Dale Shultz, one our Douglas County Divers has been kind enough to write up a very informative article on his recent trip to Palau. He has covered his trip in depth, so please take the time to read this article. Its quite interesting!
We have pictures through out the article, so while your pictures are taking time to load you can read the article.
Dale, I just want to thank you so much for your time and effort you put into this article. I know this must of taken you quite a while to put together.Thanks Again!
MarlaTrip Preperation
TrainingThe trip to Chuuk and Palau just finished but it started over a year ago. There was the trip to Farnsworth Sea Mount near Catalina for some deeper than normal dives and to practice using hold off tanks. There were two trips to San Diego’s Wreck Alley to practice wreck penetration and keeping orientation upon exiting the wreck so that we could find our way back to the anchor line. On our anchor line were the hold off tanks in case we should need them. Some of the divers in our group practiced rescue procedures. There was also a Nitrox review class in case anyone chose to use Nitrox. I took advantage of my time in the Oregon Coast Aquarium to practice keeping my fins off the bottom.
EquipmentWith only about 2 months left before the trip, I had a decision to make. Some of these wrecks were going to be right at the edge of the specs for my three year old regulator. I had been trying to convince myself to cheap out and use my old reg. After all it was a good decision when I bought it -- why wasn’t it still a good decision? I finally decided that it was no longer a good decision because I was now going to be diving to 130 feet and may be a little beyond. I had waited so long to buy the new regulator that I had little time to try it out. I did not want to take an untested regulator on a trip like this. Fortunately I had two months of volunteer diving at the Oregon Coast Aquarium to test it. For me that is 8 dives. The new regulator worked fine, and I felt good about taking it along as my primary regulator.
There were some other decisions that needed to be made about new equipment. We were going to be going into at least 10 submerged wrecks. I broke down and got a pony bottle and set up my old regulator to work with it. I also got a better slate and a wreck reel.
The water looked like it would be about 83 or 84 in Chuuk and about 80 or 81 in Palau. I decided to take a skin and a 3 mil wet suit. I went over my “save-a-dive” kit to make sure it would be up to the job. I am getting a little older now and find that my dive computer is getting pretty hard to read, so I bought a new mask that allows me to read the computer more easily. I also tested that at the aquarium. The bifocal magnification feature is not useful in the aquarium but is great in the open ocean.
I also packed mosquito repellent, sun screen, sun burn ointment, eye wash, ear cleansing drops, and medication for stings.
During the course of the dive I lent out my spare mask strap and the weight belt that I didn’t really need. I also helped one of my buddies out with a couple of cable ties when his BC inflator hose came apart. We also had one dive computer fail on the first dive. Fortunately that diver was bailed out by someone who happened to have a spare dive computer along. There were lots of sun burns and several stings while in the water, plus several divers got minor ear infections.
The DivingBon Voyage
Well the day finally arrived, and I left for Los Angeles to meet the rest of the group. There are around 20 of us; some have been diving together for 35 years. We have a wide range in experience: our mentor who has been diving for about 44 years and is certified to teach for 7 different organizations to a 1 tech diver. Everyone had at least 3 years experience while most have at least 10 years of experience. Almost all of these divers are very active divers. We did have a couple that were very active in the past but hadn’t been in the water in awhile.
The trip takes forever! We left LAX at 9:30 A.M., changed planes in Honolulu and again in Guam, and finally got to Chuuk 17 hours later.
Chuuk (previously known as Truk)
We were set up to do two dives the first day and three on each of the rest of the days.
The resort is very comfortable, but there is not much to do for the non-diver. You can sit on the beach (if you can deal with the sun) or under one of the coconut trees and just relax. The divers were at the boat dock at around 8:30 every day. We were in three boats; these are not the big covered dive boats we are all used to at home. These are small open boats with good canopies and two 200 HP Yamaha outboards. They go like crazy, full speed ahead and darn the waves. The weather was good the first couple of days and then deteriorated. One day we went out in the pouring rain with 3 to 4 foot seas. Some of the dive computers were logging the trip as a dive (just kidding). Since it was warm, it didn’t matter a lot but we were drenched before we even started diving on some days. Getting in the water actually felt good on those days. On rainy days, my dive skin was not adequate to protect me from the wind; so I switched to my 3 mil suit.
