Volume 3 Issue 5
May 1, 2010

Dear Friends,

We flew 30 hours to get to our little piece of heaven called Palau. We return for the gracious people and the sea. Lucy and her staff at the Palau Pacific Resort treat every guest as though there are no others. Steven and the divers at Splash are ready and eager for incredible adventures. We always think there can be no other challenge or thrill than those we’ve experienced, only to be proven wrong. Palau banned shark finning, a practice that was never allowed. It is now a marine sanctuary, one of the few in the world. Because of this, it is one of the only places left in the world to see such an abundance of large pelagic. We dove late one day at the German Channel. There is a manta cleaning station. With over 30 attempts over the years to see mantas, we’d only seen them maybe three times. We were 30 minutes into our dive when one arrived, then another and another, until there were 7. The plankton was there at the right time and they came to feed. One black manta was a good 18 feet across. They didn’t care that we were there. They did back flips, somersaults and performed. With our air depleted, we had to leave them, but the memory of that incredible sight will never be forgotten.

Multicolored Sapphire Necklace
With
22KY Gold Clasp

Our entrance into the world of jewelry began with sapphire mining in Montana. If you follow this link you can see pictures of the mine with an accompanying story: Sapphire Story. There are two types of mining: Alluvial and Hard Rock. The sapphire mining in Phillipsburg, MT is done in alluvial (gravel) deposits. It is backbreaking work, but quickly becomes an addiction, much like gambling. The Yogo Sapphire mine is also in Montana. This is hard rock mining. It gave up the beautiful, blue sapphire Prince Charles gifted to Lady Di for her engagement ring. The countries of Thailand and Sri Lanka are the predominant producers of the sapphires used in jewelry. Most sapphires are heat treated to enhance color before they are faceted. The Burmese, Kashmir and Yogo sapphires do not require heat treatment. For this reason they are quite expensive.

Grey Reef Shark by Lornie Mueller

~HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY~

Thank you again for your patronage and friendship. We appreciate all of you.

With love,
Lornie and Rose