Today was the blogger tour of Yap diving with the girls. It says “Frontier Diving” on the first page of the brochure, so we did just that and hit the water with an open adventure plan, 12 tanks of Nitrox and lunch.

Our first stop was the local cleaning station for the mantas deep inside the lagoon in M’il Channel.

Diving at Stammtisch is a shallow static dive that is incredible when there’s mantas swirling around for your whole tank – without mantas and it’s a nature waiting game in low vis.

Turns out Margo has about the same attention span that I do, so the manta diving plan was modified a bit.

We moored up at the cleaning station site, put on our snorkels and went to do a little bit of reconnaissance. We spent about half an hour freediving the area and didn’t see any action, so we left the lagoon and rode out into the blue to dive whatever we found interesting.

We stopped at the fish attractant devices, were searching for bird activity and bait balls, came across some spinner dolphins and worked out way down south along the outer reef.

After a 30 minute boat ride we decided to dive at Cabbage Patch, a sloping coral wall with depths that range from 25 feet to well beyond Nitrox range.

The visibility today was what I would consider extended Yap visibility.

It’s rare to dive outside the reef with less than 100 feet of vis, however this afternoon, we had double that, it was stunning.

Margo commented that it was confusing to gauge her depth the water was so clear and later on said that was the clearest water she has ever been in.

So far so good, Yap scored huge points today on its blue water reef environment, not just for the clear water, but the coral formations and sea life.

We came across schools of jacks and snappers, white tip reef sharks, the whole id card of reef life and a cuttle fish on our first dive.

We had the entire reef to ourselves today, the only boat on that side of the island with killer conditions.

On our surface interval the ladies worked on their tans while we slowly motored south and scanned the horizon for activity.

Our second stop is a site we now call Buenavista, known for wild reef topography and a lot of life.

With even better visibility than the first dive, we came across at least 5 turtles. At one point we all were shooting our own turtle with our cameras at different depths and came across a couple more shortly after.

Diving these walls can be done at any depth. We went down close to MOD and could see the reef disappear into infinite blue.

Colorful overhangs with eels peeking out of holes, fish schools and swim throughs big enough for a Scuba Diver Girl and my camera rig decorated the environment.

Tomorrow the Ackers are taking the ladies on a personal tour of the Caverns and southern most walls… aside from the very tip of the reef, this is about as good as it gets.

The girls made it a point to say that they’ve only seen one other place with nicer coral walls out of all the places they’ve been in the world.

Stephanie and I have been stretching our tanks out and after the dive Margo grabbed her snorkel and met us on our safety stop for some photo bombs.

The water was irresistible this afternoon.

Our second surface interval included lunch that was pre-ordered the night before on the Mnuw. We sat around talking about everything we saw, catching some sun and being stoked on the way things turned out.

There was a lot of positive feedback about the vibe in Yap, you really feel like you’re on vacation here.

There’s nothing registering except the diving and the diving.

After lunch and a bikini surface interval, we rounded the southern tip of the island and went to Eagle’s Nest where we’ve had some ripping dives lately.

We rolled into less visibility, but more current and down here current means life. This dive was called an aquarium on a conveyor belt a few weeks ago.

Today it didn’t disappoint.

We got right into a school of rainbow runner, followed by chevron barracuda, then a lone proper barracuda, grey reef sharks, a huge napoleon wrasse, all the reef fish, a big marble sting ray in a sandbox and finally a white spotted eagle ray hovering in the current.

We left at 9AM and returned after 4PM, it was a full day on the water. This is the kind of diving that is available all year round in Yap, today the girls and I logged some solid reef dives.

As far as gear talk went today, Suunto was ringing in loud.

Somehow on our manta snorkel, my air-integrated, dive computer in freedive mode had a seizure after a few 20 foot exploration dives at the cleaning station.

It’s now after 9PM and I’m still in deco according to my watch. I dove a D6 all day today. The only downside was when we were all at over 100 feet too long, it was a Suunto alarm concert on the coral wall.

That was the blogger dive plan. I like diving big clear water sites with current and a lot to look at. Another positive attribute about diving here is that any day the schedule can be adjusted for whatever you want, even a nap in the sun.

