P-MAN XV Update #13 - Deep dives to ID an aircraft. Barefoot in the park.

04 April

Any day on the water is better than a day in the office. We had three items to accomplish today. Meet up with a guy at his clam farm to talk about planes he's seen, do some more ID work on the suspected Japanese airplane, and take the Vice President out to the Corsair site that was located last year.

We got an early start so went to our airplane site first and made two dives on it. We sent Joe, Pat and Casey down to do some photography work and dusting. Then Dan and I went down to do some more.

One engine in 100 feet of water.

When diving to a depth of 100 feet, you do not have much working time before you become nitrogen saturated. Then, you have to have a pretty good surface interval before you can go back down with any amount of bottom time to do more work. So we shuttled off to meet with our clam farming contact.

We met up with Billy Watson at his clam farm. Well nearby anyway. He was out hunting corals for reseeding. We found him around a rock island and conducted our interview. Billy is a young guy and his business is aquaculture. He sells giant clams and corals for reseeding and aquariums around the world. A Palauan, he grew up in Maine living with his uncle, but came back to Palau to live.

Conducting our interview with Billy

It's always better if someone who has information is willing to show us personally. Billy was and he jumped on board. Part way to where he was taking us, we figured out we already know his site. So we started to take him back to his farm when he said why waste the gas, he'd hang with us.

We still needed some more surface time so he suggested a hike in the woods. He's hiked all over the Rock Islands and says there's plenty of pieces of metal up on the islands. Plus, no one really knows what's in the marine lakes. So we followed him onto a rock island.

Normally, we gear up for any land work in all our hiking kit: water bags, good boots, radios, etc. Did we have any of these things? Nope. Did we go anyway? Yep. If Billy can go barefoot with nothing else but a swim suit and wetsuit top, so can we. Except that barefoot thing. Pat doesn't like us to do that and makes us sign a contract that says we come out in the same condition as a Palauan who goes barefoot. No one has signed on the dotted line.

Heading into the woods with Billy.

Billy Watson and Dan back out on the beach

Casey about to shove us off.

We went back to our dive site and did two more dives in the same groups.

Dan during his safety stop

We dropped Billy back at his farm, then we headed back to Neco to pick up Vice President Bells and his entourage. He had with him his Executive Assistant Jennifer and two members of the Ministry of Justice, Bren and Perry. This was Perry's second day in Palau as a contract attorney from the U.S. Plus Sunny from BAC could not join us so Sylvia was our escort to the protected Corsair site.

Off we went and it took a bit longer than usual to get there. The water was quite rough. The winds had picked up out of the north. So after a choppy ride out to the Corsair, the VP and staff jumped in, looked around for a bit, then jumped back in. We headed back. Not the best day out on the water but they did get to see a really great wreck site.

After returning to port, we called it a day. Out to the Filipino Bakery for dinner and early to bed for all. Well that was the plan. I stayed up late looking at aircraft recognition materials for the site we worked today. Finally turned out the light after midnight. Good thing our first appointment isn't until 1045 tomorrow.

- Flip Colmer

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