Palau-April-2008

Our anchorage in Palau was at Sam's Tours which had the biggest dive operation in Palau and was also the home of the Royal Balau (Palau) Yacht Club. It was a very busy dive complex similar to Chuuk but much more sophisticated and professional. There was also a small bar and food area where we met with other yachties and divers to have "sundowners" while we watched the beautiful sunsets. Once again our yachts were much photographed as they added interest to sunset shots.

(Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them)

Sunset at Sam's Tours

When we went into Koror, the capital of Palau, to get fresh supplies for Easter we decided the town was like a mini Guam or Manila as there were lots of Filipino workers. Palau was cleaner and larger than Chuuk and heaps larger than Yap. Actually it was a bit of a culture shock after peaceful Yap as it was so busy. Fortunately, it was much more peaceful out at our anchorage at Sam's Tours!

Our Brave Guide with a Banded Sea Snake

The diving was absolutely magic! We dived all the famous spots including the Blue Corner where there were many sharks, turtles, manta rays and schools of large fish every colour of the rainbow. We developed a great relationship with our dive guide and had fun on the long rides out to the dive sites.
Between dives we had picnic lunches on some of the most isolated picturesque islands and beaches imaginable. The scenery in Rock Islands was so fantastic that we were reluctant to leave each time we went there. One of the islands was so beautiful and rugged that it was used for the British Survivor Palau TV Series.

After one month as the weather wasn't right to sail to the Philippines so we extended our visas (at great expense) and continued to have some more fun. We were so thrilled when our friends from SY Keturah caught up with us again as they had taken a different track from Chuuk than us. We also had a great day out kayaking in some of the beautiful rivers and lagoons.

Typhoon Corner Palau

The weather began to turn nasty so we moved Hamamas into a "hidey hole" in a safer anchorage where we were better protected from the winds from all directions. But the weather continued to worsen as Typhoon Ramumsum formed close by. Later it headed off north and developed into a Super typhoon!

While in our "hidey hole" Tom had another very nasty bout of Malaria and all in all he spent 6 nights in the Palau hospital. Some of those nights Fran was on Hamamas by herself when the typhoon was forming close by. It wasn't much fun for either of us! Tom was a very ill as it was wrongly diagnosed as Dengue Fever for about 2 weeks. Finally a switched on Dr from Fiji recognised it as Malaria and he gave him a dose of very potent anti malarial tablets

The folks from Sam's Tours were very helpful and caring during this time giving Fran lifts to the hospital and generally watching over her. In fact they were so friendly and interested in us they even started to treat us as family.!

Despite Tom's malaria we thought Palau was fabulous and would go back tomorrow! We ended up staying 10 weeks for one reason or another.