This week we still have some night diving to do, sharks to school up and some island / culture touring to get on… right after the girls get their Yap driver’s licenses. Check up on facebook with the Scuba Diver Girls and Manta Ray Bay Resort for other photos and updates.

Day two of the girl’s Yap dive adventure kicked off with a smile of a sunrise on a private boat loaded with Nitrox, lunch and two of Manta Ray’s most experienced dive guides.

Sunshine, calm water and the whole reef to yourself, this is Monday in Yap.

Yap is where you dive rich tropical water with just your boat group. It’s still the untouched paradise island where you can get in the water without a crowd and stay down as long as you want.

The only plan was to leave the dock, be prepared for anything and have a good time.

Today I wanted to show the ladies Yap’s clear blue water and rich coral walls.

Alex and Mike took us out to the Philippine Sea and headed south to our first site at Big Bend.

This week we’re making a point about the diving – there’s more to Yap than mantas.

The barrier reef offers sheer walls, sloping reefs, channels, caverns and a mix of interesting topography in clear water with lots of life.

At Big Bend we rolled into triple digit visibility with mild current.

This wall dive gave the girls an introduction to big water Yap diving and we found ourselves having a Mares and Suunto photo shoot at 100+ feet in the first 10 minutes of our dive.

Both Suunto D6’s were set pretty conservatively and were doing their job keeping things in check as we drifted south over and under brilliant coral formations.

We had a lot of light and could see the surface detail from way down the reef wall. Along the dive we came across napoleon wrasse, white tip reef sharks, schools of reef fish, anemones, snapper, jacks and explored some canyons that extend into the reef as far as the breakers.

We spent an hour or so as a group, then Alex and Margo went high on the reef and Stephanie and I stayed down the wall for a bit and we finally kicked into the blue on a safety stop to be greeted by blue skies on the surface.

A little sun and swim time was spent with hot tea and cake before we headed north for some channel drifting.

On our boat ride Stephanie was showing off some Suunto technology and played back our dive profile before modifying some settings for the next dive, those D6’s are pretty slick.

Next stop was Yap Corner where M’il Channel opens up to the clear blue.

We hit it on the last hour of incoming tide with just enough current to drift from the open water to the ridge, deep inside the lagoon.

As soon as you roll in we had a school of chevron barracuda and black snappers getting herded by Go-Pro’s and popping strobes from my rig.

There’s a lot of life in M’il, big and small, surrounded by rich coral walls.

We got into sharks, turtles, eels, a ton of fish and had a general good time.

There’s a lot of gear chatter going on topside with this latest Mares delivery – from the wetsuits, to the fins and even Steph’s optional bc pocket.

I’ve been checking out their hybrid pro tech bc’s since they unpacked them.

They came out so compact I had to ask what it was at first. The ladies are impressed with their comfort and that they fit so well for a unisex design.

Just before our last dive Stephanie ran me through her gear and showed me all of the tricks, from the suspension cumber bun to the modular design.

 

I got to see the fins in action for myself, we were passed by a small white tip reef shark and I gave about three kicks to move in for a photo and gave up on it, then was sharply passed by Stephanie at full throttle with her Go-Pro.

She is swearing by her black X-Streams now.

Scuba Diver Girls are loving Mares, Suunto and diving Yap. We still haven’t even exercised all their gear, we have some Watershot night diving to do this week and a few Manderinfish to film.

Tomorrow we head out on another three tank day and by Wednesday we’re going to start in on some island fun. Bill and his family are scheduled to take the ladies on a Caverns tour on Wednesday, followed by some super charged shark action on Thursday with a plane wreck dive in the mix somewhere. Stay tuned for more action with the Scuba Diver Girls’ facebook page as well as Manta Ray Bay on facebook.

Back in March I threw a blind invitation at the Scuba Diver Girls to create a custom media party in Yap, and last night they finished their 24-hour travel across the Pacific Ocean. This week we’ll be promoting scuba diving’s people, places and products with Yap’s manta rays, sharks and warm water reef life as our backdrop.

For some people this will be the first time they even hear of Yap and see the kind of diving going on here all year round. These girls travel the world promoting dive destinations and scuba gear.

