The whole island has been buzzing with divers – there were about 7 boats running when this week kicked off. For Yap, that’s a crowd. The good thing is that those 7 boat groups get to share over 100 miles of barrier reef. Things are running day and night and some Aussies are taking 4 tanks a day squeezing two weeks worth of diving into one. That means there’s a boat leaving the dock every hour all day until sunset. I went biofluorescent night diving for my first time with a guest and saw some glowing coral heads at the local macro wall. Speaking of macro, one of the typhoon stories here is that the dive shop dock and front seawall were getting hammered by the windblown sea and the guys were flipping Mantis Shrimp back into the water as they were being tossed up onto the resort lawn by the churning lagoon. Apparently the place is crawling with those things. Quite a few lost their homes in the storm and paid a surprise visit to the dive shop. The mantas didn’t seem to mind, it’s business as usual at the cleaning stations. Mating season is beginning and already we’re seeing trains of mantas come into the dive site. Big females being followed by courting males add to the usual arm’s distance encounters at Stammtisch. Soon these animals will be here in bigger numbers and getting it on in the channel, now until April/May will be the window for the most Manta interaction, better than normal encounters. The typhoon left trace evidence of its passing. Some of the plants near the dive dock are withered from being beaten by the airborne sea, and there’s a couple rearranged coral heads on the Pacific side of the island. Other than that and a few blown over banana trees, Yap walked it off without a scratch. The best season is kicking off with a lot of thankfulness that Yap’s still on the map – that was a super storm for these parts.

Planning Your Travel

While at DEMA and talking to hundreds of people that week, Bill was asked several times how to get to Yap – and off the top of his head he can rattle off the best route from just about anywhere. I heard Korean Airlines from Prague to Air China to United – all Star Alliance members so you check your bag all the way through to Yap – and you don’t have to spend a whole day in Guam. The word is, even wholesalers who look up flights in their reservation systems don’t see all of the available routes and options, it’s takes 30 years of doing this to have it nailed down. So, if you or a dive buddy are ever planning a Micronesia trip, send Bill and email and you’ll get the lowdown on getting here easy. Help spread the word, it makes a huge difference when people are deciding where to go. In the meantime, we’re planning some events for 2014 and hopefully we’ll see a Shark Week, a Dive Party and a few other things go off that help ensure that Manta Ray Bay guests (and the blogger) are having a lot of fun and sharing plenty of good times.