Day 11: Mantas & Mandarins

We woke up to rain outside our window, but we could tell it was lightening up in the distance. John and Matt were loading our tanks, bc’s and regs onto our boat for the day. We munched on a cinnamon roll we got at the bakery just down the street for breakfast, then headed downstairs to get our fins and wetsuits from the locker room. We had 2 dives planned for today.


As we left the dock, we looked back to see a full rainbow arching over Manta Ray Bay Hotel and the Mnuw. It was quite inspiring for today’s adventures. Our first dive was at Goofnuw Channel near Valley of the Rays. We did not spot any manta rays, but we did enjoy good visibility as we checked out all the other life there. I spotted a few reef sharks above us, took a number of shots of nudi’s and worms, and even a cute hermit crab, but I have to say my favorite moment of the dive was looking up and seeing a large school of bump head wrasse swimming past us. I was getting used to seeing maybe 2 to 4 around us, but this had to be a school of around 20, I kid you not, in all sorts of sizes. It was pretty cool to look up to the surface and see them sailing over the reef.

After our first dive, it was a slow cruise over very shallow waters to our destination; a site called Mi’l Channel. While cruising over the crystal clear waters where you could see the sand and eel grass just below, we spotted the dust of a ray being startled (much like when you know there was a bat ray there because of the silt cloud) and a spooked reef shark scoot on by. I also enjoyed the fish that jumped out of the water and skipped on the surface 6 or 7 times before diving back into the water. When we arrived at Mi’l Channel we were on a mission to drop at a cleaning station to wait for some manta. We did see one cruise on by as we descended, and then another one close to the cleaning station, but vis was bad due to the current so the dive was a little disappointing as far as manta were concerned. We did come across some sunken Yapese stone money that had not completed its trip to Yap. And toward the end of the dive we encountered a large puffer fish, maybe a foot in length, with a beautiful spotted pattern and big eyes. It was so cute!

We cruised past the mangrove as we navigated our way back to MRBH through the German Channel. Then it was a quick rinse and a bite to eat before class where we did some review in preparation for our test on the last day. At 5:30pm we were on the boat again and on our way to Rainbow Reef near O’Keefe’s Island. We were on the hunt for the colorful, small mandarin fish. They like to hang out in the coral on this reef in about 5-15 feet of water. Everyone had success on spotting these little beauties in addition to enjoying the oddly marked cardinal fish, banded pipe fish, and sundry other little guys in the coral. After about a 1 ½ hour dive for some, we headed back to the resort for dinner.

Now as I type my entry today, my eyes are beginning to close, so I think it is time to hit the sack after another busy day. SWEET DREAMS!