What attracted them to Yap was the big animal interaction, clear warm water and the ancient island culture. This week we’re going to get them as much of that as they can handle, starting with the diving.

Today was a check out dive after they unpacked a tropical dive arsenal from Mares and Suunto. Shiny new scuba rigs included Abyss regulators, hybrid pro tech BCs, Reef 2.5 wetsuits and two kinds of fins with Mares’ unique bungee straps. Scuba Diver Girl computing is done by Suunto with easy-to-use and feature rich matching white D6’s.

Today’s first dive was Valley of the Rays which finds itself praised in the list of top dive sites in the world. It’s where we interact with the mantas after the trade winds settle down on the West side of the island. It’s a shallow narrow channel with 4 cleaning stations. The mantas favor outgoing tide which generally means reduced visibility and current.

We rolled into a 1-2 knot current and 30 foot of vis and immediately came across sleeping white tips at the sand bottom, then started checking the cleaning stations for manta action. At the second cleaning station we got our ray, first swimming right passed Stephanie on it’s way to the top of the coral head.

This is the time of year that mantas migrate, however Yap is quite possibly the only place on earth where there is no season, there’s always mantas here to dive with. Today’s first sighting was a resident easily identified with a shark bite taken out of it’s right wing in the back.

After hanging around and watching the ray circle and clean itself, we popped up to waiting boats, hot tea and post dive snacks. Only a couple of gear tweaks were necessary, a mouthpiece swap and tank strap adjustment later, we were surfing across the lagoon on our way to the other side of the island for a clear blue water photo adventure.

Mantas are protected in Yap, their water as well as habitat is part of a government-backed protection program that benefits all big animals, including reef sharks. Vertigo was our second stop.

This is where we introduced the ladies to well over a hundred feet of vis, infinite depth below the reef wall and a large school of friendly reef sharks that are well adjusted to boats and divers. An environment like this raises already high enthusiasm.

Vertigo doesn’t disappoint and today was no exception. Grey and black tip reef sharks constantly patrol the wall and clear blue. This week I promised the girls a super charged shark experience, this was just the introduction.

We’ll be seeing sharks all week, recently the list of species contains Leopard, Nurse, big Silky and Silvertip sharks, along with the normal Grey, Black Tip and White Tip reef sharks seen on almost every dive. Yap’s big animal sanctuary keeps the shark population thriving… which makes for exciting diving.

Over an hour of Nitrox later the girls’ SD cards were filling up with each other, mantas and sharks on our Sunday shake down dive. Our boat ride home was only 25 minutes, which put us back at the ranch before happy hour even with an 11 o’clock start time.

Tomorrow we are breaking off on our own schedule with a pile of tanks, snacks and spare batteries on a dive adventure. Alex and I will be guiding and looking for clear water, bait balls, current and getting the girls onto the action with media to share.

Stay tuned on the Scuba Diver Girls facebook feed and check back here for the latest status of their Yap adventure. We’ll be checking out the rest of the island, introducing them to the native culture and getting on some night diving before they’re done.

This is a Yap Sunday and what it looks like after our guests make the journey here, sleep in, have breakfast and take a late boat out onto the reef. Tomorrow we’ll be waking up and hitting it earlier and staying out until they get what they came for. Here’s what we’ll be looking for, photos from the last couple of weeks.

We’ve had some excellent weather and dive conditions recently resulting in solid photo ops around the island. These are my lastest snaps from the past couple of weeks from 6-8 dives. Right now is a good time to be in the water and to get in on all of this. Here’s what it looks like today and what’s going on…

Early summer means a couple of things; the trade winds have died down and the Mantas are done mating.

The whole island’s dive map is on the radar now and we’re getting into a lot of life out in the water.

Sharks, mantas, turtles, rays, macro reef life, eels and big fish in triple digit visibility every time we step outside the reef or hit the channels right.

Down at the southern tip of the reef, on the Pacific Ocean side is one of the best dive sites going right now.

A few of us have been hitting it every chance we get and bringing back rich dive reports.

