Sunday, May 31, 2015

Socorro Island is so far away from civilization, perfect for diving!

May 29, 2015
Thick low clouds were covering the top areas of the island, the sunlight was peeking through, it reminds us how remote of a location Socorro Island is, so far away from civilization, perfect for diving!
With lower light conditions, we descended to see what amazing things Cabo Pearce had waiting for us this morning.  There was no current at all, making for an easy descent and there were lots of fish covering the shallow area of the reef around 12m/40ft of water.  Despite the low light, a chevron manta was waiting to say good morning to our divers, slowly approaching us, taking time to feel secure she swam straight at us, sort of pointing at us with the tip of her wing.  She was cruising slowly away before making a turn right in front of everybody and proceeding to swim right through the middle of all of our divers!  We could see how white her underbody is with gray spots, and this is only ten minutes into the first dive!  Other very welcomed visitors started announcing their arrival via constant chirping before we could see them!  6 dolphins made themselves visible to all divers keeping us in the middle and swimming as slowly as we are, we mimicked the dolphin swim which we think they like, since they tend to get excited and were swimming fast up and down, all around us!  Then just as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared into the blue.  A friendly second manta made its appearance swimming above all our heads, enjoying a bubble bath from our regulators, when we found more dolphins!  The count was between 16 and 20 individuals this time.  They divided our groups of divers into two groups, one group swimming circles around our divers, the other group swimming along side them, it was so much fun! 
Our surface interval was cloudy with an air temp of 25˚C/75˚F, a bit of rain made our nose detect the smell of wet soil in the air!
The day went by with 3 more dives with shifting currents, at times it made the diver very interesting, taking us along the reef for a drift dive. No kicking was needed, we just floated with the current with mantas over our heads, we enjoyed taking in the surroundings with all the reef fish, white tips, and at the end we found 3 hammerheads swimming in shallow water at a depth of 30' with a curious silky shark swimming circles right below our fins!   
These dives brought more friendly mantas, we spent some time along the wall looking at all the lobsters, watching the clarion angel fish feed on the wall while waiting for more mantas.  During the moments without current, we could spend time on the shallow area of the reef,  taking in all of the colorful fish big and small, until until the moment when a yellowfin tuna showed up! All fish are terrified by the tuna, retracting immediately and seeking shelter amongst the reef. In the end everyone was happy for such a great diving experiences with these giant mantas, dolphins, sharks here in Cabo Pearce, visibility was ranging from 9 to 18m/30 to 60ft because of the upwelling. 
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Solmar V.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Another fantastic day of diving from Roca Partida!

May 28th Dive Report
Good evening divers out there, I am glad to report again a fantastic day of diving from Roca Partida! The wind has not left us since yesterday so we’ve been careful getting in and out the zodiacs as the waves kept hitting the side of the boat, but guess what? It was worth it every single time!
First dive in, water temperature was 76F/25C and visibility got somewhat better to 100feet/30m, the north end of Roca Partida had a thick school of Jacks from 10 to 70feet deep and as we left them behind sharks started to show up. Several Galapagos sharks swam fast and close by the divers almost like posing for the pictures, and just a bit deeper, gently cruising escorted by small steel pampanos , big silver tip sharks in several directions. A bunch of yellow fin tuna flashed their silhouettes in and out the area showing muscle and forcing all the fish to back off fast. Just around the corner we were passed by a huge chevron giant pacific manta at about 130ft/40m, then it disappeared into the blue. To finish this awesome dive we glimpsed a school of around 25 hammerhead sharks, not to mention the 8 White Tip reef sharks patrolling the shallow waters at the end. 
After a nice and long surface interval we hit the rock again and it was even better! Starting at the south end this time we were after the jackpot! On our way down a Giant Manta showed up to try to lure us out of our plan for the dive but we endured, a few minutes later while carefully searching the blue off the southeast point we spotted a massive group of hammerhead sharks, but as we were getting close two bottle-nose dolphins got down from the surface and with a belly dance, they almost made us forget why we were there in the blue. Soon enough the dolphins went away (back in the boat we found out they just reunited with the big pot of around 20 dolphins entertaining the other group of divers at the north point) and we could finally pay close attention down to the mesmerizing circular swimming pattern of a school of more than 100 hammerhead sharks, man, what a rush! Oops, time to get shallower, our 28% EANx didn’t allow us to stay down any longer near them.
After lunch and a nice siesta we explored the rock once more, and the Yellow Fin Tuna came back for a while, fat and fast as usual! The second half of the dive was starred by a friendly Giant Black Manta, he kept coming back and forth to say farewell to all of us. Safety stop and…barbeque for dinner!!
Adrian Belinchon
DIvemaster On Board Solmar V

Friday, May 29, 2015

It was an explosion of sea life at Roca Partida!

