Colonia, Yap, FSM

After having been here for five days, I have an general observation to make. This is not the typical island that most people will imagine. It is completely surrounded by a coral reef that is between 1-4 miles off shore. The waves break out at the reef and the water in between has small to no waves. Between the reef and shore the water is shallow--ankle to knee deep in close and waist to shoulder deep farther out (of course this all varies with the tides.

If you were on the beach, this means that you need to swim a mile to get to water suitable for snorkeling or plain swimming. It makes it quite a work out. We passed on snorkeling the first four days because we were too tired/lazy to swim that far. The waters are not as clear as I have seen in Caribbean, but the opportunities for fish, mantas, and wreak diving make it a great place to dive.

We have one more two-tank dive planned and maybe a sunset dive. We have a single-use underwater film camera that we brought and will post those pictures after we get back. I will try to post some pictures from my brother-in-law's underwater digital camera shortly.