Land’s End and Eagle’s Nest are the two most southern sites on this side of the island. When the current pumps the life comes out and we go on 3-4 knot ripping safari dives with more to see than you can take in all at once. Looking out to the blue at huge schools of barracuda or look into the reef at hovering Eagle Rays, giant Grouper and strafing sharks.

Three out of the Four times we’ve done this over the last couple of weeks have produced the highest quality dives outside of the ever-rich Vertigo and Stammtisch where you rub elbows with reef sharks and manta rays with daily consistency.

The trick is finding the current, the more current the more life… at the end of the drift you hit an eddy where two distinct water temperatures collide in an vortex of fish schools, rays and reef sharks in clear water. We’ve been practicing down there to get things right for this summer’s diving.

When the current pumps too hard, the ride ends in less than half an hour… not enough current and it’s a mile-long kick.

Yesterday we covered two dive sites and popped up a hundred yards from the Caverns mooring, when we get this right, we’ll be able to drop in and ride the reef across two dive sites and kick out of the current’s eddy to hook up with our boat at the Caverns amphitheater.

A little bit of dive R&D has been going on over here with a strong spirit of fun.

If you aren’t taken to Eagle’s Nest, tell your dive guide and schedule the boat for a low tide roll in. Everybody goes to Stammtisch and Vertigo and you won’t miss the Caverns… but there’s some sites out here that are must-do’s during your stay and the southern tip has a couple of them.

A few of our recent guests were from Kangaroo Island, Australia who are sea urchin divers. Professional divers are one thing, professional divers from Australia are another.

They dive in cold water, low/no-vis and have to have a cage around them to keep from being picked off by a Great White.

Those guests went on a ripping current ride through the wildlife safari and asked why it wasn’t the first dive they were taken on – they called it “An aquarium on a conveyor belt…”

Along with the recent reef rides, we have been moving shark bait around the island with mixed results and taking a bottle with us on every trip.

The shark action has been amplified, last week, along with typical Vertigo, we had a huge leopard shark in M’il Channel that was one-third tail, we were passed by six feet of shark and over three feet of shark tail.

When you hit M’il with the tide you can get three dives sites out of one tank. We drifted from the clear blue at Yap Corner all the way passed the ridge deep inside the lagoon. We had eagle rays passing mantas, schools of jacks, sharks and a grouper bigger than the blogger at the reef bottom on our way through M’il.

Yesterday I woke up a big nurse shark at the end of our dive down south, my first one seen in Yap.

All of the recent action has been nice, a lot of young turtles are seen doing whatever turtles do out on the reef as well as a full presence of reef fish.

We have some busy weeks coming up, this weekend; the Scuba Diver Girls arrive for a week-long custom dive party and after that Kid’s Sea Camp lands from Palau for a week of family adventure.

In July, we have some guests who chartered Popou for a three-day outer island wreck dive adventure to Ulithi atoll. Yap summer is off to a strong start.

 

---

Getting Here

People still ask when the best time to be here is, there’s always good options year round.

Right  now, this is what the diving looks like – there’s still mantas being cleaned at Stammtisch and schooling sharks at Vertigo.

Bill’s still booking travel saving you the headache and the possibility of missing out on that less expensive flight, shorter layover or more direct line to Yap: bill@mantaray.com.

Photos by: Brad Holland | facebook.com/bradlifestyle

 

 

 
With five boats in the water, Manta Ray Bay is quite a busy place right now. After all, we take pride in making our guests’ wishes come true. So, if there are divers who really don’t want to dive with sharks or mantas, well, there are always separate dive boats we can rely on.
That holds especially true for SharkSchool following its own agenda. After the shark carroussel at Yap Caverns, the dive at Cabbage Patch that featured an elusive 10-feet silky
shark and the hammerhead expedition, Vertigo was the spot to be.

 

The first double-tank-dive surely showed my favorite shark place in Yap at its best. At least 25 greys and blacktips hovered off the reef and even on top while the first-timers to Vertigo hardly could believe their eyes. As the animals got used to “their“ divers over the years, they instinctly know that bubbles and humans pose no threat to them. They’re not exactly shy folks. Given the excellent visibility of 120ft, I am sure nobody had any backscatters on the few hundred photos that were shot during the dive. And God knows there were plenty of good opportunities to capture the moment on chip: during more than one hour, sharks were cruising in loose formations from the left to the right and from the right to the left.

