Irou Wreck and Blue Corner

On Sunday, I went diving. One of Dave Kregenow's colleagues and his son is visiting and wanted to dive a shipwreck and I was more than happy to join them, LB, Ryan, and Christy. For this dive, we decided to try a different dive company and went with local dive guide Keith Santillano. Keith was an accountant in St. Louis and in 1990 decided he wanted to do something different with his life and moved to Palau to be a dive guide. He now owns a small dive company and leads tours on his boat.

Our first dive was the wreck of the Irou, a Japanese transport ship sunk in March 1994 by the U.S. as part of Operation Desecrate. Japanese battleships had left Palau, but their transport ships remained behind and U.S. aircraft sunk the Irou and other transports while they sat at anchor. Keith selected the Irou to dive because it is remarkably intact and not too deep for a wreck. When it sunk, it landed level on its bottom on a slight incline with the deck of the bow at about 60 feet and the deck of the stern at about 95 feet.

We descended near the bow alongside a tower that extended up from the deck of the ship to about 25 feet. The metal of the ship is covered with marine life, but the contours of the ship were unmistakable. We descended closer to the deck and began making our way down the ship to the stern. The Irou is a long ship and there was plenty little nooks and crannies to investigate. There were more towers creating large gaps for us to swim through. We came across an open hatch allowing us to look into the structure and see the massive engine. Then we came across the wheelhouse and looked in through a porthole. The room was illuminated by the light streaming in from other portholes. We swam on and reached the stern where we were at a depth of 95 feet, my deepest dive yet. At the stern there is a large cannon mounted still intact and looking like it was ready to be loaded and fired. Leaving the stern, we swam back towards the bow, pausing to look into one of the cargo holds. When it sunk, the Irou was carrying oil drums and through the hatch I could see shells of oil drums long since burst. Keith also showed us a bottle of Kirin beer left by the crew on the deck of the ship. We arrived back at the bow and began our ascent, circling the tower as we rose. A very intriguing and different dive than we had previously done. Afterwards, we headed out to one of the beaches in the rock islands for lunch.

The second dive of the day was Blue Corner at the request of the other three people diving with us. After getting caught in an upcurrent a few weeks ago, I was a little nervous it might happen again, but I was also eager to get it right this time. Once again, we drifted down along just below the edge of the reef. A turtle went by close to us. Then we had a large grey reef shark pass close to us and Keith was trying to get it to come even closer. We swam away from the edge of the reef and potential upcurrents and saw more sharks circling near us. We finally reached the corner of the reef where it was time to hook in. The current was much more manageable this time and I was able to maneuver to the edge and put my reef hook in. After hooking in, we all hung in the current like kites in the wind to watch the scenery. We saw plenty of sharks, barracuda, wrasse, unicorn fish, and other assorted fish. The individual fish in the big schools all align their bodies in the same way to stay together in the current.

We eventually left the corner and headed across the reef. I saw an eel sticking out from the coral. I nearly ran into a turtle that was feeding behind a coral outcropping and swam away just as I was swimming over it. We reached the boat that was tied to a buoy on the reef. I fell back to some old bad habits and consumed my air faster than the others on this dive and was first to the surface. While others remained down exploring the reef, I took off my gear and jumped back in for some excellent snorkeling. A grey reef shark kept circling the area and I watched it for quite some time. After everyone surfaced, we left the corner and headed home. A great day of diving.