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This is our other absolute favorite spot to go and Manta Ray Bay is an absolute favorite dive-dedicated resort to stay at. We can’t say enough good things about Yap and Manta Ray Bay. (In my mind, it’s hard to separate the two.) You really feel like you’re in a remote location, but everyone speaks English, and the diving is amazing. Where else in the world can you have Manta Rays gliding over your head in the morning, watch sharks shred frozen bait in the afternoon, and then watch the daily mating of Mandarinfish as the sun sets? You can do all of that in a single day in Yap. There are some spectacular reefs and you always want to be looking out in the blue for large animal encounters. This year, we were treated to a huge school of Eagle Rays gliding by information. Daily breakfast is included on these trips, as is lunch (usually eaten on the boat between dives 2 and 3), and we’re on own for dinner. Three dives per day is the normal routine and because of the way Yap is laid out, you can almost always find calm places to dive. (As some of you know, we had lousy weather this past year but it didn’t affect our ability to dive.) And speaking of Manta Rays, Yap is well-known for having a few Manta cleaning stations where you can sit transfixed as these gentle giants hang almost motionless in the mild current while small fish give them the marine equivalent of a mani-pedi. Yap is truly a magical place and we are always eager to return.

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Palau is yet another wonderful world-class destination that’s been off of our radar for too long. In fact, we haven’t been there since 2016. Every time we’ve done Palau previously, we’ve always done it on the Aggressor and that’s our plan this time too. (There are now two Aggressor, the Palau Aggressor II and the Rock Island Aggressor and they’re identical vessels.) The nice thing about doing this from a liveaboard rather than using day boats is that the mothership keeps you close to the dive sites and you don’t have to make long trips in small boats each day to go explore. And if you want to sit out a dive, no big deal AND you’ve got a marvelous floating hotel where you can relax. There are really too many dive sites in Palau to hit them all on one trip but we’ll plan on doing the best of what Mother Nature has to offer. These might include Blue Corner, German Channel, Big Drop-Off, Ulong Channel, the Helmet Wreck, Peleliu Express, and many more. We usually hit the more famous sites like Blue Corner and German Channel multiple times over the course of the week. We generally get in four dives each day with a couple of night dives as well. As of this writing, Jellyfish Lake, usually the last dive of the trip, is not on the schedule but that might change by the time we get there late next year. But Palau is one of those you’ve-got-to-go there spots and Reef Seekers is the one to help you experience it to the fullest.

READ THE 2016 TRIP REPORT

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We normally don't plan trips more than a year in advance but, for a variety of reasons, we've committed to not one but TWO trips on the Manthiri in the Maldives and will run them back-to-back next year. Trip dates - actually travel dates will differ slightly - are September 19-28 and September 29 - October 8. The reason we booked these trips back-to-back was partially at the urging of our dive guide/buddy Moosa on the Manthiri, and also because when he proposed this, a number of folks on the boat at the time said, "I'd do both trips!!"

Amazingly, we already have 8 people who have committed to doing both trips. We also have a few people doing only trip #1, and a few people doing only trip #2. The Manthiri only takes 12 divers (plus 11 crew), and we are now SOLD OUT for both trips. Although this is weather-dependent, our plan is run trip #1 as a northern route and run trip #2 as a southern route. There are trade-offs to both but for those doing both trips, the hope is not to do the same sites on trip #2 that we will do on trip #1. And with everything you hear nowadays about Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease and coral bleaching, it's important to remind you that, while the Maldives has become a diving hotspot in the last decade or so, it's also one of the few places in the world where you'll still find pristine reefs loaded with thousands of fish. (Maldivians are very proud of and protective of their reefs.)

Bear in mind that because the Manthiri limits itself to 12 divers, this is effectively a limited-load type of trip. Both trips are also 9-day trips rather than 7-days. You can absolutely find cheaper trips on other boats but they will have upwards of 30 divers on board and many are only 7 days. In the Maldives, you get what you pay for. For our trips, we will generally do three dives each day (occasionally four), the food on-board is fabulous, plus we include a very generous tip for the crew, a hotel overnight in the Maldives on the way in, the 16% Maldives tax, and the $6/night "green" tax. So for each trip through us, the cost will be $5,990/person. Admittedly, not cheap. That's also why all we're asking for now is a $500 deposit to secure your spot and then we can do payments of $1,000 every other month or so to spread things out. And if you need convincing as to how wonderful the diving can be, take a look at last year's report and pix. If you have questions, give us a call at 310/652-4990. If you want to snag any of those last remaining spots, the sooner you get hold of us, the sooner you can start anticipating this trip-of-a-lifetime.

 READ THE 2023 TRIP REPORT 

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