May 27, 2015
Today we’ve had a lot of fun diving at the Roca Partida! While the crew was preparing the gear in the zodiacs, it was a perfect time have a coffee and breakfast to prepare our divers waiting for the first dive of the day! The sea has a surge and moderate to strong current at the corners of the Island. That’s why we dove the eastern side at first. At the 46ft. there are a couple of ledges where the white tip sharks like to rest. This time there was plenty of them, even the baby white tips were there!  We headed north and right in front of us we found bottlenose dolphins, one of them was waiting for us in vertical position, and a mother passed by with a little baby dolphin very close to her and slowly they disappear in the blue. The current was strong from the north then we decided to return to the eastern side where a silky shark was circling from the rock to the blue and moving to the sides, approaching to us and then moving fast again. The water temperature was very nice 77ºF/26ºC perfect for a  5 mm wetsuit and the visibility ranged from 60ft/18m to 70ft/21m. Once at the southern point the first schools of trevally jacks and amberjacks showed up mixed with lots of pacific triggerfish, pacific creole fish, trumpet fish and at depth a big school of bonito was around! For the second dive we entered at the north side of the rock. On the way down a huge yellow fin tuna was close to the surface, and we had more pelagics like wahoos!  The current wasn’t so strong then we enjoyed more time at the northern point with big schools of cottonmouth jacks, trevally jacks, bigeye jacks along with a silky shark that was patrolling this area the whole time. Little by little we headed to the southeast and we found more action this time! It was nice to see the amberjacks from the 30 ft. /9 m to the surface almost, mixed with trevally and cottonmouth jacks. The visibility was even better, very clear with all those fish looked like they were floating in the air. We turned the southern tip to the west side; where we were able to appreciate the vertical wall with plenty of hard coral and urchins. It was possible to hear the sound that the coral does with the movement of the water. This side was very relaxing, clear water, no current and lots of Pacific creole fish, and a couple of wahoos mixed with yellowtails. To finish our second dive we opened from the rock at the south and we made our last try in the blue with very good results. At depth and at the limit of the visibility we found a huge school of Hammerheads. We were going to complete our safety stop when we saw 1 Hammerhead very clear and the movement of a huge school, maybe hundreds of them.  They’ve been at 100 ft. /30 m and we see them from the 20 ft. at the limit of the visibility but we could appreciate the school in the clear water. We completed our safety stop and we surfaced planning another encounter with these majestic animals. That’s why we planned to start at southern point for the last dive of the day. So we went down into the blue and immediately found a big hammerhead shark going deep, we followed it straight thinking it would lead us to see the full school, we didn’t find them this time, but was a fabulous encounter none the less.  Little by little we reached the southern tip of Roca Partida, and we still had lot of action there.  The magnificent schools of fish around Roca Partida make us feel the wilderness of the Revillagigedo Archpielago. It was an explosion of sea life, cottonmouth jacks, amberjacks, trevally jacks,   Pacific creole fish and another two Silky Sharks that were interested in a couple of yellowtail!  Too many emotions for only one day of diving!! Tomorrow we have a second day of diving in Roca Partida and we can say that we are very lucky to enjoy of this unique first class diving around the World!!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor 
Solmar V

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Mantas, Hammerheads, dolphins and more at San Benedicto!

May 26, 2015
We had a crisp clear morning with a bright orange sunrise over San Benedicto Island.  Imagine a ridge of a mountain, the top covered with fog but everything else below was very clear!  That's what happened this morning, below the surface of the water at  12m/40ft deep, everything else below that very clear, the rocks, fish, mantas, lobsters, eels, etc.
We started to descend into a current from East having the aid of a line, at the end of it, we already had 3 Mantas making circles around the rope so we complemented the game making bubbles extending the time they spent with us, at times they went into the fog, no more mantas! Then they returned to us coming out that fog, appearing like shadows first, then and slowly making themselves visible, to place their bellies on the stream of bubbles, as we moved on to the dive Hammer Heads started to show up here and there! Some of them super big in size! Dolphins were around! Keep your eyes open! Fish felt the current! Usually they are in mid water, this morning all the Big Eye Jacks were near the bottom, in deeper water we see how green it is, that up welling will catch up at some point! 

