More guests went frontier diving yesterday and got a taste of some wild natural encounters with Manta Rays, a school of Silky sharks, rainbow runner and tuna feeding. The guides keep a watchful eye on the water and when there’s action, the day’s plan is modified on the fly. This is how to keep things interesting on your dive vacation. Unspoiled nature and no schedule – that’s one of the biggest reasons to dive here. Here’s an example of our guests getting put on the wildlife yesterday. One the way out for a third tank to Vertigo, the boat captain detoured out into the blue and got on top of diving birds. Below the surface there was a school of rainbow runner, about 30 big Silky sharks and high speed tuna with a some darting barracuda in the mix. It was a bait ball feeding frenzy out in the Philippine Sea a mile or so off the reef wall. This was contributed GoPro media from our guest, Jacob. The story is that the divers went in with snorkels and hung onto the boat with one hand with cameras in the other. They watched tuna flash through the bait at the surface leaving bubble trails in their wake. Birds were crashing the surface with big sharks below turning on the tuna. 10 foot Silkies started coming in very close to investigate so Nico called it off and got the group out of the water after a couple of arm’s reach encounters. This was before their third dive. After this the group went back to Vertigo which was at the request of the divers. We dove Yap Caverns and Vertigo in the morning and had excellent vis, mild current and a lot of life. Upon our return to the dock, the guests wanted to do Vertigo again… and all you have to do is ask, a boat was cleaned, restocked with nitrox and prepped for an afternoon session within minutes. After their third dive on the way back through the lagoon the boat crew spotted more surface activity. This time is was feeding mantas in plankton soup deep inside the lagoon from M’il channel. The guests got in the water and right up close to a giant manta ray ballet act. When mantas are feeding, they could care less about the presence of people and really get going with their backflips and tight turns at the surface. You never know what you’re going to see in Yap. This year we had killer whales over the Pacific reef, big Silver Tip sharks down south, multiple bait balls in the blue, feeding mantas and mating dolphins outside of the Caverns. Yap is so small that at 100% occupancy only 80 divers could be in the water in a day. There’s miles of reef to go around with dive sites and action on every side of the island. Our guests are getting a personal frontier diving experience in small groups at a vacation pace… with wild encounters.