While my wife Patricia and I were driving to town this morning on our way to pick up our youngest granddaughter who is scheduled to spend the weekend with us, I suddenly realized something special.  The day is glorious, sun is shining, breeze is blowing, everything is green from the summer rains and then it dawned on me.  Exactly 17 years ago, to the day, I was making this same drive as the brand new owner of the Manta Ray Bay Hotel, Yap Divers and Wave Crest Travel Agency.  Sure, I started each of these businesses and ran them from the day they opened but August 1, 1973 was the first day that my family and I actually OWNED them.

What a time it was.  The oldest and youngest kids had turned 12 & 4 years old less than 30 days earlier while the middle two were 8 & 6 respectively.  Today, Numie the oldest one, has just turned 29 with a degree in Hotel Management from the University in Canberra, Australia is married and has a 14 month old daughter – Mary Patricia.  Numie is now the Human Resource Manager for the Resort after having spent her life working at just about every job we have here.  Next in line is Nathan a 24 year old Lance Corporal in the US Marine Corps who spent a year in Engineering School at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and 2 years at the University of Hawaii before finding his calling in the military.  Nathan also spent 2 years as our chef between the time he was in Hawaii and the time he joined the Corps.

Valerie is next in line and she is back home working as a dive guide for Yap Divers after spending two years in the Business program at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth where she was double majoring in Accounting and Entrepreneurial Studies.  Val is now married and has an 19 month old son – Thaddaeus.  Last, but certainly not least, is Oliver Patrick “OP” Acker who has just celebrated his 21st birthday and is set to graduate from the College of Micronesia in Pohnpei with an AA degree in Computer Information Systems. OP is looking forward to enrolling in the University of Hawaii at Manoa in January (the same school I attended for Graduate School).

I have been married for more than 25 years to Patricia Mangthin, who is sitting beside me this morning as we head for town.  She is happy to finally be a grandmother and realizes how lucky we are that they are all living close to us in Yap.  Patricia has a wonderful family spread between Yap, Saipan and the United States, my family are all still in Texas and doing well.  The kids are healthy, there are two grandkids in Yap, the business is better than it’s ever been so, as Joe Walsh would sing . . . “Life’s Been Good to Me So Far.”

On Thursday night, Patricia, Greg Wilson and I were treated to a very memorable, and rare, occasion.  We were invited to dinner at the private home of Trader Jack Cooper, perhaps the most famous publican in the South Pacific.

We first met Jack at his restaurant and bar over coffee one morning and then visited his house one afternoon.  During that afternoon visit, Jack took a liking to Patricia and decided that we were worthy private dinner companions so we were invited to his house where his wife Rosa cooked an amazing meal of steak, fresh salad, carmalized onions and potatoes.

Jack has been in Rarotonga for over 30 years and has established an impressive business empire including the famous Trader Jack’s Bar & Grill, a catering company and fish processing plant including a 10 ton per day ice machine.   Jack Cooper is truly a captain of industry having started numerous other businesses over the years and now settling down to write his memoirs – “40 Years Behind Bars” detailing his history in the tourism business.

Obviously Patrica and I extended an invitation for Jack and Rosa to visit Yap and allow us to return the hospitality.

Bill Acker & his wife Patricia met up with several Canadian friends of Greg Wilson for dinner and drinks to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. Music was provided by Wally Duff and Ian Wheeldon on the guitar with Greg Wilson singing along. It was a greaqt time all around and oh by the way, it was also Patricia’s birthday.

The venue was spectacular in the late afternoon as the sun was setting and the waves were crashing on the beach as seen through the lush tropical garden setting of the Waterline Restaurant. Even after dark, with the group gathered around the guitar, the atmosphere was stricktly party mode all the way.

Wally, originally from Belfast, is the only true green Irishman in the country and we had him for the evening. The evening’s music ranged from Irish ballads to Elvis Pressley with at least two renditions of Happy Birthday for Patricia.

Patricia and I have arrived in the Cook Islands where we are staying with local legendary dive pioneer Greg Wilson, owner and manager of Cook Island Divers.  Greg has been a close personal friend for a number of years and has been to Yap over a dozen times.  Believe it or not, this is the first time for Patricia and I to visit the Cooks.   Greg regularly reminds me that he has been working 20 years to get us to visit.

