28 June 2010
Day 1 of Diving
1. Helmet Wreck
2. Iro
3. Ngedebus Corner
4. German Channel
Our first dive was essentially a checkout dive and was our chance to check weights, buoyancy, gear, etc. It was a wreck dive along what they call “The Helmet” – a Japanese cargo ship that was sunk in the harbor during WW II. You could even see the portion of the ship that had been dealt its fatal blow – as well as containers full of bottles of sake, gasmasks, artillery, etc. It was a really neat dive. The second dive was another sunken Japanese ship called the Iro – this one was almost 500 feet long and was encrusted with beautiful hard coral. During both dives I thought about how sinking these ships was significant to the American war effort. My grandfather was in the navy on the USS Cowpens air craft carrier during the war – and his ship was in every single major battle in the Pacific – including the ones around Palau. So as I swam around looking at the sunken Japanese ships, I couldn’t help but to think “Way to go Grandpa!”
Our third and fourth dives of the day were a wall dive and a channel dive. The third was my favorite -- Ngedebus Corner – you could see walls of coral as far as the eye could see and more schools of fish at one time than I have ever seen. It was fantastic. On the German Channel dive we saw a brilliant red sea anemone with a clown fish habitat and then saw some of the biggest coral fans we have ever seen in our life. It was phenomenal!
Last night we enjoyed a delicious chicken w/red pepper sauce or tuna dish. The tuna was less than forty-eight hours old – even I was eating the tuna. We ended the evening with a reef hook briefing, a few drinks (they have the local Red Rooster brews on tap) and a great round of storytelling amongst some of the people we’ve become friends with here. It was a great first day!
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