From the Helm

This has been a year to remember. We started off with a full house for Christmas/New Year’s, had wonderful months of mating mantas in February and March and then April 9th brought us Super Typhoon Sudal with its destructive 18 hours of winds exceeding 150 mph.

As they say, every problem offers the possibility for a solution and sure enough Sudal moved our expansion time table forward by over 2 years. This is indeed the silver lining in that huge storm cloud.

Today, as I write to our friends around the world, we have a new dive shop in operation, Mnuw has been moved to her new permanent home, we have a new sea wall that will protect us from future storms and 7 new hotel rooms are very nearly ready for our first guests.

In addition a new infinity swimming pool will be completed by March 1st, complete with life size mantas swimming on the bottom.

A new laundry room has also been completed along with a new compressor room and generator room. We will soon begin work on the new lobby building but guests should not worry about construction noise. We are expanding but we have designs on how to keep noise to a minimum and how to move guests between the hotel, the S/V Mnuw and the dive shop. We hope our guests understand that we can’t improve without expanding.

Lastly, our new landscape artist will arrive in mid January to begin turning our grounds into a park. Mr. Sukirno has been the head grounds keeper for the Bali Hyatt for the past 10 years but has agreed to join the Manta Ray family. We are excited to have him and look forward to seeing you this year at the new & improved Manta Ray!

S/V Mnuw Back Where She Belongs

The Mnuw, home to our Manta Bistro, the Nautical Weaver Bar and the Crow’s Nest is now floating again and has been moved to her permanent home between the hotel and the new dive shop. Our new swimming pool is just off her stern and her bow points across Tomil Harbor to the East. The full moon rises directly from her bow.

Having her back in service has given our staff and guests alike a huge boost. We now have the best spot in Micronesia to sun bath, relax with a book, enjoy a cold beer or just watch life move along across the lagoon.

Naturally the cannon still fires at 4:30 each afternoon, announcing the best Happy Hour in the Pacific.

Jan & Melody Returning from Africa

Jan Sledsens and Melloney Verbeurgt will be returning to the Manta Ray Bay Hotel & Yap Divers this Spring. Jan will replace Fredy Gull, our long-time Dive Operations Manager which will allow Fredy to concentrate full-time on making Manta Brew with our brand new Micro Brewery.

Jan and Melo have been in Kenya for the past year and are looking forward to returning to Yap as soon as their contract is completed in early May. There is a chance that they will be given their release earlier than that and Jan has told us that he will be on the first plane headed East to Yap.

Both Jan and Melloney are looking forward to resuming old friendships and to helping us continue to keep Manta Ray Bay & Yap Divers as the Pacific’s premier dive resort.

Hunting for Yap’s Hammerheads

Jan Sledsens and Bill Acker will host a very special group of up to 10 divers for a series of discovery dives to locate the resident population of Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks that live off of Yap’s East Coast.

The session begins Wednesday, September 7th, 2005 and runs through Wednesday the 21st with packages beginning at $2,699. Price includes 14 night’s accommodations, all taxes, 10 days of 3 tank dives, 2 days of 2 tank dives, a Mandarin Fish dive, a 1/2 day kayak tour, a Village Cultural Tour and special lectures about sharks and hammerheads in particular.

Remember that only 10 people will be accepted for this special program. A photo contest will be held and awards will be given for the best images taken during the fortnight.

Don’t miss out on this special once in a lifetime offer to dive where few have gone before, looking for one of nature’s most unusual creatures.

Micronesia’s First "Camera Hotel"

We are currently putting the paint and other finishing touches on Micronesia’s first dedicated Camera Hotel!

Built specifically with the avid underwater photographer in mind, our "hotel" is a full featured work area dedicated to our many guests with cameras.

Each of our six work stations include a padded work area, pressurized air hoses for drying camera housings, flexible lights for delicate o-ring inspection, 110v and 220v outlets (with both U.S. & European plugs) for battery charging, shelves to keep the table area tidy, and a lockable cabinet for storing cameras and other important gear.

Located in our new dive shop, the Camera Hotel is a convenient one stop shop for everyone. With personal keys supplied for each cabinet, our guests will no longer have to haul wet or heavy gear up to their room or have problems with plugs and/or power supply to recharge strobe batteries.