“Can’t we do the next dive just here?“ That was pretty much the tenor after the first taste of Vertigo. While the tides was changing and murky water from the lagoon pushed the visibility down to 60ft, everybody was keen to get in the water, especially since Colin brough a some caged tuna heads for special attention. As usual for a responsible baited dive, everybody was assigned a seat on a dead coral on the reef crown in some distance from the bait box, which in the beginning was with Colin. Bringing it down to the reef, he immediately ended up knee-deep in shark soup.

But that’s not anything to distract Colin, who basically is as cool as somebody working a dog pound. The switch was flicked – about 25 sharks shot for the bait box, completely oblivious to the divers. Except for those, who went for a closer look and suddenly found themselves passed by grey sharks that, while being not aggressive at all, somehow always manage to take advantage of people’s blind-spots and never ever seem to hit a diver no matter how close they are. After these dives, it was clear that Vertigo would stay one of the major sites for the practical side to this edition of SharkSchool. It was also a pleasure to learn that lecturer and field researcher Erich Ritter is quite fond of Yap when it comes to events like this, thanks to „few divers, shallow water, plenty of sharks and short boat rides“. It’s too early to confirm yet, but we’re positive that SharkSchool will see another edition in Yap. If you’re interested in joining, we would be certainly happy if you let us know. For more information on the idea and the concept of this great workshop, please see: www.sharkschool.com.

Erich Ritter, PhD, and “Manta Man” Bill Acker

We embarked on a shark hunt this morning, seeking an elusive school of Hammerheads seen just a few times here. Seems that shark school has all the stops pulled out on the diving schedule, not many guests want to get up early and head out for deep current dive in the dark.

Hammerheads have been seen in Yap in one location under the right conditions. This isn’t a dive done often and it requires an adventurous group of divers. The two conditions are sunrise and incoming tide, natural cycles that don’t always coincide, however today was spot on.

About ten minutes by boat from the hotel is a deep reef that’s not part of the Pacific side barrier.

It’s a separate seamount shaped like a crescent and it’s called Crescent Reef, of all things.

During the last hour of a big incoming high tide we rolled into 20 meters of water in between the two reefs and kicked against the current out into the dark blue with over a hundred feet of visibility.

The dive plan was to find the western tip of the deep reef and kick out into the blue and hold approximately 30 meters of depth. This sounded much better on the dive dock, after being there with over a hundred feet of water above us and another hundred or so to the floor below us was a rich experience as the sun rose over the Pacific.

Most of us pulled down half a tank by the time we got to the area we were looking for, but we were on a shark hunt which requires a different stroke.

We didn’t see Hammerheads today and the dive turned out to be the equivalent of an uphill hike, but that’s nature.

At mid dive, the good news was that all we had to do was nothing and the incoming tide would carry us back to the island.

Today is a three tank day for shark schoolers, after this we went back to the dock and warmed up with coffee and breakfast and met the rest of the guests coming downstairs on their schedule. The return drift was done at recreational depths and it was a 30 minute ride back to the main reef. White tip sharks and  a giant marble ray were seen on the sand bottom below along with fish schools and we saw a 3-foot dogface puffer fish.

The last class lecture talked about circumstances, environments and how to sum up a shark situation around shorelines, river mouths and in murky water.

Another big topic was about  uncovering natural shark disposition with human beings. Some of Dr. Erics videos demonstrated high shark intelligence with examples of unaggressive behavior. Some of the content showed Bull sharks being hand-fed, which illustrates behavior and disposition characteristics for a predator of that size. That would be like feeding polar bears pinguins wearing only a glove.

There’s a lot of learning going on and guests are impressed with how much knowledge is being passed each day and the divers have been satisfied with the proximity, consistency and numbers of shark encounters here on Yap. Asking around at the breakfast table it seems that some European feedback was the Red Sea, Maldives and other popular exotic dive destinations show a decreasing number of sharks while diving. In Yap you still see impressive numbers of large mature animals of multiple species, as well as baby and adolescents on almost every dive demonstrating a healthy population.

