Truuk & Palau

Does anyone have any tips/info on Truuk &/or Palau? Is it all deep diving
and wrecks? Any info would be helpful. We are doing 7 days aboard the
Odyssey and 5 days on Palau.
Thanks

<elle@ecouto.com> wrote in message
news:10069g35g899922@corp.supernews.com...
> Does anyone have any tips/info on Truuk &/or Palau? Is it all deep diving
> and wrecks? Any info would be helpful. We are doing 7 days aboard the
> Odyssey and 5 days on Palau.
> Thanks
>
>
Went to Yap and Palau two years ago. Here's a report on the Palau part:

Palau, the westernmost area of the Caroline Archipelago, comprises some 350
islands along a 400-mile northeast to southwest stretch. The major island
group is the Palau cluster made up of about 200 islands, only eight of which
are inhabited. One of these, Babeldaop, is Micronesia's second largest
island (after Guam). The island's capital of Koror is located just south of
Babeldaop; farther south the rock islands extend some twenty miles. These
spectacular islets, shaped a bit like mushrooms, are topped by lush growth
and surrounded by calm clear aquamarine water and there are hundreds of
isolated sandy beaches. Farther south still are the islands of Peleliu and
Angaur. Peleliu was the site of one of the bloodiest and most futile
battles of WW 2. The rock islands are limestone and the sea is eroding
their bases; my guess is that they won't be around in a million years or so
and you should go see them now while you still can.
Palau Pacific Resort is a swanky resort hotel spread across 64 acres around
a little bay with a white sandy beach. It's about half an hour from the
airport and twenty minutes from the throbbing metropolis of Koror. With 160
rooms and suites it's big enough to have the amenities you want without
being overwhelming. There is a pool, two tennis courts, a spa, a gym, a
fishpond, a dive shop and boat dock and two restaurants. The rooms are on
two floors and I suggest you ask for one upstairs and near the dock. One of
the restaurants serves all day; there is always a buffet as well as a menu.
The other is their signature restaurant, which serves dinner only and is a
bit dressy; as Nick's idea of getting formally dressed is to put on shoes we
didn't go there. The food was okay, but two weeks of it was more than
enough; we did try some of the restaurants in town but didn't find any worth
recommending. In the evening there is a bus, which runs between some of the
hotels and restaurants from about 5pm to 10pm. It's free and you can pick
up a timetable from the concierge. Hard to believe that the local taxis let
that service get started!
If you stay in Koror a lot of the dive sites are an hour or more away. The
dive boats get off the dock between 7am and 8:30, do a first dive in the
morning, pull in to a beach for lunch and do a second and possibly third
dive in the afternoon, returning to the hotel between 4 and 6 and for this
reason we did no sightseeing in Palau. The alternatives are either a
liveaboard or you could stay on Peleliu, which is much closer to most of the
sites. However with a non-diver in tow I was happy to be at PPR.
The on site dive op is Splash which caters mainly to the Japanese who make
up the majority of the guests at PPR. We used Sam's Dive Tours; they picked
us up at the PPR dock each morning and whisked us off to their lair ten
minutes away. There they have docks, boats, a shop, rinse tanks, gear
storage, showers, loos, and the Bottom Time Bar and Grill. As well as
diving they offer kayaking, fishing, land tours and so on. As in Yap, the
quality of your dive guide is crucial to having good safe diving, and I urge
you most strongly to try to find the right one for you. After a couple of
hiccups we got Jonas, who is a star with years of experience on Palau and an
excellent attitude. He really cared that we got good diversity, and he kept
finding rare stuff for us. He was also meticulous about timing the dives to
coincide with the best current conditions; dive Blue Corner when the current
is weak or non-existent and you'll have a so-so dive, go when the current is
strong and you'll see why this site is so famous. Most of the boats were
open flat bottoms with a canopy for shade and a couple of four stroke
outboards. They were fast, but the long rides could be quite bumpy. They
were not crowded, usually around six divers and either one or two guides and
a driver. It's all drift diving and a typical dive starts at around 80
feet, becomes shallower and lasts as long as you like. Almost all of our
dives were an hour or more, which we could not have done in no-deco mode
without using nitrox so unless you're a gas guzzler, in which case it won't
really help, I suggest you use nitrox to avoid missing good stuff.
I find it hard to imagine better diving than this; both the profusion of sea
life and the diversity of sites was extraordinary but in a way even more so
was the interaction between the different species of fish which could be
seen so clearly. An example: The Moorish Idols were schooling at Blue
Corner, something which only happens during a couple of months, so a cloud
of them blew here and there around the shelf; around them in a first ring
were the predators, trevally, grouper, Napoleon wrasse all trying to isolate
prey, then further out the shark cruised, waiting for opportunity, stacked
up like planes waiting to land at O'Hare, and in the distance those with
better hearing than me claimed to hear the porpoises. On another occasion
we saw the same thing with a large school of scad. We saw mantas on two
dives; the first we waited around a cleaning station at Devilfish City and
they came, just as in Yap, swooping around us, huge and ghostly and when
they had gone we, (meaning Jonas), found a couple of crocodile fish on the
bottom; the second the mantas were feeding near the surface and we swam up
to be near them. There is an unidentified wreck known just as Buoy 6, a
100-foot Japanese fishing vessel at 65 to 75 feet which is heavily and
beautifully encrusted and there we saw a semi-circular angel, as well as a
bunch of lion fish. I had my first experience of a down current; at the end
of a dive we drifted off the shelf into blue water with no visual
references, at about 70 feet Nick gave the signal to ascend and I kicked
gently to get going while watching my computer which said 70.75.80.85. I
had some moments of sheer stupidity, my first thought "This can't be
happening", then, and I'm not making this up, "Perhaps I'm upside down and
kicking towards the bottom" and finally my brain woke up and said "Down
current" so I kicked hard up and away from the shelf and at about 90 feet we
came out of it and the computer started squawking about the ascent speed. I
saw my first giant clams, looking as richly upholstered as Victorian sofas,
creaking shut when touched. Julie and Nick spent one day kayaking in the
rock islands and were very happy with that; I was down with a cold and didn'
t go.
I could go on and on, list the sites and the sea life, but it's all been
said so many times before. Every single dive was wonderful.
Finally Air Micronesia, the original fly-by-night organization, loaded us on
for their 2:30am flight out and the journey home was just as long and just
as trouble free as the one going.