Mike Veitch, our New Photo/Video Pro

Due to never overcoming a certain childhood tooth problem, Mike decided at a young age he looked much better with a regulator in his mouth.

After spending years traveling through the islands of the Pacific on the run from the frigid climate of Canada, he landed on the balmy shores of Yap.

Ever in search of the finest images of Mantas known to man, Mike has brought what seems like 6000 pounds of photography and video equipment (just look at his overweight baggage receipts) to the Manta Ray Bay Hotel.

Eager to share his knowledge of photography and video, Mike is the manager of Manta Visions Photo/Video Center. Mike offers a full range of services to our guests including:

Personal and Group Trip Videos, Photo Shoots, Photo and Video Classes, a full range of digital photo and video rental equipment, as well as other services such as CD burning and digital printing.

Before leaving Manta Ray Bay, be sure to pick up a copy of Mike’s award winning work as a photo CD, video DVD or 8x10 print!

Happy Diving!

Happy Holidays to all of our friends of Manta Ray,

Time has a way of passing us by when we live in paradise. Without the benefit of seasons, days tend to move along quicker than usual and with our tremendous expansion project well under way, I just have not had an opportunity to sit down and write an update for our valued guests and friends.

As one holiday has passed and two more are right around the corner, this seems like a good time to let you know what is going on. The Mnuw is back in service and is moored at her new anchorage between the old hotel and the new dive shop, adjacent to what will be Yap’s largest swimming pool and the only infinity pool in Yap. Trevor White, the famous Bali swimming pool designer and contractor is currently shipping all the stones and tile for our pool. Construction will begin within the next 2 weeks and we hope to have the pool open before the first of the year. What a way to celebrate New Years - a midnight Champaign swim!

As you can see from the pictures, we had a fantastic Thanksgiving feast aboard the Mnuw and we look forward to an even better celebration for both Christmas and New Years. We have a very special all inclusive Holiday Package for week long stays during either period. Please let me know if you are interested in spending Christmas, and/or New Year’s Eve, with the Manta Ray Family and I will be happy to send the details. There will be live music, Christmas plays, special events and of course great diving and great food, perhaps even a visit from Santa Claus himself.

Our manta mating season bookings are running way ahead of what they have been the past few years and for this, we are extremely grateful for our wonderful network of agents, press people and most importantly – you the guest. We anticipate a record turnout for January through May. Right on the heels of the mating season, comes our second annual Critter Hunt. My good friend Larry Smith will be back in Yap from the 22nd of June through at least the 20th of July for 4 weeks of discovery and fun. Spaces are filling quickly, we only have room for 10 guests per week, and more information may be obtained by writing to me at yapdivers@mantaray.com.

Here’s wishing you and yours a very Happy Holiday Season and hoping that we dive together in the coming months.

Dear Friends,

The past months has been very busy with some major excavating and digging going on near the Manta Ray Bay Hotel.

I invited Surangel and Sons of Palau to lead the rescue effort of the S/V Mnuw, and come they did. One large barge, powered by the tug boat SS Ksau, they where waiting at the harbor entrance August 25th at 6:00 AM, fully loaded with one huge crane, three large excavators, enough piles to build a new retaining wall and lots of good will and spirit.

After some concerns with the local EPA office and installation of a sea curtain, the excavation began in earnest.

Steady excavation, helped by fantastic weather, began Friday, August 27th and on the 7th of September, two of the excavators successfully pulled the Mnuw into deep water.

She was then moved alongside the dock in the harbor for general cleaning, inspection and minor repair work and the first after-typhoon party was held on board the old lady.

We are happy to report that the S/V Mnuw did not sustain any major damage and will be ready and fully operational for the upcoming Christmas extravaganza, so place your bookings now.

Surangel & Sons also brought with them over 175 liner feet of steel sheet piles and a pile driver. While part of their crew was rescuing the Mnuw, another crew built the foundation of a second retaining wall to give us more room and to accommodate the over flow from the infinity pool

This retaining wall has added a considerable amount of space to the property and once landscaped, will add greatly to the ambiance of our resort. Another part of the new land will be converted into relaxing space for the privacy pools of the deluxe rooms.

Built into this retaining wall is the moorings and ramp which will lead to the Mnuw as well as all power, gas, sewage and water hookups for the ship.