We have done the various tourist type things, round island drives, up to scenic points, visiting local watering holes and participating in Island Night at one of the local hotels for a traditional feast and dancing.   All of it has been good but the highlight for us has been the diving.

We have been out on the dive boats with Greg for the past 4 days and have seen some very good fish life, clear water and some stunning underwater vistas.  I have to say that I have been very pleasantly surprised by the dive quality but I suspect a lot of this has to do with Greg and the fact that he has been diving these waters since 1973.   We regularly see other dive operators’ boats in locations that we don’t dive and go past them to what Greg says are much better dive sites.  Seems that saving fuel is part of other operations plans while Greg and his staff go out of their way to put you on the day’s best diving.  Greg obviously shares my views on giving customers more than they expect.

At Yap Divers, we stive to under promise and over deliver and Cook Island Divers seems to share this viewpoint.  I urge anyone reading this to consider a stop in the Cooks for any planned New Zealand or Tahiti trip.  Managed by a transplanted Englishman, Ian Wheeldon, Greg’s dive shop specializes in SCUBA Training from Discover Scuba through to Instructor with PADI, NAUI, SSI or CMAS.  You will be in good hands as a new or experienced diver.

Next up, St. Patrick’s Day and Patricia’s Birthday and then more diving.

Manta Ray Bay has often been the base for film crews.  We have just finished hosting an Australian TV crew called Kaufmann Productions .  They were here as part of a larger filming project which is concentrating on the four main manta hotspots around the globe, namely, Mexico, Maldives, Australia and of course Yap.  Yap has  recently been designated a manta sanctuary, which will thankfully help to protect the resident population of mantas from being hunted like they are in many areas of the world.   Speaking with Gisela Kaufmann, the team leader, she told me one of the reasons they came to Yap was purely down to the years of hard work Bill Acker has done working with these amazing creatures and helping to put them on the dive map.

Bill spent most of his days working with the crew, taking them to various dive sites such as Miil Channel, narrating to the camera and giving his observations over the years.  The crew managed to get some great manta footage; including the amazing mating ritual, where it is possible to see more than a dozen mantas circling in the water as part of their courtship ritual.  The crew also managed to get down Yap Day which was held this year in the municipality of Tamil to get some fantastic footage of Yapese culture in full swing.  Yap Day is a celebration of Yapese culture and draws visitors from around the world and is held every year on the 1 – 2 March.

Part of the filming team included Dr Kathy Townsend, the lead scientist with Project Manta in Australia.  Speaking with her she told me of her excitement of what they had filmed and potentially discovered in Yapese waters in respects to manta behavior.  She believes that Yap may be a manta nursery.  If this proves to be true, it will be one of the very few identified on the planet and will thus help us learn way more about these elusive gentle creatures.

When complete the documentary will be shown on leading European and Australian public television channels sometime in mid 2011.

As mentioned in the last blog post, Bill has been working with the good people of Continental Airlines in order to try and help our valued customers get to Yap cheaper and easier.  The result of these talks is a Special Net Fare Agreement between Continental and the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.

We have been given special net rates from Tokyo, Japan and Nagoya, Japan to Yap via Guam with an add-on fare for Palau.  The base rate starts at $600 per person from Nagoya and $650 from Tokyo.  The add-on for Palau, from Japan has a base price of $250.  We also have a base rate from Palau to Yap to Palau of $335.  We say “base rate” because there are some taxes and fees that go with these rates but, in general, they are very minor.  If this is of interest to you, please e-mail Bill directly at bill@mantaray.com and he will get a firm quote for you.

Continental Airlines is a new member of the Star Alliance which means carriers from Europe to Tokyo would include Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss Air, Austrian Air & LOT just to name a few.  If you are a frequent flier with any of these airlines, you will earn miles for your entire trip.  The best thing about these fares out of Japan is the travel time and ease with which you can get to Yap.  The connections in Japan are excellent, your bags are checked to Yap, or Palau, at your departure airport and the connections in Guam are excellent as well.  No layovers, no stopovers.  From your bed to our dive boat as fast as possible.

For those going to Palau with China Air, you can use our special priced tickets from Palau to Yap to Palau to help you expand your dive trip to two islands for the price of one trip.  Again, for more information, please contact Bill Acker at bill@mantaray.com.  We hope to see you in Yap soon!

