Getting to Palau is time consuming but not difficult; however you are dependent on Continental Micronesia which, at times, means problematical schedules. As an example, on one of our return segments, Continental Micronesia canceled a flight; since we were connecting to another flight with only a moderate layover time, the entire return trip had to be rerouted through Seoul Korea. While it may be possible to continue flying from the USA until you reach Koror, the capital of Palau, perhaps the easiest course is doing an overnight in Guam. In our case, we did an overnight in Guam and an overnight in Koror going to Palau because of airplane connections and a desire to overcome jetlag. O the return, we duid an overnight in Guam on our way to Truk (see separate report) from Palau. Doing an overnight stay in Guam is just like staying in an American hotel located in an expensive (!), warm location. Doing an overnight in Koror is a completely different issue as most hotels are somewhat run down and the service level is not extraordinary to say the least. Koror obviously survives economically on the tourist trade. If you have extra time, visit the Palau Supreme Court; one of the justices is an American who decided to get out of a tension law practice in the US.
Ocean Hunter is a 60 foot sailing/motor vessel but it rarely, if ever, actually uses sails during diving trips. Below deck are three "cabins" each of which can accommodate two guests. The two forward cabins are tiny and the "master cabin", which is aft, is huge and equal in size and comfort to a small hotel room. The aft cabin has a complete head whereas the two forward cabins share a head; the aft cabin because of size alone would have a large amount of storage space but cabinet space and closet space are both provided provided. All cabins are air conditioned and well appointed and the ship is meticulously maintained. Amidships below is the galley with a spacious "U" shaped dining area. The meal service is composed of healthy food and the quality is high with fresh fruits and vegetables purchased during the preceding week. The Ocean Hunter is owned and operated by Navot Bornovski and his wife Tovah. Additionally, with another partner, they own Rainbow Hunter a new seaplane which is geared up for week long dive excursions to locations around the Palau area.
Above deck, aft is the diving staging area and is also the piloting area for the captain. The dive area is well laid out and reasonably spacious but a motor/sailor has less deck space than a comparably size motorized ship. Forward is a sun area and clothes area for drying wetsuits; however the forward area can get quite windy.
Because of its size and draft, Ocean Hunter is able to allow diving directly from the ship where its competition, the Palau Aggressor III and the Sun Dancer are forced to use tenders to transit divers to the dive site. In some cases, dinghy transit on the Ocean Hunter is also used but this is due to the currents and ease of pickup afterwards. At no time did we feel abandoned using a dinghy but we did deploy safety sausages frequently.
Water temperature in Palau is a warm 80-82 F degrees and visibility is normally pretty good. There are, however, many swift lateral currents and occasional down currents. Ocean Hunter prides itself on maximizing dive time subject to good common sense and so there are five or more dives available on a given day. Navot or his dive master does go on some dives if requested, but there are also buddy team dives with no accompaniment. The frogfish pictured below is one of Navot's favorites as it is territorial, and can be found again easily.
Strongly
recommended are safety sausages, reef hooks, and dive alerts to maximize safety
and despite the preconception, reef hooks actually save the reef rather than
damage it. Be sure and hit Blue Corner, Big Drop Off, Peleliu, and despite the
hordes of diving tourists, check out Chandler Caves. The popular dive sites
have live aboard boats and day boats competing for accessibility and Ocean Hunter
tries to get to the popular sites before anyone else.
In order to maximize diving, I would strongly recommend a live aboard if you are planning to dive Palau since travel to and from the good dive sites requires an hour each way even in fast day boats; as such two dives per day is the effective maximum if you are land based and this precludes night diving totally.
So how did I find the diving? It depends on your perspective. If you like high voltage sites but lots of company then Palau may keep you very happy. If you think that worrying about whether you will be the first boat on a site is bothersome, I recommend diving in Papua New Guinea where you will almost certainly never see another boat.