The first wreck we dove I decided not to drag my camera along. I regretted that decision, but there were lots more wrecks to see. We dove on the: Betty Bomber, Emily Bomber, Fujikawa Maru, Heian Maru, Kensho Maru, Kiyosumi Maru, Nippo Maru, Rio de Janeiro Maru, Sankisan Maru, Shinkoko Maru, Yamagiri Maru, and a zero. Most of the ships are considerably shallower at one end than the other. I put the maximum depth in the list below.
Betty BomberThe Betty Bomber is about 30 feet long and rests at 65 feet. She was a lot of fun to dive. It was easy to take pictures of the bomber and the surrounding area.
Fujikawa MaruThe Fujikawa Maru is an armed cargo ship and is 434 feet long. She rests in 120 feet of water. She is the first wreck we dove on. I chose not to take a camera along and wished I had for the rest of the trip. I had a second chance on a night dive and opted not to take a camera along that time either. In her holds, we found warheads, propeller blades, tires, and several fighter planes. Lots of daily living items are scattered around. Lots of coral can be found on this ship.
Heian MaruThe Heian Maru is a Submarine Tender and is 510 feet long. She rests at her deepest at 110 feet. Visibility is better here than on the bomber. As with most of the wrecks, visibility is better outside than in. Some of that is due to the fact that the lighting is not as good and some of it is due to particles being stirred up by divers that preceded me through the area. Strobes for my camera would certainly have helped with both problems. There are lots of coral growths on this wreck. Lots of daily living items are scattered around too. We saw submarine periscopes, torpedo warheads, some four inch shells.
Kensho MaruThe Kensho Maru is a passenger and cargo ship and is 385 feet long. She rests at 130 feet. Again, lots of coral. There were more fish at this wreck than at some of the others.
This Moorish Idol was on the Kensho Maru.
Kiyosumi MaruThe Kiyosumi Maru is a passenger and cargo ship and is 477 feet long. She rests at 120 feet. Lots of coral. Visibility was down a little on this one. Some of that is due to the depth. One of the memorable things about this ship is the bicycle hanging in one of the holds. There are also a lot of everyday living items scattered around all horizontal surfaces.
Nippo MaruThe Nippo Maru is a cargo ship and is 350 feet long. She rests at 150 feet. There are a lot of bottles on this ship. There is also a mini tank fastened to the deck. The tank is at around 124 feet, and you don’t get to stay there and look for very long. There are also several truck frames complete with wheels. You will also find rifle ammunition and gas masks.
Rio de Janeiro MaruRio de Janeiro Maru is a passenger ship and is 461 feet long. She rests at 110 feet. We saw several 6 inch gun barrels and warheads. There were the usual bottles – sake, beer or whatever. We got into the engine room and saw all of the dials and controls. We exited the engine room via a stair well; and as I watched my two dive buddies disappear through the opening to the stairs, I discovered that I didn’t fit. My pony bottle kept hanging up on the stair rail. When I finally got my self through the opening, my buddies were nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t even see their lights. I turned around and went back through the engine room to the outside.
Sankisan MaruThe Sankisan Maru is a transport ship and is 365 feet long. She rests at 100 feet. Of course we saw all the usual bottles. There are airplane parts in one of the holds, lots of ammunition, a truck body, a deck gun, radial airplane engines, and lots of coral and clams.
Shinkoko MaruThe Shinkoko Maru is an oil tanker and is 500 feet long. She rests at 130 feet. We saw an operating room down one of the corridors. On the bridge we saw the telegraph, the helm, and the ships compass. Lots of everyday living items are scattered around such as china, glasses, cups, boots, and rifles.
Yamagiri MaruThe Yamagiri Maru is a transport and is 435 feet long. She rests at 110 feet. There are thirty 18-inch warheads that were probably intended for the super battleships Musashi and Yamato. These shells look really big when you see them underwater. There is a lot of growth on this ship.
