56 replies to this topic

[AliKat]

Sounds like your having a great trip. Give me a call when you get into Oahu (I had PM'd you my cell#). I can meet you at the airport ifyou want.

I've been trying to get a happy hour going out here, I'll try to get our other members together for an early dinner while you're in town.

[chinacat46]

Well I'm in Guam now after an excellent week on the Palau Aggressor. I liked Yap but I loved Palau. Definitely on the list of places to go back to. We had a killer week. Not a bit of rain and calm seas. Lots of cool things to see but there were two that real stick out and both were on night dives. On one found a molting slipper lobster. That was pretty much the end of that dive as I just watched for the next 20 mins. You ain't see nothing till you've seen a lobster molt. On another night dive I saw three basket starts. I had never seen a basket star before talk about a strange animal. Palau has some great diving. Great walls and every from the big to the small. Saw nudibranchs and sharks, tunas and huge schools of jacks, butterfly fish all on the same dive. On the last day we did a snorkel at jellyfish lake. Literally thousands of jellyfish(that don't sting). It was awesome swimming amongst them and feel them rub against you. 8 of the people on the boat are heading to Truk so we have banded together. 6 of us got a day room(3 bedrooms) at a hotel 2 mins from the Guam airport(14 hour layover). The coral in Palau is in much better shape then in Yap. Lots of hard and soft and great wall dives as well as some killer drift dives. Huge clams and lots of turtles as well. I'll do a better review when I return.

[Marvel]

Not surpirsed you loved it, Chuck. A neighbor of mine that dove just about everywhere in the world says Palau is his favorite spot. Glad you're still having fun! Hope you & Jim get to meet up on Guam.

[Travelnsj]

Chuck, you saw Palau the best way....the Aggressor! I have always done land based. I think next year I will do the Aggressor for a week then another week land based.

You did not mention the Blue Corner or if "Sweetie" bumped you? Can't wait for your report.

Come to think of it....I'll bet i'll probably have my report posted before you!? 5 days to go and i'll be at the Blue Corner

[maninthesea]

Marvel Posted on Feb 26 2005, 09:03 PM
  Not surpirsed you loved it, Chuck. A neighbor of mine that dove just about everywhere in the world says Palau is his favorite spot. Glad you're still having fun! Hope you & Jim get to meet up on Guam. 

I hope the rest of you read his reports and make it over here. Chuck and I did get together but only right before he left. I had a wreck dive in the morning with David Doubilet of National Geographic fame (he was here with sport diver this time) then Chuck went to a movie. So I caught him after the movie before his flight.

Who's next?

Cheers

[Travelnsj]

I hope the rest of you read his reports and make it over here. Chuck and I did get together but only right before he left. I had a wreck dive in the morning with David Doubilet of National Geographic fame (he was here with sport diver this time) then Chuck went to a movie. So I caught him after the movie before his flight.

Who's next?

Cheers

Hi Jim,

I'm next! on Saturday but i'll only be in Guam for a couple of hours for a layover.

Can't wait!

[chinacat46]

LIVE from the Hard Wreck Cafe!

Well we dove Blue Corner 3 times and yes I did meet Sweetie but didn't get bumped by her. Lots of action on Blue Corner. Lots of sharks, huge schools of jacks and pyramid butterfly fish among others. Turtles too as well as a ray. Incredible current. Now I know why they use reef hooks. I'm in Truk right now. Just finished a week on the Truk Aggressor. Dove 25 of 26 dives. I skipped one cause they did a shark feed and I swore off shark feeds after Australia. Just not my cup of tea. I also got my 300th dive and am now at 319 total and 64 dives on this trip alone. The wrecks of Truk are just amazing. They have been there for 61 years now and some of them have a lot of growth but the big draw is all the artifacts on the ships. My favorite wreck was the the Fujikawa and a close second was the Shinkoku. The Fujikawa had tons of stuff to see and we did an incredible penetration into the bowels of the ship. There was a tank and part of a truck on the deck. In one of the holds were unassembled Zero's. The hilight though was the penetration thru the engine room then down two flights of stairs to the workroom where there were tools and lots of cool things to see including R2D2. From there it was down two more flights of stairs where we saw a phone booth(made of wood) and lots of electrial gear(circut breakers, radios and more). Just amazing. Has to be seen to be believed. The Shinkoku was overgrown and had more anemones then I've ever seen at one time. Some were just huge. Later in the day when we did the 4:30 dive a lot of them were rolling up for the night and there undersides were all different colors. Did a night dive on both wrecks as well. I head to Pohnpei next for 9 days. I'll dive some and do some land tours. After two liveaboards in a row and nearly 50 dives I think I'll be doing some RnR. Although I will do some diving it won't be everyday and then probably 2-3 dives a day max. Pohnpei has great waterfalls and hikes as well as the lost village of Nan Madol to explore. Since I'll be land based I'll probably do an update midweek.

