There’s a technical instructor hanging around the resort for a couple of weeks wrapping up over a decade of guiding in the Red Sea. Combine that with the local blogger and now there’s two guys hanging around who aren’t part of the regular dive schedule and have nothing better to do than try something different. This week we did an MOD dive on air just to see what’s down there. Buenavista is a dive site you’ll see for sure during your stay here, it was host to our first deep dive. A hard coral forest busy with cuttlefish, turtles, white-tips, anemones and all the small fish. There’s an infinite sloping wall that fades to blue continuing past the killer visibility. We free fell straight down the slope to max depth and our first encounter was a Silky shark. Silky’s look like grey reef’s on steroids. We had three big sharks cruise right in front of us for several passes followed by the biggest fish either of us had ever seen. A massive dogtooth tuna swam right out of the depth and checked us out. It was a quick show but worth it for the biggest fish entry in our dive logs. It’s not everyday a five-foot long fish swims out of the dark and gives you the one-eye. Out here along the southern walls is where we’ve had our biggest animal encounters, Silvertips, Silkys, a Marlin and now a scarred up old Tuna patrolling the reef. The final show during our dive was a circling white tip at our deco stop in super clear water.  

Custom Yap

We’re trying to spice things up over here with some unique deals and will be introducing special packages that include activities, entertainment and excursions as an itinerary. Dive days that wind up on a gold sand beach with a BBQ going… blue water safari dive plans… live music with local dinner after a three tank day… sunset macro dive after a two tanks in M’il and whatever else we think up that should be part of your Yap experience. It’s too far to fly not to have some beach time, catch a sunset, try the local coconut drink or see the stone money and villages. These are the best of Yap details that everyone should get in on while they’re here and we’re making it standard in these new vacation packages. Bill is still putting together itineraries and giving away the streamlined routes to Yap via email and has been working on an Asiana codeshare with United that will get Europeans to Yap through Palau on the same ticket – when it comes to Micronesian air travel, nobody knows it better than bill@mantaray.com – before you try it yourself, ask for your best route options.