Today was a wonderful day of diving at the Boiler! At the beginning of the 1st dive we heard the sound of the dolphins playing coming from the southern direction. We went to look for them and were at the corner of the Boiler when the first bottle nose Dolphins showed up, running behind the trevally jack fish! They really have been hunting them, while the fish were running away in a race for life! The temperature of the water was very nice, 77 Fº /25 Cº, and the visibility was like 80 Ft / 24 m all day. We were watching the Dolphins in this area when a chevron manta ( Black and white ) arrived, but on this dive the fun belongs to the Dolphins! They were everywhere, swimming up and down, vertical, like 30 of them around the Boiler and around the divers who were amazed with all this beauty! We turned the corner from south to the west, we moved along the Boiler at our left and the Dolphins to our right. Turning the corner we found another chevron manta, that was out in the blue a little bit indifferent with our presence. We then continued moving north when a big Hammerhead appear at the limit of our sight along with a Silky Shark that was curious about us. At the northern point we found a massive school of trevally jacks and lots of dolphins again coming up from depth, passing in between divers, and hunting in the shallow at the step which is at the 30 Ft /9 m. The winners of our 1st dive, no doubt were the bottle nose dolphins!
The second round goes to the Mantas, which decided to participate lot more during our second dive! When we reached the first step located at 30 ft/ 9 m we watched a wingtip of a black manta saying "Hi!" Calling us across this rock formation, then it moved south, where we found a little bit more current and more mantas than the previous dive! 4 Mantas were swimming around, 3 of them chevron and 1 black manta playing there, for the entire dive! They were very playful, very kind with divers and they seemed to enjoy our bubbles on their bellies as they always do. The black manta was at the 60 ft/ 18 m, but finally they were moving in to the shallower area from50 ft/15m to the surface. On our 3rd dive we had the same 4 mantas that we found before, and we went straight to the little pinnacle located in front of the Boiler. There were plenty of tropical fish like Moorish idols, trumpet fish, Grunts in a small school at around 80 ft/24 m. We crossed the Boiler and we had current from the east, then we stayed at the northwest area protected from the current and the chevron mantas appeared with all the intention to demonstrate that the Boiler is by far the best location in the world to watch them! All these mantas around showing themselves with all the glamor they have and few of them with bright orange clarion angelfish all over them. This fish is characteristic of this area and is the only fish which cleans the mantas. Usually they create a beautiful contrast for all the photographers and videographers! Our last dive was the better way to say goodbye to the Boiler before we leave to Roca Partida. The wall on the west was the easiest place to start; we followed this entire wall until we see the white tip sharks on a small ledge. Once at the southwestern point we watched a beautiful school of trevally jacks, when a Manta Chevron joined us from the blue! We stopped at this corner and the manta was there for a very long time without moving at all. We headed back north, where we have lots of Pacific creolefish around and leather bass groupers, and at the end of our dive another chevron manta came up from depths to say goodbye until next time! The current was stronger and was the perfect time to complete our safety stop. All the divers had lot of action during all the days dives, and all this action was accompanied by the music of the Humpback Whales! They seem very happy singing all day long underwater and breathing and blowing air at the surface, for the delight of all of us on another sunny day aboard the Solmar V!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Solmar V
Scuba Diving Instructor
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