Palau 2009 - Day 2

Day 2
Because of the long day yesterday, we only had a 30 min classroom session this morning. Most of it was used to learn the names of our fellow travelers. We did get some information on Micronesia. Things like there are 2163 islands in all of Micronesia, spanning about 3 million square miles, but the land masses together are approximately half the size of Rhode Island. Now off to go diving.

Dive 1: Saies Corner: Liz and I are the only ones that had reef hooks, even thought the DM Burt said we would not need them, I think he said that because he just does not like them. Jim Wells from Sub-Aquatic Sports and Services said Liz and looked like rock stars with our reef hooks. There were a lot of gray reef sharks, small ones maybe two to four feet. I do think I may have gotten some good pictures of Liz floating along the wall.

Dive 2: Ulong Channel: This was a nice dive the first time I was here. I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately there was a pretty good surge and that made taking pictures difficult. I had my wide angle lens on so you would think I would not have to get close to the subjects, but again because of the surge it moved a lot of sand making the vis not the greatest. It was still better than San Diego, but with all the sand particles floating around getting a nice shot without the backscatter was pretty much impossible. We did see a couple of nice sized groupers, a large napoleon Wrasse, sharks (again small ones), and a turtle at the end. I did not get a picture of the turtle being he was at about 50 feet and I was just starting my safety stop.

I took some pictures with my camera using the wide angle lens. I did not take very many pictures though because of the conditions. I would have been better off to have used the macro, but I think even that would have been difficult due to the surge and current.
Dinner was nice; the whole group went into town and ate at a Japanese restaurant. We did the family meal thing, people just ordered different things and everyone had some of it. I do not know what some of it was but it was still good.

It is now 9:00 o’clock and I am ready for bed. So until tomorrow, I bid you a good night and happy bubbles.