We started the day with the intention of heading to Ulong Channel or German Channel for our first dive, but the weather had different plans for us. It was too rough to make it out to Ulong Channel and when we got to German Channel, Jeremy (our dive guide from Neco) said it was going to be murky. He said we could dive it if we wanted or he would take us to a different site. We opted to try something else and it turned out to be a great decision. We dove New Drop Off and experienced the kind of current we were expecting from Palau. The wall was full of coral and reef fish and we followed it around to a cut out. We hung out there for a bit and escaped the current. Jeremy gave us the signal that it was time to move on and we headed back out to the wall. Once there, the current really started to rip (probably about 3 knots at its peak). Jeremy told us all to grab on to the coral ledge and watch the sea life. The most interesting part was watching the sharks swim into the current. They didn’t actually go anywhere…they were just hovering. We were happy to see that there were more sharks in this area. There weren’t a ton and they were still juveniles, but at least there were more than we had seen at Blue Corner. The dive ended as we all swam out to the blue to meet the boat.

We stopped at Koror’s Two Dog Beach State Park for lunch. As we pulled up anchor we were hit with a squall. It rained all the way back to our second dive site – the Helmet Wreck – near Koror Harbor. This dive site proved to be spectacular. The Japanese stole the vessel from the Dutch in the early 40s and were using it for supplies in World War II. It was sunk by the American’s in one of three air raids. At the bow of the ship we found ammunition boxes, a couple of gas masks, bottles and depth charges. Near the stern of the boat in one of its cargo holds we found three radial engines for Japanese Zeroes. You could see on the port side the ship where one of the bombs had hit. It truly is amazing to see in person.

After the Helmet Wreck, we made a quick run back to Neco Marine to drop off a few folks and pink up some more tanks so we could head out to Chandelier Caves for our third and final dive of the day (we had originally talked about doing a night dive, but not everyone was up for it…most, however, we up for a third dive). Chandelier Caves is more of a cavern than a cave, but it is truly remarkable. There are four chambers in the caves and each one has breathable air in it. We surfaced in each chamber and Jeremy told us a little something about each area. On the way out we turned off our lights and let the sunlight be our guide.

Outside the Caves we spent about a half an hour looking at the coral and the reef fish. The most exciting thing we saw was the Mandarinfish – this area is known for them. They weren’t the easiest to find, but very cool when you did see them.