Palau Day 6 - Diving Blue Corner, New Dropoff, Chuyo Maru

5/18/2022 - As we headed to Sam's the consensus was to try and do Blue Corner, a top dive site to see while in Palau. Actually, many people say that Blue Corner is one of the top 10 dives sites in the world for its visibility and viewing of the marine life. Upon arrival, we were pros at this point with getting our stuff and prepping for the day, Neil found us and said he would be joining us again today. We were super excited and he was amenable to trying Blue Corner assuming the water conditions were good, the site does see some really high currents depending on what time of the year it is. We got on the boat and headed out for our last day of diving. 

Traveling out to blue corner once again was an amazing experience. The green tops of the islands right next to open seas was exhilarating to watch. In many ways, I would go back to Palau just to take a ride on the boat again, it was that relaxing and that beautiful. As we arrived at the mooring line for the dive site, Neil took a look and said we were good to go, so we got ourselves suited up and ready to hop into the water. We were guided to grab the mooring line to help ourselves dive to the bottom as there was still a good current. On my decent I bumped my googles and got the much dreaded water behind the glass. The currents were moving so just a tug in the wrong direction on the googles produced some water build up. This is where I struggled on my training, and up until now I had no panic what so ever. Once the water came in though, it all came back, my breathing really picked up and for a moment down 40 ft I had the though of going right to the surface. Luckily my training kicked in and I realized this was not the best option, I signaled to Neil I was having a tough time breathing, he recognized the panic and worked to calm me down.  From there I had to clear out the googles, amazingly those skills stayed with me and I was all good to go. At this point I worried that I was now going to be the one to use up all my air first and force the group to surface early. I focused on my breathing from then out, very slow long breaths and it worked. 

Luckily at the bottom, there was Joan to help me along, she is my underwater luck charm in all these circumstances. The group all convened at the mooring line post and off we swam towards this wall underwater. Following the wall we made our way out a few hundred yards to the edge of an underwater peninsula, this is Blue Corner. Looking around you could see where the peninsula stopped, and along the wall was a large bed of coral. Neil helped us clip into the reef with a long string and connector called a reef hook. From there we were able to put air into our BCDs and float with the cable in tension looking out over this amazing wall where hundreds of fish were feeding in the current. You physically could feel the water moving against your face, there was some small particulate that was evident, actually this is what brought the schools of fish, food in the current. With schools of fish come sharks as well, another amazing site to watch as these creatures move forward and back in the landscape of your vision, checking out the fish. For 25 mins this was better than any IMAX show I had ever seen. An amazing display of what the ocean has to offer. Our bottom time was coming to a close, so with some help we unhooked from the reef and began our ascent back to the boat. Another really incredible dive, so happy to be with Joan and Winifred to experience this. 

The next dive site was a little ways away from Blue Corner, so we started on our journey while eating our bento box lunch. Image 7 shows what the site looked like up top for New Dropoff. We spent the next hour talking, enjoying our lunch and then prepping for what would be our 2nd to last dive. One of those important factors on a multi day dive is the 1 hour interval between dives to let the nitrogen begin to dilute out of your system. So the lunch addition makes this time just fly by. Diving New Dropoff went really smoothly, as you can see from the photos this site is a shear cliff under the water and it drops close to 300 ft. The coral and fish were the main event on this dive, as the cliff falls off, all you can see in front of you is this colorful reef. We saw turtles sleeping, small Nemos in the anemone, and even a lobster that was just hanging out. Best of all though was the photos we got of the three of us together. These are some of the best of the trip, Joan and I, and Joan, Winifred and I all underwater next to the Coral. 

Heading back to the dive shop we asked Neil what would be a good last dive to see. He said, have you seen a boat wreck yet? We said no and asked what he recommended. The Chuyo Maru was close by he said and at the depths we could dive he felt this was a great intro to wreck. He guided to keep an eye on our bottom time due to nitrogen build up, a first for us this whole trip. We got back to Sam's, dropped off one of our companions from the trip and prepped for one last diving hoorah. About half a mile away we moored into water with low visibility, very aqua blue as you can see from the later photos, 40ft visibility at best. The mooring line was connected to the top of the mast of the Chuyo Maru, and that would be our meetup and start point at 60ft. Having a dive master with us meant we were able to push our certified limits, in this case to 90ft. He guided us to check our watch to see how much time we would have before hitting our nitrogen limits, at that depth it was a short 15 mins prior to having to rise again to 60ft where our bottom time was longer. Prior to getting in the water, Neil also advised us to check out the tomato anemone at the top of the mast on the way out, a rare aquatic species in Palau. Once again off we went into the deep depths, great image of Winifred here with the mast of the ship in the background, really cool with that eire visibility. Once far enough down you got a sense of just how large this cargo ship was, 300 ft in total, we slowly swam from one side to the other, keeping close as a group. The main two pieces of the boat to see were the front of the ship which had depth charge attachments and a large gun, an interesting historical piece of this ship, and then the back portion where the boats control room was. Seeing the control room was neat, it was open enough for us to swim from one side to the other while looking out over the cargo portion of the ship. One by one we went through the opening and swam the twenty feet or so to the other end. Getting low on bottom time, Joan gave the signal that we needed to start to ascend, so we rose back to the top of the mast where this tomato anemone sat, the last two photos. After correction, these photos are brilliant in color, the anemone was unique under water but lacking this red color. Another great one of Joan under water next to the anemone, love it! A stunning display to end our dives for the week.

Almost forgot, the history of the Chuyo Maru. The ship was retrofitted by the Japanese navy during the war, thus was why it had the depth charges and cannons. When the US attacked Peleliu in 1944, the American airforce came as far north as this harbor. After several attacks the Chuyo Maru was finally hit with a bomb dropped from the air which penetrated the outer hull just enough to sink the ship. All six crew members made it safely off, but the ship sank into the abyss of the harbor some 100ft down. There were many ships sunk in Palau during this time, adding to the unique dives that can be seen here on the islands. 

Once again, if you end up going to Palau and need a recommendation, ask for Neil at Sam's.