proved my suspicions wrong.  Three of them showed up and swam around while we were on our safety stop.  During the course of the dive there was a feeding anemone with skunk anemone fish, several very angry titan triggerfish, a barramundi, and we were led by a batfish that appeared to be in search of a turtle.  Of course, when the opportunity to follow a turtle showed up, the batfish decided it wasn’t interested.  Nor were any of its two other buddies.  One of the turtles we saw had a remora on it, which then separated and swam around freely.  We also saw a white tip reef shark overhead, and I saw a grey reef shark swimming below us during our safety stop.  Pretty decent dive.  On the way back we had a few treats - a pod of dolphins (perhaps two or three) came by to swim in the Poseidon’s wake, and to entertain us.  Entertaining it was!  And we were treated to a magnificent sunset as we returned to our home base.

We had a one hour turn around for the night dive, which was at Big Drop Off.  There were only three of us diving, so it was quiet and mostly without kicks to the head.  I was about startled out of my skin near the beginning of the dive when a crocodile scorpionfish came hurtling down the reef.  It looked like it meant business, so I moved out of its way, and didn’t get my camera out on time.  We also saw some sleeping parrotfish (yes, they do have sacs, answering my own question from the other night), a sleeping turtle, an eel, a notodoris serenae, and a host of unseen critters out in the deep during the night.  My mask has still not quite reconformed to my face, it will take a few more days/dives, I think.  But it will happen.  It took more than a few dives for it to reshape the last time, so I know it will eventually happen.  I think we started off and ended the dive seeing a pleurobranch in various stages (sleeping and active), but I’ll need to do a little hunting to figure it out.  Or just ask Eddie, who pointed them out.

We returned a little before 9pm, and the other divers on board had just finished their dinner.  Typically it is served at 9 pm for all, but it made sense to feed the larger group before we got back.  The Italian theme continued this evening.  There was minestrone soup, salad, garlic bread, lasagna, a pumpkin frittatta, and green beans.  The ship quartermaster had brought in some Red Rooster beer, so we were happy to be drinking the local beer.  Dessert was a magnificent blueberry bread pudding, if that can be considered Italian.  I could only finish half of mine, and Wayne could only manage his.  

As Wayne says, the only problem with this trip is the food, it’s terrible, and there’s too little of it.  Ha!  Arlee feeds us well.

Methinks it is time for bed.  The majority of the group is headed to jellyfish lake in the morning.  We opted out, as we have already been there five times!

You know it's going to be a good day when...

Dolphins greet you at Blue Corner for your first dive of the day!

I slept in until 5:30 this morning, grimaced when looking at my very curly hair in the mirror, brushed my teeth and headed downstairs where Wayne was engaged in discourse.  He had the computer downstairs and was logging his dives.  Once I arrived, he sat down and finished his logs so that I could take care of mine.  We began to get ready for the dives, and headed out.

When we arrived, we were greated by dolphins playing in the wake of the boat.  Great way to start the dive!  This time, we dropped in very close to our hook in site.  Instead of 25 minutes swimming in the current, it was only five.  We hooked in and the show started!  At first there was a hammerhead shark just under the ledge trying to get up, but the jacks quickly shooed it away.  We saw dogtooth snappers, jacks, yellowfin barracuda, tons of triggerfish, Napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrotfish, the works.  The Napoleons swam so close to us, we could touch them.  The current was perfect, and we were suspended behind our hooks, held basically motionless in the water.  I could tell the moment the current changed, I floated straight up over my reef hook.  I looked to Eddie, and he motioned to unhook.  I’m getting good at this.  We then swam into the channel area, surrounded still by jacks and barracuda, and followed by the Napoleons.  I really enjoyed the dive, our best at Blue Corner this trip… ;)

Breakfast was large, as we were headed for two tanks to Peleliu, with no return trip until after both were complete.  

We piled onto the skiff to make the long (hah!) trip over to Peleliu.  Typically, from a land based dive operation, the ride to Peleliu is anywhere from 75 minutes to 90, depending upon the seas.  Today our trip was about 25 minutes.  I think I’m really being converted over to liveaboard operations in Palau.

