November 12, 2011

This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and dolphins!! Our first
dive was El Canon. Upon entering the water we found it quite warm at 80
degrees (F) with decent visibility of 40 feet. There was a slight current
from the south as we made our way to the corner to see if the hammerheads
were awake yet. A group of two large hammerheads were first to be spotted..
Later another group of 3 cruised by. As we slowly made our way back to the
Solmar V we watched a manta fly overhead, then one below. Before we knew
it, we were surrounded by three mantas right under the boat. We hung out
with them for the last 20 min. of our dive. As we watched the mantas
gently move by, we heard chirps and clicks. That could only be noises of
dolphins! The group was treated to playtime with 10 bottlenose dolphins.
Reluctantly, we made our way back up the ascent line watching the mantas
circle below us. We had yet another sighting of a hammerhead. this time a
small juvenile, come very close to those us doing our safety stop. Nice
Dive!

Dive two was at the Boiler. The conditions were very favorable with a
slight surface current and 81 degrees on the surface. From the surface we
immediately spotted dolphins. And from the moment we hit the water it was
non-stop action. Two mantas were circling the top of the boiler, taking
turns getting cleaned by the clarion angels. We could also hear the
dolhins so we made our way to the eastern side of the rock and there were
the dolphins. First we could only make out 10. But as we got closer,
nearly 30 bottlenose dolphins were in this pod. They played for as long as
we stayed (10 minutes or so) and we started making our way back to the
rock. Upon arriving back at the cleaning station, there were now four
mantas, two black and two chevron. The boiler was also covered in fish of
all sorts and at least twenty white tips swam around the rock looking for
somewhere to nap. Up for our safety stop we went, and the mantas continued
their routine.

The first dive at the boiler was so good we decided to do the rest of our
dives here at the boiler. Dive three conditions improved to 60 foot
visibilty, with a slight current. Two mantas greeted us at our arrival
into the water. We watched and some took pics or video of the mantas at
the cleaning station. We took pics for about 10 minutes and moved on to
take a closer look at the boiler. We found five white tips taking a siesta
in a cut in the rock, at least seven green morays, and so many fish-who
could count. As we took our time doing a lap around the boiler, we had two
more mantas join us from the blue. Overhead and below, they swam  posing
for pictures. We headed back to the boat watching the mantas circle below
us.

Our fourth dive of the day, third at the boiler, showed even better
conditions. It was so clear below 20 ft., you could see the bottom at
130ft. Mantas kept us busy the entire dive, following us on every side of
the boiler. Three manats hung out hypnotizing the divers with their gentle
strength. It was a fantastic day of diving here in San Benedicto Island.
Off to Socorro....

Dive Instructor-
David Valencia