Blue Holes and Blue Corner

On Friday, we did our last day of diving. Tiff awoke and had a head cold and decided not to dive, so she stayed home all day and relaxed. The rest of us went to Sam's and were greeted by Joedyn. Even though they had finished certification, Joedyn had volunteered to go with us to look after Matt and Sara. Joedyn had also gotten our rental gear all ready and placed on the boat for us, one of the great personal touches you get when consistently diving with one dive shop. For the day's dives we were on the boat Great White, a two level larger boat that while a comfortable ride was slower than their other boats. While it was still windier than normal, they wind had died down somewhat from earlier in the week. It made for a smoother ride to our dive sites, but the wind still limited where we could dive and we ended up back in the Blue Corner area.

Our first dive was Blue Holes. Matt and Sara had not gone through the holes yet, so I was glad they would get to experience it. Joedyn guided the four of us plus another newbie diver we nicknamed Walt due to his resemblance to someone we all knew from college. Despite their equal experience levels, Matt and Sara are much better divers than Walt who used air even faster than Matt and had buoyancy issues. On this dive, Walt stayed close to Joedyn and out of our way. We descended through the holes and even though I had done it numerous times it is still exciting. In the cave, Joedyn showed us a disco clam that "danced" when the light is shone upon it. After swimming around the cave, we exited and drifted along the wall of the reef. We drifted along the reef taking in the sights. Walt and Matt were the first to run low on air and Joedyn assisted them to the surface while we continued along the reef. At the end of the dive while we did our safety stop I noticed it was darker than usual. As we ascended, I saw droplets of water hitting the surface. I surfaced to a torrential downpour that made me want to immediately go back under the water. After taking off the gear, we gathered under the second deck of the boat to take shelter from the wind and rain. It made things a bit chilly at lunch, but by the time we were set to return to the water the sun had come out again. We were happy to return to the warm water.

Our second dive was Blue Corner. For this dive we started down alongside the reef and at the corner hooked in. I had the digital camera for the dive and had fun taking pictures of the group and the fish. I got a few good ones of a turtle early in the dive. As I attempted to get good pictures of the sharks, I would get closer to them or be focused on one while taking the picture and not notice the one near me in the other direction. When we arrived at the corner, Joedyn signaled for us to hook in and as I was getting my hook ready I looked down and saw a turtle right below me. I was simultaneously getting my hook out, taking a picture of the turtle, and swimming toward the spot to hook in. I pulled it off and managed to hook in successfully. I did my best to snap pictures of the fish and sharks as they swam by, but it is tricky to snap a moving object. We unhooked and moved further down the edge and stopped again at a spot with lots of sharks. We didn't hook in and simply hung onto the reef, but Walt did hook in and kept banging into Katie before he moved. As we hung out, I saw Katie and Sara ignoring the large sharks swimming close to them and instead playing with a clownfish and anemone. I guess the clownfish was more interesting than the sharks. We left the edge and began heading across the reef. Matt and Walt headed to the surface while the rest of us continued on. We came across a turtle and Katie began swimming alongside it. I followed to take some pictures until we had gotten too far from the group. Katie was thrilled with swimming with the turtle and got to touch it. We returned to the group and continued along until Sara went to the surface. Katie and I stayed below and joined a school of barracudas. Katie had been trying to join a school fish all week and she finally got her wish when the barracudas allowed us to swim among them for a little bit. Our time was up, so we headed to the surface and back to the boat. On the boat ride home, Katie and I relaxed on the bow of the boat as we let the still strong winds blow through our hair. The group said farewell to Sam's and drove home.

After reuniting with Tiff and cleaning up, we went to Krämer's for dinner. We all ate various forms of amazingly fresh fish and thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Everyone also tried the local beer, Red Rooster, and and gave it mostly good reviews. After dinner we decided to head home and play some cards. With everyone now adjusted to the time and no big plans for the morning, we were able to stay up late playing cards. It was a fun evening and everyone enjoyed their last night in Palau.

See pictures related to this post