Random comments:

If I were planning the trip again I'd give Yap a miss; the mantas in Palau
were just as good and the rest of the Palau diving was so much better. Sure
the life style in Yap was interesting to see, but still. If you wanted to
combine Palau with another destination, perhaps think of Truk if you're a
wreck diver or maybe the GBR.

The currents in Palau can be very strong and can be unpredictable. While we
were there another dive op mislaid a couple of their dive guides and
everyone's boats went to search; they were found, but only after spending 18
hours in the water. If, like me, you are unsure of your ability to cope
with these conditions I suggest going with people who know what they are
doing. Sam's provides safety sausages and reef hooks; you should take a
mirror and a noisemaker and, I suggest, a collapsible snorkel to stick in
the pocket of your BC.

We got sick. I had a tummy bug in Yap; I had Imodium and Cipro with me,
which got rid of it quickly, but I still lost a day's diving. All of us got
colds in Palau; Julie and I each lost two days because we couldn't clear;
Nick toughed it out. Other people there had the same experience, no idea
why.

Make this trip: mortgage your house, sell your firstborn, do whatever it
takes but go. You'll remember it forever.

I did a seven day trip on the Odyssey last June and had a truly wonderful
time. Lenny and Cara where terrific host and the diving was out of this
world. Most depths were in the 100 to 130 foot range with a deep dive (182
feet) on the San Francisco Maru (special request). In my opinion, the best
diving was on the Fujikawa Maru, we did a pre dawn entry on her (special
request) and surfaced with the sun rise, truly awe inspiring. The shark dive
was unbelievable, we were surrounded by more sharks that I could count! My
advice is to bring plenty of film and batteries for you camera as you will
find much to photograph. The food was plentiful and delicious, spacious
cabins, to have a great trip. I would go back in a heart beat.
<elle@ecouto.com> wrote in message
news:10069g35g899922@corp.supernews.com...
> Does anyone have any tips/info on Truuk &/or Palau? Is it all deep diving
> and wrecks? Any info would be helpful. We are doing 7 days aboard the
> Odyssey and 5 days on Palau.
> Thanks
>
>
>

<elle@ecouto.com> wrote in message
news:10069g35g899922@corp.supernews.com...
> Does anyone have any tips/info on Truuk &/or Palau? Is it all deep diving
> and wrecks? Any info would be helpful. We are doing 7 days aboard the
> Odyssey and 5 days on Palau.
> Thanks

"They" say that the diving in Truk (or Chuuk, but not Truuk) can be shallow,
with some nice corals encrusted around masts as un-deep as 50' or less, but
the truth is that it's pretty deep for recreational diving. Most of the
decks are at 80-100' or deeper, with the holds, engine rooms, etc. down
another 30' or more. You will get into mandatory deco unless you spend the
barest amount of time poking around the relics which practically all happen
to be sitting in silt at the bottoms of the deep holds or involving more
serious penetration inside the wrecks.

Palau, OTOH, is much less deep. The corner of Blue Corner has you hooking
in at only 30-40' after a slightly deeper sojourn along the wall. Plenty of
other dives there are best enjoyed in the 50-60' range. There are a handful
of wrecks there - the ones I've dove inside the lagoon are shallower than
those in Truk - but most of your diving there will be on reefs, not wrecks.

In article <10069g35g899922@corp.supernews.com>, elle@ecouto.com () wrote:

> Does anyone have any tips/info on Truuk

Yes, I was there with my wife for 8 nights 2 or 3 weeks back.
I copy part of my trip report in here and add some text that is relevant.


From Manila we flew to Guam, which is a U.S. dependency ? i think thats
right, it was U.S. immigration anyway, from there we flew 1.5 hrs to Chuuk
and noticed the weather was very overcast, the airport is just a bit of a
shed, Chuuk appears to be very poor (despite the massive $$$$$ help that
the U.S. pours in), or very poorly managed, nepotism I'm
told is rife here, so is corruption.

