One day in and already some of the most spectacular diving I’ve encountered. Early in the morning I woke to the sound of the boat engines starting as we departed for our first dive site, the German Channel. Around 6 I made my way to the galley for breakfast and enjoyed watching islands drift past as I ate my pancake and bacon. By 6:45, we had our first dive briefing and were promised sights of sharks and manta rays. We were not disappointed! There were several huge manta rays that swam by and circled around coming back to the “cleaning station” where fish would drift along with the rays and snack on parasites and other organisms living on the rays. Sharks as well would swim by for a cleaning. There were also tons of fish about; some hiding and darting around the reef, others swimming in schools out in the open water. It was incredible but we were just getting started!
The second dive site called Turtle Cove was my personal favorite of the day. We started by dropping down a swim-through cave which spat us out along a beautiful coral-covered wall that plunged deep into the sea out of sight. Thousands and thousands of fish of all sorts played up and down the wall as we drifted by making our way down to Turtle Cove which lived up to it’s name. I spotted four sea turtles on the dive, some out swimming about and some taking a rest from the constant current hiding behind some rocks.
After Turtle Cove, we took a break for a delicious lunch that consisted of chicken enchiladas and fish tacos; both of which were quite tasty. As a quick aside, all the food has been surprisingly tasty on the liveaboard. Chef Shea has worked some wonders in the kitchen.
After lunch, we were briefed on the proper use of a reef hook, a small metal hook and line you use to “hook in” to a reef. If there is a current, you can tie the line to your BCD and hook onto a rocky spot on the reef. This allows you to sit in one spot and watch the sea life go by without having to hold onto the reef. Initially we were supposed to visit a site called the New Drop Off however there were three dive boats already at the site so we pressed on to Blue Corner, a quite famous dive site in Palau known for reef hook diving. We hooked in along the edge of a drop off and drifted in the current a bit. Unfortunately the most we saw (aside from tons of fish) was one shark while were hooked in. A bit of a let down however after we unhooked, we drifted over the reef and saw a huge sea turtle, some white tip reef sharks, and a giant humphead wrasse that was about 4 feet long.
For our last dive, we went to another wall, Barnums wall. On this dive, we saw some pretty spectacular coral formations as well as a leopard shark. We surfaced to find it pouring rain; a bit of a shift after having dropped down with the sun shining. After a quick ride back to the boat, we settled in for a tasty dinner of Cajun pork chops and creamy grits, another fantastic meal!
It’s only day one and already I’ve seen more than any other day of diving. The amount of biodiversity here is remarkable and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the trip brings.