The situation here at Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers is strange. After more than 33 years in business there are no divers to dive and talk with. Most of the staff are at home and no happy hour sessions are taking place on the Mnuw.  Instead of a hectic, always changing schedule, I am reduced to daily visits to the resort to discuss with management what to do once this nightmare is over. I know that for a lot of you, the situation is totally different. We are very fortunate that we can still walk and drive around, have family gatherings and go to the stores whenever we want.  I am sure most of you must follow strict guidelines and need to stay indoors as much as possible. In that way we are blessed, as Yap is Corona virus free.

Empty resort or not, there are still things that need to be done. Asa, our Housekeeping supervisor, is keeping all the rooms and public areas dust free and clean.  Detlef and “Capo” (Captain Ramlih, our Indonesian who came with us when we brought Mnuw to Yap) are giving the ship a deep clean and working on all kinds of maintenance projects. All boats, except Popou, are on land at our workshop in Gitam. Jude is taking care of our vegetable garden and any crops harvested are shared with those members of the staff who have been laid-off.

Left top/bottom. Jude working in our “Garden”/Mini-farm. Right top. Asa keeping the rooms clean and dust free. Right bottom. Detlef and “Capo” working on the Mnuw.

One of the projects we’re working on is fine-tuning our website and this is something we really want you to help with. We want your best, or favorite, shots of your past trip or trips to Manta Ray and Yap Divers. Hopefully, it will help you pass the time and revive some great memories while you are in lock-down.  What better way to while away the time than by thinking of the fond memories you have about diving on Yap?

We hope you will contribute to the new site by going through all those images you shot during your stay with us. Please upload them via https://www.mantaray.com/manta-ray-bay-gallery-home/. We are offering 4 Ikelite Gift Vouchers of $25 each to those guests who submit the 4 best sets of photos to be added to our website guest gallery.  To see what you can purchase with these Gift Vouchers, please go to https://www.ikelite.com/. You can either order online via Ikelite’s website or locate a dealer near you.  Please note that online orders can only be shipped to a US address. Dont forget to insert your name in the filename that you’re uploading so we know who to give the credit to. 

Hope you enjoyed my previous blog highlighting the efforts we have undertaken to find the perfect Bonfire Dive site. Once back to “normal”, it’s a dive I certainly recommend and will do myself. If you have any questions about our Bonfire dive, or anything else, please send me a message at bill@mantaray.com.  Looks like this crisis is going to take a while, so with the rainy season approaching and the trade winds fading, we will also start preparing to do some blackwater dives. Obviously, I will keep you posted on discoveries as they happen.

I promised to give you the list of 10 reasons “Not to come to Yap”, but instead of giving them to you all at once, I’ll give one with each blog post during this Coronavirus crisis.

Reason #1 “Not to come to come to Yap”:

1) No one at your dive site … with barely 1,000 divers a year visiting Yap, all dive sites are for you and your dive buddies exclusively.

Bet “Quadrum” and “Threestep” don’t know we have this crisis and are wondering where the divers are.

 Let’s hope that our annual MantaFest U/W Photography School and Contest scheduled for August 30 through September 12 will take place.  In the spirit of the “glass is half full”, I want to invite you and your friends to join us this year.  To book your trip, please e-mail Darlene at welcome@mantaray.com. For those who may be leery of making travel plans now, I offer you this insurance policy. If you book before August 1st and pay the deposit and for any Corona virus related reason decide not to travel, I will refund you IN FULL providing that you give me 7 days’ notice. This money-back guarantee applies to deposits as well as any full payments. If you want some more information about this great event visit www.mantafest.com or email me at bill@mantaray.com.

Can’t come this year? How about booking for next year August 28 to September 12, 2021, or the year after August 27 to September 11, 2022. Make a deposit and we will lock-in 2020 rates and offer a complete refund should you need to cancel at any time due to a Corona virus related issue.

I leave you with this:

“The other day I asked my wife if I was the only one she had been with.  She said, no, all the others were tens?”

Alright my friends, we miss you and hope we can welcome you all soon. Take care, be safe and stay healthy.

Bill, family, and staff

Those who know our brew master Fredy Gull also know that he doesn’t like parties, at least not anymore. That didn’t stop us from recognizing his 75th birthday. Mail him your birthday wishes at fredy@mantaray.com.