Thanks for a job well done and for bringing Yap’s tourist icon back into deep water.

The Surangel family and their crew could not have been more professional and I am very honored to be associated with them. This will not be the last cooperation between our two family owned and operated companies. When you are in Palau, I urge you to visit their store in downtown Koror. Theirs is one of the premier businesses in all of Micronesia.

The Best Just Keeps On Getting Better!

Dear Friends,

I am excited to present the expansion now well underway at the Manta Ray Bay Hotel & Yap Divers. The construction will be done in 4 phases and because almost all of the work will be on the property next door, we are expecting very little interruption to our award winning service.

You can explore our construction plans through our interactive map.

If you have been thinking about adding Yap to your next dive holiday plans, now more than ever, we will be ready to welcome you in a style and comfort rivaled by no other dive resort in the Pacific.

When completed, we will have a new, vastly expanded dive center, new photo/video center, 5 new Deluxe Ocean View Rooms, 3 new Standard Rooms, 6 new Party Animal Rooms for dive groups, a new lobby, an infinity swimming pool, a first class micro brewery, maintenance facilities for our boats, a new laundry facility, new staff locker rooms and showers, 2 new staff apartments and finally Micronesia's only full fledged hydroponics farm producing all the fresh vegetables and herbs needed by our gourmet chefs.

The only thing missing is—you!

Dear Friends,

Time certainly flies when you are having fun and boy are we having fun here at the Manta Ray Bay Hotel & Yap Divers. My good friend, and fellow Texan, Larry Smith is here for the next month while we hunt for “Critters” around Yap. Our first week has just completed and although we didn’t get to dive as many sites as we wanted, due to unseasonably high winds, we did find some very interesting stuff.

My good friend and noted underwater photographer, Mr. Tim Rock has been with us and I invite you to visit our Critter Hunt 2004 section of the web site for his report and some images from week 1. We still have 75% of the hunt in front of us and everyone connected with the program is excited. This week, we will be concentrating on sea fans in the hopes of finding the elusive Pygmy Sea Horse.

There is still time to join us for weeks 3 and 4. For more information, please e-mail me or contact your favorite dive travel specialists.

Until next week, happy diving and thank you for visiting our web site.

Dear Friends,

This is the final update from typhoon Sudal which hit Yap on the 7th of April. I will be giving updates on the resurrection of Mnuw, along with photos of that project, when it begins and we will keep you informed of the process to get Mnuw back in business. I will also be updating you regularly as we begin the latest phase of our expansion. We have leased the property next door to us and the dive shop will be relocated there. We will also have a maintenance facility there, a hydroponic farm, herb gardens, our laundry, kayak operations and Manta Visions Photo Center. The expansion will also include an infinity swimming pool and 5 more guest rooms. But more on that as we progress.

Today, we are 100% occupied and have 49 divers in-house, in addition to the relief workers who have been here for weeks. 6 dive boats went out to the mantas at Mi’l Channel, to the sharks at Vertigo, to the coral gardens at Magic Kingdom and to the swim throughs and walls at Yap Caverns/Lion Fish Wall. I am delighted to report that each boat came home loaded with happy divers. The mantas really put on a show (I was on one of those boats with a group of 10 guests from the Douglas Dive Group out of California) with more than 10 mantas around us for most of the hour long dive.

The shark divers reported more than 18 at any one time with one of them being an Oceanic Silver Tip. The Magic Kingdom boat got into a school of Eagle Rays and then a very large school of barracuda and the Yap Caverns group enjoyed the caves and the school of bumphead wrasse that stay there but they really enjoyed the shark cleaning station at the base of Lion Fish Wall. All in all, a very good day.

Yesterday afternoon, we had 2 boats doing the Macro Dive at 1 to 2 reef and then one of those boats also went to Rainbow Reef to watch the Mandarin Fish mate. There wasn’t an unexposed frame of film in any camera and a lot of smiles as the boats came back to the dock.