The ZeroA zero lies in about 20 feet of water. We snorkeled on this one.
Between DivesIn Chuuk we stopped on Eaton Island for lunch twice. Our dive guides opened fresh coconuts for us while we were having lunch. After lunch one day we took a tour of some of the old Japanese buildings that had been bombed. It is very impressive to see first hand the damage that a 1000 pound bomb can do to a reinforced concrete roof approximately a foot thick. The building is still standing, but the roof collapsed in places but not everywhere. The entire island had been defoliated during the war and turned into an airstrip. Eaton has reestablished its jungle now.
In Palau we spent one afternoon touring Peliliu. This island was the scene of a major battle during the war. One hundred twenty thousand Japanese soldiers died here, and we lost thirty thousand. The island was supposed to take a few days to capture, and it took 6 months. We saw caves where thousands of Japanese soldiers lived until they were needed. There are still remnants of some of the coastal facilities that were built on Peliliu. We visited several memorial sites.
We spent the last day touring some of the old Japanese facilities while we off-gassed for the flight to Palau. Some of the facilities were heavily damaged by American bombers during WWII. Others have been converted into schools. We saw a six inch cannon around 30 feet long hidden in a cave overlooking the coast, we would have had a tough time bombing that one.
PALAUWe left for Palau around 10:00 PM. First stop was Guam to meet the rest of our group. From there we went on to Palau with a security stop in Yap. We got in late that night and were up to go diving early the next day.
The Palau Pacific resort is first class and was enjoyed by the divers and non-divers alike. There is a little more to do in Palau than in Chuuk for the non divers but not a lot. There is cook in the sun at the beach (it is a spectacular stretch of beach), or at the pool, or at the spa. It is important to note though that unlike the Blue Lagoon in Chuuk, there is a pool and a spa. There is plenty of shade to lie around in and just take it easy. Sometimes there are custom boat trips around the rock islands. These islands amazed me everyday. There is a large variety of food available in town -- even hamburgers. Thankfully there are none of our fast food chains on the island. The restaurant in the resort may be a little on the pricey side, but by the time you add taxi fare onto the cost of dinners in town, there is not a big savings. Dinner costs about $25 plus drinks (coffee, tea, soft drinks, alcohol).
There are a lot of dive shops around where divers can replace lost or broken gear. You probably will not be able to get anything fixed though.
THE DIVESAll of our dives were in name dive spots; Turtle Cove, Turtle wall, Blue Hole, Blue Corner, Yellow Wall, Pelliliu Wall, Jellyfish lake, the Iro Maru, New Dropoff, Chandelier Cave, Devil Fish City, the Helmut wreck, the wrecked seaplane (well maybe it didn’t have a name), German Reef, Ngeryong Inside, Giant Clam City. They are all spectacular. I suppose for me some of the highlights were seeing several sharks almost every dive. Some were probably 8 feet long and as close as 10 or 15 feet. I really love to watch Manta Rays, and we got to see a lot of those on the dive at Devil Fish City. There were turtles on almost all of the wall dives, some close enough that divers touched them. My attitude is to look at them and keep my hands off. We saw Cuddle Fish, Octopus, Tuna, Barracuda, Lion Fish, Turkeyfish, Crocodile Fish, Moray eels, Crown of Thorns, Picassofish, lots of Orangespine Unicornfish, and let’s not forget the Bumper Head. The divers on one of the boats claimed to have seen a Hammer Head, I never saw pictures so I am skeptical. The giant clams are the kind we have all seen in movies where some hapless soul gets his finger stuck in one and has to cut it off or drown in the surf. Sorry folks, you can’t get your finger stuck in them even though they are about 30 inches wide.
Giant Clam City, these are all at least two feet long
Divers waiting for the Manta fly by. Divers were told to stay low and sit on the bottom as the Mantas would come in over their heads.
Here they are.
I didn’t know you meant that low or fast.
Wow, that was close.
Let me rest a minute, I’ll be OK.
