P-MAN VIII Update #14
27 February 2006

This morning we were fortunate to catch a flight back to Koror with Matt, instead of returning by boat as we had originally planned. He picked us up on Peleliu; then we went down to Angaur to pick up an American couple who had been visiting there since yesterday.

Mike enjoys his co-pilot ride with Matt Harris. © Mike Olds 2006

We did a little reef exploring on the way back (Matt has been a great and enthusiastic supporter of our work, and doesn't mind occasionally dropping down to circle at 500 feet to get a closer look at some suspicious object in the water or the jungle). We may have spotted a new portion of the Scullin Avenger that we identifed a few years ago on the eastern reef north of Peleliu. It appears that a large wing section may have recently been uncovered in the sand by the wave action produced by an unusually long, strong stretch of easterly winds. We also did a few turns around an area of Mecherchar that we intend to explore in a few days. We saw tons of SCUBA divers enjoying themselves in the crystal-clear water at "Blue Corner," and even did a low 360 over a pair of huge manta rays romping on the surface.

This is what attracts most diving tourists to Palau. Look closely and you'll see
clusters of air bubbles rising up from the depths on this beautiful reef. © Mike Olds 2006

Back at home, we did some debriefing and spent much of the afternoon catching up on some of the correspondence we neglected while on Peleliu. We're also spending a fair amount of time digesting what we learned on Peleliu, and may be able to report more fully on that when we have a better handle on it. Sorry to be cryptic about it, but I'm sure we'll be able to fill you in before too long.

We caught up with Jane, Sarah, and Don at PPR and had a pleasant sunset beverage, after which they graciously invited us to join them for dinner. Considering that the time we've actually spent with them is only measured in hours, rather than days or weeks, they sure feel like family...

Back at our digs, we started to try to plan the next couple of days. We want to keep productive, but it appears that we may have an opportunity to meet with the Governor of Peleliu at some point in the next two days. Since we don't yet know when that will be, we don't want to plan any of the several day-long investigations on our list. Fearing that we may have run out of things to do, we made a list of the less-than-full-day things that we still need to accomplish. By the time we went to bed, there were only 13 things on that list...

- Reid