Palau Ohana

Alii Everyone (Hello)! Well our Palau group just returned from an amazing Red Sea Ocean Adventure with many stories to tell. But first our hearts and prayers go out to all those in Japan who were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. We were actually diving when the tsunami hit and made it back to shore safely just before it was supposed to arrive in Palau. Thank you for all of you who prayed for us and sent emails of your concern.

We met up for a week of fun in the sun as Pleasure Island Palau hosted our group from Hawaii and Guam. KB Sakuma and his wife Lalii opened their hearts in true pacific island style by sharing their spots and putting us on a variety of fish from groupers, ono, dogtooth, uluas and more. We got to surf uncrowded waves, dive deep drop offs, chew beetle nut and experience the rich Paluan culture.

We had excellent boat men like Jr. who watched out for us while we dove as well as while we were on land. This guy is huge! Even the sharks in the water kept their distance from us because we had him on board.

Every day our pattern was to wake up at 5:00 am and dive all day till 5:00 pm till our legs couldn't handle. Our group was very selective and shot only what we needed. We got so many good photos to share in a future story in HSD Mag and TV so stay tuned. I got to also swim and video the biggest hammerhead shark I've ever seen, 15 ft plus probably weighing over 1 ton. I was watching its movement first then decided to take a drop on it as it headed my way...then it saw me and came in...then I heard the jaws music playing! More to come...

We even dove the remarkable "Jellyfish Lake" where our group swam with thousands of jellyfish and toured the rock islands. These Jellyfish are so fragile and here Jennifer and Nicolai were seen playing with a few. There is so much to see and do there but we ran out of time. We will definitely be going back to Palau so email me if you want to join us on our next trip out here. A big mahalo for KB and his Crew for hosting us and our group for joining us.