Manta mating season has the reef swirling with courting rays and with the recent moon cycle, we’ve had outstanding visibility in the lagoon. Every spring the activity and the number of mantas seen increases during their mating season. The best way to view these animals is in small groups just out of arm’s reach and overhead.

With conditions like these, it’s hard to beat a dive at the local cleaning station with our resident rays.

Sometimes the mantas pass overhead so slow that not breathing isn’t an option, we try not to put bubbles in their path, but a hovering manta could be there longer than divers can keep from breathing.

A couple of guests from New York had a face to face Manta encounter that lasted minutes.

The ray being cleaned hovered over the finger coral long enough for me to snap dozens of photos of their moment.

An extended face-to-face manta encounter in clear blue water is an unforgettable Yap diving experience.

Right now is the time to be with these animals, every day guests are getting the whole Yap manta promise.

Diving here is as close as you can get to Manta Ray in the wild without touching it and the best part is, they come right up to you.

Once in a while the cleaning pass has a burst of action when a cleaner fish picks at a sensitive spot on the animal.

A couple of irritated flaps and the cleaners retreat to the finger coral to come back out after the manta returns to a calm hover.

While most of the action is on top of the reef in shallow water, the mantas approach from the blue and you can see them as they come and go.

When the reef is busy with manta activity there’s a ray coming in with each ray going back out to the blue.

These mantas have no problem flying right overhead when departing the cleaning station which make great photo ops.

As far as Manta Ray photography goes, this is the place to fill your SD card with graceful rays.

Having to duck a passing manta isn’t an uncommon move at this dive.

The guest in this photo spent several minutes with her head turned sideways looking up at the manta circling above.

You can get up close to the cleaning action and get face-to-face, or hang back and experience the transiting overhead passes, either way you position yourself you can almost be bumped by these animals on your dive.

This is not an exceptional day diving with these mantas and this is the activity that you can expect during your dive trip, during mating season.

Yap is still the dive destination where you are guaranteed manta encounters like these.

Bill offers a money-back guaranteed dive package that  you get up close with a manta, all year round.

Finding Flights to Yap

Did you know that Air China connects Europe to Asia and can get you here with shorter layovers? If you weren’t told about all of your options on flight routes, you should ask Bill. He’s still offering anyone free itinerary options that you can purchase through an agent, online, through him or with a wholesaler.

For Americans traveling to Micronesia there’s more than one way to cross the Pacific; via Tokyo or Hawaii and depending on your departing airport, you could reduce your travel time (and budget) by an entire flight.

Last week he was able to help a group traveling to Chuuk/Truk and Yap, who almost didn’t make the trip because they couldn’t find flights that worked with their travel window. After emailing Bill, they received multiple itinerary options which they chose and purchased on their own.

Every day Bill answers people’s email on creating travel itineraries to all of Micronesia. When you start thinking about your trip, ask Bill about travel so that you know all of your options before making a decicion.