NECO Marine, Palau Royal Resort, Micronesia: Undercurrent 08/2025

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Dear Fellow Diver,

I've been diving for 40 years, and I figured my first dive in the Republic of Palau would be one of the best of my life; instead, it was one of the worst.

Neco Marine's dive boat On my checkout dive at 15 feet, I was having trouble clearing my ears; I saw the water rising under the crystal of my 10-year old Casio watch (am I the last diver on the planet to wear a watch underwater?); I had insufficient weight to maintain my buoyancy; and I was unable to reach the purge valve on my rented BCD. I felt like a brain-dead newbie.

I cut the checkout short, climbed aboard the boat, swallowed my pride, took off my watch, and solved my problems. Having been too eager to begin my week underwater, I wasn't fully prepared. So, I slowed down, checked everything twice, and began again on a week of near-perfect diving.

Palau is an island nation in Micronesia, comprising 340 limestone islands, islets, atolls . . . and swift currents, the result of the confluence of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. But those currents are precisely why it's home to at least 1,450 species of reef fish, over 135 shark species, and more than 700 varieties of reef-building hard corals and soft corals. Currents make fish life abundant and exciting, so most dives are drifts, and one needs a reef hook to stop and see the action at a couple of sites. It's no place for new divers.

For example, after hooking into the reef at Ulong Channel to avoid being swept along, I watched hundreds, if not thousands, of reef fish, barracudas, sharks, triggerfish, and groupers swim by, and viewed the world's largest patch of cabbage coral, plus sea cucumbers the size of Subway Foot-Long Subs.

As the dive ended, I made my mandatory safety stop at 15 feet for three minutes, then rose to the boat and grabbed the mooring line alongside two women, as the rough water slammed us against the hull. They had arrived ahead of me, but I was closest to the ladder. "After you," I said, as the waves again bounced us off the boat. Rightfully, one of the women yelled, "Just get on the f...ing boat." Apparently, being chivalrous in rough water is not the thing to do.

I dived twice daily for eight days (with a day off after the fourth) with NECO Marine, a first-class PADI operation. Each morning, two of their six dive boats powered by twin Yamaha 250HP outboards would pick me up along with 11 other divers at our hotel. All the boats are equipped with sun covers, padded seats, dry storage areas, emergency oxygen kits, first aid kits, communication equipment, and, upon request, a rinse tank for photo equipment. While each boat could accommodate 13 divers, only six were on board for our 45 to 60-minute trip to our dive sites. After our first dive, we'd zip to the second site for our surface interval, get wet again, then make a short trip to Two Dogs Island for lunch before slaloming through the beautiful Rock Islands and returning to the dive shop between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m....

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