Was boarding my flight to Chicago and saw the plane.  Had just come from dinner with our good friend Patricia Hillebrand, was going to be picked up in Dallas by my brother Patrick and my wife’s name is Patricia and she was born on St. Patrick’s day so seemed pretty natural to be “riding” St. […]

A lot of stories in Texas begin with the words “Sumbitch, you won’t believe this – but” and then the tails tend to grow from there but what I am about to relay to you is absolutely true and it happened on my way from Yap to Düsseldorf for the BOOT Show.  I left an […]

Lonely Planet author and photojournalist TIM ROCK just visited us this week and gave us some great news. His beautiful books are now available in e-book format, to download to your iPhone or iPad. He also has a NEW book out called the Diving and Snorkeling Guide to Palau & Yap. He highlights some of […]

By Tim Rock (all photos copyright the owners) Manta Fest 2011 had some amazing entries this year and they weren’t all manta photos despite the name of our Fest. The judges commended beautiful shots of sea turtles, reef scenics, macro like mandarinfish and goby potraits, lots of reef shark shots and some beautiful sunrises and […]

The Manta Ray Bay Hotel has added some new and updated wall images to enhance the boutique atmosphere of the hotel. As you may already know, each room has a theme based on a sea creature. Every bed spread is a beautiful work based on the room name showing that creature or fish. The motif […]

Story and Photos copyright Tim Rock Believe it or not, Manta Fest isn’t all mantas. Yap has the most fascinating and intact culture in Micronesia and a visit to Kaday Village is the showcase of this unique culture. To get to Kaday, one can drive along the scenic west-central main road past traditional men’s houses […]

Story and Video by Tim Rock Here’s a look at the mantas thrilling divers at Manta Fest this year. The new cleaning station is a great place to watch cleaner behavior. More to come soon including village dancers. Tim of the Deep

Story & Photos by Tim Rock Divers had a wonderful sunrise this morning and scattered to all parts of Yap. Some will do Yap Caverns on an all day three-dive trip, a few will go back for mantas and others will try the northern reefs. That will be followed by a traditional village tour and […]

Here’s a look and some of the images from the last 2 days of Manta Fest: CLICK HERE to see them.

The arrival of a lot more guests for week 2 of Manta Fest saw a few more boats leaving the docks

By Tim Rock So far in the first week of MANTA FEST we’ve had some great manta luck, seeing them daily since Manta Fest kicked into gear 5 days ago. On Day 4, we had as many as five mantas at the new cleaning station. The sharks were also fun. Despite a sizable swell coming […]

(syndicated from https://www.taucher.net/edb/Manta_Ray_Bay_Hotel__Yap_b133.html ) Following for all foreigners, which only speak English, i´ll give you my experience with YAP Divers @ MANTA RAY BAY HOTEL We’ve visited YAP in April. The trip was gone to Palau & Yap for 3 weeks. It was organized by Roger Tours Germany (but you can contact them trough their […]