We are extremely excited to finally release the news of our new restaurant and bar which will be ready for business mid September of this year. This event is the culmination of countless hours of discussions, thousands of miles of travel, weeks in the jungles of the world and last but not least, many cold beers shared between our fearless leader, and head pirate, Bill Acker and his crew. This will be the single biggest event to happen to Micronesian tourism in many years. Certainly old hotels have been renovated and names have changed but nothing this new and exciting has happened.

Imagine yourself sitting at the Crow's Nest Bar on a hundred-year-old wooden sailing schooner, measuring over 170 feet (55 meters) in length, having a cold beer and reminiscing with your dive buddies about the school of manta rays that were hovering inches from your head an hour ago! The Mnuw (Sea Hawk) is coming!

The idea of bringing a South Seas schooner to Yap was hatched between Bill and a good friend of his, Mr. Peter Howard of Maui, Hawaii, over two years ago. Since that time, Bill has scoured the world to find the right ship, find the right person to refit the ship and securing all the clearances needed to purchase and bring the ship to Yap. From South Texas to South Sulawesi, from Northern Madagascar to Northern Borneo and from the Eastern Caribbean to Eastern Sumbawa, Bill searched high and low for the right vessel. Finally, on the 10th of March, the deal was signed in a law office in Ginyar, Bali under a ceiling fan with tropical birds singing in the garden. The traditional Buginese cargo ship Bunga Berkat Usaha was acquired by Manta Ray Bay Hotel.

Renamed Mnuw (in the Yapese language Mnuw is the name of a rare sea hawk that is seldom seen but yet famous in Yapese traditional lore), the ship was moved to Sumbawa Besar and placed in the hands of an Australian rogue by the name of Jimmy Blee. Jimmy is famous throughout Southeast Asia for his work with the world-renowned Aman Resorts hotel chain. Between spending weeks with Rolling Stones star Mick Jagger and shooting a movie with Geena Davis, Jimmy found time to raise a sunken ship, rebuild her into a first class live-aboard dive boat and start a marine business.

Needless to say, Jimmy and Bill hit it off better than two peas in a pod and the result is going to be a magnificent, two-masted sailing ship. She will sit in front of the Manta Ray Bay Hotel and offer our guests two air-conditioned private dining rooms, two bars, a movie room, a game room, meeting rooms and the ambiance of the South Seas. Our famous Nautical Weaver Bar will be moved to the wheel house deck and will command a gorgeous view of Tomil Harbor. Jimmy, Bill, Bill’s oldest son Nathan, brother-in-law Ben Tured and his son Maru, along with Captain Serfin Single, Theo Gumang, Rob Westerfield, Jim Tobin and a host of others will sail the boat from Surabaya, Indonesia on August 31st . She will sail through the cut of Yap's main channel around the 15th of September. If you want to be here to celebrate, or be among the first to sample our new cuisine, please see your favorite travel wholesaler or visit our reservation page to book your trip.

Please visit the web site often in the coming months to follow the progress of this magnificent project.