Ken Kurtis
Contributor
TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) . . . LIVE FROM YAP!!!
. . . where it just started raining. But it’s the tropics, so this too shall pass.
WE MADE IT – But we almost didn’t. We flew a new routing this time. Instead of going through Honolulu to Guam (and then to Yap), we went through Tokyo to get to Guam since it saved us three hours of travel. Great plan until we got to LAX where our plane left a little over 2 hours late. Given that we only had 2.5 hours in Tokyo between flights AND we knew we were going to have to clear Japanese TSA before boarding the second flight, we were concerned about missing the flight to Guam, which would have meant missing the flight to Yap and – because there are only two flights a week to Yap – we would lose three days of the trip waiting for the second flight. Fortunately, United said they’d hold the second flight and they were very well-organized once we landed and hustled us off the plane, through security, and on to the second flight. But it was a bit harrowing and stressful all the way to Tokyo wondering if our trip was going to get screwed up. All’s well that ends well.
MANTA RAY BAY – We are ensconced in wonderful rooms at Manta Ray Bay and have already done three dives (one Sunday, two Monday morning) and – as I’m writing this prior to our afternoon dive in 45 minutes – I’m looking at a torrential rainfall but comfortable in the knowledge that these things usually blow throw pretty quickly so there’s a good chance it’s sunny again by the time we’re ready to leave. But then again . . .
WONDERFUL MANTA THIS MORNING – We did our first manta dive this morning and were rewarded with TWO mantas, one passing by as we descended and another at the Goofnu cleaning station who hung with us for quite a while. (Plus there was a large Crocodilefish there.) We spent about 20 minutes there and then drifted down the channel with the outgoing tide. What was most interesting was how it got slightly murkier as we went further down but then we saw a patch of blue ahead and burst into clear water. This is the incoming water meeting the outgoing water and the difference was amazing.
PIX BEING POSTED – Despite the slow Internet connections here, I’ll be posting pix daily and you can view them through this link. Just choose whatever day or days you want to see: https://kenkurtis.smugmug.com/organ...ALL/2018-DIVE-TRIPS/YAP-2018-DAILY-TOP-10-PIX .
That’ll do it for now. I’m having AOL issues here on top of the Internet stuff so hopefully I can get this out.
- Ken
. . . where it just started raining. But it’s the tropics, so this too shall pass.
WE MADE IT – But we almost didn’t. We flew a new routing this time. Instead of going through Honolulu to Guam (and then to Yap), we went through Tokyo to get to Guam since it saved us three hours of travel. Great plan until we got to LAX where our plane left a little over 2 hours late. Given that we only had 2.5 hours in Tokyo between flights AND we knew we were going to have to clear Japanese TSA before boarding the second flight, we were concerned about missing the flight to Guam, which would have meant missing the flight to Yap and – because there are only two flights a week to Yap – we would lose three days of the trip waiting for the second flight. Fortunately, United said they’d hold the second flight and they were very well-organized once we landed and hustled us off the plane, through security, and on to the second flight. But it was a bit harrowing and stressful all the way to Tokyo wondering if our trip was going to get screwed up. All’s well that ends well.
MANTA RAY BAY – We are ensconced in wonderful rooms at Manta Ray Bay and have already done three dives (one Sunday, two Monday morning) and – as I’m writing this prior to our afternoon dive in 45 minutes – I’m looking at a torrential rainfall but comfortable in the knowledge that these things usually blow throw pretty quickly so there’s a good chance it’s sunny again by the time we’re ready to leave. But then again . . .
WONDERFUL MANTA THIS MORNING – We did our first manta dive this morning and were rewarded with TWO mantas, one passing by as we descended and another at the Goofnu cleaning station who hung with us for quite a while. (Plus there was a large Crocodilefish there.) We spent about 20 minutes there and then drifted down the channel with the outgoing tide. What was most interesting was how it got slightly murkier as we went further down but then we saw a patch of blue ahead and burst into clear water. This is the incoming water meeting the outgoing water and the difference was amazing.
PIX BEING POSTED – Despite the slow Internet connections here, I’ll be posting pix daily and you can view them through this link. Just choose whatever day or days you want to see: https://kenkurtis.smugmug.com/organ...ALL/2018-DIVE-TRIPS/YAP-2018-DAILY-TOP-10-PIX .
That’ll do it for now. I’m having AOL issues here on top of the Internet stuff so hopefully I can get this out.
- Ken
