Dive Review of Beyond the Reef/O'Keefe's Waterfront Inn in
Micronesia/Yap

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Beyond the Reef/O'Keefe's Waterfront Inn, Jul, 2006, by NEAL LANGERMAN, CA, USA . Report 2888.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My wife and I have more than 65 years of diving experience between us around the world on live-aboard and land-based operations. Our visit to Yap followed two weeks of diving in Palau. Yap is a small island in the Federated States of Micronesia. We did two dives a day for seven days with Beyond the Reef using a small skiff with a guide and operator. We were the only divers in the skiff for the entire time and got very comfortable with our guide and operator. One day, two snorkelers joined us, but even then the skiff was not overly crowded. Beyond the Reef specializes in small group diving which caters to the particular interests of the divers. Yap is known for its Mantas and we were not disappointed. July is rainy season and not the time the large schools of Mantas gather in the cleaning stations. However, we were able to dive with up to seven of these large fish and the Mantas remained near us for the better part of the hour dive. On other occasions we were visited by one to four Mantas. January through April is the best time of the year to visit Yap to see Mantas. Yap diving is much more than Mantas. The south and west walls provide vistas of hard corals at least as beautiful as the soft corals of Palau. Spotted Eagle Rays, reef sharks, and an assortment of reef fish are abundant. Diving is easy. A backroll entry puts you in a gentle current and you drift at comfortable depths in extremely clear water. The skiff had an acceptable boarding ladder that simply required removing your fins and climbing onboard. The skiff followed our bubbles and I never felt at risk of being left behind. The owner of Beyond the Reef, Dave Vecella, picked us up at our hotel every morning. He made certain that everything was planned and executed to our satisfaction. He was in every way a perfect host. We made all of our arrangements through Beyond the Reef and booked into O’Keefe’s Waterfront Inn on Dave’s recommendation. This was a superb five room Inn with the rooms extending over the water. The rooms were designed to make you feel like you were on a 19th century sailing schooner. The well appointed accommodations were comfortable and provided for everything the traveling diver needed. One very helpful feature was a drying closet located off of the porch overlooking the bay. Waste heat from the air conditioning condenser was directed into this closet and wet clothing and dive gear was very quickly dried. This was particularly helpful as we packed to continue our month long dive trip.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	All over the Pacific, all coasts of US, Gulf, Carib, etc
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy	Seas	choppy, currents
Water Temp	81-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	2
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	None
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Hard corals are fantastic for wide and ultra-wide angle (10-15 mm). Need to work to get superb composition. Use a reef hook to photograph mantas. See www.sharneal.com for images. Camera was stowed on a cushion inside the cabin of small skiff. Safe, but not secure. Crew handled camera properly and well. Needed to change ports between dives and we came back to the dock so I could reconfigure the entire housing and camera in a dry location.

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Dive Review of Beyond the Reef/O'Keefe's Waterfront Inn in Micronesia/Yap

Beyond the Reef/O'Keefe's Waterfront Inn, Jul, 2006,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Beyond the Reef/O'Keefe's Waterfront Inn in
Micronesia/Yap