During the surface interval, dolphins were playful to the point that some divers got in the water to snorkel with them! The volcano in front of us is really offering shelter, giving us a break from wind and big swells. 
On the second dive we really experienced the up welling slowly coming up, it hit us at a depth of 24m/80 ft of water while we were enjoying the swim of a black manta, then a second manta, green water below our fins blue above our heads made us come up a bit, ahhhh!!! It felt nice! We played the game "I don’t see you" with mantas 4.5m/14ft long because we wanted to find Hammer Heads! They kept cutting us off, stopping in front of us making sure we look them in the eye, then continuing to swim circles around us! 
On the third dive the mantas finally went away, just for a little bit of time to let us find Hammer Heads, which we did, they were spread out though. In the end we found about 25 together, then mantas came back to complete our dive! 25˚C/77˚F Water temp was the warmest, 22.2˚C/72˚F the thermocline!
The last dive today current increased a lot from the East side, which made us go to the bottom and hold on to rocks, we waited there and watched as lots of fish were going crazy over our heads in all directions! On the other side of the area a big number of Big Eye Jacks hanging in there as a pack of fish, all together! So we ended up making a nice drift dive playing in the current, gliding following every single thing came across our way, FUN! We felt secure at all times having Jeronimo and Luis our Zodiac captains being there on time to pick us up, vis was as low as 7m to good 18m/20ft to even 60ft, in the end everything was there to seen today, all our guests are HAPPY!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Lots of excitement at El Cañon on our checkout dive!

Hello everybody,
Wind in the tail, calm seas and not one cloud in the sky, those were the conditions we had for crossing from Cabo San Lucas to San Benedicto Island! Nice and easy, we made it to the south side of the island for our check out dive. Once we were anchored, we dove down straight from the swimming platform of the Solmar V into El Cañon by means of the stern line. Visibility was around 50ft/15m and the temperature of the water was nice at 77F/25C, east current hitting the reef consistently. Once at the bottom, lots of big white tip reef sharks everywhere seemed excited by the current, big eyes trevally schooling to the right, inner side of the reef and a beautiful group of fully grown hammerhead sharks seemed bolder than ever as they came real close to the divers. For the rest of the dive time two Pacific Giant Mantas, one Black and one Chevron welcomed the divers one by one. Among the rest of the underwater inhabitants of El Cañon, lots of eels, lobsters, sting rays and other reef fishes will surely try again tomorrow to get some divers' attention as today the big guys drew everyone's eyes, including mine!
Adrian Belinchon
Divemaster Solmar V

Friday, May 22, 2015

Today was the last day of diving on this trip and once again everybody finished with a smile on their faces!

Hello.
Today was the last day of diving on this trip and once again everybody finished with a smile on their faces. The weather calmed down a bit so we finally made it to Roca Partida with really good conditions, water temperature of  77F/25C and visibility of 80ft/24m with a slight current from south east.
The first dive started with lots of with tips on the wall as usual and big schools of big eye jacks, with mouth jacks, creole and trigger fish at the distance you could see some yellow fin tunas passing by. On the end of last dive a big whale shark of at least 26ft/8m passed by but only some divers that were still on the water saw it.
For the second dive of course the question was, are we going to see the whale shark again and yes we did! It was going around the rock so we stayed in between the schools of small fish as it went by us very slowly and then waited there for it to pass again on its second lap, this time we all saw it.
On the last dive there were lots of yellow fin tunas hunting it’s always amazing to see how fast they are and how they change colors when in hinting mode. So that is how we end  one more trip out here in Socorro island keep tuned for our trip report video and our next trip that will be going out in a couple of days.

Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Mantas, dolphins, and hammerheads at EL CAÑON!

