We made it safe and sound. And since it's Sunday evening in Yap, here's this week's TWARS . . .
LONG TRIP TO GET HERE - Despite a 90-minute delay in leaving LAX last Monday - this is why we always take the earlier flight to Honolulu - we made it into Yap right on time, which sadly is 1:10AM. Got the Manta Ray Bay resort around 3AM and crashed. And it's been dive/dive/dive since then. Here's what we've been talking about on FaceBook along with some pix Which, despite my complaining about the GoPro pix, the ones below are all from my Nikon DLSR):
DIVING IN YAP - DAY 1
Busy day today as this is our first full day but only one checkout dive. But we all needed time to sleep in a bit, get gear squared away, and stuff like that. Made a nice if unspectacular dive on O'Keefe Passage. But, as the name implies, a checkout dive performs exactly that function as everyone can "check out" their gear and weights and the resort staff can "check out" the divers competency overall. We followed that with a Manta ID class, then dinner, and now ready to crash. No pix today - no one took cameras (at my suggestion) but hopefully tomorrow.
DAY 2
Highs and lows. Weather was great. No wind. Personally, camera issues as my strobes stopped firing halfway through the first dive. Some others had some equipment issues. But you deal and life (and diving) goes on. Highlight of the day was the three-manta fly-by we got three times while diving in Goofnu Channel. Here's a 30-second video clip:
https://youtu.be/g6Bft21d5ow
DAY 3
Great weather along with nice dives today It rained, but only for a few minutes and only after we'd completed our dives and were almost back at the dock. (Maybe Yap is really Camelot????) Started at Gilmann Wall and then did Yap Caverns. Both of them really interesting (south end of island) and full of stuff. The diving is very different depending on whether you are north or south &/or on the east side or the west side. Lots of Bumphead parrots today and dozens and dozens of Titan Triggers. I'm still having cam issues so only shot with the GoPro today, which is not great at stills.