My first day, water like glass and temp 82 degrees. The first dive was the Blue Holes. Simply a Beautiful dive. Looking up at divers descending through the Blue Holes is incredible. We descend down to the Disco Clam and then drift down the wall. You will see Hard and Soft corals, schools of Black Snapper, Yellowbacks, Trevally, Butterflyfish and so on. Then the surface interval. Now where? Why not the Blue Corner? This was probably the 20th time I have dove the Blue Corner. Almost every time seems to be the best. This day the current was ripping at about 3 knots with 5-knot surges. You hook up to the Reef and watch the underwater Zoo! Barracuda, Eagle rays, Jacks, White tips, Dog Tooth Tuna etc….This day about 50 to 70 Grey Reef Sharks large and small. The females were cut and scratched…….mating season……..looks a little rough. Then off the Corner and into the flats. Now you encounter the Triggerfish, which are hanging around their nests, and they do not want you around. One bumped the lens of my camera, and then I felt a tug on my fin. Just a Triggerfish biting and it would not budge…..so I decided to leave them alone. Actually I was running out of Air.
This type of Action or beauty typified the majority of my dives. Whether on not it was the German Channel, Peleliu, Big Drop Off, Turtle Cove etc. The diving was simply the best! I also had a divers emergency and the person said I gave them a new Birthday to celebrate. And he was a Master Divemaster! I did a write up about this emergency under General Diving, which is preventable.
Of all the encounters I had under the ocean nothing compared to the one I had on land. I met Flip and Mike on a dive boat, they said they were getting one day off in thirty days and this was their day off. I asked them what they did. They work for Bent Prop www.bentprop.org their job was to search for WWII, MIA’s. Bent Props job is to interview people in Palau that lived during WWII. Search out wrecks and try to identify MIA’s to bring them home. This trip they found remains of two planes and now trying find if the person(s) is an MIA. Bent Prop is voluntary organization. They are Airline pilots, Students, Doctors etc. They held a presentation at Sams one night in which Bent Prop discussed their findings this year. What a great group! And a Couple of big pluses, I met a veteran who came in the first wave of the invasion in Peleliu. Also met a Medal of Honor winner who was on one of the first boats landing for the invasion of Iwo Jima he told me he remembered it was 9:30 AM! What stories. I am in awe of all these brave men!!
What a trip!