Today’s menu at the Manta Ray Bistro included Saffron Snapper Soup, Mangrove Crab Ravioli, Blackened Sashimi, Rainbow Runner and Wahoo as the Catch of the Day served with herbed butter sauce, sautéed vegetables and rice; Rotisserie Chicken barbecued to perfection and served with Jasmine Rice and our special Texas sauce; Broiled Pork Tenderloin in a green pepper sauce served with Potatoes au Gratin and fresh garden salad. Dessert was Hazelnut Brownies with mocha sauce and vanilla ice cream or Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with lemon frosting and chocolate sauce. Clearly our guests are not starving and are not going of the property to eat elsewhere. The only thing missing is Mnuw, a cold mug of Manta Brew and you!

All of the rooms at the Manta Ray are fully functional and we are doing land tours, kayak tours and fishing tours, in addition to the excellent diving that has been going on. I want to once again thank each and every one of you who have written to express concern about us as well as those of you who have so kindly donated goods and money. The money was put into a fund here at the hotel for the use of employees who lost everything. The goods have been given to those employees in need and a lot has also been given to the villages which were badly damaged.

We are no longer feeding employees and their families and the rains have turned the brown, windblown island, back into a lush tropical garden once again. Yes, damage is visible everywhere but so are the signs of recovery. The Yapese people have once again demonstrated their class and their ability. The cooperation among people, businesses and the government were something to see and while everyone would have gladly done without the storm, it has given all of us a chance to make improvements. The Yap of tomorrow will be even better than the Yap of yesterday.

For those of you who want to visit and dive one of the world’s best dive spots, the invitation still stands. Contact myself or your local dive travel specialist for all the details. We have some wonderful packages available and we have 4 weeks of very special diving with myself and Larry Smith of Indonesia Muck Diving Fame beginning June 21st. See the Great Critter Hunt section of the web site for further details. Until I see you again, thank you for being with us and for following our progress on the web site.

Here’s wishing you and yours a very wonderful remainder of 2004.

Dear Friends,

As the rebuilding begins in earnest, I thought I would share a letter received this morning. Over the past 2 weeks, we have gotten a lot of heartwarming and encouraging emails like this one from Richard:

"I was at the hotel in February, and had a wonderful time. The people of Yap were very friendly and always greeted me with a smile. I was amazed at the ease at which they went through their day and awe struck by their spirit. It does not surprise me to read that they are sticking together and putting things back together. I realize that they hurt due to loss and they and all your staff will be in my prayers. I will be back to see them as soon as I get the chance. The people there left their footprints deep in my soul.

Take Care,

Richard Peckler"

My reply to Richard also goes to everyone who has written to share their feelings and asked how to help:

It is thoughts like yours that help keep us going.  Knowing that we have made a difference to someone and that they will be back really helps us keep plugging along.  This is exactly what we need at the moment. Everyone is asking how they can help and in all honesty, coming to visit would be a big help.  Not only will money be coming into the economy to keep people employed and to help pay for the restoration but we are then spreading the word that Yap isn’t destroyed, the diving isn’t destroyed and that you can still have the vacation of a lifetime.  I realize you won’t be back next week, but I want you to know that when you do return, those same people will be here to greet you with a smile on their face and a big "welcome back".  Thank you once again for your letter and for keeping us in your prayers.

Friends, I urge you to consider visiting Yap for your next dive vacation if you really want to help. We have one group coming in a week’s time who wants to use their “off gas” day working in one of the villages helping people. They look at this as their “cultural experience”. Their money spent here at the hotel will help us and our employees and their offer of spending the day working in one of the villages will also make a difference to the village, as well as the dive group.

We sincerely appreciate the hundreds of offers of assistance and realize that not everyone can visit Yap but, if you are looking for your next dive destination and you want to help an island recover from a devastating typhoon, I urge you to contact me directly or your favorite dive travel specialist. We will still be offering our Critter Hunt program from June 23 to July 21 with Larry Smith and I leading the search for small, unique animals and new dive sites. We still have our 7 night/17 dive Discover Yap package which is our most popular package and we have some of the best group policies and rates of any land based dive resort.

We are ready when you are and we will greet you at the airport with smiles on our faces and will do everything we can to insure that your next vacation is your best vacation ever.

Thank you.

Dear Friends,

It is another beautiful day in Yap. The seas are calm and the skies are blue but the poor island is brown. I wanted to write today to update you on the continuing Typhoon Sudal recovery progress here at the Manta Ray Bay Hotel & Yap Divers.