This afternoon the school is going to Vertigo with bait for a shark dive where you can rub elbows with Black Tips and Grey reef sharks over the reef in the Philippine Sea. We also had another group come in on the last plane which doubled the class size, there’s still several days to go, more classes and another 10 or so dives before the week concludes.

Fingers are crossed to get the group a 10+ foot pelagic, we’re still hoping to pull up a Sivertip from the deep down at the southern tip before this party ends.

Day two of shark school took the group down south on Popou to Yap Cavens and the southern walls.

Yesterday we prepped the Caverns site with a bait box which produced a big group of mature Grey Reefs occupying the site.

The Caverns dive is typically a sharky experience with white tips resting in the amphitheater and grey reefs patrolling the reef wall, however today was an amplified shark encounter dive thanks to the bait.

We rolled in and hung off the amphitheater wall and watched about 15 reef sharks demonstrate several types of behaviors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a cleaning station where Grey Reefs perform a mouth-open tail stand and get picked by cleaner wrasse as well as a sand bottom deep cleaning station out of nitrox depth farther down the reef slope.

After watching the sharks out in the blue we kicked out and went deep where we were immediately investigated by members of the shark group. Just as we learned in the previous night’s lecture the sharks swam a  predictable and consistent pattern around and through our small dive group.

 

Things started to add up from the classroom to the water we experienced the shark behavior we learned on today’s first dive.

The second dive was at Cabbage Patch, just north of the Caverns, where we were using Colin’s bottle trick hoping to call in pelagic species from the deep.

In previous attempts at this we have been successful at stirring up Grey Reef sharks from the blue and twice had an agitated 10-12 foot Silvertip streak the dive group.

Depth plays a role here, so we wasted no time and went straight to max operating depth and got the bottle cracking.

Today was rich with the acoustic response from pelagic life. Immediately a half dozen grey reef sharks showed up and circled our group, followed by a couple of proper barracuda, then 8 dogtooth tuna and finally an 8-9 foot Silky shark joined the party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Silky was originally identified as a Galapagos shark by Dr. Eric, which would be a strange species for Yap… and it’s still undecided.

We stayed at depth and kicked out into the blue hoping to interact with another large pelagic species all the while turning our computers into deco timers.

Again the sharks swam a consistent investigation pattern around our dive group coming in close to several of us.

Just as we learned in class, the sharks close more distance from behind than when a diver is facing it, several of us were able to witness this.

We interacted with three species of shark on this dive and were able to experience what we learned in the lecture portions of the school out on the reef.

So far the shark learning and interactions have been positive and the diving advanced.

Today produced plenty of sharks with up close encounters using two techniques to bring them right up to our group.

The beginning is always hardest: in case of Yap that means getting to that point past the immigration where the beautiful girl puts a floral wreath around your neck as if to say “relax – you’re in Yap now!” Still, it speaks volumes that the first thing our SharkSchool guests basically did after a much-needed dose of sleep was getting on the boat with guide Iggy. No later than 8.30 A.M. and for three dives – that for sure is a good display of stamina after travelling all the way from Germany and Italy! Needless to say the divers we greeted by some of our resident grey reef sharks. They surely won’t be the last they’ll see during their week in school, in fact Bill said it’s just the beginning: “Tomorrow I am joining them for baiting the south tip of the island”, the Texan manta whisperer announced.
In the meantime 8 participants are coming in from Hawaii to add to the 6 European guests.

Practical experience without theory is a no-go of course, after all the event is called SharkSCHOOL. Instead of moving over to restaurant schooner Mnuw and its big outdoor screen, lecturer Erich Ritter and the group preferred the comfort and air-con of our conference room. The topics presented by Erich just locked in with where the practical part of school starts, namely different concepts of interaction, e.g. the different ways sharks tend to approach divers. However, Mnuw was where it ended – with its connection to our microbrewery and the cozy atmosphery the floating restaurant is better to get to know each other than any conference room in the world!

It is always wonderful to hear from guests who have stayed with us and enjoyed their stay.  We even enjoy hearing from guests who stayed with us and who offer constructive criticisms of things that we could do to improve.  Here are three recent letters to us that we want to share with you.

