Dive Report March 28, 2013
We awoke to our favorite place, Roca
Partida. There was a gorgeous sunrise and boobies perched themselves
on the bow of the Solmar V. It was quiet this morning as there were
no other boats in the vicinity. We saw a few whale spouts, but we knew our favorite momma and baby had already started their
trek back north to Alaska. We watched these “new” whales with
great interest hoping that they might show some characteristics of
allowing us to approach them. So we kept our eyes open. Our first
dive here started with some wicked current. With such strong
currents, we expect lots of sharks and so it was. Immediately upon
descending we saw our first school of hammerheads, Galapagos, and
silvertips. It’s amazing to see such a mixed school of some 40
individuals. At least we know they are here now. We battled the
current trying to stay in the right spot, but it wasn’t happening
this morning so we drifted to the other side with no current and not
many sharks. We gently kicked around and to our surprise found a very
friendly giant pacific manta. It had already found another group that
had drifted the opposite side of the rock. We shared the manta as it
made very close passes overhead and enjoyed our bubbles. Dive two and
three were filled with sharks. We found more schools of Galapagos,
hammerheads, and silvertips. The white tips were ever-present, as
usual. On the third dive we had an interesting sighting as we rounded
the north end. We spotted four mantas, at least we thought. There was
one rare mobila shadowing a black manta and three other chevron
mantas chasing one another. It has been rare for us to see mantas and
mobilas here at Roca Partida, but this season has yielded the most
sightings in recent memory. They were thought to be gone from here,
with the exception of a random wanderer, but they are indeed back at
Roca Partida! This was the best manta action we had so far this trip!
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia
Dive Report March 29th, 2013.
The Amazing Roca Partida, 3 great dives took our breath away
today!!! Since we took our first breath
underwater had just blue water!! Right then we knew good things were
to come!! School of different jacks everywhere doing all type of
formations! It ̍s a pleasure to have a mild current here! This time
from North East that brought to us a school of about 20 Galapagos shark! We saw them at a variety of depths they were even with us when we were hanging at 20' of water doing our safety stop! Hammer heads were there also although a little bit deeper, we were suspended at 100 ̍ and no
words can explain what it felt like when we saw them swimming in circles just beneath our fins! Beautiful silver tips broke up the school of jacks
to let us see them coming at us one right after the other ones to a
total of 15 of them!! On the next dive we happened to two 2 black mantas and one stayed for 40 minutes from 20 to 50ft of water, it is always beautiful to
see They love bubbles running along their under body! The
symphony of males humpbacks whales singing did put a special touch to
every dive here! Vis 130'+ water temp from 73 ̊ to 77 ̊f.
Dive Inst Daniel Zapata
Dive Report March 30, 2013
Our third day at Roca Partida was still
remarkable! The water temperature still around
75, but the visibility was lower than it was yesterday at about 50 ft, the
eastern current was still strong, which is great because it brings a lots of
sharks. If you want to have a non-stop sharky
action, Roca is the place to be. On all 3 of the dives we did today, we had a constant parade of Galapagos, Silvertips, Silkies and
Hammerhead Sharks that kept swimming around the rock all day long and the wall right was covered by White Tip Reef Sharks everywhere! Pacific creolefishes, black, bigeye and
whitemouth jacks sparkle the rock, fishes everywhere you look, we were entertained the entire time! We’re staying one more day in Roca
Partida, we shouldn’t stop enjoying what Roca Partida is offering
us in these moments.
Stayed tuned for more Roca news!
March 31, 2013
It was our last day here at Roca
Partida and I have to say I was sad to leave. We had a great extended visit
with some amazing sightings of schooling hammerheads, Galapagos, and
silvertip sharks. The water column never ceases to amaze with the abundance
of vibrant colors of life. This day was great as we had many schools
of sharks today. Due to the risk of redundancy, I will restrain
myself with describing the many schools of sharks. But there were a
lot….a lot. Anyway, our major discovery today was a large school of
bonito. And by large, I mean a football field size of fish. They
seemed to come from nowhere and hung out for two dives. It was epic.
We also had sightings of large yellowfin tuna and mantas. So as we
left Roca today we had a Humpback Whale breaching in opposition to
our leaving. We waved our goodbyes and can't wait to see that
remarkable place again.
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia
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