Today we completed our second day of diving at Roca Partida.

Hi Everyone!!
Today we completed our second day of diving at Roca Partida. Early in the morning was amazing to watch the first Humpback whales of the day playing close to the Northern and Southern tips of the Island and not so far from the Solmar V. Of course the hope was to see them underwater while diving, but this time they hid from our divers and instead they preferred to accompanied us for the rest of the day. A couple of them liked to jump out of the water to the enjoyment of all the people aboard.  The weather was nice and warm, not very hot, and the sun gave us a break for a couple of hours when the clouds came in. We started our first dive on the East side of Roca Partida and we went straight to check the ledges located at the 46 ft. /14 m, where the white tip sharks like to rest. There were plenty of them and even the babies white tips sharks were there. We continue going down to reach our maximum depth of 90 Ft. / 27 m, and the first Galapagos Sharks appear right in front of us swimming around the North area, where the current was a little bit stronger and it brings lots of marine life all around, including big eye Jacks, pacific creole fish, pacific trigger fish, trumpet fish , few pelagics like wahoo, more Galapagos Sharks all around and mixed with them white tips Sharks swimming out of the ledges. The water temperature was very nice 75 fº/ 24º C from the surface to the bottom doing a 5 mm wetsuit very comfortable to wear for this waters. We kept the position at North because more Galapagos Sharks showed up, and specially one of them was really big for the enthusiasm of all the divers. We were  diving this area when a couple of Pacific Giant Mantas joined us, until we finished the dive! They were the kind Manta Chevron Black and white, they were very curious and playful with our divers. For the second dive the current was strong, especially at North and South, then we began at the East side one more time, where is more protected from the current. The plan was to move at north, but we changed our mind when we found like seven Galapagos Sharks going at South, we swam with them and we found big schools of amberjacks fish, mixed with cottonmouth jacks and trevalley jack fish. We stayed there and from the southeast we moved to the north to find more cotton mouth Jacks, more Galapagos, white tips and a silvertip shark.  From the North we turned to the west but most of the action was happening from the north to the southeast, then we returned. When we returned, the current was more challenging adding fun and more, much more marine life than before! When we passed the corner, the current was less, then was the perfect time to take pictures and videos of the white tips sharks resting at the ledges. On top of them and very close to the rock was a big school of amber jacks. The visibility was very clear, 80'/24 m to 100' /30 m. At last of the dive we moved from the Southeast to the Blue because we kept the expectation to find our Humpback Whale, but we weren’t lucky as days before but instead they liked to approach to our vessel to say hi during our surface intervals.  After the second dive we took a surface interval and was the perfect time to enjoy the lunch which was prepared by our Chef Antonio, who served a tequila lime chicken with vegetables. Before our third dive we watch the Humpback Whales all around the Solmar V, showing us the tail, blowing air, and swimming around. When we entered the water to do our third dive, we found out that most of the marine life was moving at South, then we headed at south with all the Galapagos Sharks, big schools of amberjacks, big eyes, even a big yellowfin tuna was looking for the smaller fish. Our third dive was very relaxing, no current at south, then was the perfect time to stay there, with all this wild marine life all around us. To finish our last dive we move from the southern tip out into the blue, so we swam trough the blue on the way to our safety stop the Galapagos sharks followed us from depth and we began to say goodbye to Roca Partida, when a Pacific Giant Manta showed up out of the blue!  When this Chevron Manta (Black and White) disappeared in the immensity of the sea, and we have our boat on top of us, we had the feeling of waking up, but it wasn’t a dream! In ours divers hearts we knew that was a divers dream made real with our vessel, the Solmar V!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Diving Instructor