White Tip Reef Shark (6 to 8 feet long) at Blue Corner.
I had never seen a Crown of Thorns before, but I knew what it was when I saw it. One of our group picked it up very carefully and still got stung right through his gloves. He was very lucky and suffered no ill effects, but we kept a close eye on him for awhile.
Jellyfish LakeJellyfish Lake is a very interesting experience. It is a snorkel only lake, and it is salt water. The hike to the lake is on a rather treacherous trail through the jungle. It goes up one side of a steep hill and down the other side. The entire trail consists of rock steps that have been added to make the walk easier. Unfortunately, the steps are all about one foot high or more. At low tide, the ramps back down to the dive boats are very steep and slippery. The jellyfish that were trapped in the lake when it was cut off from the sea have lost the ability to sting over time. There is nothing available for “normal” jellyfish to eat in the lake. They convert sunlight to energy and follow the sun across their spectacular lake. We spent about an hour out among the jellyfish in the afternoon. On the west side of the lake in the sunny places there are hundreds of them. If you get to far to the east side of the lake (or into any shadows), you will notice the number of jellyfish decrease until you won’t find any at all.
Jellyfish at Jellyfish Lake. These Jellyfish can not sting. As the sun moves from east to west they follow it across the lake. This one was about 6 inches across and was one of the biggest I saw.
A Zebra Lionfish (although it could be an Antenna Turkeyfish) on the Iro.
One experience none of us will forget is using reef hooks at Blue Corner. A reef hook is a 4 inch hook attached to 5 feet of cord and a fastener. There is a spot a Blue Corner were there is a very strong current coming up from the depths and sweeping over the top of the reef. The hook is attached to dead coral and the clip is attached to the diver’s BC. Once everything is attached the diver inflates his BC and lets go of the coral. The BC holds the diver up into the water flow and the water flow holds the diver firmly back against the cord. The only way off is for the diver to deflate the BC and work hand over hand down the cord to the hook. Once down to the hook, it is released from the coral; and the diver is swept back onto the top of the reef where the current dies down. On top of the reef, there are usually sharks, turtles, Napoleons, and a variety of smaller fish.
Reef hooks in use. If you look closely you can see one of the lines from the diver on the right of the diver with the yellow fins.
On the first visit to Blue Corner, several of us managed to get swept over the top of the reef a little too quickly. The top of the reef is about 30 to 40 feet and we had been at 60 feet. While attempting to do our 15 foot hold off, the three of us got separated by a larger distance than I would have believed possible. When I surfaced I could not see the other two divers. All of the boats in the area were just dots on the horizon, at least I could see them. I filled up my BC, blew up my sausage, and sounded my dive alert. After about 5 minutes, I saw a boat coming in my direction. The boat stopped, and one of the crewmen asked what boat I was with and I told him. He said not to worry, my boat would be along soon, and they left. That was a strange feeling. Sure enough, after five or ten minutes, my boat arrived and picked me up. They claimed they saw me as soon as I inflated my sausage. They couldn’t come pick me up right away because they were loading the other divers in our group -- the ones that stayed together.
Crocodyle fish on the Iro.
Here is a Bumper Head Parrot Fish at German Reef
A Sea Turtle at Blue Hole
Home LegWe spent our last day being tourists. We walked into town and got souvenirs. We had lunch at a place that we had tried for dinner that was worth trying again.
We started that day at around 8:00 A.M. and our plane left at midnight. After 17 hours, crossing a date line and several time changes, and stops in Yap, Guam, and Honolulu for security checks or customs; we were back at LAX and said good bye to the rest of the gang. It was now 5:00 A.M. the next day, and our plane to Eugene didn’t leave until 9:30. After killing those hours, we got on the plane to Eugene. From Eugene, we drove back to Roseburg, staggered into our bed and didn’t get up for a long time.
-Dale Schultz
Rod Smith and Jim Rogers are putting together a Club Dive for Port Orford, Saturday - March 12th.
If any of you are interested in taking this Advanced Class, Mike Ferris from Divers Den is scheduling for March 18th, 19th and 20th. 