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After a short visit, Patricia and I said our goodbyes and drove to Fallbrook where we stayed for two nights in the wonderful home of our good friends Mike and Vikki Musto.  Wonderful people, great house and all in all a perfect beginning to the odyssey.  As much as we enjoyed the afternoon and evening with our friends, we were quite anxious for the 30th to arrive as that would be our first glimpse of our oldest son Nathan which was the entire purpose of this journey.   The 30th was “Family Day” at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California and what a day it was.  We were joined by Pat & June, Mike and Vikki plus more cousins – Galie, Moran and Bigeg.  We were all excited for our day with Nathan and our first glimpse, during his 5 mile Motivation Run didn’t disappoint.  Fit and looking sharp, “our” Marine was in front of his platoon.  We later learned that this meant he had been meritoriously promoted to PFC during boot camp!  The day just got better and better from there as after Liberty Formation, we got to spend the day with Nate.

On the 11th, Patricia and I fired up the old hybrid and began a leisurely drive back to California.  We haven’t been alone like that for quite some time, if ever, and it was a very nice trip.  First night was spent in Amarillo, Texas where we were the last customer of the day at a wonderful little Mom and Pop barbecue place where we entertained the proprietors with tails of scuba diving with sharks and life on a Pacific Island.  Sure would like to help them move their business out to Yap as the barbecue was really good.

We spend the 13th traveling from Green River to Las Vegas using I70 and I15 and stopping every couple of miles to take more scenic pictures.  Our option was this drive or the Grand Canyon and since Patricia had been to the Grand Canyon but not to Vegas, we took this and I tell you, the scenery was breathtaking, until you get into Nevada where it is desert and no thought of a rest area on the freeway.

We spent several hours in downtown Vegas enjoying the Freemont Experience light show.  This year it is dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and for a guy who was a sophomore in high school during that time, I was very much taken back to my rock and roll roots.  Really good, loud Jimi Hendrix band brought back memories and caused Patricia to do a couple of dances.  A ride along the strip to take pictures of the neon lights followed and then it was dinner at 1 AM.

July 31st – Graduation Day.  Patricia and I were joined for breakfast by good friends Roger and Doris Robohm from Colorado and my other “brother” Ron Martin from the LA area as well as my real brother Pat from Rockwall, Texas and his wife June.  After breakfast, we attended the color ceremony where we heard from the base commander, a lady General, who was an excellent public speaker.  The thing I remember most about her speech was a question she asked of all the new Marine mothers in the audience.  She wanted to know what they thought of their new Marine when they first saw them yesterday as all had dropped a minimum of 20 to 30 pounds and replaced this fat with solid muscle.  She then asked the Moms “Did you notice their pants?”  “I did in 12 weeks what you couldn’t do in 18 years”.  Sure enough everyone’s pants were actually at their waste.

We then moved to the parade deck where we were joined by the Yapese family – Laamar, Galie, Moran, Bigeg, as well as our friends Elon Place as well as Ray and Diana Bullion.  A very moving ceremony with all the new Marines in their dress blues and marching sharply was followed by a day of Mexican food and beer at a place in Old Town San Diego aptly named The Alamo.  The entire gang joined us and we also go to welcome our good fishing friend Mr. Jason Niiya.  They say a picture tells a 1000 stories so you can make your own opinion.

By now, we had a very unexpected surprise as we learned that Nathan would have on-base leave the following day at Camp Pendleton and that the cousins were all in town and waiting to see him.  So, we got up early (crack of dawn at 9 AM) and drove like crazy to join the celebration.  Nate didn’t know we were coming and when we drove on base (both Galie and Laamar are E4 Navy ladies), he received quite a shock to see that big, white, mustache sitting in the rear of the car.  He didn’t recognize his Mom but that’s OK as she didn’t recognize him standing in his camis by his buddy’s pick-up truck.  We not only spent Saturday the 15th with him but he also had part of the day on Sunday so we went back and stayed with him until his liberty was over at 1600 (see how I have picked-up on the language).  It was bittersweet for all three of us to say goodbye this time as we all knew it would be for an unspecified period.  Nate graduates from infantry school on the 8th of September and reports immediately to Ft. Lee, Virginia for 2 months of MOS school.  The future, past that, is up in the air so we have no idea when we will be together again.