May 20, 2015    Mantas. Dolphins and Hammer heads at EL CAÑON
   Our morning started with dolphins, smooth surface, no wind and very sunny, so wet suits on, dive briefing done, let‘s go diving! Vis was about 12 to 18m/40 to 60 ft, water temp 25˚C/77˚F, slow current from West, fish very active this morning as we are descending, current always brings something to feed on, we are in mid water 18m/60ft, our left side just water our right side the reef, behind the all Pacific creolefish two black shadows as we are getting closer, Big Eye Jacks near the place we call the corner are spreading out, the two shadows are now very visible turning into two mantas, just there, not approaching to us, on the rocks white tip sharks sort of recognizing the area once again from the nigh feeding frenzy, now listen! Dophins chiping! The sound they are doing means they are chasing fish so we followed the line of fish in the way there the company of mantas making circles around u, why not! We take that! Then 5 dolphins showed up chasing those jacks, just like on the surface Frigate bird chase boobies underwater dolphins chase jacks to get the fish out of its bellies, a lonely huge hammer head also appear on the bottom, slowly swimming, going over the rocks then sandy areas, a bit away another group divers having fun with mantas then dolphins, as we are swimming a bit into the current from West mama dolphins showing its little one to recognize which fish to chase, obviously we had fun mimicking the dolphin swim, the Jacks still out there in the blue let’s go check that out, any way dive computers are almost to start beeping, jacks are not moving from the same area even though we are coming closer, we see shadows of hammer heads behind those fish, this is only 12 to 15m/40 to 50 ft of water, looking into the light 1 really shows up then 2 and 3… so ended up with 7 of them  slowly making circles in front of us, the safety stop happened below the Solmar V with lots of juvenile Black Jacks and 5 very curious silky sharks.
    In a second dive more mantas in a current that changed during surface interval, we noticed the change on water temp dropping also to be chili 22.2˚C/72˚F, now flowing from East we took the ride in the current, some hammerheads as well here and there but mantas were with us all the way from EL cañonto to El Fondeadero, about 21 Diamond Head Sting rays as we drifted were detecting something on the sandy bottom.
    The surface interval so far has been incredible sunny, no wind so we are under the shield of the volcano Baecena with 332m/1089ft over the sea level.
    Once again we noticed current has changed direction, now from South East, which was really good, we had to swim into it for little time until the corner, area called as such because the reef turns West at this point, jacks still there so let´s go there! Below this amount fish looking as a tornado were sort of hiding 20 hammer heads, the return to the corner was grateful rewarded by a mantas awaiting on us to do more playing with bubbles, some divers had to do safety stop drifting under the protection of chase boats, others made it back to mother boat Solmar V to see those silky sharks once again.
    The final dive today, an upwelling cover the area until 18m/60ft of water, it’s green and cold, but fish were excited moving in all directions, big jacks as well, fish from the surface coming down to the line of temperature, all together changing behavior, 2mantas don’t want to come up to warmer water, it’s chili down here but we took that! Out there another wall of fish hiding 4 hammer heads behind and just one Black tip shark! Black tip! Yes a black tip shark that came back alone to the opposite direction, a mobula ray shows up, the colder temperature probably affecting behavior of green morays got into a fight exciting to see, any cold water is pushing us all up to shallow water that feels a lot more warmer to end the dive in a no boring way at all, below the Solmar V with those friendly silky sharks.
    Dive Inst
   Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Socorro Island was full of great and wild surprises underwater!

May 19, 2015
Hello everyone from Socorro Island!
The fourth day of the trip once again came full of great and wild surprises underwater! We spent the day diving at Punta Tosca, which came perfect in terms of conditions as the wind was blocked by the island and its high volcano hill offering the perfect shelter for coming back and forth from the Solmar V to the entry point of the dives with the zodiacs.
Almost flat sea as the sun came up, our first dive after a nutritious breakfast was very diverse, so if time usually flies when you are underwater, this time even more so. Water temperature was 77F/25C and vis. ranged from 50ft/15m to 80ft/24m throughout the day . The wall of Punta Tosca is always in action, from the clarion angelfish to the "schooling" bicolor parrot fish, lobsters , octopus, scorpion stone fish, eels...it is hard not to miss something with so much to look at, right? Well, we certainly remembered to look up too when the shadow of a huge chevron pacific giant manta came upon us! As we came to the other side of the wall the vivid colors of the reef surprised us once again, with several white tip reef sharks and a friendly green turtle completing the picture. As we headed  slowly up to the safety stop a couple of curious baby galapagos sharks came by for a closer look.
As we explored other parts of the reef during the next dive, a black giant manta guided one of the groups along the bar of rock and coral which runs perpendicular to the main wall, and another  chevron manta kept coming in and out of the blue. This shallower area of Punta Tosca, with 40 feet/12m of water on top of the reef and 80feet/24m at the bottom, made these second and third dive a very rewarding experience. It was Pure Wild Cuteness. As divers were resting over the sandy bottom up to six baby galapagos sharks and three baby white tip reef sharks kept making circles around the group, full of childish curiosity! Also, a small green turtle joined the baby parade demanding her share of attention. For the last dive of the day the current rose and we all went for a drift dive which took us all along the reef with no need for a fin kick! Then it was time for a delicious dinner and to get some rest for more adventure tomorrow!! Ciao Ciao everybody, report to you soon!!
Adrian
Divemaster on board