We now have a new dive dock in place and we have lights back for the dive deck. This means that we are now able to offer the popular Mandarin Fish twilight dive as well as full blown night dives.

We have put two rooms back in service which now gives us a total of 25 rooms. We expect 1 additional room to be ready by next Wednesday and then will get one more ready by the end of next week. The last two damaged rooms have been converted into our dinning room. I must admit, they have an excellent view but I will be very happy when we get Mnuw back in the water and connected so that our restaurant, bar and micro brewery will be back in business.

Thank you very much for all of you who have written and offered condolences and offers of assistance. We will be establishing a web site thanking these individuals and companies who are donating time, money, goods and services to the Yapese community and the Manta Ray.

Please continue to check the web site regularly for future updates.

Dear Friends,

It has been 10 days since typhoon Sudal roared over and through Yap and I wanted to give you an update on the diving. We have not been able to dive all around the island as of this report due to surge but as of today, all sides of the island are now open and I will have another update in a couple of days as to what we are seeing at other sites. For now, I can report on the following:

Sunrise Reef is badly damaged. From 20 feet down to 100 feet, more than 50% of the hard corals were heavily damaged. Fish life is still good but this is not a dive site we will be using in the near future.

Samakai Wall is still OK. The shallow slope of the top of the reef lost as much as 25% of the coral but the wall came out of the storm in good shape.

Tradewind Mini-wall is badly damaged. From the top all the way to the bottom at 80 feet it is heavily damaged.

Gapow Reef is also heavily damaged. About 75% of the coral was damaged or destroyed.

Sakura Terrace was hard hit by typhoon Mitag two years ago and is still heavily damaged.

The above sites are North of the main channel and on the East side of the island which was hardest hit.

O’Keefe’s Passage at the mouth of the main channel was also hard hit but the corals survived this storm and there is still lots of fish life there. Cuttlefish have been seen regularly here since the storm.

Crescent Reef drifting in to Gaboch has plenty of healthy hard corals and fans. Eagle rays, nurse sharks, napoleon wrasse, a school of jacks and barracudas are also there.

Aliko Reef has beautiful hard corals such as stag horn and brain corals that are intact. Sting rays, turtles, fire darts, flame angels and moorish idols have all been seen recently.

Millennium Gardens suffered severe damage to the corals on top of the reef but the edge of the reef and the wall still have lots of green lettuce corals, soft corals and countless small tropical fish.

The Micro macro dive site is still in excellent shape and the nudibranches, crocodile fish, turtles, lion fish, banded pipe fish and gobies with their shrimps and the mantis shrimps are all still there.

Mi’l Channel came through just fine. The corals are all as they were before the storm. The mantas are back at the cleaning station, the school of jacks are still on station at the ridge and in general this is still one of the world’s best dive sites.

It appears that the hard corals which were shallow on the East side were badly hit but the rest of the island will probably be just fine. Please stay tuned for some underwater images as well as some quotes from our current group of divers. After the storm, the weather conditions dictated where we could go diving and it so happened that the badly damaged Northeast were the only available sites and thus early reports of destruction were inevitable.

All in all, we have come out of this better than expected. Once again, I want to thank all of our friends who have been writing and offering assistance. Your letters and concern are very flattering. Thank you once again for all of your support.

Dear Friends,

Beginning Thursday the 8th of April and continuing on throughout Good Friday, Yap Island was hit by typhoon Sudal. There were sustained winds of 125 miles an hour as the sidewall of the eye sat over the island for over 24 hours. The island suffered massive damage and thousands of people are homeless, including many of the employees of Manta Ray Bay and Yap Divers.

Despite the devastation, the employees have worked around the clock getting the hotel cleaned up and open for business. We ran our first dives on the 10th and have been running a full dive schedule everyday since. The beautiful coral reefs have taken a beating and the manta channel is very murky but mantas have been seen and nature will rebuild what nature destroyed.

Here at the hotel, we are feeding all employees and guests. One of the damaged rooms has been turned into a staff kitchen serving 3 meals a day to all of our employees and families. The public restaurant has moved into 2 other damaged rooms on the 3rd floor and enjoys a wonderful view of the bay. A limited, but excellent menu is in place and we are coping quite well with guests’ food needs. Unfortunately the S/V Mnuw, our pirate ship restaurant and bar is sitting high and dry on the reef. She did not sustain any damage at all but getting her off the reef and back into deep water without damaging her is going to be quite a challenge.

