Myself (Bill Acker) along with colleagues Detlef Trux and Jan Sledsens are once again preparing to depart Yap and head for the colder climates of Europe to exhibit at some of the major dive shows there. Jan will travel first as he will go home to see his family for a few days and will then be at the Paris Dive Show, the Salon de Plungée, from the 10th of January through the 14th. Jan will not have a booth this year but will be at the show all day, every day so please catch him at the show or to make an appointment, send him an e-mail at: jan@mantaray.com and he will get back to you.

From Paris, Jan travels to Düsseldorf to meet up with the rest of us for the BOOT Show from the 19 th to the 27th of January. From the BOOT, Jan will take off for Zurich and the FESPO Dive Show where he will be in the Schoener Tauchen booth with our good friends Robi and Edi Frommenwiler but before he attends FESPO, Jan will be traveling to one of my all-time favorite places – Vaduz, Lichtenstein. He will be in Vaduz, accompanied by our friends from the Turtle Foundation, to make a presentation to the members of the Lichtenstein Dive Club on the 29th of January.

Detlef departs next and will be heading home to Dresden, Germany to see his daughter Alin and granddaughter Linas. Of course Detlef’s brother Ortwin and family are there along Detlef’s son-in-law Silvio. I am sad that I won’t be accompanying him as I have had the pleasure of their hospitality a few times and it’s wonderful. After spending a week at home, Detlef will join Jan and me in Düsseldorf, Germany for the BOOT Show. We will be exhibiting in the Yap Divers’ booth which this year will be part of the Mares Dive Centers Pavilion. We have left the Quality Divers organization so please come see us in Hall 3 at booth number E62. We will be there from the 19th of January until the 27th.

I will be the last to leave Yap and I am heading around the world. First stop will be for a few hours in Manila to spend some time with my good friend Mark Mallari. Mark designs our ads and logos and he and his family are special people and good friends. From Manila, it’s on to Zurich for the night where I will travel to Basel to spend the day and evening with my good friend Chris Heim, owner of Sea Explorers in the Philippines. On Friday the 18th, I am off to Düsseldorf where I will spend the evening at my friend Frank Schneider’s village. Frank and his lovely wife Uschi will be my host for the evening.

After the BOOT Show, I fly via Irish Air (Air Lingus a first for me) to Chicago and on to Dallas, Texas where I will spend a few days with my family and help my younger brother celebrate his birthday (although a few days late). I depart Dallas on the morning of the 7th of February to attend the SSI Dealers’ Conference in San Antonio where I will have an opportunity to make a presentation to to the group as well as get the chance to meet everyone and hobnob for a few days before heading home via Los Angeles and Tokyo, Japan. That will be one LONG day: San Antonio, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Guam and finally Yap using 3 different airlines. Detlef, Jan and myself all hope to see as many of you as possible during this jaunt through Europe.