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

We had a full day of diving with four amazing dives at Cabo Pearce in Socorro Island.

May 18, 2015
Today we had a full day of diving with four amazing dives at Cabo Pearce in Socorro Island. The water temperature was 77F/25C, the visibility changed throughout the day ranging in between 30Ft/10m to 80ft/24m.
At the beginning of the first dive we had some bottlenose dolphins welcome us into the water but they just passed on by the current was strong so we went on wall part of the dive site to get protected by it were some white tip sharks, jacks, lobsters and free swimming moray eels were spotted. At the end of the dive close to the ascent line the dolphins showed up again and this time they played around with the divers.
For the second and third dive there were some mantas getting cleaned by the clarion angel fish but this time we had to watch from below hooked on the reef since the current was strong. The dolphins passed by again a couple of times. For the last dive we had a nice drift dive along the whole reef and as soon as we got out of it and started to ascent in the blue water three silky sharks were going around checking us out getting closer every time until we were out of the water.
Tonight we head to the other side of Socorro Island planning some dives at Punta Tosca were we spotted lots of juvenile sharks a couple of weeks ago hopefully they will still be around!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor

Monday, May 18, 2015

Fun with dolphins and mantas amidst swells at El Boiler!

Hi All! May 17, 2015
A gorgeous sunrise hiding behind clouds and lots of morning tropical birds! 
Our morning started with a positive anxiety to be underwater, some swells and wind were affecting the surface of the water, gradually the light of the sun made the morning warmer, the swells from the surface became a smooth backward and forward ride underwater.  Water temp was  25˚C/75˚F, visibility was no more than 18m/60ft due to swells, no current at all made the swimming easy! What underwater was a smooth ride for us due to swells on the surface was a fantastic way to surf and ride for dolphins, they also have fun in the swells of EL BOILER!
The underwater part happened to be a concert of dolphins making every one of us happy, several trips in a row we have been seeing some of the same individuals among the 17 that showed up in different groups! The mantas were very generous and playful this morning, so it was a bit difficult at times to choose which direction to take! Here is when the word fortunate came along, with mantas congregating around the same corner where the dolphins were hanging out, in such a small area we had 4 big mantas and 17 dolphins, who wouldn’t be happy! We noticed one of the mantas had a circular bite right on its back, 7.6cm/3ʺ to 10cm/4ʺ diameter, what do you think it was? On every corner we went to we had more and more mantas, in addition to the the previous 4, we know they enjoy the bubble massage, you see them coming straight at you, a bit over your head, all you have to do is wait! Aim your bubbles to hit the belly, then they stop swimming to trap the bubbles then as they go bubbles run along and do it again since they come back for more, it’s a sort of game we like to play! After having fun with mantas, the dolphins came back, not totally gone since the chirping was there while enjoying of the mantas and the cracking noise of the hard coral, playful as usual, came so close to us, a bit more than an arm length from us but enough to not let us touch them.
     Time to go for a second dive so "Dive Time!" Was the word on the dive deck, the dolphins came back again! A fun and joy than don’t want to end, as we were making our descent, we already had mantas wanting bubbles and chasing after us while we headed to the north west in search of dolphins. All the fish seemed to be in a relaxed mode from 12m/40ft to the surface, then one bad guy, alone, showed up swimming like a rocket terrifying everything in the area chasing a fish until it became food! Everything was retracting toward the rock fast leaving us with only water in front of us, and a yellow fin tuna was responsible for it! A silky shark swam by covered by lots of rainbow runners, how funny we barely see the shark! Once again mantas, other fish moved to the south west side of the rock due to the slow current from that side, west, in this area we had 6 mantas circling us for most of the dive! 
A third dive was time to go for a swim on the South side, Big Eye Jacks are out there so here we go! The reward was 5 hammer heads below those jacks that ended up keeping us in the middle, and of course around El Boiler others had more fun with mantas! White tip sharks, lobsters, green moray eels, flounders, trumpet fish and golden variation, needle fish in shallow water, trevally jacks, long noise butterfly fish, clarion fish, zebra eels, scorpion fish, flag cabrilla, and burrito grunts were some of the fish we identified!
Mantas love to play, 4 dives already and they are still here despite the low vis we are still having, admiring more of those giant patient swimmers, giving us numerous chances to take so many pictures of them, the eye contact with them is really eminent, so we ended up today having lots of what we came to see and enjoy, Mantas and Dolphins!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
     






Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Today was the last day of this trip and wow, what a day!!

May 12, 2015
Today was the last day of this trip and wow!! What a day! We started our firs dive at El Cañon, the visibility was not the best this time around 30ft/10m and the temperature 77F/25C. This first dive was a bit slow but we did see one hammerhead shark close to the surface at the beginning and one by the reef at the end. After that we moved to El boiler and once again it gave us a great show, I think if we had to vote for the best dive site for this season El Boiler would win for sure.
On our first dive here as soon as we got in the water we saw some bottlenose dolphins and they stayed around the whole dive there seemed to be two different groups of them probably around 16 of them in total. This time the dolphins were showing all sorts of behaviors like standing vertical in front or divers and falling into the deep, going in circles around divers, throwing bubbles, couples swimming side to side rubbing their fins, even chasing mantas and teasing them by biting the tip of their tails. It was just an awesome dive and beside the dolphins there were at least six different mantas around the dive site.
The next dive we had many mantas probably eight different ones with lots of interaction and almost all of them enjoying the divers bubbles. The highlight of the day was the last dive, as we are in the pangas getting ready to jump in the water our panga drivers yell whale shark! And yes there it was right on top of the dive site. As we are on the dive swimming next to the whale shark we realize that all the mantas are following us and it seemed that they wanted our bubbles and were wondering why we were getting further away from the pinnacle. But we were lucky and the whale shark swam back to the pinnacle and we had plenty of time with the whale shark and the mantas at one time three mantas and the whale shark in the same frame, Just a great way to end the trip.
Now we head back to Cabo but we will be leaving for another trip in a couple of days so keep tuned.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor

Monday, May 11, 2015

Good conditions and lots of action on our first day at Roca!

May 10, 2015
Hola amigos!
Yesterday after checking the weather forecast for the next few days we saw that we had a couple of windy days ahead of us, but we still decided to navigate to Roca Partida and take our chances and it ended up being a great decision! We got to Roca Partida after a bumpy crossing and saw that we had the rock all to ourselves, 8am we were ready to go in the water, quick panga ride, back roll into the water and descended to see what the rock had prepared for us today!
The conditions were quite good, water temperature of 77F/25C and visibility of about 80ft/24m, on our first dive we went in on the east side and first thing we heard as we went into the water was dolphins! So we headed north and there they were, a pod of about 25 to 30 very curious and playful bottle nose dolphins, came to check us out and decided to stay and play, they were going up and down, swimming around us, posing for the cameras, swimming right next to the divers and on the background schools of bonitos and yellow fin tunas made their appearance, being chased by silver tip and silky sharks, while some big Galapagos sharks circled the north point of the rock at about 60ft/18m. The dolphin show kept going for the entire dive, 45 minutes non-stop!
Second dive the current was hitting the north west corner of the rock so that's where we started our dive, went down in between thousands of jacks, creole and trigger fish and we waited there and yellow fin tunas started making their appearance, coming from the deep waters in between us and shooting straight  to the surface and one of them actually caught a creole fish right in front of us! The sound of the bite was so loud that some of us thought that somebody was using a tank banger! Right after that a school of smaller tunas swam by being chased by silky sharks, then we headed south swimming away from the rock looking for schooling hammerheads but not much luck until we were on the south end here we found two of them that actually came from the deep swimming straight at us! And after we came up we went to pay a visit to the ledges where several white tip reef sharks where laying down resting and saving energy for the hunt at night!
On our last dive we checked out the north end of the rock and there we found a lot of jacks, big eye trevallies pairing for mating and also a huge school of black jacks that came from the deep waters right behind three silver tip sharks that headed west after circling in front of us a few times! To finish our dive we went to the east face of the rock where we went to check out the ledges full of white tip reef sharks piling on top of each other, with some green morays and huge lobsters sharing the small crevices on the rocks next to the sharks.
As the day went by the weather got better so we are spending the night here and diving Roca tomorrow again!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Today we had a full day of diving at Cabo Pearce and it was great!