We currently have 22 rooms up and running with full services. Our water is potable because of our in-house tank and filtration facility and we have island power. Communications are working and life is slowly getting more normal with each passing day. The spirit of Yap was bent but certainly not broken and all of the locals are pitching in to help each other through this ordeal.

For those of you who have written offering their condolences and prayers, we thank you very much. Many of you have offered assistance but the fact is the mail won’t be moving for the foreseeable future and all available aircraft cargo space is currently being used to try and provide water, generators, food and clothing for those who lost everything.

We are extremely thankful that none of the employees or their families were hurt and we are blessed that the hotel didn’t sustain more damage than it did. We are currently open for business and expect to be 100% rebuilt within 60 to 90 days if we can get materials here quick enough.

If you have any questions or would like to get a message to any of the staff, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me. I am trying to reply to every e-mail that comes in and will continue to do so. I will also provide updated information on our web site. There is a lot of work ahead and a huge amount of work has already been done but we will get there and we thank you for your continued support.

On March 15th our newest room was first occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Midkiff of the State of Virginia in the USA.

Room 300, named after the Mandarin Fish that is quickly becoming one of our most popular new dive attractions is located on the 3rd floor. This suite offers a stunning view of the hills and bay behind the hotel, the lagoon in front as well as a good view of the top deck of Mnuw, our 100 year old South Seas Schooner.

The Mandarin Fish Room is a Deluxe Ocean View Room with antique furniture, a king size regular bed, a raised tropical hardwood floor for the bedroom area and a huge indoor shower area made from river stones. The sitting area is tiled with quarry tiles matching the rest of the hotel and the shower is decorated with tropical plants. The sink and vanity area of the bathroom is constructed from rare Teakwood giving the room its rich, historical flavor.

Room 300 also includes an antique ceiling fan, TV/VCR, full-length adjustable mirror, an antique writing desk with IDD phone, refrigerator and air-conditioning. A perfect honeymoon suite with a romantic setting was the goal in the design of this room. Our staff did a wonderful job and the Mandarin Fish Room is now ready for guests.

Also new to the Manta Ray Bay Hotel is a complete remodeling of room 107. The Nautilus Room, on the ground floor, has been up-graded to a Deluxe Ocean View Room with a huge, private sundeck complete with antique teakwood deck chairs and a private plunge pool under a wooden gazebo. There is a door leading directly from the pool deck area to our adjacent dive deck making this room ideal for photographers with lots of camera equipment.

This is also a wonderful room for group leaders who may wish to entertain their guests after the dive day.

Room 107 includes an antique king size bed, ceiling fan, air-conditioning, TV/VCR, IDD phone, refrigerator and a sitting area with ornate cushioned chairs and coffee table. The new version of the Nautilus Room was inaugurated by Mr. & Mrs. Wagner of Switzerland on March 12th.

For reservations, please contact your dive travel specialist or e-mail us at yapdivers@mantaray.com. If you are holding a future reservation and would like to up-grade to either of these rooms, please contact us for details.

Yap Divers is proud to announce that we have been inspected by the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) and have met the required standards as a BSAC Resort Diving Center. In doing so we join the largest diving club in the world with 1,600 branches and 55,000 members.

The BSAC is one of the most respected diving organizations in the world with a reputation for the excellence of its diver-training program. We are proud to be associated with BSAC.

For more information, log on to: www.bsac.com

MantaFest judge Paul Tzimoulis has been elected Chairman of the Board of the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS). AUAS is a worldwide organization dedicated to encouraging the advancement of the arts, sciences, education, sports and other areas related to the underwater world. Since 1960, AUAS has recognized outstanding contributions and endeavors in diving by presenting four NOGI Awards annually. NOGI recipients comprise a virtual "Who's Who" in the history of diving, include such luminaries as Jacques Cousteau, Sea Hunt stars, Lloyd Bridges and Zale Parry, Sylvia Earle and Robert Ballard.

