Yap has 100 miles of reef and claims 38 square miles of land spread out between four main islands. The southern barrier reef walls are home to some of our most spectacular diving in the South Pacific.

The first thing that divers encounter is water clarity, it’ll change your perception of what diving is supposed to look like.

After that, it’s the topography that changes with each quarter mile section.

There’s everything from sheer vertical walls, hard coral slopes, overhung crevasses, deep cuts and canyons, pinnacles and swim-through caverns at the very tip

The reef is the most vibrant along these sections of the island’s barrier system.

Yellow wall is home to vibrant soft coral gardens that favor the overhangs where you can also find sleeping turtles and nurse sharks tucked away in small caves. When the current gets pumping, the soft coral blooms and the entire reef wall shutters with the water’s movement.

A third of Yap’s moorings are along these walls, sites named Cabbage Patch, Big Bend, Spanish Wall, Buena Vista, Yellow wall, Gilman and Lionfish walls as well as Yap Caverns are the most popular that are part of anyone’s dive log that’s been here.

This is where we have encountered the biggest Pelagic sharks – this year we’ve had Silky and Silvertips buzz dive groups, and, there’s Tiger shark sightings in past Yap tales.

A land tour takes half a day by car – to see it all underwater it would take a very long tropical safari. After meeting the mantas and getting your fill of back rolling into a school of sharks, this is what some of the other diving looks like outside the reef in either the Pacific Ocean or Philippine Sea – sometimes you get both in the same day.

Micronesia Travel

Every week there’s a happy traveler story where someone was helped with airline tickets.

This week’s stoked diver was trying to line up a Liveaboard week in Palau with flights to Yap without extra nights in between.

It takes Bill about 5 minutes to explain the trick to getting what they wanted.

Before you click to buy your air, check with the man: bill@mantaray.com.