Dear Team Member,

I hope this message finds you all healthy and well. It’s been a huge week for the world as the United Kingdom becomes the first country to approve a COVID vaccine with vaccinations starting on Tuesday. It is no longer speculation or a waiting game. Things are happening and as per usual Team DD plans to hit the ground running.

With our extensive network we have been receiving intel from all over the planet about upcoming vaccination plans that cover the area of our operations in the world that is most challenging, FSM and the Marshals, the news are encouraging!

The image below describes a plan to cover 80% of the population in Palau by easter, and Chuuk and the Marshall Islands are involved in the same initiative with the US government and COVAX.

Marshalls working to get early Covid-19 vaccine access

rnz.co.nz reports about Marshall Islands vaccination efforts in co-ordination with the US Goverment:

“Marshall Islands officials will meet with US government officials in early December to discuss logistical issues with getting Covid-19 vaccines into islands.

The Health Secretary, Jack Niedenthal, said the US was working with the Marshalls government, as well as governments of the freely associated states of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia, to ensure early vaccine access.”

Read the article HERE

Knowledge Base Update

There was a big update done to the Knowledge Base this week. One highlight is a walkthrough we did of Bikini Atoll Divers in 2019, a 5 minute exclusive video walkthrough of the abandoned dive center at Bikini Atoll in 2019 during a DD Expedition.

Bikini Atoll Divers opened in June of 1996 to provide an economic base for possible future resettlement of Bikini Atoll.

In 2008 the Council had to close their operation due to local airline reliability issues, soaring energy costs, and US stock market conditions that impacted the local government budget. It is well worth a watch if you wonder how Bikini Atoll looks on land.

Now that you might be thinking its time to organize your travel, we thought we would also share this excellent chart of the wrecks in Truk Lagoon made by our captain Martin Cridge. The full resolution image and lots of other updates can be found on our knowledge base right now. The password is DDERocks.

Obviously these great news in the world have been positive for us at the office. We have been keeping really busy with new bookings as people see a path to free world travel and we plan to bring you a updated over availability in our next newsletter so you can calm down the FOMO effect.

Its exhilarating to think about all the good times that lie ahead after this hibernation. True to us hitting the ground running - we in fact packed the CCR’s this morning and in the airport when this is written. More about that adventure next Friday.

That is us for this week. We hope you got some great plans coming up this weekend but don’t forget, if you are feeling lonely, then we are here to chat Dirty.

Love,

Aron Arngrímsson and the DDE Team