Trip to Palau and Peleliu

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So Sunday night we depart our Malakal Island anchorage and head South. Multiple dives Monday and Tuesday off some of the many islands of Palau. Wednesday morning we wake up and find we are anchored at the Camp Rock South Dock on Peleliu.

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This is a small, artificial lagoon built by the Americans shortly after the battle to assist in re-supply. It’s right next to Orange Beach 3.

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Some 73 years later somewhat over grown.

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So on the dive deck the crew has the plan for the day.

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I decide to skip the first dive since they say there is current and want to be fresh for my second land tour of Peleliu. By going on the land tour I will also be missing the 1:30 dive.

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I do go on the 10am Orange Beach dive. I shoot video only on this dive so no stills. We see bunches of what looks like 50 cal and parts of something that could be that landing craft. And of course lots of fish and stuff you would expect to see under the ocean.

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Here I am lurking for some fish or something to ambush.

If you are bored, here is to dive video I edited from our Palau trip. A couple of shots of the Jake Seaplane but no Japanese ship wrecks since the vis was so bad on those dives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oex4S3jBX9c

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So after the Orange Beach dive we have lunch and most of us go ashore in the skiff to begin the land excursion.

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We had seen this area on our previous tour of Peleliu. This is where the Cleared Ground Demining folks were. The water and sand in the back left is Orange Beach 3.

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The sand of Orange Beach 3. What we are standing on was built by the seabees as part of their artificial port.

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A look back at the Rock islands Aggressor in Camp Rock South Dock.

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A map

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The first stop was the 81st Division Memorial and the old cemetery. So this is the standard off ship tour so I'm going to see many locations that I visited five days ago. But there will be some very "new" sites also. The couple on the trail to the right are heading down to Orange Beach(been there).

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i head to the remains of the chapel since I didn't go over there the first time.

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The crew is coming back from Orange Beach 2. Load up in the bus.

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Next stop was the Type 95 Japanese tank.

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Our guide had a Japanese picture book on the battle.