[chinacat46]

Well I'm in Pohnpei and things are real laid back here. After being on two liveaboards back to back it's nice to be on land. I'm staying at the Village Hotel outside of town and it's a nice place but the dive operation is not much to speak of. They have two small boats which also double as tour boats. It's basically just an open hull with two twin motors and you sit on pads on the floor. The first day I was the only diver. We did a Manta dive with no Mantas and then a very unexciting site not to far away with lousy coral and not much fish. Did see some nudibranchs on both dives and a moray on the 2nd dive outside of that nothing really sticks out. The next day Tuesday I went on a land(read via boat) tour. We stopped and snorkeled first. I saw more snorkeling then diving. I even spotted a stingray and swam down to him. This of course caused him to bolt. Lots of staghorn corals and a fair amount of different fish to see. After that we went to another spot and did a 10 min hike to a bueatiful waterfall. From there we headed to the Nan Madol ruins. This was cool. We walked around some of the ruins and then went kayaking around the rest. This site is about 900 years old and alot of the rock walls are still standing. It's amazing seeing these huge flat rocks and wondering how they moved them into place and how they got them so flat. The guide told me they heated up the rocks and then poured seawater on them to break them off in slabs. Don't know for sure but they must have had some huge rocks to start with. Yesterday went diving to the other side of the island with 3 other divers and the divemaster as well as jimmy driving the boat. Boat was a bit crowded with 5 divers and gear. I guess they take upto 6 divers plus two crew so it could have been worse. The two sites were awesome with lots of fish action. Saw a huge school of grey reef sharks(50+). All sizes from babies upto 7-8 feet. Schools of barracuda and jacks as well as some dog tooth tunas(one was at least 5 feet). Bump head wrasse and assorted butterfly and angel fish as well as anthias. The second site was a bit mellower as we hit when there wasn't much current. Did some sharks there but not as much action as the first. There were nice hard corals and I found two anenomes where clown fish were guarding there eggs. I also got to close to a huge titan trigger fish guarding it's eggs. A chase followed and I was lucky enough to keep my fins between me and the mad fish before I got away and the monster relented. A close call as they have been known to bite divers before. Got a good laugh about it after the dive. It started raining on the ride back and shortly after getting back to the hotel it really started comming down. It rained all night and was comming down hard this morning so I decided to not dive today. They were gonna do the Manta site again as well a close by wall. I saw Mantas in Yap so I'm not to sad about missing the dives. I'm in town now and it's raining on and off. No sun and the viz was crap when I dived the Manta site on Monday so I'm sure its even worse today. I was gonna do 16 dives here but they don't have many sites so I'll probably do 8 to 10 at most. I've heard Ant Atoll has a couple of good dives but they rarely if ever go there cuz of the crossing and there little dinky boat. I think there is a dive shop in town with a real boat so I may check with them and see if they go. There are some fun people at the hotel. I've been partying and diving with a couple from San Diego and a German couple as well.

[nextariel]

Sounds like you are still having an incredible adventure. Maybe a little down time is a good thing. Seeing just a couple of nudibranch for me would make it very special.

[Marvel]

So glad you're still having a great time, Chuck- keep those reports coming!

[maninthesea]

Chuck
If you want to switch dive shops check out AquaWorld in the Plumaria hotel by the airport. The owner Daiki is VERY Japanese so expect a language barrier but he is a super nice guy and does the best dive trips in Phonpie. Just dont mention my name around the village and let Jamie know I recomended anyone else. If you get into town ask around for a attorny named Craig. Nice guy and probably would be happy to buddy up with you. Make sure you get to Nan Madol and if you can find a resonable rate buy some Phonpein Pepper-Its some of the best in the world. They have some nice black pearls that are farmed in Phonpie also.
Cheers Jim

[Marvel]

They have some nice black pearls that are farmed in Phonpie also.

Black pearls would be nice.....right ladies? :anna:

[chinacat46]

Well I'm winding down in Pohnpei. It's Monday morning and I leave Wednesday for Kosrae. It's been raining like cats and dogs on/off for about 2 days straight. Dove yesterday but the viz wasn't to good and it was cold, wet and rainy to and from the dive sites. We stayed close to the hotel and did Manta Road again as one of the two dives. Didn't see any Mantas but I did catch one at another site earlier in the week. The second site was a really nice wall dive with lots of little stuff and some huge fans. Saw 4 or 5 nudibranchs, a shark and during the safety stop found a small redish scorpion fish. Haven't seen many scorpion fish but I know there around. My favorite site was the one with all the fish action. Dove that one 3 times and twice saw huge schools of sharks, jacks, black snappers, pyramid butterfly and anthias as well as lots of other fish. The hard corals here are really nice but I'm still thinking Palau has the best diving in Micronesia so far. The wall we dove yesterday also had some nice soft corals. I may do two dives tomorrow if it clears up and I can do my favorite site one last time. It reminds a lot of Blue Corner with the current and the big schools of fish. Also saw a Napelon Wrasse there as well as a small school of bumphead parrotfish. I've met some great people at the resort but two of them left last night and four more leave today so I'm meeting new people. Can't believe I'll be home in less then 3 weeks but it has been a great trip so far. Right now it's just started pouring again outside. Sure glad I didn't go diving today. I would have been the only diver so it would have cost more and if yesterday was any indication the viz would suck. One night four of us when to a local village and drank sakau. Sakau is similar to Kava for those of you who might have been to Fiji. It's made from the root of the pepper plant but is stronger then Kava which is basically the dried version. I had 3 and half cups and my head was spining. Mike a guy from Chicago had 5 and he could barely walk. We had to help him back to the taxi and when we got back to the hotel he fell out of the taxi into a bush. It was quite an adventure. All in all Pohnpei is a bueatiful little island but the dive operations here are definitely not as good as other places in Micronesia. The diving though is nice. My next update will most likely come from Kosrae sometime next week.

[dustbowl diver]

Hey Chuck,

I am relatively new to this group, but really appreciated you sharing your trip highlights!!



DBD

[vettenorlando]

Great report!!!!! Would love to see some pictures too!!!!

I really loved seeing what you packed... I always have a hard time deciding what to bring and always bring way too much... but holy smokes, you sure do seem to travel light on the clothes side of things!!! I need to learn to pack like that!!!

Hope you are having fun!!! (I'm jealous)