As AUAS Chair, Tzimoulis brings to the Academy an outstanding level and variety of expertise. Tzimoulis is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the recreational diving industry in the U.S., as well a significant influence to dive travel worldwide. His experience covers the full breadth of today's diving industry, and he has been the architect of such industry milestones as the certification card (C-Card), dive travel, dive computers and buoyancy compensators. Tzimoulis is also one of the founding fathers of recreational dive travel, as we know it today. He has devoted almost 40 years to the evolution of dive travel as an industry, and helped to develop many of today's most popular dive destinations such as the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, Bonaire, Cozumel, Micronesia and dozens more.

Along with Tzimoulis, the AUAS Board elected two other new Directors -Hillary Viders, Ph.D. and internationally renowned artist, Wyland. "Tzimoulis, Viders, and Wyland bring enormous talent to our organization and they will be spearheading exciting new AUAS projects!" stated Ralph White, AUAS President during AUAS's annual meeting at DEMA 2002 in Las Vegas

AUAS will hold its next Board of Directors meeting in March, at Beneath the Sea (BTS) 2003, in Secaucus, New Jersey. BTS is the largest consumer dive show in North America. BTS Exec. Dir. Armand, Zigahn, has been invited to serve as the BTS Liaison to the AUAS Board.

For more information, log on to: www.auas-nogi.org

Yap Diver’s guides have found as many as 10-12 of the very rare and incredibly colorful Mandarin Fish playing, dancing, mating and generally having a grand ole’ time among a single hard coral formation. There are hundreds of these beautiful small fish in one small area of the reef.

These fish have eluded divers and underwater photographers for years and the mere sighting of one or two have sent divers running to don gear and load film. To have so many at one place on a regular basis is a phenomenon seldom witnessed anywhere in the world.

The chance to simply watch, video or get great close-up images of these truly mesmerizing creatures is what makes this site yet another signature dive site in Yap. Yap Divers has them right in our own backyard and with over 60% of Yap’s reefs still unexplored new things are still being discovered.

Come and explore Yap and, yes, see the mantas, but allow yourself time to see all the other opportunities that make Yap and exotic destination.

Dear Friends,

It has been far too long since I stopped long enough to put something on the web site. I apologize for this as we are doing a lot of new things here at the Manta Ray Bay Hotel & Yap Divers to improve our dedicated dive resort.

This is the first of what will be several up-dates in the coming weeks. I invite you to enjoy this one and to come back often as more up-dates are forthcoming.

Mike and Vikki Musto were in Yap a few months back and as luck would have it, Mike was preparing for a milestone birthday (friendship and my own advancing age keep me from telling you just which birthday Mike was celebrating). Here are some pictures from that day.

My family and I, along with all of our more than 65 co-workers are proud of our association with Trip N Tour and we all wish Mike and Vikki many more happy birthdays.

I hope this up-date brings back good memories for our loyal fans across the world. Please be sure and browse through our entire award winning web site. If you have questions, or just want to talk about diving, please drop me a note at: billacker@mantaray.com and I will be happy to chat with you. For more information about Mike and Vikki Musto and their dive travel company - Trip N Tour, please visit their web site at: www.trip-n-tour.com.

Manta Ray Bay Hotel and Yap Divers are pleased to announce our 2002 Christmas and New Years special.

The package is a "one price covers all" that includes:

• Hotel accommodations (double occupancy)
• Hotel Tax
• Airport Transfers
• Unlimited Diving
• Unlimited Fishing
• Unlimited Kayak Tours, Land Tours and Cultural Tours
• All Meals
• All Drinks, including alcoholic beverages
• Live entertainment on the S/V Mnuw.

Standard room for one week $ 1999.00 per person double occupancy
Ocean view room for one week $ 2099.00 per person double occupancy

Book two rooms for one week or one room for both weeks:

Standard room $1899.00 per person double occupancy per week
Ocean view $ 1995.00 per person double occupancy per week

The first week is December 18-25, 2002 and the second week is December 25, 2002 - January 1, 2003. Arrivals must be on either December 18 or December 25 for the "all-inclusive package" to apply. Our normal hotel/dive packages are also available during this time with arrivals and departures any day.

Also, we are going to bring a piano player, Tim Brockett, to Yap to provide live entertainment on Mnuw during the Christmas and early Manta Mating Season. Tim, who's from Detroit, Michigan, arrives on the 14th of December and will be here until the 14th of March. You can read more about Tim, and listen to a sample of him performing, here.

Make a reservation.