Housewarming Party at Cara & Clay's in Wanyan, Gagil, Yap, Micronesia

[rkledgerwood]

Saturday afternoon brought the chance to go out to Cara and Clay's house on the beach. They finally got their possessions all moved in and have everything set up to host guests, so they invited a large part of the American community over for drinks and tacos

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[rkledgerwood]

I guess that's always the question, eh? In this case, he tells me he has logged 138 dives in 3 months, and forged relationships with chiefs/reef owners of many unexplored/unmarked reefs.

His (3-month-temp) contract is with the ritzy place, who runs through diving operators like underwear, and he has already recognized this -- he foresees he is likey to get screwed. But he likes it enough to stay, and he is qualified in several levels of mixed air, from basic Nitrox 25 to mixes for 400-foot dives. If he is honest, he is qualified to mix gases (and teach courses) for extended dives up to some 400 feet (130m). This, as we developed in our conversation, is his means of persuading Bill to hire him at Yap Divers -- they already have the photos guy, and three mass tourism experts. They need to market the deep divers: and so Larry is going to make his pitch that he is qualified to mix gases for extended dive below 100 ft, below 200 ft, below 400 ft. He believes he can help find undiscovered WWII wrecks, because the shelve slopes off to 300 ft or so. And he's qualified to operate the decompression chamber (and, while we have one at the hospital, we have only doctors to operate it -- no diving /pressurization experts). He also says he has seen undiscovered species (as far as he knows) from 130 - 200 feet in several locations in Yap.

I helped him frame his arguments to get hired on by Manta Ray/Yap Divers; we need a "Deep Diving" expert. So, if he's a conman, he's conned me so far, but honestly, he rings true. One of those guys with a real passion for diving.