The day started out stupendously as Dave, James, Enrico and I with sunglasses at hand all watched from the bow as Trevor and Monika steered us into Malakal harbour. Simply spectacular, the sun slowly coming up over the island's many ridges and casting a glorious ray of light just in front of STARSHIP. Coming in around the point we saw a few small boats scooting around between the mushroom like formations in front of us. The next few weeks are looking good. By local time it was only 6.15am as we soon found ourselves at anchor and sitting down to our first breakfast in Palau.

Trevor was on the radio getting ready to clear through customs. After a few calls we upped anchor and headed over to the main wharf where customs and immigration men were waiting. We greeted, talked with them and had our passports stamped and interestingly for the first time they took a look at our vaccination documents. We were told that they have been having a few problems and it was important to ensure we were properly vaccinated for our own safety. Monika then showed the customs men throughout the vessel to look at the freezers and fridges so they could see what products we had on board. They also told us that due to a problem with fruit fly that all food products must be incinerated rather than just thrown away. Also that we would need to make arrangements to have the garbage removed. Once we were all clear, down came the quarantine flag and the Palau courtesy flag was then lifted to full mast. This is done as a sing of respect for the country you are entering.

Sun over one of Palau's many rocky islands.
[ photo - James Frankham ]

We were joined by Tova and Navot from Ocean Hunter. As Michael had been talking with them prior to our arrival they had for us some of the paperwork related to our stay in Palau, which had already been processed. Ocean Hunter is one of a few live-aboard dive operations in Palau and have been kind enough to show us some of it's  lovely sites. They offer a versatile service in diving with professional underwater photography and accomplished guides. Palau offers a diverse range of diving and is definitely a place to have on the to do list. See www.oceanhunter.com After having a chat with them both we arranged to rendezvous later in the day for a look around.

We moved off the dock and re-anchored a short distance from the main wharf. It was time to do a complete soap down as STARSHIP had gathered a little salt here and there while on passage. This is great as it gives us all an opportunity to get outside and have some fun. Once we had finished top to bottom Dave and I were trying to decide who got the better wash, STARSHIP or the crew. We decided that it was a tie.

DJ excited to be back aboard in Palau!
[ photo - James Frankham ]

Trevor and Monika left a little after lunch to pick up DJ as she was arriving on the afternoon flight. They where shown a few of the sights on the way to the airport by Tova. DJ’s smiling face was back on STARSHIP. She sat down will us all and talked for a little about her holiday in Germany and then we got down to some nitty gritty. What was the plan for the week? Well in order to have a good plan we needed to do a little research. So Dave, DJ, James, Enrico, Trevor and myself piled into the tender and made our way through a small passage with a raging current to an open little harbour, in search of some mind blowing info on where to go and what to do. Who better to be our guides than Navot and his son!

'Christmas'.
[ photo - James Frankham ]

During our short visit at Fish and fin’s Navot’s dive shop we were kindly introduced to one of the locals by the name of Christmas. Unlike most of the locals our dear Christmas was a very friendly and inquisitive Macaque monkey. She seemed to have an eye for Dave and lounged on his shoulder as he took her on their first date, a stroll along the waterfront. One of her bad habits we had been told about was disrupting the process of refuelling, as she seemed to find it amusing to turn off the pump. She’s young and female, can you blame her?

After taking a short stop off at Navot’s shop Fish and Fin’s we were off to do a little exploring. We cleverly dodged and weaved our way through the hundreds of individual mushroom islands flourishing with lush tropical vegetation taking in the amazing formations that were being bestowed upon us. After making a few stops here and there we arrived at a small arch that extended up between two of the mushroom islands. We swam and refreshed in the water which after a while was pretty damn warm being all of 30 degrees Celsius / 86 degrees Fahrenheit. After an afternoon of fun it was back to STARSHIP for dinner and a good night's rest before we began exploring tomorrow.

Have a wonderful day as we all have.

Talk to you soon.

Lou