“Dear Bill, Jan & Detlef,

Thank you very much for the wonderful time and the perfect honeymoon we had with you at Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers. We enjoyed our stay so much and thank you once again for your efforts.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2013.

We are looking forward to meeting you again at the “Boot” in Düsseldorf.

With warmest regards,

Margret & Erich Rohn (from Austria) “

“Hi Bill, We have just arrived back in Scotland after our stay with you at Manta Ray Bay. You, no doubt, receive many messages of appreciation from guests but Christine and I would like to add one more. We had a wonderful time. The accommodation was very comfortable; the facilities well thought out; the diving (and for Christine snorkeling trips) was very well organized, and the staff were superb. It really was like being one of the family. I’d like to thank you and Patricia for diving with me; Jan for the great job he does organizing the dive team; and the dive boys who were quite simply superb. Josie was really attentive to my special dietary needs and nothing was too much trouble for the restaurant staff. Also Sammir for the airport shuttles in the middle of the night. Christine also thought the massage she enjoyed was the best ever. All in all it was the friendliest place we’ve been to for some time – and we travel a fair bit. So, thanks again to the whole team!

Mike and Chrstine Pacione.”

 

“Bill,

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say I really enjoyed my brief stay at your resort.  I was on a rush when leaving and didn’t get to fill out your survey.  I was looking at some photos and remembered that Helen and Samantha were really great on the kayaking trip.  I’ve attached a few photos if you don’t mind forwarding to Sammie (first is of her in traditional attire and second is a great picture she took of us in the mangrove forest)…
Best,
Moon

Moonkyung (Moon) Kim  金紋慶”

 

New group trip set for next April – don’t miss it!

Travelling with a Swiss group is about the most laid back thing to happen to a diver. The good news: Tour Operator Hang Loose and its owner Urs Maring, who has put together hand-selected travel packages for many years, will soon set up his second group trip to Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers for next April. For inquiries, please contact Urs: tauchen@hangloose.ch.

OK, now the long version…

The diving world obviously is a small one, and seeing fellow divers spotting Manta Ray Bay shirts and shorts from our boutique on other trips, is always a treat, of course. Still I was really caught off guard when I saw six(!) of my Swiss dive buddies on a Manta Ray Bay dress code mission for dinner. On a liveaboard trip to Isla de Coco, Costa Rica… wow! Definitely a good reason to ask how they liked staying with us on that certain last night of a dive cruise…

Get your wings at Manta Ray Bay Resort!
Isidor:
„Impressive to say the least was the encounter with the mantas in Mi’l Channel. While it was expected, it still was unexpected somehow. One second the water coloumn was empty, a blink of an eye later they were already there, hovering closer and closer on their wings.“

Rolf:
„Yes, that is when I felt so awe-struck I almost had tears in my eyes. My girlfriend Christine, who is ‘only’ snorkelling was looked after in a very loving way. She was able to witness the mantas from the surface while we did the same diving. The guides… well, we felt real trust there and that is special. When we arrived, Jan and Detlef were immediately there for us. We did combine Palau and Yap back then in late 2011, but the next time we will surely spend much more time in Yap. Apart from the great diving, there is just a very natural way of ‘just being’.“

Oliver:
„I really, really also liked the personal atmosphere, the feeling when you’ve arrived, the own microbrewery, Bill himself – it really is a world of its own.“

Tom:
„If I think of Yap I automatically think of Vertigo. Many grey sharks and diving in a visibility… like diving in gin. Not to forget the mantas!“

Vanessa:
„Yap… (laughing)… isn’t that the place where people call mantas by name? And where you will find the best wahoo sashimi in the world. In all honesty: You just don’t stay just in Palau and miss out on Yap – that’s simply a no-go!“

Dieter:
„I just say: Stammtisch and Vertigo – two sensational spots. To be repeated over and over again. Outstanding visibility meets mantas meets sharks meets diversity. These are some of the best dive sites I have ever seen in the world!”

Wow, such kind words in the end of a liveaboard trip to Cocos Island – and now that is great company when it comes to the very pinnacle of dive spots – that really made my day!