We were met at the airport and transported by small boat out to our dive
boat SS Thorfinn which was anchored out in the lagoon, the boat itself is
an old Whaler, used to working in the Arctic. It can cater for up to 22
people although when we arrived there was only one other guest and he was
leaving for Sydney in two days time. The boat is all steel and very
sturdy, it never moved an inch whatever the sea did, in fact all the
cylinders on board were stored upright on the dive deck and none were
strapped in any way at all, it is steam driven and watching the crank and
pistons was a real treat. One good feature on Thorfinn was the jacuzzi on
the second deck, real hot water and a great relaxing treat.

The only other boats in the lagoon are the Aggressor and the Odyssey, i
dont think they had guests while we were there as they didn't move.
The diving was done by tender from Thorfinn, most sites were only 5-10
minutes away, for diving the outer reaches of the lagoon Thorfinn would
steam across at the end of the week to access those.
The cabins on board all have showers and w/c, also in all rooms is a tv
with video player and video library on top deck with diving and regular
videos at no cost.
Food on board was adequate, not always to our liking but we never went
hungry.
We were expecting clear blue skies and flat seas, we actually got overcast
skies, rain and rough seas, i think we had 2 sunny days and calm seas out
of nine days there. It did not spoil the diving though.
There is no current in the lagoon so no need for surface bags etc...the
lack of light and what i would term "poor vis" made photography and video
less than fantastic, the power on board Thorfinn would not charge my UK
400 either, not enough "umph"....
I always thought that the wrecks were Japanese Imperial Fleet, they are
not, they are the supply ships that were sitting in the lagoon.
The divemaster on Thorfinn (who didn't dive) was Dan, he knew virtually
everything there was to know about every ship in the lagoon, where it was
made, what it carried, how and when it was hit etc, he was exceptionally
knowledgeable.
The dive guide(s) and the boatmen were excellent, the tenders, of which
there are 4 on Thorfinn, have no GPS or instruments but the guide could
find any wreck just by eye triangulation, and even drop anchor to the bow
or stern of the wreck you were diving, and the vis did not allow you to
see these wrecks from the surface, quite amazing.

The depth that we dived was down to 60 metres, a lot of the wrecks had
parts as shallow as 3-5 metres, which was handy while doing deco at
various depths. Thorfinn had a safety stop regime of its own, 4 stops on
the way up at various depths, and boasted no one ever getting bent.

The temp was around 28-29-30 at all depths, and the vis was mostly gloomy
due to overcast skies and varied between 10-20metres.

There was not a lot of coral growth considering 60 years had passed, some
parts of the wrecks were surprisingly clean, allthough one particular
wreck had a beautiful coral garden, quite stunning. Port holes with glass,
torpedoes, tanks, motorbikes, trucks, big shells, and millions of small
arm rounds still in crates and also scattered over the decks, crockery,
cups, bowls, Vynal records ????, Binoculars, medical supplies, small
bottles of pills in their thousands still intact, and bottles of alcohol,
i have never seen so many bottles, they must have been pissed.....the
bottles were like large champagne bottles though, i didn't understand why
they were so big. On a sadder note....there were skulls and bones still in
these wrecks, bringing home that people had died here a long time ago.
The holes in the sides made by torpedoes were huge and had buckled the
structure.
We were able to penetrate the wrecks, at times quite deep, down to many
stairwells, to see engine room and massive banks of gauges, while in there
our torch decided to give out (there was only me ,my wife and the guide)
and we were left with the guides torch, amazingly he gave us this torch
while we had a look around, and he disappeared into the blackness without
a torch, what seemed like 5 minutes later he reaper ed with a skull that
he kept hidden from other guides eyes, the amazing thing was he being able
to navigate in total (and i mean total) darkness. We never felt stressed
while in these wrecks, even though there was no visible light, such was
our confidence and belief in our guide, Kent. We were totally at ease with
him.
There were always Nitrox hang tanks from the tender should anyone need
them, we didn't find the need but it was reassuring.
Once back on the tender and the big boat we never had to touch our kit, it
was taken off while in the water and we didn't have to touch it again till
we strapped it on for the next dive, Thorfinn had fixed dive times for 5
dives
a day, the first being 8am, 11am, 3pm, etc, we only did 3 dives a day so
I'm not sure what the other times were.
Sadly our 9 days went far too quickly, we enjoyed all our diving there and
could recommend it without reservation, we were told by all we spoke to
that a boat is by far the best way to dive Chuuk, and not to stay on Weno
the mainland as it can be a little unsavoury, from what i saw of it there
is only the Truck stop Hotel and nothing outside that.

So, it was back to Guam and on to Yap for some diving with Manta's,
awesome.............
Now do i do the Yap report here and risk boring everyone to death or post
as another "post".......i suppose i should really get back to some work,
so, its another posting for the Yap report then.......i hope you all enjoy
reading this one, it was actually better than it sounds and if anyone
wants any info or tips then i should be only too happy to help if i am
able.

Dave in the UK.