May 9, 2015
Hola!
Today we had a full day of diving at Cabo Pearce and it was great! The visibility was the best it has been in a while there 80ft/24m and water temperature around 24C/74F.
The first dive was probably the best there was a strong current but we were able to hide from it next to one of the walls. And that is where we spent the entire dive because the mantas were getting cleaned and about sixteen dolphins stayed around for the whole dive! For the second and third dive the mantas stayed at the cleaning station four of them that gave us a great show.  On the last dive we had mantas once again and at the end of the dive false killer whales passed by like torpedoes close to the surface unfortunately they did not stayed to play with us. Tonight we head to Roca Partida to see what is out there this time, keep posted to see how the rest of the trip goes!
Tiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor

Saturday, May 9, 2015

A checkout dive that exceeded expectations!

Hi All! May 8, 2015 
A day and dive that exceeded expectations!
A windy morning made us rush to get underwater, we know its warmer and peaceful down there with no current! On the surface air temp 25˚C/78˚F, partially cloudy.
We're done with the dive briefing! Go first group go! While doing buoyancy check divers were screaming "Mantas! Mantas below our fins!" So everybody still out of the water got excited, not even touching water yet but we can tell by their facial expressions they are motivated by mantas! Once the 3 groups of divers were underwater we spread out in different directions. We were all having fun with mantas, don’t forget it is only the checkout dive! On the north side the chirping of dolphins got our attention, every time it was getting louder and louder, so we know they are getting closer, then they found us! 6 adult dolphins approached us swimming slowly, we don’t see them move tail or fins and they keep coming straight at us with a smiling face, contagious by the way! Of course more playful mantas surrounded us, a dark shadow comes closer and closer in shallow water by the Solmar V, we go at it! It turns to be a massive school of stripe bonitos swimming in an elliptical shape, with mantas below it, big eye jacks and dolphins, all of it in 24m/80ft vis! The white tip sharks were resting, moving their tails like wipers in the surge, after time of silence the chirping comes back! This time with it a group of 11 dolphins, then 5, then 6, then 2, all adopting vertical position inviting us to approach more and more each time, we are still on our checkout dive remember! Mimicking dolphin swim makes them happy and they stay longer with us! Also dolphin mimic to be a diver swimming just below a black manta for a bit of time which was amazing to see!  Guess what! We did our safety stop with dolphins and mantas.
During the following 2, 3 and 4th dives no more dolphins, instead the manta fun was a big time! Even 8 at the same time in the same area! Everywhere we put our eyes a manta was there! The no current during 2nd and 3rd made those more enjoyable to many divers, the 4th dive a bit of current from North made us drift away from the rock after the manta festival, so El Boiler made our day of diving unforgettable and breathtaking! 

Dive Inst 
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Today was our last day of this trip and the end was as good as it gets!

Hello.
Today was our last day of this trip and the end was as good as it gets! We finished with four dives in San Benedicto Island at El Boiler and once again as it has done the whole season it left everybody speechless. The water temperature was 24C/74F and visibility around 80ft/24m.
The first dive was a bit slow still there were two mantas and six dolphins passed by but neither of them were very playful this time, maybe it was a bit early for them... By the second dive it seemed that the marine life had woken up there were lots of mantas and lots of interaction and the dolphins passed by again, they didn’t interact much with the group except with two divers that had drifted away photographing a manta that had a ten minute dolphin show!
On the third dive there were lots of mantas maybe eight or more and loads of interaction and at one point the dolphins came back but this time they were in the middle of the mantas and it was a manta and dolphin show bit time! On the last dive the mantas were still around just under the boat an amazing way to end the trip!
Now we are heading back to Cabo and will stay on the dock for a couple of days before we go back to the islands. Keep tuned for our video trip report and the news from our next trip.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor