Palu 7°20’40N, 134°27’05 – 07°20.40'N, 134°27.05'E
PALAU July 2004 Submitted by Andrew Rayner, Yacht Nereus
The 9th quadrennial Festival of Pacific Arts took place in Palau in July 2004, some 25 Pacific countries bringing their best dancers, bands, singers, carvers, weavers, tattooists, and much more.
Despite this marvellous occasion only 7 foreign yachts made the journey, a graphic illustration of how far off the beaten track this little country is. It is well worth a visit. Lovely lagoon waters, top class diving, dolphins to swim with, the famous Rock Islands, a Jellyfish lake, and much remarkable history and culture, which has largely survived squashing by German, Japanese and American occupations which together totalled about a century. The islands are pretty, too.
Charts both paper and electronic are as usual inaccurate, in general about a third of a mile out. However, the narrow entrance from the E is well beaconed and lit.
Clear in at the main Malakal wharf, having called up on ch 16 (they ask you to warn in by e-mail a couple of days earlier), where a swarm of officials will remove all fresh veg and charge you two times US$50. We found that no visa was needed, but best to e-mail first.
Much the best anchorage is 2 miles north west, at Sam’s Tours. Contrary to what the charts show, there is a passage through the reef into a small harbour where Sam runs a tour company and the Royal Belau YC, with a jetty, fuel and showers as well as a humming bar. He has a few moorings (7°20’40N, 134°27’05E) which he may lend.
Koror has all facilities, though the water is suspect. It is within the US ambit for post, so a good place to have mail and spares sent. A basic machine shop and hardware store.
Typhoons can appear in any month, but seem unlikely in midsummer when they track further north. In the event of a threat there are a range of good hurricane holes near the anchorage and in the Rock Islands a short distance to the S.
Rainfall is huge, but normally confined to short bursts unless a typhoon is passing within a few hundred miles, when it can deluge.
Despite its small population (around 17,000, nearly all living in Koror) Palau has all facilities and even delusions of grandeur based on the $450 million negotiated from the USA and generous hand-outs from others, particularly the Japanese. Its shiny new Capitol, on a deserted jungle-girt hill far to the north of Koror, worthy of a US state, looks set to be the Brasilia of the Pacific.