We were first supposed to do Peleliu Expressway, hitting the jet stream running.  But the current was going the wrong way, so we did Peleliu Cut instead.  This time, we did not hit the same problems as last time, and we made it all the way down to the cut to hook in.  This is the same location where Wayne lost his D9 to the Pacific Ocean two years ago.  We descended, swam away from the wall, and drifted down to the cut, and hooked in.  There was a green sea turtle there as we hooked in, he took off after we arrived.  There was a huge show from dogtooth tuna and jacks by the dozens, but very few sharks.  Quite different from this morning.  There was some action between three small jacks and a titan triggerfish, the jacks were trying to move him out of their territory, but the titan was staking his claim.  After about a half an hour, we unhooked and drifted past the cut to the far side of Peleliu.  As I looked down, I saw where the pelagic action was - down below 100 feet.  The jacks were HUGE (as big as I am!), as were the sharks. We continued to fly across the site where Wayne’s dive computer is now probably encrusted in coral, having fun chasing blue tang and other fish along the way for photo opportunities. At the end of the dive, on our way to our safety stop, a huge ray (will have to figure out what type) passed below us.

Our break between dives was in our typical location, but boy had it changed!  It no longer consisted of simply a bathroom, shower, picnic tables, and a covered area.  The covered area now had a second floor, there was a bai, and a newly constructed home built for when the Emperor and Empress of Japan came to Peleliu to commemmorate the invasions.  It appears locked up and unused now.  That’s too bad, because it could be a small museum, or a “get to know Peleiu” information area to attract divers to come back and stay a while.

The second dive went as planned, Peleliu Coral Gardens (aka Orange Beach).  We rolled out, and descended into what could pass as a World War II demolition yard.  There is ordnance, there are guns, and metal frames belonging to who knows what.  The Marines invaded Orange Beach on September 15, 1944, and they were pinned down for 8 hours before breaching the beach.  We got to spread apart and look around for “things,” so Wayne and I strayed away from the main group.  I found a big giant clam, and got a picture of Wayne behind it.  This was Wayne’s 200th dive in Palau!  My 150th was the previous dive at Peleliu Cut.  Unfortunately, sometime after this photo, my sunscreen melted into my eyes, and my sinuses filled up completely.  The rest of the dive was not terribly pleasant physically, although the surrounding area is beautiful and colorful.  It’s an area of Peleliu that was not hit hard by Typhoon Bopha, blessedly.  It’s nice to have some place to dive on Peleliu so you can get to appreciate another state within the Republic of Palau.

Arlee had a magnificent Mediterranean lunch prepared for us, fish and chicken shish kebabs, tabouleh, all sorts of yummy sauces, raw veggies, and hummus.  This was accompanied by big glasses of water, and silence in the dining area.  Either everyone was starving, everyone was tired, the food was too delicious to talk, or all of the above!  I vote for choice number four.

The fourth dive commenced at 5:30, giving us a decent 2/12 hour interval to rest, and me to put drops in and wash cloths over my eyes, and get dry.  I’m going to have to slather a pound of moisturizer on my body when this dive trip is over!  And get a spa trip as well.

Our twilight dive was at Ngedebus Dropoff/Corner.  The wall headed to the left was decimated during Typhoon Bopha, and needs to heal.  Instead, we dove the corner, which was still a pretty decent wall dive.  We got in at the dropoff, and the light was already fading.  Immediately below us was a large ray, type I do not know.  Even with eye drops and rest, my eyes were blurry, so seeing little things was still problematic.  Ogie pointed out robust ghost pipefish (which I couldn’t see until Wayne pointed them out), and Matt a black nudibranch (which I couldn’t see at all!).  We did see a lot of fish life, including an Emperor Angelfish, whose purple stripes just seemed to glow.  Amazing.  Also there were two eels that I got to see.  Unfortunately, the second one scooted before I got there.  There is an art to photographing eels, which a lot of people don’t know.  I may wind up putting together a PADI distinctive specialty for that…There were also two lovely tiger cowries backed into the reef, hopefully safe from octopus, and a small lion fish.

We returned to a Mediterranean dinner - couscous, lamb stew, cauliflower, and eggplant moussaka.  Dessert was vanilla ice cream over pears covered in chocolate syrup.  The dining room was mostly quiet, and emptied quickly.  I think we were all glad that there was not going to be another dive tonight.  

Tomorrow is our last day in the Ngedebus area, and then we are off again, headed towards Ulong Channel.  I cannot believe that we are done with four days of diving already.  It just seems unfair!  The dives, the food, the company, and the lodging have been exquisite.  If only I had a cat!