June 11^th, 10pm

Up early today, breakfast, and straight to diving at 9am today – first at Vertigo, and then at the manta ray cleaning stations.  Great boat ride through the mangroves of the German Channel.  At Vertigo, I continued to swim tandem with Frank, and swam a bit on my own, too (an accomplishment only because I am not scuba certified in the least, and am not checking my own instruments).  At Vertigo, went down to 56 feet!  The reefs are incredible here and, as a non-diver before this, like nothing I’ve ever experienced.  No mantas at the second dive, but we did see sharks (blacktip and whitetip) and swim alongside sea turtles (green and hawksbill).  I was probably most happy to see one curious giant yellow black-spotted puffer.  So cool. 

After the two dives, straight to lunch and more food than we can deal with (I think everyone has bulkinging up on our minds – it’s going to be a lean three weeks in Ulithi).  Then some supply shopping for whatever we can scrounge up from the stores in Yap (fresh fruit, nuts, and gifts in the form of betel nut and weaving threads).  Back at ESA, we eat dinner and the mosquitos eat us.  Joh Rumal Jr., our master connection and Ulithi community and OPOR project leader, briefs us on the atoll’s current status and what to expect.  We prep to fly out tomorrow morning.